Top Items:
Andy Stern / SEIU:
Letter from President Andy Stern to SEIU members: Where do we go from here? — A little over a year ago, you stood up and showed a nation that Yes, We Can. You knocked on doors, picked up phones, wrote your friends and family and neighbors and helped ring in a resounding victory.
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Mike Allen / The Politico:
Axelrod: Left ‘insane’ to sink bill — Trying to stave off a sudden fusillade from the left, White House senior adviser David Axelrod said Thursday that Howard Dean's criticisms of health-care reform are “predicated on a bunch of erroneous conclusions” and that for progressives to torpedo the legislation …
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.
Tom Coburn / Wall Street Journal:
The Health Bill Is Scary — Government guidelines would likely have forbidden the test I used to discover Sheila's cancer. — Printer — Friendly — I recently suggested that seniors will die sooner if Congress actually implements the Medicare cuts in the health-care bill put forward by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.
Discussion:
Media Matters Action Network, Washington Monthly, Commentary and Conservatives4Palin.com
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Steve Benen / Washington Monthly:
THE KIND OF DEBATE THAT'S LONG OVERDUE.... Maybe this is an esoteric point, but it occurs to me that the quality of the policy debate between competing progressive contingents is infinitely better and more interesting than the policy debate between Democrats and Republicans we witnessed over the last eight or nine months.
Discussion:
Paul Krugman
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.
Discussion:
The Huffington Post, Clive Crook, Firedoglake, Politics Daily, Weekly Standard, TPM LiveWire, Financial Times, Power Line, Democracy in America, Philly.com, The Hill, The Washington Independent, The Corner on National …, Think Progress, Washington Times, Wonk Room, Washington Wire, msnbc.com, National Review Online, The Huffington Post, CBS News, Commentary, Outside The Beltway, DownWithTyranny!, Hotline On Call, Brilliant at Breakfast, Examiner, DISSENTING JUSTICE, Taylor Marsh, AmSpecBlog, Liberal Values and The Note
Chris Cillizza / Washington Post:
Howard Dean, health care reform spoiler?
Howard Dean, health care reform spoiler?
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Video Cafe's feed
The Hill:
Nelson a ‘no’ on health reform bill pending further changes — Centrist Democratic Sen. Ben Nelson (Neb.) won't advance healthcare reform efforts unless further changes are made, the senator said Thursday afternoon. — Nelson said that modifications to the bill, including provisions …
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Peter Wallsten / Wall Street Journal:
Democrat Blues Grow Deeper in New Poll — For First Time, Voters Split Over Who They Want in Control After 2010 Elections, and Obama's Approval Rating Falls Below 50% — President Obama makes a statement on health care after meeting with Senators on Tuesday.
Discussion:
The Moderate Voice, The Business Insider, Pollster.com All Content, Taylor Marsh, Washington Examiner, Top of the Ticket, The Politico, Pundit & Pundette, National Review Online, Commentary, Connecting.the.Dots, Daily Kos, AmSpecBlog, Real Time Economics, msnbc.com, Shot in the Dark, The Lonely Conservative and American Power
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 …
TMZ.com:
Sarah Palin's McCain Cover Up — For the first time ever, Sarah Palin used her head to make a searing political comment — a frontal attack on Sen. John McCain. — The failed Vice Presidential nominee took time off from shilling her book to vacation with her son Trig …
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Mike Allen / The Politico:
Palin supports McCain ‘100 percent’ — Declaring that she “was honored and proud to run with him,” former Alaska governor Sarah Palin pushed back hard Wednesday against a report that she had disrespected Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) by blacking out his name on a sun visor she wore on vacation.
Discussion:
The Note, No More Mister Nice Blog, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, msnbc.com, TPM LiveWire, Raw Story, Top of the Ticket and The Awl
Matthew Dowd / Washington Post:
Success on health reform holds risks for Democrats — President Obama needs an exit strategy. I am not referring to Afghanistan or Iraq (though there are quite a few similarities between the situation Obama is in on health-care reform and the political difficulties President George W. Bush faced on Iraq).
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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 …
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Nate Silver / FiveThirtyEight:
20 Questions, 20 Responses — I'm happy that this debate seems to be evolving into something a little more civilized on all sides. This is my response to Markos Moulitsas (DK) at Daily Kos and Jon Walker (JW) at FireDogLake who were kind enough to respond to the 20 questions I posed earlier.
Discussion:
Bob Cesca's Awesome Blog!, Democratic Strategist, Daily Kos, The Huffington Post, Open Left and The New Republic
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Rasmussen Reports:
50% Now Say Global Warming Caused by Long-Term Planetary Trends, Political Class Strongly Disagrees — Public skepticism about the officially promoted cause of global warming has reached an all-time high among Americans. — A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 50% …
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Jeffrey M. Jones / Gallup:
Palin's Favorable Up Slightly; Obama's Holds Steady — Obama (56%) more popular than Palin (44%) — PRINCETON, NJ — After the release of her much-publicized autobiography and the ensuing book tour, Sarah Palin is still viewed more unfavorably than favorably by Americans …
Washington Times:
Walpin-gate may snag Mrs. Obama — Skullduggery alleged in White House dismissal of inspector general — No inspector general can unearth corruption without access to his office, computer or staff. An “administrative leave” putting an IG in that position has the same effect, for all intents and purposes, as an immediate firing.
Mike Soraghan / The Hill:
Freeze! Green police! — The folks at Greenpeace think it's a crime what the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has done to the country's climate change policy. — So on Thursday, they deemed themselves the climate police and sent four squad cars to declare the chamber's H Street headquarters a “global warming crime scene.”
Discussion:
Politics Daily
Gail Collins / New York Times:
Sorry, Senator Kerry — Let us contemplate the badness of Joe Lieberman. — Who would have thought that this holiday season we'd be obsessed with the senator from Connecticut? Really, I was hoping it would be more about shopping for mittens on the Internet.