The fiscal cliff deal that almost wasn't  —  House Speaker John Boehner couldn't hold back when he spotted Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in the White House lobby last Friday.  —  It was only a few days before the nation would go over the fiscal cliff, no bipartisan agreement was in sight …

Peter King: Halt donations to House GOP  —  New York Republican Rep. Peter King went to war with his Republican colleagues on Wednesday after leaders spiked a Hurricane Sandy relief bill, calling on New Yorkers to stop all donations to GOP House members.  —  “These Republicans have no problem finding …

GOP chair urges support for same-sex marriage  —  Both sides are ramping up their gay marriage arguments in Springfield.  —  View other photograph collections  —  SPRINGFIELD — Illinois Republican Party Chairman Pat Brady of St. Charles is calling GOP lawmakers asking them to support …

New Year, New Dish, New Media  —  When I first stumbled into blogging over 12 years ago, it was for two reasons: curiosity and freedom.  I was curious about the potential for writing in this new medium; and for the first time, I felt total freedom as a writer.  On my little blog, I was beholden to no one but my readers.

Al Jazeera Acquires Current TV  —  Updated Al Jazeera on Wednesday completed a deal to take over Current TV, the low-rated cable channel that was founded by Al Gore and his business partners seven years ago.  —  Current will provide the pan-Arab news giant with something it has sought for years: a pathway into American living rooms.

The Democrats' Coming Civil War  —  The party is poised for a showdown over Social Security and Medicare.  Obama vs. the liberals.  —  Obama and Elizabeth Warren.  —  Image by Mark Wilson / Getty Images  —  For Democrats, there may be few things more entertaining than watching …

That Bad Ceiling Feeling  —  More thoughts about the fiscal deal:  —  One good thing is that the deficit scolds are furious: they had their hearts set on exploiting this crisis to push through benefit cuts, and it didn't happen — part of the larger good news that Obama didn't gut Social Security or Medicare this time around.

Court OKs secret drone opinions  —  The U.S. Government has no legal duty to disclose legal opinions justifying the use of drones to kill suspected terrorist operatives abroad, although doing so would contribute to “intelligent” public debate over the legality of that practice, a federal judge wrote in a ruling issued Wednesday.

Leading Conservative Religious Organization Warns That Christians Will Soon Be Treated Like Blacks In Jim Crow Era  —  The American Family Association, a top conservative Christian organization, emailed members today with a dire warning that, within 50 years, Christians will be treated like African Americans during the Jim Crow era.

‘Gun control’ doesn't survive Christmas  —  Number of mentions of the term “gun control” in the news, according to Nexis.  —  On the day of the Sandy Hook elementary school shooting in Newtown, Conn., we published a chart showing the Sisyphean nature of the national gun control discussion.

Obama Returns to Hawaii at an Added Cost of Over $3 Million  —  In a move that is rich in irony, President Obama agreed Tuesday night to sign an emergency deficit reduction bill that does almost nothing to rein in spending and then jetted out to Hawaii to resume his vacation at an extra cost of more than $3 million to taxpayers.

The Post-Productive Economy  —  Take a look at these farm houses which I saw under construction in remote areas of Yunnan province China.  They were not unusual; farmsteads this size were everywhere in rural China.  Note the scale of these massive buildings.  Each support post is cut from a single huge tree.

Renditions continue under Obama, despite due-process concerns  —  The three European men with Somali roots were arrested on a murky pretext in August as they passed through the small African country of Djibouti.  But the reason soon became clear when they were visited in their jail cells by a succession of American interrogators.

Rep. Davis: ‘...an unemployment check is in the mail’  —  For Rep. Danny K. Davis, Illinois Democrat, the “fiscal cliff” fight came down to one thing: the unemployment checks the government will still be able to send to thousands of his constituents.  —  “When I go to church on Sunday …