Democrats concede budget fight to Republicans  —  Senate Democrats abruptly abandoned an omnibus budget bill for the coming year, pushing major spending decisions into the next Congress and giving Republicans immense new leverage to confront President Barack Obama priorities.

Exclusive: Sarah Palin on 2012 Plans, Double Standards for Women  —  Palin Says Thinking About Presidential Run Is a ‘Prayerful Consideration’  —  Sarah Palin is surveying the lay of the land to consider whether to make a presidential run in 2012, she told “Good Morning America” …

PolitiFact's Lie of the Year: ‘A government takeover of health care’  —  In the spring of 2009, a Republican strategist settled on a brilliant and powerful attack line for President Barack Obama's ambitious plan to overhaul America's health insurance system.

The new comeback kid  —  If Barack Obama wins reelection in 2012, as is now more likely than not, historians will mark his comeback as beginning on Dec. 6, the day of the Great Tax Cut Deal of 2010.  —  Obama had a bad November.  Self-confessedly shellacked in the midterm election …

Hollywood's Growing Chorus of Obama Criticism  —  Hollywood's adoration for President Obama has never really been all that shocking, but what may be surprising is how famous singers and actors are increasingly saying they aren't so happy with the commander-in-chief.

Flirty Models Were Hired in Bid to Find Bone Marrow  —  BOSTON — On its face, it seemed reasonable enough: a bone marrow registry sending recruiters to malls, ballparks and other busy sites to enlist potential donors.  —  But the recruiters were actually flirtatious models in heels …

The Revolution Next Time?  —  It has been 15 years since the Rehnquist court began applying the constitutional brakes to assertions of federal power that had seemed unassailable since the New Deal.  Its first target was modest, a five-year-old federal statute called the Gun-Free School Zones Act …

Olbermann Refuses To Correct Treatment Of Assange Rape Allegations On Twitter - Update  —  Update: Keith Olbermann has announced that he is suspending his Twitter account “until this frenzy is stopped.”  —  Update 2: This is serious.  He has even taken down his profile picture.

Wall Street Whitewash  —  When the financial crisis struck, many people — myself included — considered it a teachable moment.  Above all, we expected the crisis to remind everyone why banks need to be effectively regulated.  —  How naïve we were.  We should have realized …

Ruling on Senate race may be today  —  BALLOTS: Miller to tell state Supreme Court that election was tainted.  —  scockerham@adn.com  —  The Alaska Supreme Court will hear Joe Miller's argument this afternoon that his loss to Sen. Lisa Murkowski came in a tainted election.

Visa, MasterCard Plunge as Fed Issues Rules to Cut Debit Fees  —  Visa Inc. and MasterCard Inc. plunged more than 10 percent in New York trading after the Federal Reserve Board proposed rules that could slash debit-card interchange fees by 90 percent.  —  The new rules, posted today by the Fed …

'Don't ask, don't tell' passes handily in House of Representatives  —  As the end of the lame-duck session approaches, the to-do list in the Senate seems to grow.  And Sen. Jim DeMint's threats to have the nearly 2,000-page spending bill read on the floor would eat up precious time and delay votes for days.

With a star-studded guest list, ‘Larry King Live’ signs off for the last time  —  Lurching awkwardly between classy gestures and underwhelming torpor, “Larry King Live” breathed its last on CNN Thursday night, even if its star and founding father kept reminding viewers that though his program was ending …

It Also Was Called The Soviet Union  —  I traveled extensively throughout the Soviet Union during the early 1980s, both with groups and on my own approved itineraries.  I also lived in Moscow, and had a chance to slip out of the ring road with Soviet friends into the countryside …

Bigger Is Easier  —  President Obama faces an enormously difficult challenge over the next few weeks.  —  On the one hand, this moment is ripe for fundamental change.  There is a pervasive sense that the nation is at a Sputnik moment when it either rises to face the international competition or it does not.