Boehner Blasts Dems' ‘Chickencrap’ Tax Cut Vote Gambit (VIDEO)  —  This afternoon, House Democrats will hold an up or down vote on vote on President Obama's plan to extend tax cuts to income below $250,000, and they've figured out a way to prevent the Republicans from pulling procedural tricks …

NASA Finds New Life (Updated)  —  NASA has discovered a new life form—called GFAJ-1—that doesn't share the biological building blocks of anything currently living in planet Earth.  It's capable of using arsenic to build its DNA, RNA, proteins, and cell membranes.  This changes everything.

Tea Party Caucus Takes $1 Billion In Earmarks  —  Members of the Congressional Tea Party Caucus may tout their commitment to cutting government spending now, but they used the 111th Congress to request hundreds of earmarks that, taken cumulatively, added more than $1 billion to the federal budget.

The DADT Hearings In Six Minutes: GOP Talking Points Debunked  —  This morning, during a hearing about the impact of repealing Don't Ask, Don't Tell before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mike Mullen, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates …

Hedge Funds Tapped Rescue Program  —  Hedge funds and investors whose bearish trades on housing helped them profit amid the credit crisis were among those that benefited from a U.S. government emergency rescue program to kick-start lending, according to Federal Reserve data released Wednesday.

RTC  —  Receiving / paying for stolen property IS a crime.  Once the official request to not release classified information was issued the release IS a crime.  In the US the maximum penalty for that crime is death.  —  Mark Anthony  —  Why haven't British police arrested WikiLeaks boss …

Can We Do the Non-Crazy Thing with the Bush Tax Cuts?  —  I am no longer going to “let the perfect be the enemy of the good.”  I am no longer going to try to talk people into seeing that the “right” thing to do with the Bush tax cuts would be to let them all expire.

GOP to upend spending process  —  House Republicans seem intent on blowing up the staid appropriations process when they take power in January — potentially upending the old bulls in both parties who have spent decades building their power over the federal budget.

A strange way to honor the founding fathers  —  Republicans gained control of the House last month on a promise to “restore the Constitution.”  So it is no small irony that one of their first orders of business is an attempt to rewrite the Constitution.  —  On Tuesday, Rep. Rob Bishop …

A Month After Elections, 200,000 Votes Found  —  The city's Board of Elections routinely reminds New Yorkers that the election night vote count is unofficial and preliminary.  —  Still, the difference in the results from Nov. 2 and in the returns formally certified by the board on Wednesday seems striking …

Presenting plan to cut deficit, commission members offer surprising compromises  —  Members of President Obama's bipartisan deficit commission expressed a surprising willingness Wednesday to compromise on issues that have long divided Republicans and Democrats, including raising taxes and cutting Social Security.

Obama gets stitches removed from basketball injury  —  President Obama had his stitches removed Thursday that were put in after he took an elbow to the lip during a basketball game last Friday.  —  There was no noticeable damage on the president's lip, according to a White House pool report.

LETTER FROM DUBLIN  —  It is one thing to know that someone you love is terminally ill; their death still comes as a shock.  —  I certainly don't want to compare the arrival of the EU-IMF team in Dublin last week to a bereavement.  But I was surprised at how upsetting I found it, given that it came as no surprise.

Disaster in the North: 40 dead as fire rages across Carmel Mountains  —  Firefighters: We lost complete control of the fire; mass evacuation from northern towns begins; bus evacuating some 50 prison guards gets caught in the flames, killing 40.  —  40 people died on Thursday as a huge brushfire …

Sarah Palin has earned the right to run for president  —  To the dismay of all but hard-core political junkies, the endless campaign is a reality of modern politics.  With some midterm races still unresolved, voters' attention is already turned to 2012.  And no potential presidential candidate …

JUAN WILLIAMS ON UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE  —  If we want people to work and keep up their work ethic, why are we keeping them on unemployment insurance to not work?  —  That seems to be Juan Williams take on the current situation.  In this clip from Fox News today Juan Williams explains …

Brown in good position  —  As Scott Brown's first year in the Senate comes to a close he remains an extremely formidable political presence and leads five hypothetical 2012 reelection opponents by margins ranging anywhere from 7 to 19 points.  —  Vicki Kennedy (48-41) and Deval Patrick …

Persistence of Long-Term Unemployment Tests U.S.  —  The longer people stay out of work, the more trouble they have finding new work.  —  That is a fact of life that much of Europe, with its underclass of permanently idle workers, knows all too well.  But it is a lesson that the United States seems to be just learning.