Paul leads in Iowa  —  Newt Gingrich's campaign is rapidly imploding, and Ron Paul has now taken the lead in Iowa.  He's at 23% to 20% for Mitt Romney, 14% for Gingrich, 10% each for Rick Santorum, Michele Bachmann, and Rick Perry, 4% for Jon Huntsman, and 2% for Gary Johnson.

First Thoughts: Here we go again  —  Here we go again: Boehner and House Republicans walk away from payroll tax cut compromise... Boehner's move either represents a miscommunication with McConnell and Senate GOP leaders, or a reversal... Two weeks to go until Iowa, and the race looks like it did on Friday …

Kim Jong-il, North Korean Dictator, Dies Suddenly  —  SEOUL, South Korea — Kim Jong-il, the North Korean leader who realized his family's dream of turning his starving, isolated country into a nuclear-weapons power even as it sank further into despotism, died on Saturday of a heart attack …

Retirement Deal Keeps Bain Money Flowing to Romney  —  Almost 13 years ago, Mitt Romney left Bain Capital, the successful private equity firm he had helped start, and moved to Utah to rescue the Salt Lake City Olympic Games and begin a second career in public life.

14-Year-Old Challenges Perry's Anti-Gay Views  —  A 14-year-old bisexual high school student challenged Rick Perry on his support for reinstating Don't Ask, Don't Tell during an event in Decorah, Iowa, asking the Texas governor why he is “so opposed to gays serving openly in the military …

Regarding Christopher  —  Christopher Hitchens, my colleague for twenty years, was clever, hilarious, generous to his friends, combative, prodigiously energetic and fantastically productive.  He could write with equal ease about Philip Larkin, capital punishment, Henry Kissinger and having his balls waxed.

California politician advocates assassination of Obama and family  —  Like this?  Subscribe to get instant updates.  —  Facebook faux pas: California libertarian and Tea Party darling Jules Manson is caught calling for the assassination of President Barack Obama and his children.

Pelosi's Expert Was Also Business Partner  —  Former Speaker Brought Family Friend to the Hill  —  In May 2010, then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi took to a podium in the Capitol to introduce a half-dozen economic experts she had convened for a meeting on how to jump-start the economy.

Bye-bye, Keynes?  —  “Practical men, who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influences, are usually the slaves of some defunct economist.”  —  The eclipse of Keynesian economics proceeds.  When Keynes wrote “The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money” …

Professor claims NYU fired him after he gave James Franco a ‘D’  —  James Franco's tired James Dean act got an NYU professor booted from the school last year — after the teacher dared to give the overhyped Hollywood hunk a “D” for blowing off class, a lawsuit charges.

Occupy the Progressive Movement  —  It was during the fifth or sixth major argument within the netroots in 2011 about the Obama Administration that the first protestors attempted to Occupy Wall Street in mid-September.  Within days the talk of primary challenges, donor strikes …

Will China Break?  —  Consider the following picture: Recent growth has relied on a huge construction boom fueled by surging real estate prices, and exhibiting all the classic signs of a bubble.  There was rapid growth in credit — with much of that growth taking place not through traditional banking …

For Election Year, MTV Drops ‘Choose or Lose’ Slogan  —  After nearly 20 years of “Choose or Lose,” MTV is changing the name of its election season campaign.  —  The youth cable channel's coverage will be labeled “Power of 12,” a nod to both the election year and the notion that 18 …

Exclusive: Secret U.S., Taliban talks reach turning point  —  (Reuters) - After 10 months of secret dialogue with Afghanistan's Taliban insurgents, senior U.S. officials say the talks have reached a critical juncture and they will soon know whether a breakthrough is possible …