Senate's Returning Democrats Unanimously Favor Filibuster Reform  —  All except Dodd sign a letter urging Majority Leader Harry Reid to change the rules.  —  All Democratic senators returning next year have signed a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., urging him to consider action …

Barney Frank Makes a Fool Out of Conservative Reporter Over 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell'  —  A conservative reporter from right-leaning CNS News thought he would play gotcha journalist and ask gay Congressman Barney Frank about gay and straight soldiers showering together.  Big mistake.  Huge.

Supreme Court rules against Miller  —  The Alaska Supreme Court today ruled against Joe Miller on all counts, a decision that leaves his challenge of Sen. Lisa Murkowski's victory on life support.  —  “There are no remaining issues raised by Miller that prevent this election from being certified …

Senate Passes Arms Control Treaty With Russia, 71-26  —  WASHINGTON — The Senate gave final approval on Wednesday to a new arms control treaty with Russia, scaling back leftover cold war nuclear arsenals and capping a surprisingly successful lame-duck session for President Obama just weeks after his party's electoral debacle.

Obama signs DADT repeal before big, emotional crowd  —  President Obama signed the landmark repeal of the military's “don't ask, don't tell” policy Wednesday morning, handing a major victory to advocates of gay rights and fulfilling a campaign promise to do away with a practice that he has called discriminatory.

111th Congress comes to a close; new session begins on Jan. 5  —  The House on Wednesday evening passed a motion to adjourn the 111th Congress “Sine Die”, bringing to a close Democrats four-year reign in the lower chamber.  —  It also ended what has been the most productive lame-duck session in recent memory.

Steven Spielberg advising Nancy Pelosi on rebranding Democrats … THE FIX NEWSLETTERS … THE LIVE FIX … POLITICS & PINTS

Shock: Christian Coalition founder Pat Robertson favors marijuana legalization  —  Robertson a welcome addition to drug reform circles, former narc tells Raw Story  —  Count this among the 10 things nobody ever expected to see in their lifetimes: 700 Club founder Pat Robertson …

The Net Neutrality Coup  —  The campaign to regulate the Internet was funded by a who's who of left-liberal foundations.  —  The Federal Communications Commission's new “net neutrality” rules, passed on a partisan 3-2 vote yesterday, represent a huge win for a slick lobbying campaign run by liberal activist groups and foundations.

Oops!  Fox & Friends Accidentally Identifies Elie Wiesel As “Holocaust Winner”  —  Wow.  We all make mistakes and typos.  There will probably be at least one in this post alone.  However, some typos are worse than others.  This is one of those typos.  Last week, Fox & Friends …

Republican House Rules Makes It Harder to Increase Debt Limit, Raise Taxes  —  The new Republican House rules proposal is out, and people are rightly guffawing about the vow to read the Constitution on the House floor at the beginning of the session.  But if silliness like this is the worst …

Huck: Palin wrong, FLOTUS right  —  Potential GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee says Sarah Palin's wrong and Michelle Obama's right, at least when it comes to the first lady's push to combat childhood obesity.  —  “With all due respect to my colleague and friend Sarah Palin …

The Blast Shack  —  We asked Bruce Sterling (who spoke at Webstock '09) for his take on Wikileaks.  —  The Wikileaks Cablegate scandal is the most exciting and interesting hacker scandal ever.  I rather commonly write about such things, and I'm surrounded by online acquaintances …

W.H.: Polar bears not ‘endangered’  —  The Obama administration is sticking with a George W. Bush-era decision to deny polar bears endangered species status.  —  In a court filing Wednesday, the Fish and Wildlife Service defended the previous administration's decision to give the polar bear …

Obama on vacation: same old, same old  —  HONOLULU - For Ronald Reagan it was riding horses on his California ranch.  For George W. Bush it was clearing brush and biking around his Crawford, Texas, estate.  For Barack Obama, the signature image of his presidential vacationing, so far …

“Palestine is big” — PA says it includes all of Israel  —  “Palestine is big” —  PA says it includes all of Israel  —  3 PA TV shows present Israeli places  —  Tiberias, Rosh Hanikra and all of Israel as “Palestine”  —  by Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik

The ‘Subsidy’: How Merrill Lynch Traders Helped Blow Up Their Own Firm  —  Two years before the financial crisis hit, Merrill Lynch confronted a serious problem.  No one, not even the bank's own traders, wanted to buy the supposedly safe portions of the mortgage-backed securities Merrill was creating.