THE BREITBART/O'KEEFE-IZATION OF AMERICAN POLITICS, PART MCMLXXVII  —  I haven't been able to watch the Benghazi hearings, but I've checked my Twitter feed, and the lefties who've been watching are 100% convinced that Hillary Clinton has been wiping the floor with the Republicans who are trying to take her down.

Obama Speech Leaves G.O.P. Stark Choices  —  WASHINGTON — President Obama's aggressive Inaugural Address on Monday presented Congressional Republicans with a stark choice over the next two years: accommodate the president's agenda on immigration, guns, energy and social programs and hope …

Joe Biden ‘intoxicated’ by 2016 run  —  Joe Biden summoned more than 200 Democratic insiders to the vice presidential residence Sunday night to chat about the 2012 triumph — but many walked away convinced his rising 2016 ambitions were the real intent of the long, intimate night.

BREAKING NEWS: Military to open combat jobs to women  —  By Chris Lawrence, with reporting from Barbara Starr  —  The U.S. military is ending its policy of excluding women from combat and will open combat jobs and direct combat units to female troops, CNN has learned.

So what if abortion ends life?  —  I believe that life starts at conception.  And it's never stopped me from being pro-choice  —  Of all the diabolically clever moves the anti-choice lobby has ever pulled, surely one of the greatest has been its consistent co-opting of the word “life.”  Life!

Aretha Franklin ‘Really Laughed’ About Beyonce Lip-Sync Controversy  —  Beyonce sings the National Anthem at the inauguration, Jan. 21, 2013.  ; Singer Aretha Franklin performs during the inauguration ceremony for President Obama at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., Jan. 20, 2009.

Contemplating Obama's Place in History, Statistically  —  With President Obama's second term under way, we have begun to see more reflections on how he might come to be regarded historically.  —  As common sense might dictate — and as the statistics will also reveal — it is far too soon to conclude very much about this.

Wayne LaPierre of N.R.A. Has Angry Response to Obama  —  WASHINGTON — Wayne LaPierre, the executive director of the National Rifle Association, angrily accused President Obama on Tuesday of demonizing law-abiding gun owners and of wanting to put “every private personal firearms transaction right under …

Everything You Think You Know About Health Care Spending Is Wrong  —  This is the chart that I think ought to dominate the conversation about public-sector health care spending in the United States, and yet it is curiously ignored.  The data show government health care spending per capita in the United States and Canada.

Sting operations reveal Mafia involvement in renewable energy  —  Marcello Paternostro/AFP/Getty Images - Wind turbines are pictured in the village of Patirnico.  The seizure of a record 1.5 billion euros from a Sicilian businessman known as “Lord of the Wind” on the same day has put …

Sen. Durbin: Democrats lack votes to pass talking filibuster reform  —  Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (Ill.), a leading liberal, said Wednesday Democrats do not have enough votes to implement the talking-filibuster reform.  —  He said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) …

Boehner: Obama's goal is to ‘annihilate’ the Republican Party  —  Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said he believes the primary goal of President Obama's second term is to “annihilate the Republican Party.”  —  “Given what we heard yesterday about the president's vision for his second term …

Release Detail  —  January 23, 2013 - New Jersey Voters Back Christie's Rap On GOP 5-1, Quinnipiac University Poll Finds; Voters Tell Lautenberg To Step Aside  —  Gov. Christopher Christie was right to criticize Congressional Republicans for delaying a vote on Hurricane Sandy relief …

Flawed Diamond  —  A vanity project masquerading as anthropology.  —  Over the decades, academic scholarship, with its jargon and narrowness, has grown both impenetrable and unenlightening to general readers.  Few academics even attempt to look at the big picture or to render their prose intelligible to the public at large.

America's fiscal policy is not in crisis  —  The urgent challenge is to promote economic recovery  —  The US confronts huge challenges, at home and abroad.  Its fiscal position is not one of them.  This is a highly controversial statement.  If one judged by the debate in Washington …

Majority of senators back Keystone XL pipeline  —  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A bipartisan group of more than half the 100-member Senate has urged President Barack Obama to approve the Keystone XL pipeline project, which would connect Canadian oil sands to refineries in Texas.