GOP will paralyze Senate floor with reading of 1,924-page spending bill  —  Republicans will paralyze the Senate floor for 50 hours by forcing clerks to read every single paragraph of the 1,924-page, $1.1 trillion omnibus spending bill.  —  Senate clerks are expected to read the massive bill …

House tax vote could be delayed  —  A final House vote on President Obama's tax proposal could be delayed after Democratic leaders were forced to pull a procedural measure off the House floor Thursday.  —  The House was set to vote on the rule governing debate on the broad tax bill …

Mao's Great Leap to Famine  —  HONG KONG — The worst catastrophe in China's history, and one of the worst anywhere, was the Great Famine of 1958 to 1962, and to this day the ruling Communist Party has not fully acknowledged the degree to which it was a direct result of the forcible herding …

U.S. Tries to Build Case for Conspiracy by WikiLeaks  —  WASHINGTON — Federal prosecutors, seeking to build a case against the WikiLeaks leader Julian Assange for his role in a huge dissemination of classified government documents, are looking for evidence of any collusion in his early contacts …

The Daily Beast Has Stopped Editing Meghan McCain  —  Meghan McCain is the illiterate daughter of a ruined man, which makes her “column” for the Daily Beast something of a challenge for her editors.  But by the looks of today's offering, they've given up.  —  Were you wondering what McCain thinks …

Could there be a Tet Offensive in Afghanistan?  —  Once when the French statesman Duc de Richelieu (1766-1822) was planning a military campaign, an officer placed a finger on a map, saying: “We shall cross the river at this point.”  Richelieu replied: “Excellent, sir, but your finger is not a bridge.”

The Crying Game  —  We've had to adjust to so many strange developments lately.  I'm sure we'll get used to having a speaker of the House who weeps a lot.  —  That would be John Boehner, the new guy.  —  “He is known to cry,” the outgoing speaker, Nancy Pelosi, told Deborah Solomon in The Times Magazine.

The Strange Case for Mitt Romney  —  David Frum, puzzling over the inconsistencies in Mitt Romney's recent op-ed attacking the tax deal: … I hear similar things from Romney supporters (or people trying to convince themselves to be Romney supporters) with remarkable frequency.

Where Freedom Goes to Die: The Center for Science in the Public Interest  —  I find it deeply disturbing that such a lawsuit was even contemplated in my country, even if it is likely to be thrown out on appeal: … One shudders to consider that when Patrick Henry stood up in St. John's Church and declared …

First Thoughts: As bad as it gets?  —  New NBC/WSJ poll: If this is as bad as it gets for Obama, he's in good shape for 2012... If not, watch out... What's benefiting the president right now: a strong base and the fact the public finds him likeable... Palin's poor poll position …

Liberals cut down to size  —  Enough!  —  You can have your own politics, my liberal friends, you aren't entitled to your own facts.  And your claims about the Obama/GOP tax deal are pure, fact-free fantasy.  —  Yesterday morning I endured watching a fertilizer-filled conversation on Fox 25 …

Warning: ‘Greater Exposure’ To Fox News Will Lead To ‘Increased Misinformation’ On Policy Issues  —  Last week, World Public Opinion (WPO) released a poll exploring political information in a post-Citizens United national election and found that 90 percent of voters “said that in the 2010 election …

Orszag and Citigroup  —  James Fallows gently chides me and my paper for not writing more on Peter Orszag's decision to take an executive position with Citigroup.  He's probably right to do so, though my silence was in part motivated by terror at having to try and add anything to this brilliant post …

Health judge fears ‘broccoli’ mandate  —  PENSACOLA, Fla. — In a federal courtroom Thursday, Judge Roger Vinson questioned how far Congress's authority would go if it can legally require nearly all Americans to purchase health insurance.  —  Could they “mandate everybody has to buy a certain amount of broccoli?”

GOP looks to box in Obama on $1.1 trillion government spending bill  —  Republicans are trying to box President Obama in on congressional Democrats' $1.1 trillion spending bill by dredging up the president's past statements.  —  The GOP is pointing to the president's previous remarks …

Two Californias  —  The last three weeks I have traveled about, taking the pulse of the more forgotten areas of central California.  I wanted to witness, even if superficially, what is happening to a state that has the highest sales and income taxes, the most lavish entitlements …

Freshman Democrats Want Filibuster Reform in January  —  Before heading into a caucus meeting, Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) and Sen. Tom Udall (D-N.M.) briefed reporters today on ideas for introducing a “constitutional option” to reform the Senate in the next session of Congress.

Barbra Streisand glad Hillary not first female president: They'd have ‘blamed her gender’ for economic crisis  —  On Wednesday's broadcast of “Larry King Live” on CNN, the second-to-final show for host Larry King, singer Barbra Streisand explained why she left the country during November's midterm.