Dems will vote on just middle class tax cuts, Hoyer says  —  Steny Hoyer, the number two in the House Dem leadership, told Democrats at a caucus meeting this morning that they would get to vote this year on just extending the Bush tax cuts for the middle class, a senior Dem aide tells me …

Fox News Chief Blasts NPR ‘Nazis’  —  Roger Ailes slams Jon Stewart as a conservative-basher, explains why he rode to Juan Williams' rescue—and sees NPR as taxpayer-funded propaganda.  Part II of Howard Kurtz's interview.  —  When Jon Stewart was appearing on the O'Reilly Factor a few weeks back …

CARVILLE: OBAMA NEEDS A PAIR  —  Speaking to reporters Thursday, Democratic strategist James Carville dropped this one-liner: “If Hillary gave up one of her balls and gave it to Obama, he'd have two.”  —  The quote was first noted by Tribune reporter Mike Memoli on his Twitter account.

The Junk Grabbing Photo You'll Be Seeing All Day Today  —  Sometimes all it takes to launch another wave of talk about a hot topic is an image.  And when it comes to junk grabbing, that picture comes to us today from Denver.  —  The Denver Post, in a front-page story Thursday morning …

House fails to eliminate NPR funding  —  The House on Thursday voted to move forward on legislation without voting on a proposal put forth by Republicans to defund NPR.  —  Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.), the next majority leader, said the vote demonstrates that Democrats “are still not ready to listen” …

READ the 20th Amendment: New Republican Senators Violating US Constitution  —  A handful of newly elected Republican US Senators have written to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid trying to undo the Constitutional authority of other elected incumbent US Senators.  —  That's right.

Midwest gains boost GOP confidence  —  SAN DIEGO - The party's Midwestern resurgence signals serious trouble for President Barack Obama's reelection bid, GOP governors asserted Thursday at the Republican Governors Association meeting in San Diego.  —  Following a string of GOP wins in Senate …

Have Scott Brown and Ron Wyden figured out the way forward on health care?  —  The GOP's slogan on health-care reform has, till now, been “repeal and replace.”  But they don't have the votes for either.  What they might have the votes for is reform that, maybe, one day, if all goes well, could lead to replacement.

Public Knows Basic Facts about Politics, Economics, But Struggles with Specifics  —  Few Aware of Inflation Rate or TARP and Deficit Specifics  —  Take the Latest Quiz Online!  —  Before you read the report, we invite you to test your own News IQ by taking the latest interactive knowledge quiz.

Virginia Republicans want Allen  —  Virginia Republicans overwhelmingly want George Allen to be their candidate for the Senate in 2012.  46% say he'd be their pick with the second (and unlikely) choice of Eric Cantor falling all the way back at 18%.  16% would like Ken Cuccinelli and then there's …

Live Blog: Committee Recommends Censure for Rangel  —  Representative Charles B. Rangel at the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct hearing on Thursday.  —  Update, 6:29 p.m. |  The House ethics committee has recommended censure for Representative Charles B. Rangel for ethics violations.

Vote on Whether This Couple Gets an Abortion  —  The Arnolds are having a baby.  Unless the public votes to have the child aborted.  Meet the couple behind Birthornot.com, where “you can vote and choose whether we abort or keep our unborn child.”  —  Pete and Alisha Arnold, both 30 …

Palin Adviser Wanted Execution Without Trial For Convicted Terrorist Ahmed Ghailani  —  A Federal District Court in Manhattan convicted Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani yesterday on one count of of conspiracy for the 1998 terror bombings of U.S. Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

Dear Airline, I'm Leaving You  —  But don't feel too bad.  It's not you, it's me.  Or rather, it's the TSA.  —  I'm not going to lie.  It's come between us.  If I have to let someone else see me naked in order to be with you—well, I'm just not that kinky.  And deep down, I don't think you are either.

‘Refudiation’ of $600 Billion Printed Out of Thin Air  —  While on a United Airlines flight from New York City to Los Angeles this week, a fellow passenger handed me a copy of the The Wall Street Journal Nov. 15 op-ed by Alan Blinder—"In Defense of Ben Bernanke"—and suggested that I write …

Sanford Airport to opt out of TSA screening  —  Reporter: Ken Tyndall  —  The backlash continues over those new TSA screening measures, and now one Central Florida airport has decided to go with a private security screening firm.  —  Orlando Sanford International Airport has decided to opt out from TSA screening.

Clinton critical of religious freedom in Europe  —  WASHINGTON (AFP) - US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton criticized Wednesday the state of religious freedom in Europe, as Washington highlighted policies and attitudes toward Muslim veils and Islam as a whole.

Poll: Californians want it both ways on budget  —  Voters favor cuts to balance the budget — yet they object to most of the cuts that could be made, a Los Angeles Times/USC Poll shows.  —  Bunks are placed in open areas at Mule Creek State Prison.  The California budget crisis has led …

IPCC Official: “Climate Policy Is Redistributing The World's Wealth”  —  Climate policy has almost nothing to do anymore with environmental protection, says the German economist and IPCC official Ottmar Edenhofer.  The next world climate summit in Cancun is actually an economy summit during …

Family waits to see if mother, accused of blasphemy, will be hanged  —  Itan Wali, Pakistan (CNN) — In this village in Pakistan's Punjab province a tearful 12-year-old girl ponders if the Pakistani government will soon hang her mother.  —  “Whenever I see her picture I cry,” Isham Masih told CNN.

Sen. Rockefeller: FCC Should Take FOX News, MSNBC Off Airwaves  —  SEN. JAY ROCKEFELLER (D-WV): “There's a little bug inside of me which wants to get the FCC to say to FOX and to MSNBC: ‘Out.  Off.  End.  Goodbye.’ It would be a big favor to political discourse; our ability to do our work here in Congress …

Pot growers portrayed as terror threat  —  What were they smoking?  —  Federal, state and local officials carrying out a counter-terrorism drill in Northern California Wednesday played out a scenario in which local marijuana growers set off bombs and took over the Shasta Dam, the nation's second largest, to free an imprisoned comrade.

Unemployment Insurance Bill Fails in House; Needed 2/3 Vote Under Suspension  —  As I mentioned this morning, the House tried today for a three-month extension of expiring unemployment benefits, which would have continued them until Feb. 28, 2011.  This was called under suspension of the rules …