Harkin: Health deal was reached days before Brown's Senate victory  —  Sen. Tom Harkin, the chairman of the Senate Health Committee, said negotiators from the White House, Senate and House reached a final deal on healthcare reform days before Scott Brown's victory in Massachusetts.

Tea Partiers aim to remake local GOP  —  A year ago, when the Tea Party movement first stirred to life, it had to shout to be noticed, with big public rallies that drew thousands of conservatives to places like Fountain Square and VOA Park in West Chester - citizens angry about government bailouts …

UN climate change panel based claims on student dissertation and magazine article  —  The United Nations' expert panel on climate change based claims about ice disappearing from the world's mountain tops on a student's dissertation and an article in a mountaineering magazine.

Rep. Hensarling fires back at Obama in the rumble over deficits  —  Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas), who got President Barack Obama a bit miffed during the question-and-answer session after his address to the House GOP retreat Friday, fired back Saturday evening after the conclusion of the Baltimore conference.

The State of the Union Is Comatose  —  HANDS down, the State of the Union's big moment was Barack Obama's direct hit on the delicate sensibilities of the Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito.  The president was right to blast the 5-to-4 decision giving corporate interests an even greater stranglehold …

How to Reform Our Financial System  —  PRESIDENT OBAMA 10 days ago set out one important element in the needed structural reform of the financial system.  No one can reasonably contest the need for such reform, in the United States and in other countries as well.

China's strident tone raises concerns among Western governments, analysts  —  China's indignant reaction to the announcement of U.S. plans to sell weapons to Taiwan appears to be in keeping with a new triumphalist attitude from Beijing that is worrying governments and analysts across the globe.

A crisis averted in Iraq?  —  I wrote here about the disturbing prospect that the disqualification of hundreds of Sunni candidates in the unpcoming Iraqi elections would degrade those elections and perhaps prompt a surge of sectarian violence.  But now, as Max Boot reports based on statements …

CAP: New Yorkers are wussies  —  Does the Center for American Progress want to alienate New York while the Obama-Pelosi progressive legislative agenda drowns in popular discontent?  Ken Gude, an associate director at CAP for its International Rights and Responsibility Program …

Terrorists ‘plan attack on Britain with bombs INSIDE their bodies’ to foil new airport scanners  —  Britain is facing a new Al Qaeda terror threat from suicide ‘body bombers’ with explosives surgically inserted inside them.  —  Until now, terrorists have attacked airlines …

The Secessionist Campaign for the Republic of Vermont  —  The President on Wednesday may have reassured Americans that the state of the Union is “strong,” but, just the week before, a group of Vermont secessionists declared their intention to seek political power in a quest to get their state to quit the Union altogether.

Sarah Palin's PAC raised $1.4 million in final six months of 2009  —  Sarah PAC, the political action committee of former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, collected $1.4 million over the final six months of 2009, a solid — if not spectacular — total that demonstrates her fundraising capacity as she mulls a bid for national office in 2012.

Dorgan: President should have focused on jobs, not healthcare, last year  —  A top Senate Democrat on Friday stressed that jobs and economic recovery, not healthcare reform, should have been the president's top priority last year.  —  While Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) described President Barack Obama's focus …

Pentagon starts clock on lifting gay ban  —  WASHINGTON — The Defense Department starts the clock next week on what is expected to be a several-year process in lifting its ban on gays from serving openly in the military.  —  A special investigation into how the ban can be repealed without hurting …