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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David M. Herszenhorn / New York Times:
Senate Abandons Auto 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.
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 …
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
Paul Kane / Washington Post:
Auto Bailout Talks Collapse as Senate Deadlocks Over Wages — Without a Deal, Carmakers Face Bankruptcy Threat — An eleventh-hour effort to salvage a proposed $14 billion rescue plan for the auto industry collapsed late last night as Republicans and Democrats failed to agree on the timing …
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 …
Jason Rosenbaum / The Seminal:
BREAKING: Schakowsky Will Run For Senate In Illinois — Last night at the Midwest Academy Awards and 35th Anniversary Celebration in Washington, DC, Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown introduced Illinois Representative Jan Schakowsky by saying, “We may have a special election in Illinois, and if Jan Schakowsky runs, I'll support her.”
Jack Healy / New York Times:
Obama Says He Never Spoke to Governor on Senate Seat
Obama Says He Never Spoke to Governor on Senate Seat
Discussion:
Fox News, Scared Monkeys, JammieWearingFool, Taylor Marsh, Wake up America, Rasmussen Reports and Below The Beltway
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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Wall Street Journal:
Blagojevich Left Legal Bills Unpaid — CHICAGO — The criminal complaint against Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich alleges that he complained about financial troubles. Those problems include more than $500,000 in unpaid legal bills, according to people familiar with the matter.
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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 …
Aluf Benn / Haaretz:
Obama's atomic umbrella: U.S. nuclear strike if Iran nukes Israel — U.S. President-elect Barack Obama's administration will offer Israel a “nuclear umbrella” against the threat of a nuclear attack by Iran, a well-placed American source said earlier this week.
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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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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?
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.
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.
Reason.tv:
Killer Chic — Gisele Bundchen wears him on the runway, Johnny Depp wears him around his neck, and Benicio Del Toro becomes him in the new, highly acclaimed, two-part epic film from Steven Soderbergh, Che. Ernesto “Che” Guevara, the revolutionary who helped found communist Cuba, is the celebrity that celebrities adore.
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 …
Discussion:
naked capitalism