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White House could protect middle class from looming tax hikes  —  The White House has the power to temporarily protect taxpayers from middle-class tax hikes even as upper income rates rise if Congress does nothing and all of the Bush-era tax rates expire in January.

Clinton's Countless Choices Hinge on One: 2016  —  You're one of the most famous women on earth, and you're jobless for the first time in decades.  You'd like to make money, but you don't want to rule out running for president.  So what do you do all day?  —  Right now, aides and friends say …

U.S. Senator Protests Climate Talks With Activist Who Believes The UN Is The Anti-Christ  —  Senator James Inhofe (R-OK), the lead Republican on the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, held a climate-denial press conference at the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change on Thursday.

How close did Israel just come to its own Cuban missile crisis?  —  Nov. 17, 2012: Explosion and smoke rise following an Israeli strike in Gaza, seen from the Israel Gaza Border, southern Israel.AP  —  HAIFA, ISRAEL - Hundreds of Iranian-made, long-range missiles already smuggled …

Lagarde: ‘Zero’ U.S. growth without a deal  —  Washington (CNN) — The head of the International Monetary Fund warned that the American economy won't grow next year without a deal on the fiscal cliff.  —  Chistine Lagarde, the managing director of the IMF, spoke to CNN's Candy Crowley on …

GOP Rep. Cole: Take Obama's offer to gain tax cuts for ‘98 percent’  —  Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.) said Sunday that House Republicans should agree to extending tax cuts for the majority of U.S. taxpayers.  —  Speaking on CNN's “State of the Union,” Cole continued to champion his case …

Big Money Bets on a Housing Rebound  —  DAVID N. MILLER, a master of bailouts, steps to the dais and coolly explains how the financial world went crazy.  —  It is February 2010.  The anger behind Occupy Wall Street is building.  Flicking through slides, Mr. Miller, a Treasury official working …

Egyptian opposition remains defiant after Morsi annuls decree  —  CAIRO — Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi early Sunday annulled most of an extraordinary Nov. 22 decree that gave him near-absolute power and has plunged this nation into a deeply divisive political crisis.

Ed Miliband to wage war on George Osborne over benefit cuts  —  Labour set for Commons showdown as church leaders and charities protest at assault on welfare  —  Ed Miliband is to put Labour at the head of a national revolt to kill off the chancellor's latest benefit cuts as church leaders …

Flanking Maneuvers  —  I've been meaning to bring up the following New York Times graphic since it was published last month, as it shows that Republicans are at their highest level of control of state governments in 60 years.  Not bad for a party supposedly in deep trouble and on death's door.

Boustany Jr. tops Landry in La. runoff  —  Rep. Charles Boustany Jr. (La.) defeated fellow Republican Rep. Jeff Landry late Saturday in a runoff, according to the Associated Press, bringing the last outstanding House race of the 2012 cycle to a close.  —  With 85 percent of the precincts reporting …