National security adviser: Airline bomber report to ‘shock’  —  WASHINGTON — White House national security adviser James Jones says Americans will feel “a certain shock” when they read an account being released Thursday of the missed clues that could have prevented the alleged Christmas Day bomber from ever boarding the plane.

Conservatives Finish 2009 as No. 1 Ideological Group  —  Uptick owing largely to more independents calling themselves conservative  —  PRINCETON, NJ — The increased conservatism that Gallup first identified among Americans last June persisted throughout the year, so that the final year-end …

Steele Lashes Out: Critics Should ‘Get a Life,’ ‘Shut Up,’ ‘Fire Me ... or Get out of the Way’  —  ABC News' Aaron Katersky and Rick Klein report: RNC Chairman Michael Steele is lashing out his critics, with a series of blunt messages for prominent Republicans who have blasted him over his leadership for the Republican Party.

Geithner's New York Fed Told AIG to Limit Swaps Disclosure  —  Jan. 7 (Bloomberg) — The Federal Reserve Bank of New York, then led by Timothy Geithner, told American International Group Inc. to withhold details from the public about the bailed-out insurer's payments to banks during the depths …

Carlson Launches Right's Answer to HuffPost  —  The offices of The Daily Caller evoke a long-ago era of journalism, circa 2005 or 2006, before the Los Angeles Times closed its big-city bureaus, The Washington Times fired 60 percent of its staff, and magazines from Gourmet to Portfolio shuttered for lack of revenue.

Cadillac Flip Flop: Obama Was Against Health Plan Tax Before He Was For It  —  In a video that rings so true it hurts, Lee Stranahan-a former Obama supporter-gives us the aspiring president's own speech.  Only a month before the 2008 election, Obama makes it plain just how bad an idea the …

Is Palin Getting $100,000 to Speak at the Tea Party National Convention?  —  This morning, I asked whether Sarah Palin's decision to speak at the Tea Party National Convention — while (so far) eschewing the much higher-profile Conservative Political Action Conference — had anything to with money.

New Jersey Senate To Vote On Gay Marriage Bill  —  Live Streaming at 2:00 pm  —  New Jersey takes center stage in the debate over same-sex marriage as the state senate prepares to vote on a bill legalizing Gay Marriage in New Jersey.  —  The bill, entitled “The Freedom of Religion …

Election 2010: Colorado Governor  —  With Ritter Stepping Down, Democratic Prospects Improve in Colorado  —  Now that Colorado Governor Bill Ritter has said he will step down rather than run for reelection, Democrats may be more competitive in this year's gubernatorial race.

Lieberman's Approval Ratings Tank In Connecticut  —  WHAT'S YOUR REACTION?  —  Sen. Joseph Lieberman's (I-Conn.) role in upending health care negotiations is costing him dearly at home.  —  A new poll by Public Policy Polling has the Independent senator losing support in his home state …

Critics of Obama way off base on this one  —  Yes — the not-so-bright, would-be terrorist from Nigeria got though international and domestic security mechanisms supposed to have stopped him long before the jerk lit his underwear afire before landing in Detroit.

Goodbye kiss provoked Newark airport scare: report  —  NEW YORK (Reuters) - The security scare that shut Newark airport for hours and delayed thousands of passengers was caused by a man who slipped into a secure area to give a woman one last goodbye kiss, a newspaper reported on Thursday.

The Butt Bomb  —  Al Qaeda's hidden weapon.  —  In the wake of the failed bombing attempt by Nigerian Al Qaeda operative Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, airport security experts are wringing their hands over how to stop the next underwear bomber.  X-ray machines don't detect the type of explosive …

Abortion Foe Defies Party on Health Care Bill  —  MENOMINEE, Mich. — Representative Bart Stupak often endures things others find unbearable.  He crisscrosses a Congressional district so vast that some constituents live eight hours apart and so cold that the beer at his beloved football games sometimes freezes.

Hayworth Gearing Up For Senate Race  —  Ex-Rep. J.D. Hayworth (R) is seriously exploring a bid against Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), according to sources with knowledge of his plans.  —  Hayworth has been in touch with consultants to gauge their interest in working for his potential candidacy …

Snow covers Britain from head to toe  —  As if dusted with icing sugar, this satellite image of Britain shows the full extent of the snow coverage affecting the country.  —  From head to toe there is barely a patch of land not blanketed by the heaviest snowfall in 50 years.

An Open Letter to President Barack Obama and Members of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives in Support of Strong Affordability and Coverage Provisions in Final Health Reform Legislation  —  Dear President Obama and Members of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives:

A defense of Obama  —  I get a lot of unsolicited e-mail and should probably publish more of it; this defense of Obama, sent in by someone named Ellie Light, seemed to crystallize a point his supporters have been trying to make for a while:  —  A year ago, if we had read in the paper …

Dick Morris sees two parties.  I see four.  —  I can't remember a more breathtaking 48 hours in politics since Barack Obama's election in November 2008.  Byron Dorgan is out; Chris Dodd is out; Bill Ritter is out.  Who would have thought that just one year into Obama's promising presidency …

Ellen Malcolm Flees Emily's List  —  For a lot of reasons, I believe that electoral support with no lobbying arm is a flawed advocacy model.  But there's no denying that Ellen Malcolm was a superb fundraiser who built Emily's List into a powerful support network for pro-choice female candidates.

Zeitgeist Patrol  —  Alone in our nation's capital last night, I decided to keep in touch with the culture by going to see Avatar in 3D.  I hadn't read much of the commentary about the movie, but the word of mouth was that it was visually spectacular—and yes, spectacular it was, especially in 3D …

Obama Admin: All Gitmo-Terror Recidivists May Have Been Released Under Bush  —  One of the big stories of the morning — echoed widely by the news orgs and on the right — is that new government stats show that 20 percent of Gitmo detainees who have been released are thought to have returned to extremist activity.