I Hope This Isn't True  —  Ezra Klein says that the shape of a fiscal cliff deal is clear: only a 37 percent rate on top incomes, and a rise in the Medicare eligibility age.  —  I'm going to cross my fingers and hope that this is just a case of creeping Broderism, that it's a VSP fantasy …

Charlie Crist signs papers to become a Democrat  —  It was just a matter of time.  Charlie Crist is becoming a Democrat.  —  Crist — Florida's former Republican governor who relished the tough-on-crime nickname “Chain Gang Charlie” and used to describe himself variously as a …

Psy Apologizes for Anti-American Performances  —  ‘I will forever be sorry for any pain I have caused anyone by those words,’ says South Korean singer  —  “Gangnam Style” singer Psy issued an apology Friday in reponse to widespread reports about his participation in two anti-American concerts a decade ago in his native South Korea.

Supreme Court to Take Up Gay Marriage  —  WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court announced on Friday that it would enter the national debate over same-sex marriage, agreeing to hear a pair of cases challenging state and federal laws that define marriage to include only unions of a man and a woman.

Catcher in the Rye dropped from US school curriculum  —  Schools in America are to drop classic books such as Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird and JD Salinger's Catcher in the Rye from their curriculum in favour of ‘informational texts’.  —  JD Salinger's novel Catcher in the Rye …

Special Report: From abuse to a chat room, a martyr is made - Jane's Jihad  —  (Reuters) - “Kill him.”  —  The American who called herself Jihad Jane read the words on her computer screen.  Colleen LaRose was fiddling on the Internet, passing time in her duplex near Philadelphia …

New Anti-Islam Ads to Debut This Month, Now With 25% More MTA Disclaimer  —  Pamela Geller is at it again.  —  The outspoken blogger and Executive Director of the American Freedom Defense Initiative has just purchased a slew of advertising space in several subway stations …

Press fear Obama private swearing in  —  The White House Correspondents Association is strongly urging the Obama administration to allow press access to the president's official swearing-in ceremony on Jan. 20, following indications from inauguration committee officials that the event could potentially be closed to the press.

Maher: Send Koch bros a ‘f—k you’  —  Bill Maher blogged on Friday that President Barack Obama should use a fiscal cliff deal as a “personal f—k you” to the Koch brothers by doing something about global warming.  —  In a post Friday, Maher wrote: “Since we're looking for new revenue streams …

Legislators Hope To Slip Farm Subsidies And Food Stamps Into Fiscal Cliff Deal  —  Agriculture Committee chairs from both chambers work out their differences in private.  Easy spending cuts and deep ideological differences in Farm Bill talks.  —  Image by Iowa Farm Bureau, Gary Fandel / AP

Mayan apocalypse: panic spreads as December 21 nears  —  Fears that the end of the world is nigh have spread across the world with only days until the end of the Mayan calendar, with doomsday-mongers predicting a cataclysmic end to the history of Earth.  —  Cubans participate in a Mayan ritual at Bacuranao beach in eastern Havana.

Obama committee to accept corporate cash for January inauguration in Washington  —  President Obama's inaugural committee will accept corporate donations this time around, reversing a policy from four years ago banning such contributions, a spokeswoman said Friday.