Why Is Obama Caving on Taxes?  —  The discouraging thing about the “fiscal cliff” negotiations is not that they have gone into the eleventh hour, or that they may go into the new year, or even that they won't resolve the long-term budget deficit.  It's that President Obama has retreated on his hard line on taxes.

Clinton Injured, US Navy Seal Killed In Secret US Mission To Iran  —  A new Foreign Military Intelligence (GRU) report circulating in the Kremlin today is saying that United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton [photo 2nd right] was injured, and a top US Navy Seal Commander killed …

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.

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.

Obama's wrong: This ‘cliff’ deal still raises taxes on the middle class  —  This afternoon, President Obama spoke while surrounded by an ad hoc group of “middle-class Americans” who he promised would be protected from tax hikes by the 11th-hour “fiscal cliff” proposal.  That's not what's going to happen.

Political commentator Sean Hannity was one of the big losers in the 2012 election  —  The right-wing Fox News host lost half his audience in the weeks after Obama's win  —  Fox News Channel host Sean Hannity had predicted President Obama would lose in a landslide.

How the ‘Dairy Cliff’ Will Cream Consumers  —  Got milk?  Enjoy the price you paid, because federal policy, reaching its sell-by date, will have dire results.  —  If the price of milk zooms up shortly after Jan. 1, the increase will come courtesy of a venal and feckless U.S. Congress.

Barney Frank Opposes Chuck Hagel For Defense Secretary  —  “I cannot think of any other minority group in the U.S. today where such a negative statement and action made in 1998 would not be an obstacle to a major Presidential appointment,” Barney Frank says.  —  Image by J. Scott Applewhite / AP