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.
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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.
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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).
Discussion:
Wall Street Journal, Weekly Standard, Dr. Melissa Clouthier, Bloomberg, Commentary, The World Newser and The Note
Carrie Budoff Brown / The Politico:
Vote by Christmas in peril — Reid is operating under a tight timeline. — Under the rosiest scenario, he needs to begin taking the procedural steps by this weekend to end the debate — and it would still take until Dec. 23 or Dec. 24 until the bill reaches final passage.
Discussion:
Townhall.com
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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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 …
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 Note, Top of the Ticket, Taylor Marsh, Pollster.com All Content, The Politico, Washington Examiner, National Review Online, Connecting.the.Dots, msnbc.com, Pundit & Pundette, Daily Kos, Commentary, AmSpecBlog, Real Time Economics, The Lonely Conservative, American Power, Shot in the Dark and Hot Air
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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, TMZ.com, No More Mister Nice Blog, Top of the Ticket, msnbc.com, Raw Story and The Awl
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:
Daily Kos, The New Republic, Democratic Strategist, Bob Cesca's Awesome Blog!, The Huffington Post and Open Left
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Jon Walker / Firedoglake:
Answering Nate Silver's 20 Questions on Killing the Senate Bill
Answering Nate Silver's 20 Questions on Killing the Senate Bill
Discussion:
Ian Welsh, Night Light, The Moderate Voice, TalkLeft, Daily Kos, The Mahablog, Liberal Values and The New Republic
New York Times:
Clinton Says U.S. Plans to Contribute to Climate Fund — COPENHAGEN — With time running out on the stalled Copenhagen climate negotiations, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton gave new hope that an agreement might still be reached when she announced Thursday that the United States …
Discussion:
The New Republic, Environmental Capital, The Politico, Commentary, Dot Earth, QandO and The Page
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Ariel Leve / Times of London:
Dramatic American intervention brings climate deal closer
Dramatic American intervention brings climate deal closer
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protein wisdom
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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Michael O'Brien / The Hill:
Banking Committee approves Bernanke for second term, 16-7 — The Senate Banking Committee approved Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's nomination for a second term, with most Dems in favor, on Thursday. — Sixteen members of the committee supported Bernanke's bid for a second term atop the Fed, while seven senators opposed.
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The Politico
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Christian Wienberg / Bloomberg:
Blizzard Dumps Snow on Copenhagen as Leaders Battle Warming — Dec. 17 (Bloomberg) — World leaders flying into Copenhagen today to discuss a solution to global warming will first face freezing weather as a blizzard dumped 10 centimeters (4 inches) of snow on the Danish capital overnight.
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.
Discussion:
The Washington Independent
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.