How ObamaCare Rips Off the ‘Young Healthies’  —  If universal coverage is the goal, inexpensive, simple catastrophic health plans will do.  —  When ObamaCare is under attack, its defenders retreat to several well-worn claims.  Among them is a provision that compels insurance companies …

G.O.P. Weighs Limiting Clout of Right Wing  —  Leaders of the Republican establishment, alarmed by the emergence of far-right and often unpredictable Tea Party candidates, are pushing their party to rethink how it chooses nominees and advocating changes they say would result in the selection of less extreme contenders.

SENATOR RAND PAUL MOVES OPINION COLUMN TO BREITBART NEWS  —  Breitbart News Network is pleased to announce that it will be the new home of Kentucky Senator Rand Paul's editorial column.  —  Paul, a Tea Party favorite and son of former libertarian Congressman Ron Paul, is widely perceived …

Report: Cuccinelli Has No Plans To Call McAuliffe  —  Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli (R) had not called Democrat Terry McAuliffe after losing the Virginia gubernatorial race and had no plans to do so as of late Wednesday morning, according to a report in The Washington Post.

Clunker progressivism  —  Barack Obama's presidency has become a feast of failures whose proliferation protects their author from close scrutiny of any one of them.  Now, however, we can revisit one of the first and see it as a harbinger of progressivism's downward stumble to HealthCare.gov.

At Obamacare hearings, governing by anecdote  —  It did not sound good for Sen. Pat Toomey.  —  “I'm a two-time breast cancer survivor and I'm facing the loss of insurance,” the Pennsylvania Republican declared Wednesday at a Senate Finance Committee hearing on the health-care law.

Jason Carter to challenge Gov. Deal next year  —  Democratic state Sen. Jason Carter will challenge Gov. Nathan Deal next year in a move that catapults the gubernatorial contest into the national spotlight and tests whether Georgia's changing demographics can loosen the Republican Party's 12-year grip on the state's highest office.

Obamacare mocked at music awards  —  Obamacare took it on the chin at Wednesday night's Country Music Awards, in a skit with music stars and co-hosts Carrie Underwood and Brad Paisley.  —  Paisley pretended to have hurt his back, prompting Underwood to say, “Hey, do you have that Obamacare?

C.I.A. Is Said to Pay AT&T for Call Data  —  WASHINGTON — The C.I.A. is paying AT&T more than $10 million a year to assist with overseas counterterrorism investigations by exploiting the company's vast database of phone records, which includes Americans' international calls, according to government officials.

Pope Francis Kisses Severely Disfigured Man And Prays With Him  —  Pope Francis blessed a man with facial deformities during today's general audience at the Vatican.  —  Pope Francis was departing St. Peter's Square after Wednesday's general audience when he saw a severely disfigured man amidst the crowd of worshippers.

The U.S. shifts left  —  The center of gravity in American politics moved left in Tuesday's off-year elections.  —  Republicans took a big step back from the tea party.  An ebullient progressive was elected mayor of New York City.  And a Democrat was elected governor of Virginia …

Vice President Biden congratulates the wrong Marty Walsh  —  Just minutes after the election returns arrived in Boston Tuesday night, Martin Walsh's cellphone rang.  It was the vice president of the United States, Joseph R. Biden, offering his congratulations.  —  “You son of a gun, Marty!” he thundered.

Last spring, the remains of 10 missing Afghan villagers were dug up outside a U.S. Special Forces base - was it a war crime or just another episode in a very dirty war?  —  In the fall of 2012, a team of American Special Forces arrived in Nerkh, a district of Wardak province, Afghanistan …