The Hijacked Commission  —  Count me among those who always believed that President Obama made a big mistake when he created the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform — a supposedly bipartisan panel charged with coming up with solutions to the nation's long-run fiscal problems.

Why I'm Running for RNC Chairman  —  FROM: Saul Anuzis, MI-NCM  —  RE: Announcement for RNC Chairman  —  DATE: November 12, 2010  —  Congratulations on your success, nationwide and state-by-state.

Murkowski confident as write-in tally grows  —  WRITE-INS: Miller camp steps up challenges, threatens new lawsuit.  —  scockerham@adn.com  —  The Division of Elections has reviewed write-in ballots for almost half the precincts in Alaska and is counting nearly 98 percent of them for Lisa Murkowski.

Daily Beast, Newsweek to Wed!  —  Some weddings take longer to plan than others.  The union of The Daily Beast and Newsweek magazine finally took place with a coffee-mug toast between all parties Tuesday evening, in a conference room atop Beast headquarters, the IAC building on Manhattan's West 18th Street.

Cindy McCain does video opposing DADT, accuses ‘our government’ of sending signal that bullying is okay - her hubbie is the lead defender of DADT  —  John McCain is leading the filibuster against the “Don't Ask, Don't Tell” “repeal” legislation in the Senate (it's not an actual repeal, but we'll leave that for another time).

Pelosi: “We Didn't Lose Because of Me.”  —  House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says she has the “overwhelming support” of fellow Democrats in her bid to become minority leader in the next Congress, and says she's not to blame for the Democrats' mid-term debacle.  —  “We didn't lose the election because of me …

Unexplored Revenues  —  The flipside of the Simpson-Bowles document's unsound aggregate cap on revenue is that they were very uncreative in their exploration of revenue options.  For example, what about a tax on greenhouse gas emissions?  The mere fact that the conservative movement …

Traveling in Asia, Obama's Glow Dims  —  SEOUL, South Korea — Foreign leaders couldn't seem to get enough of President Obama when he arrived on the world stage two years ago.  They brought copies of his memoir to global conferences seeking his autograph.  They angled for handshakes and …

National Greatness Agenda  —  Elections come and go, but the United States is still careening toward bankruptcy.  By 2020, the U.S. will be spending $1 trillion a year just to pay the interest on the national debt.  Sometime between now and then the catastrophe will come.  —  It will come with amazing swiftness.

Bobby Jindal hammers Barack Obama in new book  —  NEW ORLEANS — Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal uses a new book to portray President Obama as disconnected from the Gulf oil spill, charging that he was more focused on the political aftermath than the actual impact of the crisis.

School Makes Boy Take American Flag Off Bike  —  DENAIR -  —  13-year-old Cody Alicea rides with an American flag on the back of his bike.  He says he does this to be patriotic and to honor veterans, like his own grandfather, Robert.  He's had the flag on his bike for two months but Monday, was told to take it down.

If U.S. Won't Prosecute Bush, at Least 145 Other Countries Should  —  “Former President George W. Bush not only admits - he boasts - of having authorized the practice of known as waterboarding.  A total of 145 other countries are signatories to the U.N. Convention Against Torture.

Top Earners May Face Big Hit  —  Proposed Elimination of Deductions, Investment Breaks Aims to Lift Tax Revenue  —  A presidential panel's draft overhaul of the tax system could hit higher earners hard, largely by wiping out deductions and investment breaks that tend to especially benefit …

I Owe Bruce Bartlett an Apology  —  Back when Bush 43 was President, I was a huge fan of Bruce Bartlett.  I especially loved his book Impostor.  But when Bartlett broke with the Republicans back in 2008, it seemed to me that he had gone “from being inside the tent pissing out to being outside the tent pissing in.”

Your Child Left Behind  —  For years, poor performance by students in America relative to those in other countries has been explained away as a consequence of our nationwide diversity.  But what if you looked more closely, breaking down our results by state and searching not for an average, but for excellence?