Holiday Cheer Gives Way to Final Primary Push in Iowa  —  DES MOINES — After a 48-hour lull for Christmas, the Democratic and Republican presidential campaigns roared back to life on Wednesday with a barrage of new advertisements, closing campaign arguments and more than a few attacks …

Many Retirees May Lose Benefits From Employers  —  WASHINGTON — The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said Wednesday that employers could reduce or eliminate health benefits for retirees when they turn 65 and become eligible for Medicare.  —  The policy, set forth in a new regulation …

Solar cheaper than coal and falling  —  Let me be the last in the greenosphere to note that Nanosolar has shipped its first panels, and it's no exaggeration to say that this moment will likely be seen as a historical turning point.  —  For a taste of the breathless anticipation around Nanosolar …

Praise for Liberal Fascism  —  Charles Murray declares: “'It is my argument that American liberalism is a totalitarian political religion,' Jonah Goldberg writes near the beginning of Liberal Fascism.  My first reaction was that he is engaging in partisan hyperbole.  That turned out to be wrong.

Tsunami aid ‘spent on politics’  —  THREE years after Australians donated $400 million to rebuild Asian lives devastated by the 2004 tsunami, aid groups are under attack for spending much of the money on social and political engineering.  —  A survey by The Australian of the contributions …

Andrew Sullivan: Tenaciously Behind the Curve  —  Via Memeorandum, I discovered that Andrew Sullivan is recommending the equally clueless Juan Cole's “Top Ten Myths about Iraq 2007″: … Sullivan then quotes Cole: “Among the primary effects of the ‘surge’ has been to turn Baghdad …

Best of the Web  —  Today's Video on WSJ.com: Filmmakers Maureen and James Tusty tell James Freeman about Estonia's “singing revolution. “  —  Phony Libertarian  —  Rep. Ron Paul, by far the most popular sideshow act in the 2008 presidential circus, is supposedly a libertarian.

Diversity Training Backfires  —  Employers pay a lot of money for diversity training and sexual harassment training, but often the training backfires and blows up in the face of the employer that paid for it.  In Hartman v. Pena (1995), the Federal Aviation Administration got sued …

Exclusive - Bill Clinton: “We Need To Stay in Iraq to Protect the Kurds From The Turks”  —  This is America's nightmare.  —  Just before Christmas, Turkish warplanes (F-16s made in the USA) and helicopter gunships bombed 200 Kurdish targets in northern Iraq, killing 150 people …

Huckabee still gives paid speeches  —  Breaking with tradition for presidential candidates, Mike Huckabee is continuing to accept paid speaking engagements in the thick of his insurgent presidential campaign, although churches get a break from his usual fee of up to $25,000.

The Greatest Story Not Being Told  —  The introduction to 1968: The Year That Rocked The World, by Mark Kurlansky, contains the following passage describing the breadth of the cultural chasm between Boomers and their parents (page xix, emphasis mine): … Yesterday, I gave that book to my father for Christmas.

A Thank You Letter  —  [Web Administrator's Note: The following letter and photograph was sent to Michael Yon from LTC Jim Crider, the commander of the 1-4 CAV soldiers based at FOB Falcon whose progress reports have recently been published on this site.]  —  Thank You, America.

Senate meets briefly to block Bush  —  WASHINGTON - The House was quiet as a mouse the day after Christmas.  But across the Capitol, the Senate was operating in an unusually efficient manner in its ongoing power struggle with President Bush.  —  A nine-second session gaveled in and out by Sen. Jim Webb …