A Powerful Rebuke of Mass Surveillance  —  For the first time since the revelation of the National Security Agency's vast dragnet of all Americans' telephone records, a federal court has ruled that such surveillance is “significantly likely” to be unconstitutional.

Next Obamacare crisis: Small-business costs?  —  Think the canceled health policies hurt the Obamacare cause?  There's another political time bomb lurking that could explode not too long before next year's elections: rate hikes for small businesses.  —  Like the canceled individual health plans …

‘This Is the End of the Presidency’  —  Tracking the same horrible second-term path as Bush, can Obama learn from the past?  —  Claiming a mandate he never had, the newly reelected president foisted a bold agenda upon Congress and the public, then watched it collapse within months …

Why 60 Minutes Tanked the NSA Story: The Producers Theory  —  It'll be a good 30 years until I can start collecting Social Security checks, and I can't say where I was when JFK was shot, so I'm not really in 60 Minutes' target audience.  * Other reporters, who have closely covered the NSA story …

Senate poised to approve budget  —  The Senate is poised to approve the two-year budget deal on Tuesday, but the tally is not expected to match the landslide in the House.  —  The bill, which sets top-line spending levels for 2014 and 2015, is on track to just barely get the 60 votes it needs to clear the upper chamber.

Obama suffers most from year of turmoil, poll finds  —  President Obama is ending his fifth year in office matching the worst public approval ratings of his presidency, with record numbers of Americans saying they disapprove of his job performance and his once-hefty advantages over Republicans …

Release Detail  —  December 17, 2013 - Iowa Gov's Approval, Reelection Prospects Improve, Quinnipiac University Poll Finds; Christie Tops Clinton By 5 Points In 2016 Race  —  Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad's reelection prospects are improving as voters approve 58 - 32 percent of the job he is doing …

Of Jane Fonda and Pope Francis  —  The pontiff understands the power of moral example.  Today's liberal high priests do not.  —  In the same week that Pope Francis was named Time's Person of the Year, word arrived of the charitable contributions made by the Jane Fonda Foundation.

George Zimmerman is selling his original artwork on eBay  —  SANFORD —  It appears George Zimmerman has turned to painting, and is selling his own, original artwork on eBay not one week after prosecutors dropped domestic violence charges against him.  —  Now the painting has a bid of almost $100,000.

Fox News Remains Ratings Champ As 2013 Comes to Close  —  It and rivals CNN, MSNBC down from last year  —  Fox News Channel maintained its grip on the cable-news network ratings prize in 2013, drawing more viewers than the combined averages of CNN, MSNBC and HLN.

Shia LaBeouf Apologizes After Plagiarizing Artist Daniel Clowes For His New Short Film  —  UPDATED: The similarities between LaBeouf's HowardCantour.com and Clowes' Justin M. Damiano are astounding.  “In my excitement and naiveté as an amateur filmmaker, I got lost in the creative process …

How Washington starves its election watchdog  —  FEC hamstrung by political bickering, case backlogs, staff departures — even Chinese hackers  —  Just after the federal government shut down Oct. 1, and one of the government's more dysfunctional agencies stopped functioning altogether, Chinese hackers picked their moment to attack.

Is A Big Chill On the Way?  —  As Steve noted a little while ago, the Northern states have been in a deep freeze for a while now.  The Minneapolis Star Tribune reports that northern Minnesota hasn't had a six-day stretch colder than the one the state has just suffered through since the Nixon administration, 1972.