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.

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.

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?

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 …

Officials Confirm Authenticity of Iranian TV Images Showing Lost U.S. Drone  —  U.S. officials have confirmed to Fox News that images aired by Iranian state television do in fact show the secret U.S. drone that went down last week in eastern Iran.  —  “Yep, that's it,” one senior official told Fox News.

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?

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 …

‘Furious’ twisting  —  For the sake of argument, let's assume that everything Attorney General Eric Holder told the House Judiciary Committee yesterday was true.  —  That the answer to several questions about who ordered Fast and Furious — the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives' …

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.

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 …

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.

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 …