Leading proponent of filibuster reform claims he has 51 votes  —  Sen. Tom Udall (D-N.M.), a leading proponent of filibuster reform, said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (Nev.) has the 51 votes he needs to change Senate rules with the “nuclear option.”  —  The maneuver would be controversial …

Why not let taxes rise on the middle class?  —  Barring a last-minute breakthrough, taxes will go up for every American taxpayer on Jan. 1 — and that's a development conservatives should welcome.  —  Don't get me wrong, it would be better not to raise taxes on anyone …

ASPCA Pays $9.3 Million in Landmark Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus Settlement  —  Feld Entertainment RICO Lawsuit Will Continue against the Humane Society of the United States, the lawyers, and other remaining defendants  —  Feld Entertainment, Inc., the producer of Ringling Bros …

Woman Dies After a Gang Rape That Galvanized India  —  NEW DELHI — A young woman who had been in critical condition since she was raped two weeks ago by a group of men who lured her onto a bus here died early Saturday, an official at the hospital in Singapore that was caring for her said.

Should People Be Forced to Buy Liability Insurance for their Guns?  —  The latest gun-control idea is forcing owners to buy liability insurance.  That may help a few victims, but it won't stop crime, writes Megan McArdle.  —  Novel gun control ideas continue to percolate through the commentariat.

French Court Says 75% Tax Rate on Rich Is Unconstitutional  —  President Francois Hollande's 75 percent millionaire-tax is unconstitutional because it fails to guarantee taxpayer equality, France's top court ruled today.  —  The tax, one of Hollande's campaign promises …

California gun sales jump; gun injuries, deaths fall  —  Gun deaths and injuries have dropped sharply in California, even as the number of guns sold in the state has risen, according to new state data.  —  Dealers sold 600,000 guns in California last year, up from 350,000 in 2002 …

The Liberal God Delusion  —  Our government has been hijacked by a party obsessed with a higher power.  But I'm not talking about the GOP.  I'm talking about the left and their worship of government.  —  As Washington staggers into a new year, one side of the political spectrum polarizes …

There's Only One Way To Fix The Deficit — And Actually It's Totally Painless  —  People who insist that the US has a gigantic “spending problem” are ignorant of what really drives the deficit and the national debt, as Henry Blodget easily demonstrated in a series of charts.

$60B Sandy aid package clears Senate  —  A $60.4 billion Hurricane Sandy disaster aid package cleared the Senate Friday evening after Democrats beat back a Republican alternative promising less than half the funding and focused more narrowly on the immediate needs over the next three months.

The Human Casualties of the War on Drugs  —  Let's stop humoring ourselves, says the filmmaker Eugene Jarecki — America can no longer afford to keep millions of its citizens locked away.  Now he's taking his law-and-order documentary on the road.  —  Jarecki in 2006.  (Seth Wenig/Reuters)

GOP and Feinstein join to fulfill Obama's demand for renewed warrantless eavesdropping |  Glenn Greenwald  —  The California Democrat's disgusting rhetoric recalls the worst of Dick Cheney while advancing Obama's agenda  —  To this day, many people identify mid-2008 as the time they realized …

How polarisation in Washington affects a growing feeling of partisanship |  Harry J Enten  —  Legislators may no longer feel they have reason to play to the middle making Washington seem more divided than ever  —  “Can a divided House stand?” is a question that Nate Silver posed in a blogpost Thursday.