Disinformation, secrecy, deception: How the Gaza offensive came about  —  Long-term preparation, careful gathering of information, secret discussions, operational deception and the misleading of the public - all these stood behind the Israel Defense Forces “Cast Lead” operation against Hamas targets …

GOP chair ‘appalled’ by ‘Magic Negro’ CD  —  Republican National Committee Chairman Mike Duncan issued a statement Saturday distancing the party's leadership from one of the GOP's best-known operatives, Chip Saltsman, who distributed a CD containing “Barack the Magic Negro” …

The Disaster In Tennessee  —  I'm late to this story, but: what's happening in Tennessee sounds horrific: … This is much bigger than the Exxon Valdez spill.  You can see aerial video here.  I find it disturbing that the amount of fly ash now thought to have been released is over twice …

As a Candidate, Kennedy Is Forceful but Elusive  —  Caroline Kennedy, the woman who would be New York's next senator, is sure of one thing.  Among all the hopefuls seeking to succeed Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, she said on Saturday, there is no better choice.

The Net-Zero Gas Tax  —  A once-in-a-generation chance.  —  Americans have a deep and understandable aversion to gasoline taxes.  In a culture more single-mindedly devoted to individual freedom than any other, tampering with access to the open road is met with visceral opposition.

Bailout of Long-Term Capital: A Bad Precedent?  —  THE financial crisis is a result of many bad decisions, but one of them hasn't received enough attention: the 1998 bailout of the Long-Term Capital Management hedge fund.  If regulators had been less concerned with protecting the fund's creditors …

By Saying Yes, WaMu Built Empire on Shaky Loans  —  “We hope to do to this industry what Wal-Mart did to theirs, Starbucks did to theirs, Costco did to theirs and Lowe's-Home Depot did to their industry.  And I think if we've done our job, five years from now you're not going to call us a bank.”

Caroline Kennedy: ‘Unconventional’  —  In that limited gene pool that has fueled American politics for several decades now - the Kennedy, Clinton and Bush clans - Caroline Kennedy maintains that she represents an “unconventional choice” for the New York Senate seat of Hillary Clinton.

No Furnaces but Heat Aplenty in ‘Passive Houses’  —  DARMSTADT, Germany — From the outside, there is nothing unusual about the stylish new gray and orange row houses in the Kranichstein District, with wreaths on the doors and Christmas lights twinkling through a freezing drizzle.

Samuel Huntington, 81, political scientist, scholar  —  ‘One of the most influential political scientists of the last 50 years’  —  Samuel P. Huntington - a longtime Harvard University professor, an influential political scientist, and mentor to a generation of scholars in widely divergent fields - died Dec. 24 on Martha's Vineyard.