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 …

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 …

‘Anarchists’ launch bomb attacks on two Rome embassies  —  Anarchists are suspected of having launched parcel bomb attacks on the Swiss and Chilean embassies in Rome.  —  The first explosion, which occurred at midday (11amGMT) seriously injured a caretaker at the Swiss embassy.

Bradley Manning Speaks About His Conditions … Sign the letter to the Commanding Officer of Bradley Manning's brig urging for Bradley's unnecessary POI order to be lifted  —  Bradley Manning, the 23-year-old Army private accused of leaking classified information to Wikileaks …

Muscle Car Roars Onto Lawn of Bush's Dallas Home  —  Driver says his gas pedal became stuck  —  Authorities have detained someone whose car apparently ran off the road and onto former President George W. Bush's lawn Wednesday night.  —  The Secret Service and Dallas police questioned …

Breaking the filibuster in one graph  —  If you're looking for some good historical data on the filibuster, the fine folks who keep up (the surprisingly useful) Senate.gov site have you covered.  They've tracked the number of cloture filings (when the majority begins the process of breaking a filibuster) …

Lisa Murkowski goes rogue  —  Lisa Murkowski isn't gunning down caribou on national TV like that other famous Alaskan, but the Republican lawmaker is going rogue in the Senate just weeks after staging the most stunning back-from-the-dead political win of the 2010 cycle.

Barack Obama's plan to close Gitmo ‘in shambles’  —  Nestled among a string of improbable victories President Barack Obama racked up in the lame-duck Congressional session is legislation containing the most debilitating setback to date to his plan to close the military prison at Guantanamo Bay …

Oprah: Sarah Palin Presidential Run ‘Does Not Scare Me’ … And now we have Oprah Winfrey's take on Sarah Palin's presidential ambitions.  —  In an interview with Parade magazine, Winfrey said America could “fall in love” with the former Alaska governor as a television personality …

Alabama Town's Failed Pension Is a Warning  —  PRICHARD, Ala. — This struggling small city on the outskirts of Mobile was warned for years that if it did nothing, its pension fund would run out of money by 2009.  Right on schedule, its fund ran dry.  —  Then Prichard did something …

Boy, 13, Busted For Illegal Marker Possession  —  Oklahoma City math teacher in citizen's arrest of student … A 13-year-old boy was arrested Friday for using a permanent marker while in class at his Oklahoma City middle school, a violation of an obscure city ordinance.

North Korea ‘ready for sacred war’ with the South  —  Invited dignitaries watched the live exercises along with the South Korean president  —  North Korea is ready for a “sacred war of justice” using a nuclear deterrent, its armed forces minister has said.

Under ‘High-Tech House Arrest,’ WikiLeaks Founder Takes the Offensive  —  BUNGAY, England — When Julian Assange wakes these days, he looks out from a three-story Georgian mansion house overlooking a man-made lake.  Under a blanket of snow, the 650-acre Ellingham Hall estate …

Hearing officer: Let Rahm Emanuel run for mayor  —  Former White House chief-of-staff Rahm Emanuel early Thursday survived the pivotal first round of a residency challenge that will determine whether his name remains on the ballot for mayor of Chicago.  —  “The name of Rahm Emanuel shall appear …

FLOTUS chows at the taxpayers' trough  —  First lady Michelle Obama didn't feel like waiting around cold, boring old Washington, D.C., for her husband and Congress to wrap up their work for the year.  So she simply stuck the taxpayers with the $63,000 tab to start her Hawaiian vacation a bit early …