Top Items:
Brian Beutler / TPMDC:
Boehner Blasts Dems' ‘Chickencrap’ Tax Cut Vote Gambit (VIDEO) — This afternoon, House Democrats will hold an up or down vote on vote on President Obama's plan to extend tax cuts to income below $250,000, and they've figured out a way to prevent the Republicans from pulling procedural tricks …
Discussion:
Ezra Klein, The Moderate Voice, Mediaite and Fox Nation
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Richard E. Cohen / The Politico:
GOP to upend spending process — House Republicans seem intent on blowing up the staid appropriations process when they take power in January — potentially upending the old bulls in both parties who have spent decades building their power over the federal budget.
EconomistMom.com:
Can We Do the Non-Crazy Thing with the Bush Tax Cuts? — I am no longer going to “let the perfect be the enemy of the good.” I am no longer going to try to talk people into seeing that the “right” thing to do with the Bush tax cuts would be to let them all expire.
Discussion:
Economix, Mother Jones, Yglesias, iOwnTheWorld.com, Obsidian Wings, Grasping Reality …, Roll Call and The Caucus
David M. Herszenhorn / New York Times:
Senate Republicans Threaten Tax Dispute Blockade — WASHINGTON — Not even 24 hours after President Obama met with senior Republican Congressional leaders and expressed hopes for a “new dialogue,” renewed partisan fury engulfed the Senate on Wednesday, as Republicans threatened to block …
Gschwarzcnn / CNN:
Tax deal getting close, Democrats worried Obama may cave — Washington (CNN) - Multiple congressional Democratic sources tell CNN that a compromise to extend all Bush-era tax cuts temporarily is getting close, and that there is increasing concern among Democratic lawmakers that the White House …
Discussion:
Firedoglake, The Politico, The Note and TPMDC
Gschwarzcnn / CNN:
Boehner rips House Democrats tax vote as ‘chicken crap’
Boehner rips House Democrats tax vote as ‘chicken crap’
Discussion:
Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Los Angeles Times, The Moderate Voice, Connecting.the.Dots, Reuters, The Page and American Power
Ezra Klein:
Why did the Democrats falter on the tax cuts?
Why did the Democrats falter on the tax cuts?
Discussion:
The New Republic, The Plum Line, No More Mister Nice Blog and Wall Street Journal
Kathleen Hunter / Roll Call:
House Passes Democratic Tax Bill
House Passes Democratic Tax Bill
Discussion:
Washington Monthly and Associated Press
Patricia Murphy / Politics Daily:
John Boehner Calls Vote on Middle-Class-Only Tax Cut ‘Chicken Crap’
Jordan Fabian / The Hill:
Over 30 Democrats defect as test vote on tax cuts passes
Over 30 Democrats defect as test vote on tax cuts passes
Discussion:
Firedoglake and Washington Post
Jesus Diaz / Gizmodo:
NASA Finds New Life (Updated) — NASA has discovered a new life form—called GFAJ-1—that doesn't share the biological building blocks of anything currently living in planet Earth. It's capable of using arsenic to build its DNA, RNA, proteins, and cell membranes. This changes everything.
Discussion:
Little Green Footballs, Ò", Hit & Run, Maggie's Farm, Towleroad News #gay, Raw Story, Zandar Versus The Stupid, Runnin' Scared and Gawker
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Gizmodo / Wired Science:
NASA Finds New Life Form — By Jesus Diaz, Gizmodo — Hours before its special news conference today, the cat is out of the bag: NASA has discovered a completely new life form that doesn't share the biological building blocks of anything currently living on planet Earth. This changes everything.
Discussion:
Alas, a blog, National Review, TechCrunch, Hit & Run and Marginal Revolution, more at Mediagazer »
Dennis Overbye / New York Times:
Subsisting on Arsenic, a Microbe May Redefine Life — Scientists said Thursday that they had trained a bacterium to eat and grow on a diet of arsenic, in place of phosphorus — one of six elements considered essential for life — opening up the possibility that organisms could exist elsewhere …
Discussion:
Hot Air, newsfeed.time.com, Watts Up With That? and The Awl
Reid Wilson / Hotline On Call:
Tea Party Caucus Takes $1 Billion In Earmarks — Members of the Congressional Tea Party Caucus may tout their commitment to cutting government spending now, but they used the 111th Congress to request hundreds of earmarks that, taken cumulatively, added more than $1 billion to the federal budget.
Discussion:
ThinkProgress, iOwnTheWorld.com, Wonkette, Raw Story, Daily Kos, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Washington Monthly, TPMDC, Swampland and Florida Independent
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Molly K. Hooper / The Hill:
Tea Partiers resist GOP healthcare repeal tactic — Tea Party lawmakers are balking at the House Republican leadership's plan to simultaneously repeal and replace President Obama's healthcare law. — The resistance from conservative lawmakers is a clear indication of the challenge Republican leaders face …
Discussion:
The Politico, Big Government, Washington Monthly, The Sundries Shack, Zandar Versus The Stupid and msnbc.com
Igor Volsky / Wonk Room:
The DADT Hearings In Six Minutes: GOP Talking Points Debunked — This morning, during a hearing about the impact of repealing Don't Ask, Don't Tell before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mike Mullen, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates …
Discussion:
ThinkProgress, Washington Monthly, Open Left, Washington Post, Joe. My. God. and Towleroad News #gay
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Greg Sargent / The Plum Line:
The military leadership's challenge to GOP Senators — It's important that we be 100 percent clear on what happened at this morning's Senate hearings on Don't Ask Don't Tell. Military leaders essentially pleaded with GOP Senators to support repealing DADT, arguing that the failure …
Discussion:
Crooks and Liars, Hullabaloo and PostPartisan
Elisabeth Bumiller / New York Times:
McCain Questions Pentagon on Repeal of Gay Ban
McCain Questions Pentagon on Repeal of Gay Ban
Discussion:
A plain blog about politics and Towleroad News #gay
Fred Kaplan / Slate:
John McCain has run out of reasons to block the repeal of “Don't Ask, Don't Tell.”
John McCain has run out of reasons to block the repeal of “Don't Ask, Don't Tell.”
Discussion:
The Huffington Post, Guardian, Washington Monthly and Balloon Juice
Wall Street Journal:
Hedge Funds Tapped Rescue Program — Hedge funds and investors whose bearish trades on housing helped them profit amid the credit crisis were among those that benefited from a U.S. government emergency rescue program to kick-start lending, according to Federal Reserve data released Wednesday.
Discussion:
Yglesias and Seeing the Forest
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Tony Pugh / McClatchy Washington Bureau:
Fed wants to strip a key protection for homeowners
Fed wants to strip a key protection for homeowners
Discussion:
Zandar Versus The Stupid and CNNMoney.com
Thomas M. Hoenig / New York Times:
Too Big to Succeed — THE world has experienced a severe …
Too Big to Succeed — THE world has experienced a severe …
Discussion:
Washington Post, Rortybomb, DealBook and Prairie Weather
Charlie Savage / New York Times:
U.S. Weighs Prosecution of WikiLeaks Founder, but Legal Scholars Warn of Steep Hurdles — WASHINGTON — Calls to prosecute the founder of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, mounted this week as his organization began releasing documents from a cache of 250,000 State Department cables …
Discussion:
The Nation, CNBC, Democracy in America, EconoSpeak, The Daily Dish, FP Passport, Guardian and Salon
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Dana Milbank / Washington Post:
A strange way to honor the founding fathers — Republicans gained control of the House last month on a promise to “restore the Constitution.” So it is no small irony that one of their first orders of business is an attempt to rewrite the Constitution. — On Tuesday, Rep. Rob Bishop …
Discussion:
The Atlantic Online, Washington Monthly, Outside the Beltway, The Mahablog, Althouse, Instapundit, Wake up America and Wonk Room
Sam Roberts / City Room:
A Month After Elections, 200,000 Votes Found — The city's Board of Elections routinely reminds New Yorkers that the election night vote count is unofficial and preliminary. — Still, the difference in the results from Nov. 2 and in the returns formally certified by the board on Wednesday seems striking …
Michael O'Brien / The Hill:
Graham: Feingold ‘may run against Obama in 2012’ — Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said Thursday he thinks outgoing Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) could challenge President Obama in the 2012 primaries. — Graham said Feingold, a reliably liberal senator who lost his bid for reelection this fall …
Discussion:
Weasel Zippers
Kevin O'Rourke / Eurointelligence:
LETTER FROM DUBLIN — It is one thing to know that someone you love is terminally ill; their death still comes as a shock. — I certainly don't want to compare the arrival of the EU-IMF team in Dublin last week to a bereavement. But I was surprised at how upsetting I found it, given that it came as no surprise.
Discussion:
The Atlantic Online, Grasping Reality …, Crooked Timber and The Irish Economy
Washington Post:
Presenting plan to cut deficit, commission members offer surprising compromises — Members of President Obama's bipartisan deficit commission expressed a surprising willingness Wednesday to compromise on issues that have long divided Republicans and Democrats, including raising taxes and cutting Social Security.
Amiram Cohen / Haaretz:
Disaster in the North: 40 dead as fire rages across Carmel Mountains — Firefighters: We lost complete control of the fire; mass evacuation from northern towns begins; bus evacuating some 50 prison guards gets caught in the flames, killing 40. — 40 people died on Thursday as a huge brushfire …
Discussion:
Agence France Presse and Politics Daily
Josh Marshall / Talking Points Memo:
JUAN WILLIAMS ON UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE — If we want people to work and keep up their work ethic, why are we keeping them on unemployment insurance to not work? — That seems to be Juan Williams take on the current situation. In this clip from Fox News today Juan Williams explains …
Discussion:
TPMDC
Jeremy P. Jacobs / Hotline On Call:
DeMint Sets Sights On Four Dems — South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint (R) is turning his attention to 2012 and using the vote this week on an earmark moratorium to pick his Democratic targets. — DeMint sent an email to the supporters of his Senate Conservatives Fund early Wednesday highlighting four Democrats …
Discussion:
The Atlantic Online, TPMDC and Riehl World View
Reuters:
Sarah Palin has earned the right to run for president — To the dismay of all but hard-core political junkies, the endless campaign is a reality of modern politics. With some midterm races still unresolved, voters' attention is already turned to 2012. And no potential presidential candidate …
Discussion:
Conservatives4Palin.com, Politics Daily, Taylor Marsh and GOP 12
Tom Jensen / Public Policy Polling:
Brown in good position — As Scott Brown's first year in the Senate comes to a close he remains an extremely formidable political presence and leads five hypothetical 2012 reelection opponents by margins ranging anywhere from 7 to 19 points. — Vicki Kennedy (48-41) and Deval Patrick …
Discussion:
Yglesias and Taegan Goddard's …
Kendra Marr / The Politico:
Tim Pawlenty PAC spends $300K in a month — Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty's political action committee shelled out more than $300,000 over the last month, as the presidential hopeful trekked across the country stumping for Republican candidates. — Pawlenty's Freedom First PAC raised …
Discussion:
CNN