Top Items:
Peter Baker / New York Times:
Obama Freezes Pay for Federal Workers — WASHINGTON — President Obama announced a two-year pay freeze for civilian federal workers on Monday as he sought to address concerns over sky-high deficit spending and appeal to Republican leaders to find a common approach to restoring the nation's economic and fiscal health.
Discussion:
TalkLeft, The White House, Guardian, AmSpecBlog, ECHIDNE of the snakes, The Gateway Pundit, The Politico, Left Coast Rebel, American Thinker, Fox News, Daily Kos, Taylor Marsh, No More Mister Nice Blog, The Page, The Other McCain, Shakesville, Wonkette, The New Republic, Obsidian Wings, Ben Smith's Blog, ourfuture.org/blogs_chrono/*, Bob Cesca's Awesome Blog! and Whiskey Fire
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Scarecrow / Firedoglake:
Obama Flunks Economics with Pointless Federal Wage Freeze — (photo: amboo who?) — The Obama White House just announced details of a two-year federal wage freeze as a means to reduce federal spending and deficits. [David Dayen has more.] The move is obviously political and only symbolic …
Discussion:
Economist's View
Paul Krugman / New York Times:
The Spanish Prisoner — The best thing about the Irish right now is that there are so few of them. By itself, Ireland can't do all that much damage to Europe's prospects. The same can be said of Greece and of Portugal, which is widely regarded as the next potential domino. — But then there's Spain.
Discussion:
AMERICAblog News, A Fistful Of Euros, Yglesias, Zandar Versus The Stupid, TalkLeft, Daily Kos and Prairie Weather
Greg Sargent / The Plum Line:
Will pay freeze strengthen Obama's hand?
Will pay freeze strengthen Obama's hand?
Discussion:
The Huffington Post, Firedoglake, Daily Kos, Zandar Versus The Stupid and AmSpecBlog
Ed Morrissey / Hot Air:
Obama to freeze federal worker pay, save $5 billion over two years
Obama to freeze federal worker pay, save $5 billion over two years
Discussion:
The White House, Associated Press and Hit & Run
Charles Riley / CNNMoney.com:
Obama to freeze federal wages for 2 years
Obama to freeze federal wages for 2 years
Discussion:
Outside the Beltway, Wake up America, AMERICAblog News, iOwnTheWorld.com and The Agonist
Steve Benen / Washington Monthly:
OBAMA TO FREEZE PAY FOR CIVILIAN FEDERAL WORKFORCE. …
OBAMA TO FREEZE PAY FOR CIVILIAN FEDERAL WORKFORCE. …
Discussion:
The Reality-Based Community, ECHIDNE of the snakes and Daily Kos
Sarah Palin / Facebook:
Serious Questions about the Obama Administration's Incompetence in the Wikileaks Fiasco — We all applaud the successful thwarting of the Christmas-Tree Bomber and hope our government continues to do all it can to keep us safe. However, the latest round of publications …
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Andy Greenberg / The Firewall:
An Interview With WikiLeaks' Julian Assange — Admire him or revile him, WikiLeaks' Julian Assange is the prophet of a coming age of involuntary transparency, the leader of an organization devoted to divulging the world's secrets using technology unimagined a generation ago.
Discussion:
The Independent, DealBook, Alastair Campbell, Guardian and Yahoo! News, more at Mediagazer »
Jennifer Epstein / The Politico:
Sarah Palin blasts Obama administration for WikiLeaks ‘fiasco’ — Sarah Palin says the U.S. government's inability to stop the latest WikiLeaks release is all President Barack Obama's fault. — Sunday's document dump of classified State Department cables is the result of the …
Discussion:
Alan Colmes' Liberaland, The Note and Wonkette
Wall Street Journal:
To Publish Leaks Or Not to Publish? — An organization has obtained secret documents.
To Publish Leaks Or Not to Publish? — An organization has obtained secret documents.
Pvictorwins / CBS New York:
King: WikiLeaks Release ‘Worse Than Military Attack’
King: WikiLeaks Release ‘Worse Than Military Attack’
Discussion:
Firedoglake, The Hill, Democracy in America, Bloomberg, CBS News, Politics Daily, Cubachi, Ò", neo-neocon, The Reaction, The Gateway Pundit, Guardian, ABC News, Wake up America, CNET News, TPMDC, The Confluence, Raw Story, Lawyers, Guns & Money, Pirate's Cove and LewRockwell.com Blog, more at Mediagazer »
DEBKAFile:
Nuclear scientist killed in Tehran was Iran's top Stuxnet expert — World Exclusive from DEBKAfile's intelligence sources: — Prof. Majid Shahriari, who died when his car was attacked in North Tehran Monday, Nov. 29, headed the team Iran established for combating the Stuxnet virus rampaging through its nuclear and military networks.
Discussion:
The Jawa Report, Pajamas Media, Patterico's Pontifications and POWIP
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Raymond Bonner / The Atlantic Online:
‘By Whatever Means Necessary’: Arab Leaders Want Iran Stopped — LONDON — Rather than prosecuting Julian Assange for what he calls his “outrageous, reckless, and despicable” action in leaking thousands of sensitive government cables, Joe Lieberman might want to consider praising the head of WikiLeaks.
Discussion:
The Daily Dish, RubinReports, Wonk Room, Solomonia, Israellycool, Yourish.com, Guardian and The Volokh Conspiracy
Andrew Sullivan / The Daily Dish:
The Starr Report Of American Foreign Policy?
The Starr Report Of American Foreign Policy?
Discussion:
Ben Smith's Blog and The Daily Beast
Megan Carpentier / TPMMuckraker:
Bomb, Bomb Iran: The Top 5 Most Shocking Things About The Wikileaks
Bomb, Bomb Iran: The Top 5 Most Shocking Things About The Wikileaks
Robert Mackey / The Lede:
Reaction to Leak of U.S. Diplomatic Cables, Day 2
Reaction to Leak of U.S. Diplomatic Cables, Day 2
Discussion:
National Review, Guardian, New York Times, Don Surber, ACS Blog, Arabist.net, alicublog and Hugh Hewitt's TownHall Blog
Thomas Erdbrink / Washington Post:
Iranian nuclear scientist killed, another injured in Tehran bombings
Iranian nuclear scientist killed, another injured in Tehran bombings
Discussion:
PostPartisan, New York Times, Gawker and Threat Level, more at Techmeme »
New York Times:
Iran Calls Leaked Documents U.S. Plot
Iran Calls Leaked Documents U.S. Plot
Discussion:
Tablet Magazine, Gawker, CNN, Big Journalism, Hot Air, JustOneMinute, Guardian and Telegraph
Erik Wasson / The Hill:
Liberal groups blast Obama pay-freeze proposal, release alternative plan — Representatives of three liberal advocacy groups on Monday blasted President Obama's proposed two-year freeze on federal civilian worker pay. — John Irons of the Economic Policy Institute, Tamara Draut of Demos …
Discussion:
DownWithTyranny!, iOwnTheWorld.com and protein wisdom
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Brian Beutler / TPMDC:
Everyone Hates Obama's Pay Freeze Plan... Except Republicans — The early reviews of President Obama's plan to freeze federal worker pay are in — and it gets a resounding “F” from just about everybody outside of GOP leadership. — Michael Linden, a budget expert at the liberal Center …
Discussion:
Don Surber, Yglesias, Wonk Room, The New Republic, The Monkey Cage and Daily Kos
Myglesias / Yglesias:
The Left and the Budget
The Left and the Budget
Discussion:
New York Times, Paul Krugman and Grasping Reality …
Brian Beutler / TPMDC:
Obama's Federal Worker Pay Freeze Was Blasted By Democrats Months Ago
Obama's Federal Worker Pay Freeze Was Blasted By Democrats Months Ago
Discussion:
The Atlantic Online
James Fallows / The Atlantic Online:
In Which I Become a Conservative — Ross Douthat, an Atlantic alumnus, contends in the NY Times that the recent controversy over “enhanced” TSA procedures illustrates the dominance of partisan reflex in today's politics. Liberals complained about excessive state power when Bush and Cheney were in charge …
Discussion:
New York Times, The League of Ordinary …, Eunomia, Salon, The Daily Dish and Brilliant at Breakfast
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Lori Montgomery / Washington Post:
Democrats warm to tax-cut compromise — A faction of congressional Democrats is making a push to persuade President Obama to consider a compromise on tax policy that would leave only the nation's 315,000 richest households facing higher taxes in January. — Over the past few days …
Discussion:
The Atlantic Online, National Review, Washington Monthly, RedState, About.com US Liberal Politics, The Hill and ABCNEWS
Ezra Klein:
What happens when Medicare controls costs too well — There's one school of thought that says Congress is incapable of controlling costs in Medicare, and then there's, well, this: … One of the dirty little secrets of the health-care system is that Medicare has done a much better job controlling costs …
Discussion:
Marginal Revolution, The Daily Dish, Angry Bear, Yglesias, Grasping Reality … and Overcoming Bias
CNN:
Justices turn aside another challenge over Obama's citizenship — Washington (CNN) — The Supreme Court has again cast aside an appeal that raised doubts about President Barack Obama's U.S. citizenship, a grass-roots legal issue that has gained little legal or political footing, but continues to persist in the courts.
Discussion:
Crooks and Liars, Zandar Versus The Stupid and Juanita Jean's
Brian Stelter / New York Times:
Media Decoder: Netflix Partner Criticizes Comcast — Level 3 Communications, an Internet networking company that recently signed a deal to deliver movies to Netflix customers, said Monday that Comcast has effectively set up a tollbooth around its broadband Internet network.
Discussion:
Gizmodo, more at Mediagazer »
Jeffrey Toobin / New Yorker:
PRECEDENT AND PROLOGUE — Momentous Supreme Court cases tend to move quickly into the slipstream of the Court's history. In the first ten years after Brown v. Board of Education, the 1954 decision that ended the doctrine of separate but equal in public education, the Justices cited the case more than twenty-five times.
Discussion:
Lawyers, Guns & Money and Prairie Weather
Washington Post:
‘The criminalization of politics’ — THERE IS LITTLE DOUBT that former House majority leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) schemed to get around a Texas law prohibiting corporate contributions to political campaigns. Mr. DeLay's state political action committee accepted $190,000 in (legal) corporate contributions.
Discussion:
National Review
Josh Rogin / Foreign Policy:
WikiLeaked: John Kerry calls for Israel to cede Golan Heights and East Jerusalem — On a February trip to the Middle East, Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman John Kerry (D-MA) told Qatari leaders that the Golan Heights should be returned to Syria, that a Palestinian capital …
Discussion:
Crooks and Liars, Commentary, Weasel Zippers and National Review
Mark Kleiman / The Reality-Based Community:
Of WikiLeaks and the Pentagon Papers — In connection with the latest WikiLeaks flap, commenter Brett Bellmore asks rhetorically, “Do you think America would be better off if the Pentagon Papers hadn't been leaked?” — Yes! Hell, yes! Much better off. — The Pentagon Papers leak didn't end the Vietnam War.
Discussion:
New Atlanticist, The Daily Dish and The Impolitic
Associated Press:
APNewsBreak: NJ must pay $271M for killing tunnel — TRENTON, N.J. - New Jersey owes the federal government more than $271 million after canceling a rail tunnel connecting the state with New York, according to a debt notice obtained Monday by The Associated Press.
Simon Tisdall / Guardian:
China ‘ready to abandon North Korea’ — Leaked dispatches show Beijing is frustrated with military actions of ‘spoiled child’ and increasingly favours reunified Korea — China has signalled its readiness to accept Korean reunification and is privately distancing itself from the North Korean regime …
Discussion:
New York Times, New York Magazine, YID With LID, Washington Post, Hot Air, This Just In and CNN
Javier C. Hernandez / City Room:
State Grants Waiver for Schools Chancellor — Cathleen P. Black, the publishing executive picked by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg to be the next schools chancellor, cleared a final hurdle on Monday as the state granted her the waiver she needs to take office. — In a 12-page decision …
Discussion:
Politics Daily
Penny Starr / CNSNews:
Smithsonian Christmas-Season Exhibit Features Ant-Covered Jesus, Naked Brothers Kissing, Genitalia, and Ellen DeGeneres Grabbing Her Breasts — WARNING: This story contains graphic photographs of items on display in an exhibit at the Smithsonian Institution's National Portrait Gallery.