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.

U.S. Weighs Prosecution of WikiLeaks Founder, but Legal Scholars Warn of Steep Hurdles  —  WASHINGTON — Calls to prosecute the founder of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, mounted this week as his organization began releasing documents from a cache of 250,000 State Department cables …

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.

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 …

Senate Republicans Threaten Tax Dispute Blockade  —  WASHINGTON — Not even 24 hours after President Obama met with senior Republican Congressional leaders and expressed hopes for a “new dialogue,” renewed partisan fury engulfed the Senate on Wednesday, as Republicans threatened to block …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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.

DeMint Sets Sights On Four Dems  —  South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint (R) is turning his attention to 2012 and using the vote this week on an earmark moratorium to pick his Democratic targets.  —  DeMint sent an email to the supporters of his Senate Conservatives Fund early Wednesday highlighting four Democrats …

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 …

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 …

Sen. Alexander: “Most Of The People” Hit By Schumer's Tax Plan “Live On Wall Street”  —  2 hours and 44 minutes ago — Matt Finkelstein  —  With members of Congress fighting over the fate of the expiring Bush tax cuts, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has put forward a compromise that would maintain …