Michele Bachmann Becomes Fifth GOP Candidate To Reject Donald Trump Debate  —  ABC News' Michael Falcone reports:  —  DES MOINES — Another one bites the dust.  —  Michele Bachmann has officially said “no” to the Donald Trump-moderated Newsmax debate scheduled for later this month.

Perry's jacket in anti-gay ad?  Heath Ledger wore it in “Brokeback Mountain”  —  Rick Perry launched an anti-gay ad called, “Strong.”  In the ad, he attacks gays openly serving in the armed forces.  —  As it turns out, the gays get their revenge... the jacket Rick Perry wore in the ad?

N.Y.U. to Offer Classes on Occupy Wall Street … Occupy Wall Street is becoming a teachable moment for New York City college students.  —  New York University plans to offer two classes next semester on the protest movement, whose participants frequently marched and rallied around the school's Greenwich Village campus this fall.

Obama: More jobs in jobless benefits than Keystone  —  President Obama said that he will delay his vacation and keep Congress in session until the passage of his desired payroll tax cut and unemployment benefits extension — two proposals that Obama said would create more jobs …

Iran shows film of captured US drone  —  The BBC's James Reynolds says the video appears to support Iran's claims  —  Iranian TV has shown the first video footage of an advanced US drone aircraft that Tehran says it downed near the Afghan border.  —  Images show Iranian military officials inspecting …

Rand Paul: Republicans would take a giant step backward by choosing Gingrich  —  As a U.S. senator elected from and by the tea party, I am often asked about the tea party, the conservative movement and the presidential race.  —  While conservatives and limited-government activists did …

A Liberal's Lament on Kagan and Health Care  —  Should Elena Kagan recuse herself in the ACA case?  —  Elena Kagan was appointed by Obama from within his administration shortly after health care reform passed.  Should she hear the case before the Supreme Court?

Record High Anti-Incumbent Sentiment Toward Congress  —  But voters are more inclined to say their own representative deserves re-election  —  PRINCETON, NJ — About three-quarters of registered voters (76%) say most members of Congress do not deserve re-election, the highest such percentage Gallup …

Tweets from Congressional Staffers Describe On-Job Drinking in Office of Congressman Larsen  —  For young men and women with ambitions toward a career in politics, working in a Congressional office can be a heady, almost dreamlike experience.  Left unsupervised, the combination of youth indiscretion …

GOP seeks to cut unemployment benefits  —  GOP leaders hope to build momentum for an end-of-year tax package with sweeping reforms to federal unemployment benefits.  —  The Republican proposal is expected to reduce the total number of weeks unemployed workers are eligible for aid …

Next step in our Randian dystopia: stimgatize the unemployed  —  So now they're going to “reform” unemployment.  The first thing they say they'll do do is stop the millionaires from collecting it.  I don't know how many millionaires are collecting it now or how this will be administered, but fine.

Google Currents is hot off the press  —  We strive to give you beautiful and simple ways to experience all the content the web has to offer, such as sharing photos on Google+, watching YouTube videos and discovering books, movies and music from Android Market.

All the G.O.P.'s Gekkos  —  Almost a quarter of a century has passed since the release of the movie “Wall Street,” and the film seems more relevant than ever.  The self-righteous screeds of financial tycoons denouncing President Obama all read like variations on Gordon Gekko's famous …

Obama celebrates Hanukkah at White House  —  WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama is marking Hanukkah as a story of “faith over doubt.”  —  Obama, first lady Michelle Obama and Vice President Joe Biden convened a Hanukkah celebration at the White House Thursday in an early celebration of the Jewish Festival of Lights.

Lines Redrawn, Longtime Allies Fight for a Seat  —  LOS ANGELES — Democrat-on-Democrat warfare has returned to the San Fernando Valley.  —  After a tiff over the redrawing of their adjacent Congressional districts a decade ago, Representative Brad Sherman and his fellow California Democrat …

Meet Josh Block: Lobbyist For Foreign Human Rights Abuser  —  A Politico article yesterday on CAP's Middle East posture cited Josh Block, who described CAP's bloggers as writing “borderline anti-Semitic stuff.”  In a leaked email to a right-wing listserv, Block, now senior fellow …

Democrats for Buchanan  —  “Core institutions” of the president's party turn against Israel.  —  “Two of the Democratic Party's core institutions are challenging a bipartisan consensus on Israel and Palestine that has dominated American foreign policy for more than a decade,” Politico reports: