SEIU Chief: If Dems Pass Scaled-Down Health Bill, Labor Will Have Trouble Staying “Focused On National Politics”  —  SEIU chief Andy Stern took a hard shot at Dem leaders just now for considering a scaled-down health care bill, strongly hinting that labor might not work as hard for Dem candidates …

Ex-Conservative Charles Johnson's Next Crusade  —  With many among the left having lately been bogged down in a wonkish debate over health care in general and the question of best-versus-possible in particular, it's easy to forget that the somewhat more fundamental conflict among conservatives regarding …

Ayla Brown acknowledges it: She voted for Kerry  —  (NECN: Boston) - Her father is the talk of Washington Republicans, but Ayla Brown says she has an independent streak - and a voting record to prove it.  In an interview with Beth Shelburne of New England Cable News Friday, Ayla Brown …

What's Worse, “Disingenuously waving the flag of the First Amendment,” or Burning it?  —  As I hinted at in my CNN.com column of yesterday, those self-identified free-speech champions who are crying in their Cheerios today over Citizens United v. the FEC are able to get to what many of us …

Alert: Female Suicide Bombers May Be Heading Here From Yemen  —  U.S. Agents Told Women Believed Connected to Al Qaeda May Have Western Appearance and Passports  —  American law enforcement officials have been told to be on the lookout for female suicide bombers who may attempt to enter the United States …

Obama has suspicious number of letter-writing fans named ‘Ellie Light’  —  Ellie Light sure gets around.  —  In recent weeks, Light has published virtually identical “Letters to the Editor” in support of President Barack Obama in more than a dozen newspapers.Every letter claimed …

Getting It Done: The Year In Obama-Led Health Care Reform (VIDEO)  —  Well folks, it's been one year since President Barack Obama took office.  And he spent a lot of that year working on health care reform.  —  But with the future of reform uncertain at best in the wake of the special election …

Matthews Tells Congressman Grayson That He Doesn't Represent ‘The Real World Of Congress’  —  As Congress enters the final stretches of the health care debate, members are looking for the best way forward following the election of Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA) to the U.S. Senate.

UK terror threat level ‘severe’  —  The UK terror threat level is being raised from “substantial” to “severe”, the Home Office has said.  —  The new alert level means a terrorist attack is considered “highly likely”.  It had stood at substantial since July.

UN climate change expert: there could be more errors in report  —  The Indian head of the UN climate change panel defended his position yesterday even as further errors were identified in the panel's assessment of Himalayan glaciers.  —  Dr Rajendra Pachauri dismissed calls for him to resign …

High radiation levels blight Iraq  —  • Greater rates of cancer and birth defects near sites  —  • Depleted uranium among poisons revealed in report  —  More than 40 sites across Iraq are contaminated with high levels or radiation and dioxins, with three decades of war …

2012 Presidential Poll  —  For the first time in one of our monthly polls looking ahead to the 2012 Presidential election Barack Obama trails one of his hypothetical opponents, albeit by the smallest of margins.  —  Mike Huckabee has a 45-44 advantage over Obama, aided largely by a 44-38 lead with independents.

Obama's Train Wreck of a Town Hall in Ohio — By: Jim Geraghty  —  Earlier this week, during a radio interview, I had said that Obama's appearance for Martha Coakley on Sunday was the least effective stump appearances I had seen from a president.  A lot of factors contributed to that …

Senate Rankings: Post-Masspocalypse Edition  —  We are transitioning, a little earlier than I'd planned, into a more or less fully automated version of our Senate race rankings.  From now until November, our rankings will be based entirely on polling and other objective variables …

Right-wing Saudi dynasty endorses right-wing Fox News dynasty.  —  This week, Prince Alwaleed bin Talal al-Saud of Saudi Arabia — the largest shareholder of News Corp outside the Murdoch family — endorsed Rupert Murdoch's son James to succeed the elder Murdoch when he retires.

Et Tu, Fox News Channel?  —  It's a horrible, unspeakable tragedy that gets you right in the core of your humanity.  The poorest country in the Western Hemisphere is flattened by a huge earthquake.  Hundreds of thousands killed, thousands of children orphaned, more than 1.5 million now homeless.

EFF Plans Appeal of Jewel v. NSA Warrantless Wiretapping Case  —  San Francisco - A federal judge has dismissed Jewel v. NSA, a case from the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) on behalf of AT&T customers challenging the National Security Agency's mass surveillance of millions of ordinary Americans' phone calls and emails.

Obama, With Defiant Tone, Vows to Push Agenda  —  ELYRIA, Ohio — President Obama, striking a no-retreat, no-surrender posture in the wake of his party's humiliating defeat in the Massachusetts Senate race this week, vowed Friday to press on with his expansive domestic agenda …

CA Democrats Revive Single-Payer Health Care Plan  —  SACRAMENTO (KCBS/AP) — A key legislative committee in California revived a bill Thursday to create a government-run health care system in the nation's most populous state, two days after Massachusetts elected a senator who opposes the president's national health care plan.

Judge rejects planned defense, delays in beheading case  —  The judge in Muzzammil S.  “Mo” Hassan's murder case today barred his new attorney from using an emotional-disturbance defense and said he would only grant the jailed businessman further delays in his trial based solely “in the interests of justice.”