Obama To Congress: Come To A Deal - Or Else  —  Following a meeting with congressional leaders at the White House on Friday, President Obama appeared before the press to urge all parties to take immediate action to reach a deal before a set of major tax increases and spending cuts kick in on Jan. 1.

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 …

A Double Shot of Misunderstanding  —  One of the enduring fantasies of the pundit class - most dramatically demonstrated by the ludicrous Politico piece on What Insiders Know - is that all we need to fix our economic problems is to get the great and the good together and bypass those pesky elected officials.

Kerry, Dems back Markey for Senate  —  Democrats both nationally and in Massachusetts are throwing their support behind Rep. Ed Markey to replace Sen. John Kerry in Massachusetts, hoping to clear the field for him in what could become a crowded Democratic primary.

Oklahoma City-based Hobby Lobby to defy federal law requiring contraception coverage for employees, attorney says  —  Oklahoma City-based Hobby Lobby will defy a federal law that requires employee health care plans to provide insurance coverage for types of contraception that the firm's owners consider to be …

Paintings Outrage Islamic Hard-Liners in Pakistan  —  Pakistan's leading arts college has pushed boundaries before in this conservative nation.  But when a series of paintings depicting Muslim clerics in scenes with strong homosexual overtones sparked an uproar and threats of violence by Islamic extremists, it was too much.

Obama Orders Pay Raise for Biden, Members of Congress, Federal Workers  —  President Barack Obama issued an executive order to end the pay freeze on federal employees, in effect giving some federal workers a raise.  One federal worker now to receive a pay increase is Vice President Joe Biden.

Tea Party Leader: Romney Was ‘The Worst Candidate In History’  —  Tea Party Nation founder Judson Phillips on Thursday disputed that President Obama claimed a mandate in November's election, arguing that his re-election victory came over “the worst candidate in history in Mitt Romney.”

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.

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 …

$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.

Crime Is Up and Bloomberg Blames iPhone Thieves  —  Hold onto your iPhones!  —  Crime in New York City inched up this year, and Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg on Friday fingered the culprit: too many iPhones and iPads were being swiped.  —  A rise in thefts of shiny Apple products accounted …

Brotherhood's Shater seeks ‘total control’ of media: Egypt's opposition group  —  Egypt's opposition group, the Popular Front, said on Wednesday that it had laid hands on a leaked document signed by the Muslim Brotherhood's deputy chairman Khairat al-Shater in which he urged the government to claim “total control of the media.”

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.

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)

Exclusive: David Dewhurst campaign says aide stole at least $600,000  —  Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst (front), receiving an endorsement during his U.S. Senate campaign from former rival Craig James, had hundreds of thousands of dollars stolen from his state political accounts by an aide, his campaign says.