Fiscal cliff: Major progress toward deal  —  Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Vice President Joe Biden engaged in furious overnight negotiations to avert the fiscal cliff and made major progress toward a year-end tax deal, giving sudden hope to high-stakes talks …

8 People Who Thought Hillary Clinton Was Faking Her Concussion  —  The Secretary of State was hospitalized Sunday night with a blood clot.  —  Former U.S. U.N. spokesman Richard Grenell  —  Via: @RichardGrenell  —  The New York Post  —  Via: nypost.com

Let's Give Up on the Constitution  —  AS the nation teeters at the edge of fiscal chaos, observers are reaching the conclusion that the American system of government is broken.  But almost no one blames the culprit: our insistence on obedience to the Constitution, with all its archaic, idiosyncratic and downright evil provisions.

The Republican Party in one tweet  —  This is pretty much the Republican Party in one tweet:  —  Today's Republican Party thinks the key problem America faces is out-of-control entitlement spending.  But cutting entitlement spending is unpopular and the GOP's coalition relies heavily on seniors.

Greenwich Village couple busted with cache of weapons, bombmaking explosives: sources  —  The privileged daughter of a prominent city doctor, and her boyfriend — a Harvard grad and Occupy Wall Street activist — have been busted for allegedly having a cache of weapons and a bombmaking explosive in their Greenwich Village apartment.

Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama Most Admired in 2012  —  Clinton has been Most Admired more than any other woman in Gallup's history  —  PRINCETON, NJ — Americans again this year name Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and President Barack Obama as the Most Admired Woman and Most Admired Man living in any part of the world.

Brewing Up Confusion  —  Howard Schultz, the C.E.O. of Starbucks, has a reputation as a good guy, a man who supports worthy causes.  And he presumably thought he would add to that reputation when he posted an open letter urging his employees to promote fiscal bipartisanship by writing “Come together” on coffee cups.

Militants can marry Syrian women: Wahhabi cleric in Saudi Arabia  —  A hard-line Wahhabi cleric in Saudi Arabia has recently issued a special religious decree that permits the militants in Syria to engage in short-term marriages with Syrian women.  —  Sheikh Mohammed al-Arifi …