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First, stop doing harm — “I can't see it,” Olympia Snowe said after considering the Medicare buy-in proposal for a day or two. “I am talking to a lot of my providers this afternoon and I know they are mighty unhappy.” — “My providers.” Think about that for a second.
Discussion:
The Baseline Scenario, Hotline On Call, TalkLeft, The Incidental Economist, The Reaction, Betsy's Page and Daily Kos
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BREAKING: New Cost Estimate on Senate Bill — The Office of the Actuary for Medicare has issued its long-awaited cost estimate for the Senate's health care reform bill. I've only had a few hours to digest it and talk with outside experts. * But these seem to be the main points:
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High Premiums in Senate Democrats' Health Plan — WASHINGTON — Senate Democrats have provided few details about their latest health care proposal, but this much seems clear: Anyone who wants to buy the same health benefits as members of Congress, or to buy coverage through Medicare …
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Harry Reid Slips Lifetime Limit into Senate Bill — When President Obama gave his speech on health care on September 10, he promised that there would be no limit on lifetime benefits under the health care bill: … Harry Reid didn't agree evidently. Reid, who is solely responsible …
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Pharma Deal Shuts Down Senate Health Care Debate — WHAT'S YOUR REACTION? — The White House, aided by Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.), is working hard to crush an amendment being pushed by Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) to allow for the reimportation of pharmaceutical drugs from Canada, Senate sources tell the Huffington Post.
Discussion:
Firedoglake, Los Angeles Times, Congress Matters, The Hill, Open Left, AMERICAblog News, Bob Cesca's Awesome Blog! and The Greenroom
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UN Security Stops Journalist's Questions About ClimateGate — A Stanford Professor has used United Nation security officers to silence a journalist asking him “inconvenient questions” during a press briefing at the climate change conference in Copenhagen. — Professor Stephen Schneider's …
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Physics Group Splinters Over Global Warming Review — Posted by Declan McCullagh As the science scandal known as ClimateGate grows, the largest U.S. physicists' association is finding itself roiled by internal dissent and allegations of conflict of interest over a forthcoming review of its position statement on man-made global warming.
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Sign a Letter to Susan B. Komen Foundation: Donations Shouldn't Go To Hadassah Lieberman — The Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation Headquarters — The Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation and Susan G. Komen for the Cure are driving forces in funding breast cancer research.
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For feds, more get 6-figure salaries — The number of federal workers earning six-figure salaries has exploded during the recession, according to a USA TODAY analysis of federal salary data. — Federal employees making salaries of $100,000 or more jumped from 14% to 19% of civil servants during …
Discussion:
Hot Air, Weekly Standard, Cato @ Liberty, WILLisms.com, YID With LID, Politics Daily, Mish's Global Economic …, The Foundry, QandO, EconLog and Hit & Run
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Sources: Drone Killed Top Qaeda Operative — Saleh al-Somali Was in Charge of External Operations for Group; Considered One of a half Dozen top Qaeda Operatives — (CBS) Sources tell CBS News the Al Qaeda operative believed killed in a drone strike in Pakistan this week is Saleh al-Somali …
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House Passes Far-Reaching Bill Tightening Financial Rules — WASHINGTON — The House on Friday approved a Democratic plan to significantly tighten federal regulation of Wall Street and the financial sector, advancing a far-reaching Congressional response to the financial crisis still reverberating through the economy.
