Top Items:
Igor / Think Progress:
Sen. Sanders: 'As of this point, I'm not voting for the bill.' — Moments ago, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) announced that he is prepared to vote against the Senate health care bill in light of the recent decision to strip the public option and the Medicare buy-in provision from the legislation.
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Howard Dean / Washington Post:
Health-care bill wouldn't bring real reform — If I were a senator, I would not vote for the current health-care bill. Any measure that expands private insurers' monopoly over health care and transfers millions of taxpayer dollars to private corporations is not real health-care reform.
The Huffington Post:
Gibbs Lashes Back At Dean, Suggests He's Irrational — WHAT'S YOUR REACTION? — On Wednesday, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs strongly hit back at former DNC Chairman Howard Dean for criticizing the Senate health care bill, suggesting, at one point, that Dean was being irrational …
Rachel Weiner / The Huffington Post:Democrats Lash Out At Obama Over Health Care Disappointments
Discussion:
Althouse, Roll Call, The Huffington Post, GayPatriot, Hot Air, The Moderate Voice and Open Left
blogs.telegraph.co.uk:
Climategate goes SERIAL: now the Russians confirm that UK climate scientists manipulated data to exaggerate global warming — Climategate just got much, much bigger. And all thanks to the Russians who, with perfect timing, dropped this bombshell just as the world's leaders are gathering …
Discussion:
Pajamas Media, The Strata-Sphere, Gateway Pundit, Atlas Shrugs, The Lonely Conservative, YID With LID and TigerHawk
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Christopher C. Horner / Big Government:
ClimateGate Just Got Much, Much Bigger — Over at ICECAP.us Meteorologist Joe D'Aleo has posted an item on a “Russian Bombshell” highly relevant to the ClimateGate scandal. The Russian media first posted the story and now some Brits are loving it. — The long and the short …
Discussion:
EU Referendum
RIA Novosti:
What the Russian papers say — MOSCOW, December 16 (RIA Novosti) Russia trading in diplomatic recognition / U.S. uses NATO as a tool to integrate Russia into its project for a new world order - expert / New round of struggle to end Cold War / Russia affected by Climategate /
Jon Walker / Firedoglake:
Answering Nate Silver's 20 Questions on Killing the Senate Bill — Nate Silver has 20 questions for the “bill killers"-and I have 20 answers. … Killing the current deal does not preclude passing the good parts of health reform through reconciliation. When they are forced to face passage …
Discussion:
FiveThirtyEight
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Nate Silver / FiveThirtyEight:
20 Questions for Bill Killers — 1. Over the medium term, how many other opportunities will exist to provide in excess of $100 billion per year in public subsidies to poor and sick people? — 2. Would a bill that contained $50 billion in additional subsidies for people making less than 250% of poverty be acceptable?
Ezra Klein:
The importance of the individual mandate — Markos Moulitsas explains his opposition to the Senate bill, and says it all comes down to the individual mandate. “Strip out the mandate,” he says, “and the rest of the bill is palatable. It's not reform, but it's progress in the right direction.
Discussion:
Daily Kos, Open Left, The Politico, Matthew Yglesias, Washington Monthly, TalkLeft, Swampland and Firedoglake
Jonathan Cohn / The New Republic:
The Left Is Playing With Fire — Liberals frustrated with the decision to drop a public option are now attacking a core principle of health care reform: the individual mandate. Greg Sargent and Ben Smith quote Jim Dean, brother of Howard, in an e-mail that just went out to Democracy for America:
Discussion:
The Plum Line, Crooks and Liars, Paul Krugman, The Mahablog, Liberal Values, Swampland, Ben Smith's Blog and Eschaton
Carrie Budoff Brown / The Politico:
Vote by Christmas in peril — Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's plan to pass the Senate health care reform bill by Christmas looked increasingly in doubt Wednesday, as Republicans launched an offensive to stall the legislation and Democrats had yet to strike a 60-vote compromise.
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Jordan Fabian / The Hill:Sanders says ‘as of this point’ he won't vote for healthcare bill
Discussion:
RedState
Christina Bellantoni / TPMDC:In Delaying Health Care GOP Wants To Force August Repeat Over Holiday Break
Jordan Fabian / The Hill:
Michael Moore calls for boycott of Connecticut — Liberal filmmaker Michael Moore on Thursday called for a boycott of the state of Connecticut in reaction to Sen. Joe Lieberman's (I-Conn.) opposition to key provisions of healthcare reform legislation. — Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid …
Discussion:
The Reaction, The Politico, DISSENTING JUSTICE, Michelle Malkin, The Moderate Voice, Townhall.com, Raw Story, JammieWearingFool and CNN
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CFACT:
CFACT drops the banner on Greenpeace ships in daring land and sea raids — Activists tag Greenpeace Rainbow Warrior with “Propaganda Warrior” banner; Arctic Sunrise hit with “Ship of Lies” banner earlier in the day — Global warming skeptics from CFACT yesterday pulled off …
Discussion:
blogs.telegraph.co.uk, Riehl World View, Watts Up With That? and The Corner on National …
Mark Murray / msnbc.com:
NBC POLL: PUBLIC SOURS ON HEALTH REFORM — From NBC's Mark Murray — As the Senate sprints to pass a health-care bill by Christmas, the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll finds that those believing President Obama's health-reform plan is a good idea has sunk to its lowest level.
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New York Times:
Intelligence Improperly Collected on U.S. Citizens — WASHINGTON — In February, a Department of Homeland Security intelligence official wrote a “threat assessment” for the police in Wisconsin about a demonstration involving local pro- and anti-abortion rights groups.
Carl Hulse / New York Times:
Bills Pass on Debt and War Funds — WASHINGTON — The House on Wednesday narrowly approved a short-term, $290 billion increase in federal borrowing power, setting the stage for a major fight over national fiscal policy in 2010. — As the House finished its business for the year, lawmakers …
Discussion:
The Page
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Philip Klein / AmSpecBlog:
GOP: Dems Violated Senate Rules By Cutting off Reading of Sanders Amendment — The Senate Republican leadership believes that the parliamentarian allowed Democrats to violate the rules of the Senate by allowing Sen. Bernie Sanders to cut off the reading of his single-payer proposal.
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JammieWearingFool:
BBC Asks ‘Should Homosexuals Face Execution’? — Just imagine if a conservative news outlet ever posted something like this. … Oh my. Give a forum to the yahoos and they'll take advantage of it every time. And these were moderated comments!
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Wall Street Journal:
Insurgents Hack U.S. Drones — $26 Software Is Used to Breach Key Weapons in Iraq; Iranian Backing Suspected — WASHINGTON — Militants in Iraq have used $26 off-the-shelf software to intercept live video feeds from U.S. Predator drones, potentially providing them with information they need …
Discussion:
TechCrunch
Paul Krugman:
Would cutting the minimum wage raise employment? — It seems that more and more Serious People (and Fox News) are rallying around the idea that if Obama really wants to create jobs, he should cut the minimum wage. — So let me repeat a point I made a number of times back when the usual suspects …
The World Newser:
President Obama: Federal Government ‘Will Go Bankrupt’ if Health Care Costs Are Not Reined In — ABC's Karen Travers reports from Washington: — President Obama told ABC News' Charles Gibson in an interview that if Congress does not pass health care legislation that will bring down costs, the federal government “will go bankrupt.”
Discussion:
Big Government, ABCNEWS, The Swamp, Scared Monkeys, Raw Story, Don Surber, The Lonely Conservative, Gateway Pundit, Pajamas Media and Pundit & Pundette
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