Top Items:
Associated Press:
$14B auto bailout dies in Senate — WASHINGTON - A bailout-weary Congress killed a $14 billion package to aid struggling U.S. automakers Thursday night after a partisan dispute over union wage cuts derailed a last-ditch effort to revive the emergency aid before year's end.
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Wall Street Journal:
Rescue Bid for Detroit Collapses in Senate — WASHINGTON — A frantic, last-ditch attempt to forge a relief package for the auto industry collapsed in the U.S. Senate, dealing a giant blow to the immediate hopes of the Big Three. — Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada suggested …
David M. Herszenhorn / New York Times:
Senate Abandons Automaker Bailout Bid — WASHINGTON — The Senate on Thursday night abandoned efforts to fashion a government rescue of the American automobile industry, as Senate Republicans refused to support a bill endorsed by the White House and Congressional Democrats.
Elizabeth Kolbert In / New Yorker:
NOTE TO DETROIT: CONSIDER THE REFRIGERATOR — This past summer, Steven Chu, the Nobel Prize-winning physicist who currently heads Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory—and who has been tapped to be the next Secretary of Energy—delivered a talk on climate change and how to combat it.
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo
New York Times:
Auto Suppliers Share Anxiety Over a Bailout — DETROIT — With Congress failing to agree on a bailout for Detroit, the odds that General Motors and Chrysler will be insolvent by year's end are growing rapidly. — The companies have been warning that they would run out of money for some time …
Chicago Sun Times:
Obama chief of staff Rahm Emanuel ducks reporters' questions — President-elect Barack Obama's chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, refused to take questions from reporters this morning about whether he was the Obama “advisor” named in the criminal complaint against Gov. Rod Blagojevich.
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New York Times:
Obama to Detail Any Staff Talks on Senate Seat — CHICAGO — President-elect Barack Obama pledged Thursday to disclose any interaction between his transition team and the office of besieged Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich of Illinois, while declaring again that he and his staff had no involvement …
New York Times:
Report Blames Rumsfeld for Detainee Abuses — WASHINGTON — A report released Thursday by leaders of the Senate Armed Services Committee said top Bush administration officials, including Donald H. Rumsfeld, the former defense secretary, bore major responsibility for the abuses committed …
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Ben Smith / Ben Smith's Blogs:
McCain pollster: Wright wouldn't have worked — John McCain's top pollster, Bill McInturff, said this evening that attacking Barack Obama over his relationship with Rev. Jeremiah Wright would not have helped McCain's campaign and could have destroyed his presidency, had he been elected.
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Bloomberg:
Madoff Charged in $50 Billion Fraud at Advisory Firm — A A A — Dec. 11 (Bloomberg) — Bernard Madoff, founder and president of a New York firm that invested funds for wealthy individuals, hedge funds and other institutions, was charged with operating what he told employees …
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New York Times:
Prominent Trader Accused of Defrauding Clients — On Wall Street, his name is legendary. With money he had made as a lifeguard on the beaches of Long Island, he built a trading powerhouse that had prospered for more than four decades. At age 70, he had become an influential spokesman …
CNN:
Powell: GOP ‘polarization’ backfired in election — (CNN) — The Republican party must stop “shouting at the world” and start listening to minority groups if it is to win elections in the 21st century, former Secretary of State Colin Powell said Thursday. — In an interview with CNN's Fareed Zakaria …
Discussion:
Right Wing News, The Moderate Voice, Macsmind, Gawker, AMERICAblog News and American Street
Paul Krugman:
Nosedive — Another day, another terrifying economic report, this time on unemployment claims. — So are we now losing jobs at the rate of 600,000 a month? 700,000? If fiscal expansion takes, say, 8 months to kick in (and that's optimistic), where will that leave us?
Steve Benen / Washington Monthly:
DEMINT WARNS OF BAILOUT ‘RIOTS’.... In general, those who warn of dire consequences for the automotive industry tend to support a rescue package. As the argument goes, the auto manufacturers are the backbone of U.S. manufacturing, and the collapse of the industry could have devastating ripple effects in the midst of a financial crisis.
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TwinCities.com:
In Senate recount, wrongly rejected votes seem more numerous than first thought — At least 358 Minnesotans did everything right on their absentee ballots — they sent them in on time, signed them where they should have and were properly registered — but their votes were not counted.
Tom Lasseter / McClatchy Washington Bureau:
U.S. keeps silent as Afghan ally removes war crime evidence — DASHT-E LEILI, Afghanistan — Seven years ago, a convoy of container trucks rumbled across northern Afghanistan loaded with a human cargo of suspected Taliban and al Qaida members who'd surrendered to Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum …
Discussion:
Taylor Marsh