Newtown Task Force Returns Biden to Gun Control Arena  —  WASHINGTON — Never much known for restraint, Joseph R. Biden Jr. did not hold back during a presidential primary debate in 2007 when a voter asking about gun rights in a recorded video displayed a fearsome-looking semiautomatic rifle and declared, “This is my baby.”

How the fiscal cliff fight will end (unhappily for Republicans) … The word among some Senate Republicans is that a fiscal cliff deal is likely to be struck by Sunday, or Monday at the latest.  (And Monday, being December 31st, is in fact the latest a deal could be struck to avoid January 1 tax increases.)

Obama urging state lawmakers to legalize gay marriage in Illinois: Sun-Times exclusive  —  WASHINGTON—President Barack Obama is urging the Illinois General Assembly to legalize gay marriage in his home state as lawmakers are poised to take up the measure as early as this week in Springfield.

Why the War Party Fears Hagel  —  In the fortnight since Chuck Hagel's name was floated for secretary of defense, we have witnessed Washington at its worst.  —  Who is Chuck Hagel?  —  Born in North Platte, Neb., he was a squad leader in Vietnam, twice wounded, who came home to work …

Senators trade proposals into night to avoid ‘fiscal cliff’  —  Senate negotiators labored late into Saturday over a last-ditch plan to avert the “fiscal cliff,” struggling to resolve key differences over how many wealthy households should face higher income taxes in the new year and how to tax inherited estates.

Deport me?  If America won't change its crazy gun laws... I may deport myself says Piers Morgan  —  I have fired guns only once in my life, on a stag party to the Czech capital Prague a few years ago when part of the itinerary included a trip to an indoor shooting range.

Judge rebuffs feds' secret arguments on no-fly list  —  A federal judge in California has rejected the Obama administration's effort to use secret arguments and evidence to defeat a lawsuit relating to the so-called no-fly list designed to keep suspected terrorists off of airline flights.

Obama picks his favourite photos of himself for 2012 (not that he likes to show off)  —  What with a Presidential election, two severe hurricanes, multiple mass shootings and a fiscal cliff, it has been a busy year for Barack Obama.  —  But at every twist and turn, his decisions …

Woman Accused of Hate-Crime Murder in Subway Push  —  A 31-year-old woman was arrested on Saturday and charged with a hate crime in connection with the death of a man who was pushed onto the tracks of an elevated subway station in Queens and crushed by an oncoming train.

In Congress, relatives lobby on bills before family members  —  In 2007, in the wake of the biggest lobbying scandal in decades, Congress limited the ability of family members to lobby their relatives in the House or Senate.  But it declined to ban the practice entirely.

Dick Armey Defends His $8 Million Deal to Leave FreedomWorks  —  Former House majority leader Dick Armey says he took an $8 million consulting deal in return for leaving the conservative organization FreedomWorks because the group was “dishonest” and because he “couldn't leave with empty pockets.”

Wishful Thinking and Middle-Class Taxes  —  IN the continuing fiscal negotiations between President Obama and House Republicans, both sides have, from the very beginning, agreed on one point: Taxes on the middle class must not rise.  But maybe it's time to reconsider this premise.

On the Economics and Politics of Deficits  —  Evan Soltas of Wonkblog and Joe Weisenthal of Business Insider both make the same point, in more detail, that I tried to make in my series on ONE TRILLION DOLLARS: the current budget deficit is overwhelmingly the result of the depressed economy …