memeorandum: No Firm Plans for a U.S. Exit in Afghanistan (Mark Mazzetti/New York Times)

4:40 PM ET, December 7, 2009

Top Items:

Obama administration will formally declare danger of carbon emissions — The Obama administration will formally declare Monday that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions pose a danger to the public's health and welfare, a move that lays the groundwork for an economy-wide carbon cap …

Discussion: Crooks and Liars, The Hill, The Hill, Riehl World View, Matthew Yglesias, The Washington Independent, The Corner on National …, Michelle Malkin, The Mahablog, Blue Virginia, American Power, AmSpecBlog and Weasel Zippers

Paul Krugman / New York Times:

An Affordable Truth — Maybe I'm naïve, but I'm feeling optimistic about the climate talks starting in Copenhagen on Monday. President Obama now plans to address the conference on its last day, which suggests that the White House expects real progress.

Discussion: The Hill, JustOneMinute, SEIU, The Huffington Post, Los Angeles Times, Weekly Standard, Agence France Presse, The Glittering Eye, Switchboard, Daily Kos, Climate Progress, Beat the Press and ourfuture.org/blogs_chrono/*

Guardian:

'Fourteen days to seal history's judgment on this generation' — This editorial calling for action from world leaders on climate change is published today by 56 newspapers around the world in 20 languages — Copenhagen climate change summit - opening day liveblog

Discussion: Washington Post, Environmental Capital, RaceWire, MyDD, The Jawa Report, Switchboard, Grist, QandO, Biased BBC, TigerHawk, The Impolitic and AMERICAblog News

Wall Street Journal:

Business Fumes Over EPA Rule — Carbon-Dioxide Emissions to Face Curbs — Officials gather in Copenhagen this week for an international climate summit, but business leaders are focusing even more on Washington, where the Obama administration is expected as early as Monday to formally declare carbon dioxide a dangerous pollutant.

Discussion: Green Inc., Associated Press, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, The Foundry, Environmental Capital, QandO, Grist and The New Republic

New York Times:
In Face of Skeptics, Experts Affirm Climate Peril

Discussion: The Politico, EconLog, Coal Tattoo, JustOneMinute and The Page

Michelle Malkin:
56 Chicken Little newspapers on climate change

Discussion: Vanity Fair and NewsBusters.org

Tom Zeller Jr / New York Times:
Climate Talks Opens With Calls for Urgent Action

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Wonk Room and Washington Post

David Derbyshire / Daily Mail:
Copenhagen climate change summit to produce as much CO2 as an African country

Discussion: The Politico, PostPartisan, Accuracy in Media, DaTechguy's Blog, Riehl World View, Fausta's Blog, Gateway Pundit, Dr. Melissa Clouthier and JammieWearingFool

Associated Press:
EPA says greenhouse gases are harmful

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Pajamas Media, Newsweek Blogs and RedState

Ezra Klein:

Exclusive: Medicare buy-in attracting interest in the public option negotiations — Sources who have been briefed on the negotiations say that Medicare buy-in is attracting the most interest. Expanding Medicaid is running into more problems, though there's some appeal because …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, The Plum Line, TalkLeft, Wonk Room and Daily Kos

Nate Silver / FiveThirtyEight:

In Polls, Much Opposition to Health Care Plan Is From Left — Don't know why I didn't catch this earlier, but it strikes me as fairly important. — Ipsos/McClatchy put out a health care poll two weeks ago. The topline results were nothing special: 34 percent favored …

Discussion: Matthew Yglesias, The New Republic and The Impolitic

IdeaScale / The Huffington Post:

Senate Dems May Open Up Medicare To Pacify Progressives — WHAT'S YOUR REACTION? — Senate Democrats are discussing the idea of expanding Medicare by lowering the age at which the elderly could enter the government-run insurance program, Democratic sources on the Hill tell the Huffington Post.

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Weekly Standard, AmSpecBlog, TPMDC and The Huffington Post

Jordan Fabian / The Hill:

GOP senators rebuke Reid's slavery remarks — Three Republican senators on Monday condemned Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's (D-Nev.) comments that Republicans who oppose healthcare reform are akin to the opponents of abolition and women's suffrage. — “Folks tend to crack under pressure …

Discussion: Townhall.com, Washington Monthly, The Politico, Michelle Malkin and Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion

Carrie Budoff Brown / The Politico:
Officials: Medicare buy-in on table

Discussion: Raw Story, AMERICAblog News and The Note

Ezra Klein:
Five compromises beyond the public option

Discussion: Open Congress, The New Republic, Wonk Room and Bob Cesca's Awesome Blog!

Digby / Hullabaloo:
Yes We Should — From a personal perspective, this would be a godsend:

Discussion: Eschaton

Rasmussen Reports:

Tea Party Tops GOP on Three-Way Generic Ballot — Running under the Tea Party brand may be better in congressional races than being a Republican. — In a three-way Generic Ballot test, the latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds Democrats attracting 36% of the vote.

