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 …

Pat Robertson Questions Prison for Pot Convictions  —  Updated Chalk this one up as a real head-scratcher.  —  Pat Robertson, the televangelist who once ran for president, said on his show “The 700 Club” that he thought marijuana should be legalized.  —  Yep, the Christian conservative preacher …

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.

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) …

Napolitano Scolds Reporter for Airing Complaints of Dead Border Agent's Family  —  Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, leaving the funeral of a murdered Border Patrol agent Wednesday, scolded a reporter for asking her to address the victim's family's concerns that not enough is being done to secure the southern border.

2012 hopefuls to skip Hispanic forum  —  It was billed, in part, as a forum for the 2012 Republican presidential field to speak directly to Hispanics - a replica of the vaunted Conservative Political Action Conference, but tailored to the fastest-growing slice of the electorate.

Taxes and the Top Percentile Myth  —  A 2008 OECD study of leading economies found that ‘taxation is most progressively distributed in the United States.’ More so than Sweden or France.  —  When President Obama announced a two-year stay of execution for taxpayers on Dec. 7 …

TMI, Mr. President!  TMI!  —  Do you know who recently stopped smoking Marlboros?  Here are some hints: He received 12 stitches in his busted lip.  He wears a size 11 or so shoe.  And his wife says he is sometimes “too snore-y and stinky” to share the marital bed.  —  Here are some more hints.

Gates Reminds Troops That 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' is Still in Effect … The president has signed the repeal of “Don't ask, Don't tell,” but Defense Secretary Robert Gates is warning troops that the policy banning gays from serving openly in the military is still in effect.

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.

Christmas in Bethlehem: the cross banished from souvenirs  —  For fear of Islamic fundamentalism, textile workshops in Hebron and Jerusalem, produce and sell T-shirts and other items depicting the Church of the Nativity without the cross.  Discrimination and economic crisis are forcing Christians …

‘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.

McMillan warns Obama  —  Because life is short, I try generally to avoid irrelevant joke candidacies (particularly ones whose views have a slightly sinister tinge) in this space, but it seems worth noting that the semi-coherent Jimmy McMillan of “The Rent is Too Damn High Party” fame is attempting to take his black-gloved act national.

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 …

Harry Reid devising plan to press forward with filibuster reform, aide says  —  Still more good news for filibuster reform: Harry Reid is in active discussions with his caucus about moving forward with reform in the new year, and is currently devising a plan to do just that, a senior Senate Democratic leadership aide tells me.

Fresh humiliation for eurozone as China says it will bail out debt-ridden nations  —  China has said it is willing to bail out debt-ridden countries in the euro zone using its $2.7trillion overseas investment fund.  —  In a fresh humiliation for Europe, Foreign Ministry spokesman Jiang Yu …

“A Rough Version of Mr. Bush's Dream May Yet Come True”  —  In its editorial today, “A Good Year in Iraq,” the Washington Post writes this: … The editorial goes on to point out that (a) the election was judged free and fair, a very rare event in the Middle East; (b) measures …

Yglesias Award Nominee  —  An astonishingly sane stance on cannabis from Pat Robertson (yes, that one):  —  Scott Morgan remarks on this incredible cultural moment.

PolitiFiction  —  True ‘lies’ about ObamaCare.  —  So the watchdog news outfit called PolitiFact has decided that its “lie of the year” is the phrase “a government takeover of health care.”  Ordinarily, lies need verbs and we'd leave the media criticism to others, but the White House …

Dave Camp's plan: Taxes made simple  —  Many parents have heard FICA Screams.  Indignant children, holding in trembling hands their first paychecks, demand to know what FICA is and why it is feasting on their pay.  —  FICA (the Federal Insurance Contributions Act tax) is government compassion …

Six big achievements of a surprisingly ‘do something’ Congress  —  The outgoing 111th Congress is among the most productive in history, in spite of its reputation for gridlock and 13 percent approval rating.  Democrats controlled the House and the Senate, and used their large majorities …

Did the No Labels folks read Arlen Specter's speech?  —  The No Labels website links to the farewell speech by Sen. Arlen Specter (D/R/D-Pa.).  I guess they must search for the word “civility,” but next time they should actually read the speech before offering it as a model of public decorum.

WikiLeaks' Julian Assange Fires Back at ‘Idiot’ Critics … From his house arrest in a British mansion, beleaguered WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is firing away at his critics, including the unlikely trio of Vice President Joe Biden, Sarah Palin and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee.

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 …

Blue Dog ‘disappointed’ controversial genocide resolution didn't come to floor  —  The 111th Congress adjourned Wednesday without bringing up the latest incarnation of legislation that would have recognized the 1915 killings of 1.5 million Armenians by the Ottoman Empire as genocide.

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 …