Obama's shutdown critics look like morons after budget deal  —  Guess what, tired Beltway pundits: Obama's successful leadership from October brought an end to GOP hostage-taking  —  Back in August and September, two opposing analytical frameworks dominated the media's coverage of the government shutdown and debt limit hostage crises.

Republicans and Tea Party Activists in ‘Full Scale Civil War’ … Years of growing friction between the Republican Party leaders and its Tea Party faction has erupted into what one conservative said today was “full-scale civil war.”  —  House Speaker John Boehner, whose strategies …

Megyn Kelly: Jesus and Santa were white  —  On Wednesday night Megyn Kelly declared on her Fox News show that both Santa Claus and Jesus were white.  Discussing a piece in Slate by Aisha Harris about a black versus white Santa, Kelly that “just because it makes you feel uncomfortable it doesn't mean it has to change.”

Lie of the Year: ‘If you like your health care plan, you can keep it’  —  It was a catchy political pitch and a chance to calm nerves about his dramatic and complicated plan to bring historic change to America's health insurance system.  —  “If you like your health care plan, you can keep it …

Mother of girl involved in ‘kissing’ discipline speaks out  —  Boy was suspended for two days after second kissing incident  —  The mother of a girl involved in the case of a 6-year-old Cañon City school boy being suspended for a second violation of giving a classmate unwanted kisses …

Health director who approved Obama birth certificate dies in plane crash  —  The health director who approved the release of President Obama's birth certificate has died in a plane crash, Hawaiian officials said Thursday.  —  Loretta Fuddy died after the Cessna Grand Caravan aircraft …

Flirty Obama owes us an apology  —  Maybe he went into sugar shock over a Danish pastry.  —  The president of the United States, leader of the free world, standard-bearer for everything upright, good and wholesome about the nation he leads, lost his morality, his dignity and his mind …

Mandela and the Question of Violence … I have the misfortune of being near the end of Tony Judt's Postwar at a moment when of the great figures of our history, Nelson Mandela, has passed.  Judt's gaze is relentless.  He rejects all grand narratives, skewers Utopianism (mostly in the form of Communism) …

Vermont Is Kicking Everyone's Ass at Signing Up People for Obamacare  —  Which states are doing the best at signing up people for Obamacare?  Business Insider has a state-by-state chart here showing the number of people who have completed the process 100 percent: they've actually chosen …

Unprecedented Austerity  —  As many people have noted, a strange thing has happened on the fiscal policy front.  Intellectually, the case for austerity has pretty much collapsed, having been reduced at this point to the Three Stooges Theory: we're supposed to consider austerity a success …

Michigan Legislature OKs initiative to require insurance rider for abortion coverage  —  LANSING — A controversial initiative requiring women to buy additional insurance if they want abortion coverage in their health insurance plans passed the Legislature Wednesday afternoon and will take effect 90 days …

Obamacare exposes Republican hypocrisy on health care  —  Now that HealthCare.Gov is on a clear path to functionality, Republicans are having to come to terms with the fact that Obamacare will not conveniently collapse before anyone can purchase insurance.  If the law is going to fulfill …

Governors Spoke Privately About Bridge Controversy  —  Chris Christie Complained to Andrew Cuomo That His Appointee Was Pressing too Hard for Answers  —  New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie called New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo this week to complain about a Cuomo appointee's handling of a growing controversy …

Mandela memorial interpreter asks forgiveness, calls himself champion  —  Johannesburg (CNN) — The sign language interpreter widely ridiculed for his performance at the Nelson Mandela memorial stands by his work.  —  Thamsanqa Jantjie said Thursday that he is a fully qualified interpreter …