Gibbs to Leave as White House Press Secretary  —  Updated Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary and close confidante to President Obama, said Wednesday that he will step down and become an outside political adviser to the president and his re-election campaign.

U.S. Alters Rule on Paying for End-of-Life Planning  —  WASHINGTON — The Obama administration, reversing course, will revise a Medicare regulation to delete references to end-of-life planning as part of the annual physical examinations covered under the new health care law, administration officials said Tuesday.

19 Democrats vote against Nancy Pelosi  —  Nearly 20 Democrats abandoned their party's pick for speaker of the House, Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), a sign of their concerns about supporting the unpopular former speaker and of the difficulty she will have in marshaling her forces …

EXCLUSIVE: President Michele Bachmann?  —  Sources: Tea Party Favorite Is Mulling a Presidential Bid in 2012  —  Forget the fervent chatter speculating that Tea Party favorite Rep. Michele Bachmann is considering launching a campaign to challenge Sen. Amy Klobuchar for the Minnesota U.S. Senate seat …

Hoyer: Tea Party People Come From Unhappy Families  —  On the eve of his demotion by voters from House Majority Leader to House Minority Whip, Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., Hoyer offered this insight into the psychology of the Tea Party movement: … So, there you have it.

A very smart speech by Speaker Boehner  —  If you spent the afternoon watching C-SPAN, as I did, you heard applause.  A lot of it.  Over and over again.  And when John Boehner took the podium to be sworn in as Speaker of the House of Representatives, it swelled back up, and stayed there.

KFC employee screams insults at customer  —  A worker at a KFC restaurant in Sydney has been suspended after he was filmed screaming vicious insults and threatening to attack a customer.  —  The violent outburst happened at a Halal-friendly KFC in Punchbowl on December 26 …

GOP Rep. Mulvaney, Against Raising Debt Ceiling, Admits He Doesn't ‘Know’ What Will Happen If It Isn't Raised  —  In recent weeks, a number of high-profile Republicans have stated their intention to vote against any increase to the U.S. debt limit.  From Sen. Mike Lee (UT) to Rep. Michelle Bachmann …

Man found in landfill tied to arson attempt  —  Source: John P. Wheeler 3d planted incendiary devices at a neighbor's home in Del. days before his disappearance.  —  Police in Delaware have discovered evidence that a former Pentagon aide may have been involved in an attempted arson days before his murder …

Post-Midterm Approval Ratings Don't Predict Re-Election Chances  —  Barack Obama got some good news to start his new year: his Gallup approval rating ticked up to 50 percent yesterday, against 42 percent disapproval.  That's the first time it has been at the 50 percent threshold since early June.

Repealing health-care reform would cost hundreds of billions of dollars — and Eric Cantor knows it  —  House Republicans are in a pickle: One of their new rules says that new legislation must be paid for.  But the health-care bill reduces the federal deficit by more than $100 billion over the next 10 years.

Julian Assange's sex-crime accusers deserve to be named  —  The shielding of sex-crime accusers is a Victorian relic.  Women are moral adults and should be treated as such  —  As Swedish prosecutors' sex-crime allegations against Julian Assange play out, one aspect of the case merits serious scrutiny.

Fiscal Shock  —  I see that the Washington Post editorial board is shocked, shocked to discover that the incoming Republicans aren't serious about deficit reduction.  Who could have suspected?  —  I was going to be snarky all the way here, but actually let's be serious …

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GOP Budget Chairman Paul Ryan: “I Can't Tell You The Answer” To Specific Spending Cuts  —  3 hours and 30 minutes ago — Matt Finkelstein  —  This morning on NBC, incoming House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) discussed the spending cuts that Republicans plan to enact in the new Congress.

Democratic Party ID Drops in 2010, Tying 22-Year Low  —  Democrats still outnumber Republicans, while independent identification increases  —  PRINCETON, NJ — In 2010, 31% of Americans identified as Democrats, down five percentage points from just two years ago and tied …

Here it is: The filibuster reform package!  —  Here's a copy of the filibuster reform resolution that Senate Democrats will introduce later today, sent over by an aide to Tom Udall, one of the key Senators driving this campaign.  —  While the broad outlines of the proposal were already public …

Robots, slaves, horses, and Malthus  —  I think this is the model that Karl Smith has in mind.  —  Assume robots are the same as humans.  Robots can do all the work that humans can do.  Robots need the same amount of energy/food to stay functioning as humans do, but robots themselves …

‘Earmarks’ to nowhere: States losing billions  —  WASHINGTON — Almost 13 years ago, Rep. David McIntosh, R-Ind., directed $375,000 in federal funding “to improve State Road 31” in Columbus, Ind., a city at the edge of his district.  —  The McIntosh “earmark” seemed routine at the time …

Trial set for firing over use of ‘n’ word  —  A federal jury will be asked to decide whether it is acceptable for an African American person, but not a white person, to use the “n” word in a workplace.  —  U.S. District Judge R. Barclay Surrick has ruled that former Fox29 reporter-anchor …

WikiLeaks: ‘Voluptuous’ nurse cable costs diplomat his job  —  WASHINGTON — In what appears to be the first diplomatic casualty from the latest WikiLeaks revelations, the U.S. ambassador to Libya has returned to Washington and is likely to leave his post, U.S. officials said Tuesday.

Huffing and Puffing  —  Reminiscent of Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg, Arianna Huffington is being sued by two political consultants, Peter Daou and James Boyce, who claim a critical role in creating her top-ranked Web site, the Huffington Post.  So what exactly happened in the fall of 2004 when Huffington …