Club for Growth will punish members voting for Sandy flood aid  —  The conservative Club for Growth said Friday that it will punish House members who voted for a flood insurance measure aimed at helping pay for Hurricane Sandy's damage.  —  The Club will “key-vote” the measure, using it to compile an annual rating for each lawmaker.

Barney Frank: I want to be senator  —  Barney Frank, one day out of Congress, said on Friday that he has asked Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick to send him back as an interim senator when Sen. John Kerry becomes secretary of state.  —  “A month ago, or a few weeks ago, I said I wasn't interested,” Frank said on MSNBC's “Morning Joe.”

No, a $1 Trillion Platinum Coin is Not Legal  —  For some reason, the possibility of evading the debt ceiling by minting a $1 trillion platinum coin is getting some blogospheric love again.  This is based on a 2000 revision to the U.S. statute on money and finance that reads:

Former NRA President Equates Gun Laws With Racism  —  Those looking for moderation and sensitivity in the gun control debate probably, by this point, know better than to look to the National Rifle Association.  —  But even by the standards of what we've heard from the NRA recently …

Gore Went to Bat for Al Jazeera, and Himself  —  Al Gore at the Current TV studios in San Francisco in 2005.  He said Al Jazeera's coverage was “thorough, fair and informative.”  —  Al Gore's Current TV was never popular with viewers, but it was a hit where it counted: with cable and satellite providers.

Nancy Pelosi defends photoshopped picture of congresswomen  —  WASHINGTON (AP) — House minority leader Nancy Pelosi on Friday defended an altered picture of Democratic congresswomen that was posted on her Flickr photo-sharing site.  —  The photo showed four members who were not in the original picture …

House rules aim to block controversial healthcare board's Medicare cuts  —  House Republicans signaled Thursday they will not follow rules in President Obama's healthcare law that were designed to speed Medicare cuts through Congress.  —  The House is set to vote Thursday afternoon on rules for the 113th Congress.

Hope and less change: Americans cringe at first paychecks of 2013; Stunned lib asks, ‘What happened?’  —  Happy New Year and happy payday!  Thank goodness our “lord and savior” Obama signed the fiscal cliff bill into law after proudly proclaiming, “Under this law, more than 98 percent …

Leading Environmental Activist's Blunt Confession: I Was Completely Wrong To Oppose GMOs  —  Anti-Monsanto activists in Germany in 2009  —  If you fear genetically modified food, you may have Mark Lynas to thank.  By his own reckoning, British environmentalist helped spur the anti-GMO movement …

Eighty-Six Minutes of Joe Biden Being Incredible  —  I only spent a little time today watching Vice President Biden conduct ceremonial (read: photo-op) swearings-in for the 34 senators taking office today.  My mistake: As the viral video wizards quickly proved, it was a movie-length event …

Workers making $30,000 will take a bigger hit on their pay than those earning $500,000 under new fiscal deal  —  Middle-class workers will take a bigger hit to their income proportionately than those earning between $200,000 and $500,000 under the new fiscal cliff deal, according to the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center.

Republican Congressman Claims Hammers Could Be Outlawed Under Assault Weapons Ban  —  A Republican congressman lambasted the push for gun control in the wake of the Sandy Hook massacre, stating on Friday that if lawmakers wanted to ban assault weapons, they would have to outlaw “hammers” and “machetes” as well.

Final Tally Shows Obama First Since '56 to Win 51% Twice  —  Eight weeks after the Nov. 6 presidential election, a revised vote count in New York shows that Barack Obama is the first president in more than five decades to win at least 51 percent of the vote twice.

Library of Congress has archive of tweets, but no plan for its public display  —  In the few minutes it will take you to read this story, some 3 million new tweets will have flitted across the publishing platform Twitter and ricocheted across the Internet.  The Library of Congress is busy archiving …

New Jersey's Cory Booker Problem  —  The Newark Mayor's decision to run for Senate has offended Lautenberg, and frustrated the state's Democratic party.  “I'm not angry, I'm disappointed.”  —  Newark, N.J. Mayor Cory Booker  —  Image by Max Morse / Getty Images

Return of the real Obama  —  The rout was complete, the retreat disorderly.  President Obama got his tax hikes — naked of spending cuts — passed by the ostensibly Republican House of Representatives.  After which, you might expect him to pivot to his self-proclaimed “principle” of fiscal …

Post-Newtown, 70 Percent Say Hollywood Shows Too Much Violence (Poll)  —  The Hollywood Reporter and pollster Penn Schoen Berland asked consumers of movies and television how their views on depictions of violence were affected by the Dec. 14 shooting in Connecticut.