FBI thwarts terrorist bombing attempt at Portland holiday tree lighting, authorities say  —  The FBI thwarted an attempted terrorist bombing in Portland's Pioneer Courthouse Square before the city's annual tree-lighting Friday night, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office in Oregon.

The obligatory “Obama elbowed in the face during pick-up game” post; Update: Elbower identified  —  First he gets pounded in the midterms, then Kim Jong-il starts shelling South Korea, now he's getting flagrantly fouled while shooting hoops with friends and family.  What's next?

Report: ‘Issues of Culture, Ethnicity and Identity’ Raised in U.K. Rape-Gang Case  —  A report on the sexual exploitation of British girls as young as 12 by a gang led by two 28-year-old Muslim men found that cultural issues were “a critical factor in making [the victims] easy targets for abusers.”

Mystery Surrounds Cyber Missile That Crippled Iran's Nuclear Weapons Ambitions  —  An aerial view of Iran's nuclear facility in Natanz.  —  In the 20th century, this would have been a job for James Bond.  —  The mission: Infiltrate the highly advanced, securely guarded enemy headquarters …

Qaeda the enemy - not TSA screeners  —  Tweet  —  The debate over security scanning and pat-downs has reached such a fever pitch, it seems that people are forgetting that the enemy isn't the Transportation Security Administration — it's al Qaeda.  —  I don't want my children …

‘Humiliated’: Female passenger subjected to patdown ‘because her sanitary towel showed up on body scanner’  —  A female passenger has claimed that she was assaulted by TSA agents when she was ordered to be patted down because her sanitary towel showed up on the body scanner.

Winning the Class War  —  The class war that no one wants to talk about continues unabated.  —  Even as millions of out-of-work and otherwise struggling Americans are tightening their belts for the holidays, the nation's elite are lacing up their dancing shoes and partying like royalty as the millions and billions keep rolling in.

Workers seek new skills at community colleges, but classes are full  —  LAS VEGAS - The gambling economy here has crapped out, but at the swelling community college, workers are in the grip of new aspirations.  —  In one small anatomy lab, there's a craps dealer training to become an anesthetist …

Pelosi to be ‘most prominent’ American at Nobel ceremony for Chinese dissident  —  China issued a stern warning to other nations that they would “take responsibility for the consequences” if they attend the ceremony.  —  Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) will be the highest-ranking U.S. representative …

U.S. Government Seizes BitTorrent Search Engine Domain and More  —  Following on the heels of this week's domain seizure of a large hiphop file-sharing links forum, it's clear today that the U.S. Government has been very busy.  Without any need for COICA, ICE has just seized the domain …

John Kerry: Deck my halls  —  Rich Pol urges strapped donors to give  —  Battle-weary Bay State Democrats are getting squeezed by U.S. Sen. John F. Kerry this Christmas, as the nation's richest senator puts the arm on cash-strapped party donors to fill his campaign war chest …