Harkin: Health deal was reached days before Brown's Senate victory  —  Sen. Tom Harkin, the chairman of the Senate Health Committee, said negotiators from the White House, Senate and House reached a final deal on healthcare reform days before Scott Brown's victory in Massachusetts.

Tea Partiers aim to remake local GOP  —  A year ago, when the Tea Party movement first stirred to life, it had to shout to be noticed, with big public rallies that drew thousands of conservatives to places like Fountain Square and VOA Park in West Chester - citizens angry about government bailouts …

UN climate change panel based claims on student dissertation and magazine article  —  The United Nations' expert panel on climate change based claims about ice disappearing from the world's mountain tops on a student's dissertation and an article in a mountaineering magazine.

The State of the Union Is Comatose  —  HANDS down, the State of the Union's big moment was Barack Obama's direct hit on the delicate sensibilities of the Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito.  The president was right to blast the 5-to-4 decision giving corporate interests an even greater stranglehold …

How to Reform Our Financial System  —  PRESIDENT OBAMA 10 days ago set out one important element in the needed structural reform of the financial system.  No one can reasonably contest the need for such reform, in the United States and in other countries as well.

Rep. Hensarling fires back at Obama in the rumble over deficits  —  Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas), who got President Barack Obama a bit miffed during the question-and-answer session after his address to the House GOP retreat Friday, fired back Saturday evening after the conclusion of the Baltimore conference.

Bayh could oppose budget's terror trial fund  —  Sen. Evan Bayh (D-Ind.) on Sunday signaled he might not support the White House's proposed $200 million fund to help cities defray the costs of hosting domestic terror trials.  —  “It's hard to justify spending more money,” Bayh told Fox News Sunday …

Terrorists ‘plan attack on Britain with bombs INSIDE their bodies’ to foil new airport scanners  —  Britain is facing a new Al Qaeda terror threat from suicide ‘body bombers’ with explosives surgically inserted inside them.  —  Until now, terrorists have attacked airlines …

China's strident tone raises concerns among Western governments, analysts  —  China's indignant reaction to the announcement of U.S. plans to sell weapons to Taiwan appears to be in keeping with a new triumphalist attitude from Beijing that is worrying governments and analysts across the globe.

Alexander: Blame for debt-reduction panel's defeat also rests with president  —  Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) on Sunday fired back at the president's remark last week that Republican politicking was to blame for the defeat of the debt-commission proposal in the Senate.

CAP: New Yorkers are wussies  —  Does the Center for American Progress want to alienate New York while the Obama-Pelosi progressive legislative agenda drowns in popular discontent?  Ken Gude, an associate director at CAP for its International Rights and Responsibility Program …

A crisis averted in Iraq?  —  I wrote here about the disturbing prospect that the disqualification of hundreds of Sunni candidates in the unpcoming Iraqi elections would degrade those elections and perhaps prompt a surge of sectarian violence.  But now, as Max Boot reports based on statements …

Pentagon starts clock on lifting gay ban  —  WASHINGTON — The Defense Department starts the clock next week on what is expected to be a several-year process in lifting its ban on gays from serving openly in the military.  —  A special investigation into how the ban can be repealed without hurting …