The Dickishness Of The GOP  —  What we've observed these past two years is a political party that knows nothing but scorched earth tactics, cannot begin to see any merits in the other party's arguments, refuses to compromise one inch on anything, and has sought from the very beginning to do nothing but destroy the Obama presidency.

The Ambitions of Julian Assange  —  Will Wilkinson makes the case for Julian Assange: … If it's the best we can hope for, then we're in even more trouble than I thought.  The problem of the permanent state is a real one, but occasional mass data dumps like the one WikiLeaks just provided …

Palin, I knew Reagan.  You're no Reagan.  —  Editor's note: Ed Rollins, a senior political contributor for CNN, is senior presidential fellow at the Kalikow Center for the Study of the American Presidency at Hofstra University.  He is a principal with the Dilenschneider Group, a global public relations firm.

In memoriam: House climate panel  —  The House Democrats' prized global warming committee died quietly on Wednesday.  —  It was four years old.  —  Created in 2007 by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to draw attention to the causes and effects of climate change …

Boehner to create women's restroom adjacent to House floor  —  Speaker-designate John Boehner (R-Ohio) intends to commandeer a swanky office space adjacent to the House floor and build a women's restroom for female lawmakers.  —  For years, men have had the luxury of using facilities located adjacent …

County Recorder in Massachusetts Goes After MERS  —  This is one of those mind-blowing days, one I don't feel like I have much of a grip on.  But with all the despair with the federal government, the power structure that protects the banks at all costs, etc., it's worth looking at some potential good news for a change.

Pentagon: We could have shut down Wikileaks but chose not to  —  I hope he's telling the truth.  Because if our cyberwar unit is so weak that they can't hit a few servers in Sweden, then I, for one, welcome our new Chinese overlords.  The key question: Was this decision driven chiefly by military or political concerns?

Ted Strickland: Democrats Suffering From ‘Intellectual Elitism’  —  WHAT'S YOUR REACTION? … WASHINGTON — Fresh off a narrow loss in his gubernatorial re-election campaign, Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland on Wednesday offered some somber and sober-minded criticism for his own party and president.

The Madrid Cables  —  In Spain, the WikiLeaks disclosures have dominated the news for three days now.  The reporting has been led by the level-headed El País, with its nationwide competitor, Público, lagging only a bit behind.  Attention has focused on three separate matters …

Diplomats Noted Canadian Mistrust Toward U.S.  —  WASHINGTON — In early 2008, American diplomats stationed in Ottawa turned on their television sets and were aghast: there was an “onslaught” of Canadian shows depicting “nefarious American officials carrying out equally nefarious deeds in Canada …

Judicial Watch Obtains Documents from Obama Administration Detailing Actor Andy Griffith's “Misleading” Medicare Advertisements  —  Obama Administration Spent $3,184,000 in Taxpayer Dollars on Advertising Program Deemed “Misleading” by Non-Partisan FactCheck.org

For immediate release  —  The Federal Reserve Board on Wednesday posted detailed information on its public website about more than 21,000 individual credit and other transactions conducted to stabilize markets during the recent financial crisis, restore the flow of credit to American families and businesses …

Banks in Talks to End Bond Probe  —  U.S. securities regulators are in preliminary discussions with several major Wall Street banks aimed at reaching settlements to resolve a broad investigation of their sales of mortgage-bond deals that helped unleash the financial crisis, according to people familiar with the matter.

Dick Morris and Eileen McGann Hillary Is Up to Her Old Tricks  —  The Wikileaks documents show that Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has, as Voltaire said about the Bourbon kings of France, learned nothing and forgotten nothing.  —  Her request that American diplomats at foreign postings …

Obama administration reimposes offshore oil drilling ban  —  Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced Wednesday afternoon that the Obama administration will not allow offshore oil drilling in the eastern Gulf of Mexico or off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts as part of the next five-year drilling plan …

You Are No Longer Free To Move About the Country  —  Janet Napolitano said last month that we should expect to soon see tighter restrictions at bus, train, and marine transportation centers, too.  Here's a report about TSA, Border Patrol, and local police setting up a checkpoint at a Greyhound station in Tampa.

Ellison, Grijalva to lead progressives  —  Reps. Keith Ellison and Raul Grijalva were elected co-chairmen of the Congressional Progressive Caucus Wednesday night, according to liberal lawmakers.  Rep. Donna Edwards finished third in the three-way race for two spots.

Google Set to Launch E-Book Venture  —  Google Inc. is in the final stages of launching its long-awaited e-book retailing venture, Google Editions, a move that could shake up the way digital books are sold.  —  The long-delayed venture—Google executives had said they hoped to launch this summer …