Poll Finds Support Lacking for Entitlement Reductions  —  WASHINGTON— Less than a quarter of Americans support making significant cuts to Social Security or Medicare to tackle the country's mounting deficit, according to a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll, illustrating the challenge facing lawmakers …

Ohio Vote Puts Curbs on Unions in Reach  —  Ohio state senators narrowly approved a bill that would prohibit public-employee unions representing 400,000 state and local workers from bargaining over health benefits and pensions, while also eliminating the right to strike.

Soldier Faces 22 New WikiLeaks Charges  —  WASHINGTON — The Army announced 22 additional charges on Wednesday against Pfc. Bradley Manning, the military intelligence analyst who is accused of leaking a trove of government files to WikiLeaks a year ago.  —  The new charges included …

Longhorns 17, Badgers 1  —  Please pardon this brief departure from my normal folderol, but every so often a member of the chattering class issues a nugget of stupidity so egregious that no amount of mockery will suffice.  Particularly when the issuer of said stupidity holds a Nobel Prize.

Obama Says Race a Key Component in Tea Party Protests  —  In a new book, President Obama talks candidly about race and the presidency  —  African-Americans have been an integral part of the White House since it was built in part by slaves.  In Family of Freedom: Presidents and African Americans …

Northwestern University defends after-class live sex demonstration  —  More than 100 Northwestern University students watched as a naked 25-year-old woman was penetrated by a sex toy wielded by her fiancee during an after-class session of the school's popular “Human Sexuality” class.

Obama is enabling jihad  —  U.S. interests sacrificed in favor of radical Islam  —  Al Qaeda and Iran are cheering on the ongoing turmoil in the Middle East, so why does the Obama administration think the Islamic extremists are losing?  —  On Tuesday at a Pentagon press briefing …

Huckabee: Obama Isn't From Kenya, But He's Still Anti-American  —  Mike Huckabee now says he knows President Obama wasn't born in Kenya and that he misspoke when he made that much-maligned comment earlier this week.  But on social conservative Bryan Fischer's radio show on Wednesday …

ARE THEY SERIOUS?  ‘SHARIAH 4 AMERICA’ GROUP CALLS FOR ‘BURKHA’ ON STATUE OF LIBERTY  —  As we've reported, controversial UK Muslim cleric Anjem Choudary has called on Muslims to “rise to implement the Shari'ah in America,” starting with a planned demonstration in front of the White House on Thursday.

Biden set to meet House, Senate leaders on spending cuts  —  Vice President Biden and congressional leaders will begin hammering out a deal on spending cuts Thursday.  —  The Capitol Hill meeting between Biden and Democrats and Republicans from the House and Senate is set for 4 p.m. It's …

Anthony Weiner Berates, Belittles, and Insults Megyn Kelly During Interview  —  This all started off as an interview about whether or not Clarence Thomas should recuse himself from any future Supreme Court cases involving obamacare.  However, after Megyn Kelly pressed Democrat Congressman Anthony Weiner …

Petraeus apologizes for NATO strike that reportedly killed nine Afghan children  —  KABUL - A NATO airstrike that Afghan officials said Wednesday killed nine children collecting firewood in eastern Afghanistan the day before became the latest irritant in the tense relationship between President Hamid Karzai …

Oh my: Sen. Daniel Akaka won't run for reelection in 2012  —  But ... he's only in his mid-80s and has served just 21 years.  In an age of wizened congressmen who have to be dragged screaming into retirement, surely this youngster has another two or three terms in him.

Videos a weapon in Wisconsin fight  —  Stung by allegations of incendiary, racist and homophobic rhetoric at tea party rallies last year, conservative activists with flipcams and camera phones have circulated at the union protests sprouting up across the country in hopes of catching violent …

Tea party leader: John Boehner should go  —  A national tea party group is in revolt against House Speaker John Boehner and wants to see him defeated in a 2012 primary, arguing that he looks “like a fool” in the debate over spending cuts and makes less sense than actor Charlie Sheen.

Sarah Palin's bizarre view of the First Amendment  —  Sarah Palin, who has more than once invoked the First Amendment when she or her allies faced criticism, today denounced the Supreme Court's 8-1 ruling allowing the Westboro Baptist Church to protest outside soldiers' funerals with signs reading ""God Hates Fags" and the like.

How the Edwards Affair Ended Up in the Enquirer  —  Lisa Druck was trouble.  You'd run into her at Nell's where we all tended to hang out and she'd be in a panic.  Some guy would be running from her, taxiing quickly to another club.  She'd storm the bathrooms and you could hear her voice …

First Thoughts: Chased by a tiger  —  NBC/WSJ poll suggests GOP is caught between a cliff (independents who might not like deep budget cuts) and a charging tiger (a Tea Party that does)... What's popular and unpopular to cut... The poll on Wisconsin and the state budget battles …

Rahm Emanuel meets fake Twitter Rahm, says phony right on target  —  Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel admitted Wednesday that there were times, after a long day on the campaign trail, that he would read the profane diatribes of his alter-ego on @MayorEmanuel.com and think to himself, “My sentiments exactly!”

Teachers Wonder, Why the Scorn?  —  The jabs Erin Parker has heard about her job have stunned her.  Oh you pathetic teachers, read the online comments and placards of counterdemonstrators.  You are glorified baby sitters who leave work at 3 p.m. You deserve minimum wage.

Scores of Union Leaders Earn Six-Figure Salaries … On the surface, the fight between the governor of Wisconsin and organized labor is about balancing state budgets and collective bargaining rights.  Behind the scenes, hundreds of millions of dollars in compensation to top labor leaders …