Unserious People  —  OK, let's say goodbye to the deficit commission.  If you're sincerely worried about the US fiscal future — and there's good reason to be — you don't propose a plan that involves large cuts in income taxes.  Even if those cuts are offset by supposed elimination of tax breaks elsewhere …

Michele Bachmann drops leadership bid  —  Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann dropped out of the race for House Republican Conference chair on Wednesday night, ending a quixotic bid for leadership that many saw as the first real test of the tea party against the GOP establishment.

White House Gives In On Bush Tax Cuts  —  WHAT'S YOUR REACTION? … WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama's top adviser suggested to The Huffington Post late Wednesday that the administration is ready to accept an across-the-board continuation of steep Bush-era tax cuts, including those for the wealthiest taxpayers.

Nancy Pelosi wants DREAM Act vote  —  House Speaker Nancy Pelosi wants to push for a vote during the lame-duck session on a bill that would legalize young, undocumented immigrants if they attend college or serve in the military, according to Democratic sources familiar with a leadership conference call Wednesday.

Sources: Pentagon group finds there is minimal risk to lifting gay ban during war  —  A Pentagon study group has concluded that the military can lift the ban on gays serving openly in uniform with only minimal and isolated incidents of risk to the current war efforts, according to two people familiar …

Nostalgic for George W. Bush  —  I miss George W. Bush.  —  I don't miss him in the sense that I wish he were still president.  If he were, we might be at war with Iran and North Korea by now, and perhaps Portugal.  Neither do I miss the endless debates over waterboarding and the Iraq war …

The Onion Strikes Comic Gold With Biden Spoofs  —  Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. has never smashed a Whac-A-Mole game in a drunken fit.  He has never invoked Freedom of Information laws to find out a female federal employee's work schedule.  And to the best of anyone's knowledge …

The Reign of Right-Wing Primetime … I'll name a hit TV show, and you guess if it's more popular among Republicans or Democrats.  —  First, NCIS — investigating military crimes on CBS.  Safe bet conservatives love it, right?  —  How about ABC's Desperate Housewives — a racy soap, female audience.

Boehner's Image Improves, Reid's Does Not After Midterms  —  Four in 10 still unfamiliar with House Republican leader  —  PRINCETON, NJ — Americans' opinions of House Republican Leader John Boehner, who is in line to be the speaker of the House in the new Congress, improved after the midterm elections.

98 percent of write-in votes go to Murkowski  —  SPELL CHECK: Despite objections from Miller's team, most Murkowski votes are being accepted.  —  scockerham@adn.com  —  JUNEAU — Almost 98 percent of write-in ballots opened Wednesday went to Lisa Murkowski on the first day of a count meant to decide Alaska's U.S. Senate race.

CIA May Face New Probe Over Destroyed Videos  —  National Archives Tells NBC its Investigation into Possible Violation of Federal Records Act by CIA may be Reopened  —  (CBS/AP) The CIA may face new legal challenges over its destruction of videotapes showing the waterboarding of terror suspects …

NY Times Editor on the ‘Beauty’ of Readers' Ignorance  —  Gerald Marzorati, center, with Marc Jacobs (L) and Paul Krugman.  Image by Getty Images via @daylife  —  The New York Times cultivates an image as the preferred read of the intellectual elite, but at least one of the paper's higher-ups seems …

Bombs Away: Afghan Air War Peaks With 1,000 Strikes in October  —  The U.S. and its allies have unleashed a massive air campaign in Afghanistan, launching missiles and bombs from the sky at a rate rarely seen since the war's earliest days.  In October alone, NATO planes fired their weapons …

Tensions with states grow over high speed rail  —  (Reuters) - The Transportation Department warned two governors-elect that federal money allocated to building high-speed passenger rail lines in their states cannot be used to pay for other infrastructure projects, as tensions grow over federal transportation spending.

U.N. Rejects Iran's Bid for Seat on Women's Rights Panel  —  The United Nations on Wednesday rejected Iran's bid for a seat to the board of the new U.N. agency to promote equality for women after fierce opposition from the United States and human rights groups to Tehran's treatment of women.

Earmark Myths and Realities  —  As Senate Republicans prepare to vote on an earmark moratorium, I would encourage my colleagues to consider four myths and four realities of the debate.  —  Myths of the earmark debate:  —  1. Eliminating earmarks does not actually save any money

Communities Embrace Veterans of Vietnam War  —  MANASSAS, Va. — Charles Howell, a Vietnam War veteran, wore his camouflage Army jacket and jungle hat in public for the first time in more than 40 years recently, when he attended the Veterans Day parade in this Civil War battleground city.