White House drops support for major Medicaid cut  —  The Obama administration backed away Monday from roughly $100 billion in Medicaid savings it had proposed during deficit-reduction talks earlier this year.  —  The move comes as liberals have pressed the White House to take Medicaid off …

GOP mute as Supreme Court tackles gay marriage  —  House Republican leaders had a uniform response to the Supreme Court's decision to take up gay marriage: Silence.  —  The high court's decision last week to hear two cases relating to same-sex marriage puts that issue at the center of the national debate.

Government Shutdown Watch  —  I wanted to quickly follow up on that Mother of All Government Shutdowns on deck for February(ish).  As noted earlier, the President says he will not allow another round of debt limit hostage taking.  It's been ambiguous to me just what the President means by this.

Two Cheers for Zero Dark Thirty's Torture Scenes  —  One scene features a bloodied, disoriented and humiliated man is strapped to a wall with his pants around his ankles.  A second scene depicts the same man having liquid forcibly poured down his throat; later, he's shoved into a box that could barely hold your stereo.