Could She Reach the Top in 2012?  You Betcha  —  “THE perception I had, anyway, was that we were on top of the world,” Sarah Palin said at the climax of last Sunday's premiere of her new television series, “Sarah Palin's Alaska.”  At that point our fearless heroine had just completed a perilous rock climb …

TSA airport screeners gone wild in San Diego- again  —  In what can only be described as TSA handlers gone wild, the San Diego Harbor Police arrested an area resident for refusal to complete the screening/security process yesterday.  This is the same airport that created the TSA security catch phrase “don't touch my junk.”

TRENDING: Clinton: I'm not running for president  —  (CNN) - Secretary Of State Hillary Clinton is not running for president - just ask her.  —  “I am not in any way interested in or pursuing anything in elected office,” Clinton said on “Fox News Sunday.”  —  Clinton laughed off speculation that she might run for president in 2012.

AN UNLIKELY VORACIOUS READER.... The New York Times' Sunday magazine has a lengthy piece from Robert Draper today on a certain former half-term governor.  The piece covers quite a bit of ground — and should probably dispel any lingering doubts about Sarah Palin's national ambitions — but a couple of things stood out.

A Forecast That Obama Could Love  —  THINGS are looking up for Barack Obama.  —  You might not think so, given the flow of news lately.  His foreign policy has met with limited success, at best.  And, back home, unemployment is mired at 9.6 percent.  Earlier this month, in a major political blow …

Carter: Fox commentators have ‘deliberately distorted’ news  —  Jimmy Carter said Sunday that Fox News commentators including Glenn Beck have “deliberately distorted” the news.  —  Speaking on CNN's “Reliable Sources” Sunday, the former Democratic president took aim at the cable news channel climate …

Why are the Marines the military's biggest backers of 'don't ask, don't tell'?  —  After 17 years, “don't ask, don't tell” may finally be on its way out.  Even if the Senate resists the latest efforts to end the policy, it appears that most members of the military - from the chairman …

BELTWAY CONFIDENTIAL  —  Top political scientist: U.S. voters are ‘pretty damn stupid’  —  Political reporters often rely on University of Wisconsin political scientist Charles Franklin for expertise.  In just the past few months, his insights have appeared in articles in the New York Times …

FDR, Reagan, and Obama  —  Some readers may recall that back during the Democratic primary Barack Obama shocked many progressives by praising Ronald Reagan as someone who brought America a “sense of dynamism and entrepreneurship that had been missing.”  I was among those who found this deeply troubling …

More TSA “love” ...  [Darleen Click] UPDATED 2X “Grandmama!  They touched you in your special girl spots!”  —  Description of the above video: … In addition: … We don't talk about ostomies, but approximately 500,000 Americans have a stoma for one reason or another.

Buffett Tells ABC Rich Americans Should Be Paying ‘A Lot’ More in Taxes  —  Billionaire Warren Buffett said that rich people should pay more in taxes and that Bush-era tax cuts for top earners should be allowed to expire at the end of December.  —  “If anything, taxes for the lower …

Obama and the Book of Job  —  Unfortunately for the powerful, the plight of the biblical Job is a story with perennial resonance.  A man seemingly rich in the gifts life has to offer, happy and blessed, finds himself — unjustly, from his perspective — bereft.

Political divide between coasts and Midwest deepening, midterm election analysis shows  —  Results from November's midterm elections have exposed a deepening political divide between cities on the coasts and the less-dense areas in the middle of the country.

Report: N. Korea makes ‘stunning’ leaps in ‘astonishingly modern’ nuclear facility  —  A report that North Korea has made alarming, secret progress in its nuclear enrichment activities sparked alarm about Pyongyang's “belligerent behavior,” in the words of Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen.

Judge's ruling on Islamic groups as ‘unindicted co-conspirators’ made public  —  A federal judge's long-secret ruling that federal prosecutors violated the rights of three major American Islamic organizations and others named as unindicted co-conspirators in a Texas terrorism support case finally became public on Friday.

Ireland Asks for Aid From Europe, Minister Says  —  DUBLIN — After months of trying to persuade bond investors and Europe as a whole that it could survive its financial crisis without outside aid, Ireland buckled on Sunday and formally applied to the European Commission and the International Monetary Fund …

Obama: TSA pat-downs frustrating but necessary  —  President says enhanced airport security measures necessary to guard against new terrorist techniques  —  Below:  —  msnbc.com staff and news service reports  —  LISBON, Portugal — President Barack Obama on Saturday acknowledged some travelers' …