BREAKING: CBO Says Repealing ObamaCare Would Reduce Net Spending by $540 Billion  —  The Congressional Budget Office, in an email to Capitol Hill staffers obtained by the Spectator, has said that repealing the national health care law would reduce net spending by $540 billion in the ten year period from 2012 through 2021.

Statement by the President on H.R. 6523  —  Today I have signed into law H.R. 6523, the “Ike Skelton National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2011.”  The Act authorizes funding for the defense of the United States and its interests abroad, for military construction, and for national security-related energy programs.

‘Mother,’ ‘Father’ Changing to ‘Parent One,’ ‘Parent Two’ on Passport Applications  —  Section of current passport application asking for “father” and “mother” information.  —  The words “mother” and “father” will be removed from U.S. passport applications and replaced with gender neutral terminology, the State Department says.

Weiner Mocks House GOP Oath Blunder: ‘We Violated The Constitution On Our Very First Day’  —  Yesterday, Reps. Pete Sessions (R-TX) and Mike Fitzpatrick (R-PA) failed to take the oath of office on the House floor along with the other 433 members of Congress which caused the GOP caucus to scurry …

Rudy gearing up for DC run  —  Confident that he'd have a chance to win, Rudy Giuliani is rounding up his top political advisers for a possible 2012 presidential run, sources tell Page Six.  —  Sources say the tough-talking former mayor “thinks the Republican race will be populated …

EXCLUSIVE: Sonny Bono's Widow - Rep. Mary Bono - In Lurid Photo Scandal With Woman Investigated By FBI  —  Congresswoman Mary Bono Mack has been caught on camera in a lurid scandal where another woman is apparently licking her breast.  —  RadarOnline.com has exclusively obtained the photo …

Top GOPer praises Obama picks  —  (CNN) - Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is hopeful the staff shake ups at the White House this week that included a new chief of staff and director of the National Economic Council are a sign President Barack Obama is moving toward the political center.

Memo to Speaker Boehner: If You Won a Congessional Majority Because You Pledged to Cut Spending and You Can't Think of a Single Program to Cut Now, Please Go Home  —  That Congress botched its first-ever public reading of the Constitution is worrisome, but less so than the fact they've spent …

Levi's Vindication: The Self-Exposure Of Sarah Palin  —  As a long-standing Palin hysteric, I have to confess a mite less concern in 2011 than at any time since she has been farcically commanding the attention of the political class.  Not much has changed essentially: Palin's favorable ratings remain roughly where they have been.

Egypt's Muslims attend Coptic Christmas mass, serving as “human shields”  —  Muslims turned up in droves for the Coptic Christmas mass Thursday night, offering their bodies, and lives, as “shields” to Egypt's threatened Christian community  —  Egypt's majority Muslim population stuck to its word Thursday night.

White Flight  —  President Obama's path to a second term may rely on states shaped by the same social forces he embodies.  —  Right turn: Sen. Marco Rubio's supporters in Florida included many whites who voted for Obama in 2008.  —  By any standard, white voters' rejection of Democrats …

The 40 Most Obnoxious Quotes Of 2010  —  40) My fear is that the whole island (of Guam) will become so overly populated that it will tip over and capsize.  39) Imagine if somebody were to really sit down with Osama Bin Ladin and say, 'Listen man,what is it that you're so angry …

Crony capitalism  —  Big Labor and Big Business are teaming up to protect Big Government.  As Greg Sargent put it yesterday, in describing the budding alliance between the AFL-CIO and the Chamber of Commerce: “The two groups rarely agree on anything, and frequently target each other in the harshest of terms …

MA Supreme Court Deals Banks a Major Blow on Foreclosure Fraud, in the Ibanez Case  —  In a major ruling in the Massachusetts Supreme Court today, US Bank and Wells Fargo lost the “Ibanez case,” meaning that they don't have standing to foreclose due to improper mortgage assignment.

Extremist group announces suicide attack to kill Asia Bibi  —  Pakistani intelligence says Moaviya group is planning a suicide attack against Sheikhupura Prison, where the woman has been held since 2009.  In Lahore, the first hearing for the murder of Punjab Governor of Salman Taseer opens amid hugging …

Village Voice Caught in Jayson Blair-Style Fabrication Scandal (Updated)  —  Rob Sgobbo (pictured), a young writer for the New York Daily News, has had a freelance story he wrote yanked from the Village Voice's website.  He apparently fabricated sources and lied about his reporting.

How Conservatives Could Revive the Public Option … Like This Story … - Can Conservatives Outlaw “Anchor Babies” Without Amending the Constitution?  - Dwight Garner, the NYT's New Book Critic, Is Extraordinary and Delightful- Almost No One Carries Cash Anymore.  Is That Why Crime Is Going Down?

Elmendorf to GOP: Don't Kill the Messenger!  —  MichaelBindner  —  The reappointment of Elmendorf is the case study the GOP needs to realize the limits of its power.  Of course, they are right to be cynical - their CBO director, Douglas Holtz-Eaken let Medicare Part D go in without telling how much it costs.

Egypt threatens to remove Central Park obelisk  —  Archaeologist concerned about damage to hieroglyphic text on Cleopatra's Needle  —  Below:  —  Since 1881, the obelisk known as Cleopatra's Needle has stood in New York's Central Park, but a letter from the secretary general …