Discussion:
The Hill, Politics Daily, The Confluence, Open Congress, Gothamist, Economist's View and The Page
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The new socialism — In the 1970s and early '80s, having seized control of the U.N. apparatus (by power of numbers), Third World countries decided to cash in. OPEC was pulling off the greatest wealth transfer from rich to poor in history. Why not them? So in grand U.N. declarations …
Discussion:
Whiskey Fire, Sadly, No!, TPMCafe, The New Republic, DailyHowler.com, PoliBlog and Betsy's Page
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Jenny Sanford: ‘I am now filing for divorce’ — S.C. First Lady Jenny Sanford issued a statement this morning saying that she is filing for divorce from embattled Gov. Mark Sanford, who disclosed this summer that he had had an extramarital affair with a woman from Argentina. — Jenny Sanford's statement says:
Discussion:
ABCNEWS, Washington Post, The Moderate Voice, The Politico, Top of the Ticket, The Hill, Suburban Guerrilla and Taylor Marsh
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Baucus gave girlfriend $14K raise — Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), chairman of the powerful Senate Finance Committee, gave a nearly $14,000 pay raise to a female staffer in 2008, at the time he was becoming romantically involved with her, and later that year took her on a taxpayer-funded trip …
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Kathleen Parker on Obama's triumph at Oslo — After Barack Obama's Nobel Peace Prize speech, anyone still questioning whether he is really a Christian, rather than a Muslim aligned with fanaticism, needs to seek therapy forthwith. — Anyone still unconvinced that Obama is really an American committed …
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Russian Rocket Fail Turns into Nobel Peace Prize Fireworks Display
Discussion:
The Atlantic Politics Channel
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Exclusive** Leaked Justice Department Memo: Terrorists To Be Moved to Camp Gitmo Illinois — The Land of Lincoln may still be licking its wounds-and certain real estate transactions-over Chicago's losing the Olympics to Rio, but the Obama Administration has delivered up a small consolation prize …
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The Errors of Matt Taibbi. — Matt Taibbi has done it again — written a nightmare of a story for Rolling Stone on Obama's economic sell-out of his campaign. The piece is a factual mess, a conspiracy theorist's dream, doesn't even indict Obama for his real failures (which I'll discuss …
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Tea partyers petition Dem lawmaker to move office to make protests easier — A Christian civil liberties organization on Thursday asked centrist Rep. Tom Perriello (D-Va.) to move his district office to a location more favorable to protesters. — The Rutherford Institute …
Discussion:
Daily Progress, Washington Monthly, Think Progress, American Power, The Atlantic Politics Channel and Raw Story
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One problem with Republicans: They've got the wrong Mitch — INDIANAPOLIS Earlier this week, I found myself in the majestic office of Indiana's diminutive governor, Mitch Daniels, talking about health care. — Daniels is a rarity these days, an incredibly popular Republican politician …
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Are Democrats Sunk? — A friend of mine from Virgina forwarded an email to me today from the NRCC. It started like this: … I laughed it off, but he wasn't having any: … Comments? Is lefty obsession with the public option going to torpedo Dems in 2010?
Discussion:
Megan McArdle
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Abercrombie to resign from Congress to run for governor — U.S. Rep. Neil Abercrombie announced today that he is resigning from Congress to run for governor full time. — In an announcement on his campaign Web site, the Hawaii Democrat said that after much thought and consideration, he decided to leave office.
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A gun case or Pandora's box? — Ruling could trigger the unhinging of American culture — Many have heard about the historic gun rights case going to the Supreme Court. Fewer have heard that this is also a major case for businesses and family values. It could lead to anything from court-ordered Obamacare to same-sex marriage.
Discussion:
Hit & Run, SCOTUSblog, Cato @ Liberty, New York Times, Clayton Cramer's BLOG, The Huffington Post and The BLT
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Bernie Madoff, the $19 Billion Con, Makes New Friends Behind Bars — A Year After His Arrest, Inmate No. 61727-054 Settles In — Only 1,795 Months to Go — BUTNER, N.C. — Bernard L. Madoff's life of country clubs and luxury homes ended when federal agents arrested him at his Manhattan penthouse apartment exactly one year ago.
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Sarah Palin's Copenhagen-Bashing Op-Ed One Of Most Read WaPo Opinion Pieces Of The Year — Here's a dispiriting postscript to the massive flap over The Washington Post's decision to publish an Op ed by Sarah Palin on climate change, a piece that has been widely criticized as riddled with falsehoods.
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Spanking and the 2008 election … More here.The most interesting part of the study is that this is apparently a new divide in American politics.
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DOJ rejects Jack Johnson pardon — The Department of Justice has rejected Congressional attempts to pardon turn-of-the-last-century boxer Jack Johnson, a black heavyweight champion who was jailed for violation of the notorious “white slavery” Mann Act. — The department's pardons attorney wrote …
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Washington Fuss Over White House Hanukkah Party — WASHINGTON — At the first Hanukkah party in the Obama White House, a Jewish student choir will sing in sweet harmony, the two young children of a soldier deployed in Iraq will light a 19th-century silver menorah from Prague and President Obama and his wife …
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Pro-Israel Lobby Group's Iran Petition Features Lots of Questionable Names — Earlier today, the Israel Project — a pro-Israel organization that endorses tough measures against Iran's nuclear program — sent out a release announcing substantial support for placing sanctions on Iran.
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The Class War: Public Employees vs. the Rest of Us — Nick Gillespie pointed earlier to the latest evidence that federal workers have long since lapped their private sector benefactors in salary and job growth, in addition to their traditional advantages in job security and benefits. (Fun fact!