Discussion: Politics Daily, Hot Air, The Hill, Hit & Run, FrumForum, The Other McCain, Scared Monkeys, Tax Day Tea Party, Raw Story, Mouth of the Potomac, Townhall.com, The Plum Line, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, The Washington Independent and TPMDC

Ed Hornick / CNN:
Born in anger, Tea Party could split in anger

Discussion: The Political Carnival

Josh Gerstein / The Politico:

NPR reporter pressured over Fox role — Executives at National Public Radio recently asked the network's top political correspondent, Mara Liasson, to reconsider her regular appearances on Fox News because of what they perceived as the network's political bias, two sources familiar with the effort said.

Chris Frates / The Politico:

Nelson files his abortion amendment — Democratic Sen. Ben Nelson and Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch today filed their amendment to tighten restrictions on federal funding for abortion. The amendment is likely to be debated on the floor tomorrow. Most observers expect it to fail …

Discussion: Feministing, TPMDC, Ben Smith's Blog, Open Congress and AmSpecBlog

Jeffrey Young / The Hill:
Nelson offers abortion amendment to Senate healthcare reform bill

Discussion: Ezra Klein

Wall Street Journal:
Abortion Emerges as Bill's Top Threat

Discussion: Firedoglake

Paul Krugman:

Unhelpful Hansen — James Hansen is a great climate scientist. He was the first to warn about the climate crisis; I take what he says about coal, in particular, very seriously. — Unfortunately, while I defer to him on all matters climate, today's op-ed article suggests …

Discussion: Matthew Yglesias, Ezra Klein, New York Times, FrumForum, TPMCafe and Switchboard

Tony Romm / The Hill:

ACORN: Employees caught on tape violated no laws — An internal investigation of a series of videos depicting ACORN workers assisting a costumed pimp and prostitute concluded Monday that those employees “did not engage in any illegal activity.” — While the report, prepared …

Discussion: The Swamp

Jake Sherman / The Politico:
ACORN review: No illegality

Discussion: Little Green Footballs and The Political Carnival

Brian Beutler / TPMDC:

Checkmate: How Joe Lieberman Turned The Public Option Fight On Its Head — After Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) threw down the gauntlet on the public option, political observers and liberal critics had no shortage of theories. Lieberman was rebelling against the liberal base. Lieberman harbors animosity about 2006.

Discussion: Ezra Klein and Democracy in America

The Note:

Santorum: ‘Absolutely Taking a Look’ at Running in '12; Palin Will ‘Have to Do Some Explaining if She Runs’ — ABC News' Rick Klein reports: — Former Sen. Rick Santorum has some more political travel on tap this week, with a trip scheduled for South Carolina to follow recent visits to Iowa …

Discussion: GOP 12

Scott Horton / The Huffington Post:

Law School Study Finds Evidence Of Cover-Up After Three Alleged Suicides At Guantanamo In 2006 — WHAT'S YOUR REACTION? — On the night of June 9-10 in 2006, three prisoners held at the Guantánamo prison's Camp Delta died under mysterious circumstances.

Discussion: Think Progress, The Huffington Post, The Political Carnival, Raw Story and skippy the bush kangaroo

Wall Street Journal:

Girlfriends and Double Standards — Before Max Baucus there was Paul Wolfowitz. Will the ethical uproar be the same? — Printer — Friendly — Here's a poser: Suppose a public official is accused of recommending his girlfriend for a promotion, though he was the one who first flagged …

Discussion: Accuracy in Media, Betsy's Page and Dr. Melissa Clouthier

Chris Hedges / Truthdig:

Liberals Are Useless — Liberals are a useless lot. They talk about peace and do nothing to challenge our permanent war economy. They claim to support the working class, and vote for candidates that glibly defend the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Discussion: Firedoglake

Sarah Palin / To The Point News Syndicated:

SARAH AT THE GRIDIRON — [The Gridiron Club, founded in 1865, is the oldest and most prestigious journalist organization in Washington DC. The annual Gridiron Dinner is attended by the media elite, at which the president is traditionally the speaker. This year, President Zero …

Discussion: Taylor Marsh, Weekly Standard, Atlas Shrugs and The Politico

Jim Hoft / Big Government:

Fistgate: Barack Obama's Safe Schools Czar's 2000 Conference Promoted ‘Fisting’ to 14 Year-Olds — Barack Obama's Safe Schools Czar Kevin Jennings founded the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) in 1990. In 2007 Kevin Jennings was paid $273,573.96 as the executive director of GLSEN.

Discussion: Founding Bloggers, The Jawa Report, The Other McCain, Gateway Pundit and Weasel Zippers

Ross Douthat / New York Times:

Europe's Minaret Moment — They toasted to progress in Europe's capitals last week. On Tuesday, the Treaty of Lisbon went into effect, bringing the nations of the European Union one step closer to the unity the Continent's elite has been working toward for over 50 years.

Discussion: The New Republic, Sadly, No!, Feministe and No Left Turns

Rusty / The Jawa Report:

Chicago Man Charged in Mumbai Massacre **Bumped** — It started as an odd case of the FBI raiding a meat packing plant with hundreds of agents and now it's morphed into something much bigger. I've been telling you for weeks this was coming. I guess it just seemed too hard to believe that an American was involved.

Discussion: Hot Air and 24Ahead