South Carolina Sheriff Refuses To Lower Flag For Mandela  —  Rick Clark, the sheriff of Pickens County, S.C., vowed on Friday to defy President Obama's order that U.S. flags be lowered to half staff in honor of deceased South African leader Nelson Mandela.  —  Clark made his promise …

New York's Junior Senator, Doggedly Refusing to Play the Part  —  WASHINGTON — If there were a chutzpah caucus in the United States Senate, Kirsten Gillibrand of New York would be its natural leader.  —  On a fund-raising swing through Chicago this fall, she told donors to pressure …

Rand Paul Says Wife is Against a 2016 Run  —  There's at least one member of Sen. Rand Paul's family who isn't quite on board just yet with a 2016 run — and that's his wife.  —  After a speech at the Detroit Economic Club today, Paul, a Republican senator from Kentucky …

Obama has shown how a future GOP president can gut Obamacare  —  BARACK OBAMA OBAMACARE REPUBLICAN PARTY  —  I owe Mitt Romney an apology.  —  During the 2012 Republican presidential primary season, I repeatedly criticized Romney — and personally challenged him during his editorial board meeting …

Third Way Op-Ed Writer Says Elizabeth Warren's Backing Of Social Security Plan Was The ‘Final Moment’  —  Jim Kessler, senior vice president for policy and a co-founder of Third Way, said Friday morning that Sen. Elizabeth Warren's (D-Mass.) backing of a plan to expand Social Security compelled …

Those Media Hysterics Who Said Obama's Presidency Was Dead Were Wrong.  Again.  —  It's been a pretty good week for the Obama administration.  The bungled healthcare.gov Web site emerged vastly improved following an intensive fix-it push, allowing some 25,000 to sign up per day, as many as signed up in all of October.

Slowly They Modernize: A Federal Agency That Still Uses Floppy Disks  —  WASHINGTON — The technology troubles that plagued the HealthCare.gov website rollout may not have come as a shock to people who work for certain agencies of the government — especially those who still use floppy disks, the cutting-edge technology of the 1980s.

Charlie Cook: This is one of the most dramatic shifts in a generic congressional ballot I've ever seen  —  Although sales of “Green Eggs and Ham” spiked up, after the 16-day government shutdown in October, the numbers weren't quite as good for the Republican Party at least with the generic congressional ballot polls.

Doctors boycotting California's Obamacare exchange  —  WATCHDOG OBAMACARE CALIFORNIA HEALTH CARE HEALTHCARE.GOV HEALTH CARE EXCHANGES  —  An estimated seven out of every 10 physicians in deep-blue California are rebelling against the state's Obamacare health insurance exchange and won't participate …

U.S. extends permit for eagle deaths  —  Obama administration says some firms can kill eagles to spur green energy investment.  —  CONNECT  —  WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration said Friday it will allow some companies to kill or injure bald and golden eagles for up to 30 years without penalty …

Sarah Palin: ‘Angry atheists’ are trying to ‘abort Christ from Christmas’  —  If Thomas Jefferson were alive today, Sarah Palin said, he would probably go on Fox News to complain about the war on Christmas.  —  The former half-term governor of Alaska and failed vice presidential candidate appeared Thursday …

Carney criticizes report on Sebelius  —  The White House on Friday criticized as misleading a report in POLITICO Magazine claiming that President Barack Obama and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius met just once since the signing of the Affordable Care Act more than three years ago.