Senate Republicans Threaten Tax Dispute Blockade  —  WASHINGTON — Not even 24 hours after President Obama met with senior Republican Congressional leaders and expressed hopes for a “new dialogue,” renewed partisan fury engulfed the Senate on Wednesday, as Republicans threatened to block …

Fed wants to strip a key protection for homeowners  —  WASHINGTON — As Americans continue to lose their homes in record numbers, the Federal Reserve is considering making it much harder for homeowners to stop foreclosures and escape predatory home loans with onerous terms.

Diplomats Noted Canadian Mistrust Toward U.S.  —  WASHINGTON — In early 2008, American diplomats stationed in Ottawa turned on their television sets and were aghast: there was an “onslaught” of Canadian shows depicting “nefarious American officials carrying out equally nefarious deeds in Canada …

It took a guy to do this?  House Speaker-elect John Boehner orders a change to benefit just 71 members  —  For some reason it took a male Speaker of the House to accomplish this:  —  The nearly six dozen female members of the incoming House of Representatives will have a new restroom …

GOP to upend spending process  —  House Republicans seem intent on blowing up the staid appropriations process when they take power in January — potentially upending the old bulls in both parties who have spent decades building their power over the federal budget.

How Lieberman Got Amazon To Drop Wikileaks  —  Early this week, after hacker attacks on its site, Wikileaks moved its operation, including all those diplomatic cables, to the greener pastures of Amazon.com's cloud servers.  But today, it was down again and mid-afternoon we found out the reason …

Obama and GOPers Worked Together to Kill Bush Torture Probe  —  A WikiLeaks cable shows that when Spain considered a criminal case against ex-Bush officials, the Obama White House and Republicans got really bipartisan.  —  Post Comment  —  In its first months in office …

The Dickishness Of The GOP  —  What we've observed these past two years is a political party that knows nothing but scorched earth tactics, cannot begin to see any merits in the other party's arguments, refuses to compromise one inch on anything, and has sought from the very beginning to do nothing but destroy the Obama presidency.

House GOP leadership cancels Pelosi's committee on global warming  —  Why not?  It was a vehicle for passing cap-and-trade, and the cap-and-trade bill is now so dead that it's literally being used for target practice by centrist Democrats.  If Boehner announced the formation of a new committee …

EXCLUSIVE: Controversial Drug Given to All Guantanamo Detainees Akin to “Pharmacologic Waterboarding”  —  The Defense Department forced all “war on terror” detainees at the Guantanamo Bay prison to take a high dosage of a controversial antimalarial drug, mefloquine, an act …

GOP Will Retain House Control in 2012 — Guaranteed.  —  Control of the House of Representatives after the 2012 elections will still belong to the Republicans.  IF Barack Obama stages a political comeback (which is certianly within the realm of possibility), Democrats will start the presidential coattails drumbeat.

Nigeria to Charge Dick Cheney in Pipeline Bribery Case  —  Dec. 1 (Bloomberg) — Nigeria will file charges against former U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney and officials from five foreign companies including Halliburton Co. over a $180 million bribery scandal, a prosecutor at the anti-graft agency said.

County Recorder in Massachusetts Goes After MERS  —  This is one of those mind-blowing days, one I don't feel like I have much of a grip on.  But with all the despair with the federal government, the power structure that protects the banks at all costs, etc., it's worth looking at some potential good news for a change.

Palin, I knew Reagan.  You're no Reagan.  —  Editor's note: Ed Rollins, a senior political contributor for CNN, is senior presidential fellow at the Kalikow Center for the Study of the American Presidency at Hofstra University.  He is a principal with the Dilenschneider Group, a global public relations firm.

Cuba travel ban won't be lifted this year  —  Legislation eliminating a longstanding travel ban to Cuba is dead in this Congress, several senior Democrats said this week.  —  Rep. Bill Delahunt (D-Mass.), a strong backer of lifting the ban, called it “absurd” that Congress would maintain restrictions …

Civil Unions Advance in Illinois  —  CHICAGO — Illinois lawmakers on Wednesday approved legislation allowing civil unions in this state, and the governor has indicated he will sign it, making Illinois one of only a handful of states to grant to same-sex couples a broad array of legal rights …

Judicial Watch Obtains Documents from Obama Administration Detailing Actor Andy Griffith's “Misleading” Medicare Advertisements  —  Obama Administration Spent $3,184,000 in Taxpayer Dollars on Advertising Program Deemed “Misleading” by Non-Partisan FactCheck.org

Hangover theory and morality plays  —  My recent fit over the technocratic style in American economics was the excrescence of a long-standing complaint.  The very first time I made that complaint was in a piece arguing that Paul Krugman's dismissal of Austrian-ish “hangover theory” was overhasty.