Top Items:
Ezra Klein:
An imperfect, but not-that-bad, deal on the tax cuts — The White House and the Republicans are pretty close to a final deal on the Bush tax cuts. Here are the specifics, though it's worth saying that as near as this is to completion, it's still not done, and so it could change:
Discussion:
National Review, Commentary, Rortybomb, Mother Jones, Firedoglake, Peter Daou, Zandar Versus The Stupid, The Caucus, Balloon Juice, Economist's View, NPR, Felix Salmon, The Huffington Post, ourfuture.org/blogs_chrono/*, Brilliant at Breakfast, Eunomia, No More Mister Nice Blog, The Plum Line, Daily Kos, Washington Post, The New Republic, Taylor Marsh, Philly.com, Sadly, No! and Economix
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Joe Biden / Washington Post:
Obama: On the way to a failed presidency? — Ronald Reagan famously quipped that the Democratic Party left him before he left the party. Like many progressive supporters of Barack Obama, I'm beginning to have the same feeling about this president. — Consider what we've seen since …
Discussion:
JustOneMinute and The New Republic
New York Times:
Tax Deal Suggests New Path for Obama — WASHINGTON — President Obama announced a tentative deal with Congressional Republicans on Monday to extend the Bush-era tax cuts at all income levels for two years as part of a package that would also keep benefits flowing to the long-term unemployed …
Discussion:
Washington Monthly, Firedoglake, Economix, CNN, Capital Gains and Games blogs, Fox News, Online NewsHour, New York Magazine, Hot Air, Wonkette, Swampland, The Atlantic Online, The Hill, ourfuture.org/blogs_chrono/*, Salon, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Taegan Goddard's …, Guardian, The Baseline Scenario, FiveThirtyEight, Open Congress, The Confluence, The Sundries Shack, The Politico, New York Times, Hullabaloo, The Note, Rortybomb and Unfogged
Paul Krugman:
The Deal — So the tax deal is out. Obama extracted some concessions, with the big surprise being a payroll tax cut. How much better do these concessions make the thing? — Well, for starters we have the two-year extension of the Bush tax cuts. As I pointed out yesterday …
Discussion:
Greg Mankiw's Blog, TPMDC, EconomistMom.com, AMERICAblog News, Guardian and Daily Kos
Jennifer Rubin / Right Turn:
Obama sells out the left: a Republican win on taxes — There really is no other way to say it: the Republicans won, the liberal Democrats lost, and the president sided with the Republicans. The subject, of course, is an agreement to extend all the Bust tax cuts.
Discussion:
NY Daily News, PoliPundit.com, Power Line, JustOneMinute, Hot Air, National Review, Firedoglake, Commentary, The Daily Beast, The Politico, Betsy's Page and Fox Nation
Jake Tapper / Political Punch:
Senior White House Official: ‘We Wanted a Fight,’ too. Congressional Dems 'Wouldn't Throw a Punch' — Vice President Biden heads to Capitol Hill today to lobby Senate Democrats to support the tax cut compromise, as President Obama faces criticism from congressional Democrats …
Discussion:
Ezra Klein, The White House, Outside the Beltway and National Review
Ezra Klein:
Wonkbook: Everything you need to know about the Bush tax cut deal — I'll admit it: I didn't think they had it in them. A temporary extension of the Bush tax cuts? Sure, they could manage that. Fear is a powerful motivator in Washington, and nothing scares politicians like the threat of a tax hike on their constituents.
Discussion:
Washington Monthly, TPMDC, Suburban Guerrilla, The Politico, Economist's View and Eschaton
Shailagh Murray / Washington Post:
Tax-cut deal reached between Obama, Republicans — President Obama and congressional Republicans agreed Monday to a tentative deal that would extend for two years all the Bush-era income tax breaks set to expire on Dec. 31, continue unemployment benefits for an additional 13 months …
The Politico:
Liberal Dems to Obama: fight harder
Discussion:
Top of the Ticket, Taylor Marsh, Hot Air and The Other McCain
Pejman Yousefzadeh / A Chequer-Board of Nights …:
Extending the Bush Tax Cuts
Discussion:
South Capitol Street
Byron York / Washington Examiner:
In tax defeat, Dems pay the price for old tricks
Discussion:
Betsy's Page
Sam Youngman / The Hill:
Left sees tax surrender, says Obama reelection bid now crippled
Discussion:
The Note, McClatchy Washington Bureau, New York Times and Pajamas Media
Scott Wilson / Washington Post:
Obama's tax cut extension part of strategy to show bipartisanship
Discussion:
The Fix, Right Wing News and Prairie Weather
Peter Baker / New York Times:
In Tax Deal With G.O.P., a Portent for the Next 2 Years
Discussion:
ourfuture.org/blogs_chrono/* and Arkansas Blog
Pat Garofalo / ThinkProgress:
Obama Agrees To Extend All Bush Tax Cuts And Cut Estate Tax In Deal With Republicans
Jordan Fabian / The Hill:
Sen. Durbin: Dems could ‘walk out’ on tax cut deal
Discussion:
Washington Monthly, Washington Post, Roll Call and The Hill
Alexander Bolton / The Hill:
Obama sends Biden to Capitol Hill to sell tax deal to angry Dems
Discussion:
Right Turn
New York Times:
Britain Arrests WikiLeaks Founder in Sex Inquiry — LONDON — Police in Britain arrested Julian Assange on Tuesday on a warrant issued in Sweden in connection with alleged sex offenses, British police officials said, the latest twist in the drama swirling around the anti-secrecy group and its beleaguered founder.
Discussion:
Guardian, The Hill, Raw Story, FP Passport, Media Diary, Wonkette, The Nation, pandagon.net, NewsBusters.org, CNN, Boing Boing, The Lede and Prairie Weather, more at Mediagazer »
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BBC:
Wikileaks founder Julian Assange arrested in London — Julian Assange denies sexually assaulting the two women — The founder of the whistle-blowing website Wikileaks, Julian Assange, has been arrested by police in London. — The 39-year-old Australian, who was the subject of a European arrest warrant …
Discussion:
Politics Daily, Guardian, Sky News, The Other McCain, DISSENTING JUSTICE, Gawker, Don Surber and European Tribune, more at Mediagazer »
Richard Pendlebury / Daily Mail:
The Wikileaks sex files: How two one-night stands sparked a worldwide hunt for Julian Assange — A winter morning in backwoods Scandinavia and the chime of a church bell drifts across the snowbound town of Enkoping. Does it also toll for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange?
Discussion:
The Huffington Post, The Gateway Pundit, New York Magazine and LewRockwell.com Blog
NPR:
British Judge Denies Bail For WikiLeaks Founder — A British judge has denied ball for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who told a London court that he intends to fight attempts to extradite him to Sweden on sex-crime allegations. — Judge Howard Riddle told Assange that he had …
Discussion:
Alan Colmes' Liberaland and Mediaite, more at Mediagazer »
Christopher Hitchens / Slate:
The WikiLeaks founder is an unscrupulous megalomaniac with a political agenda. — In my most recent book, I reprint some words from a British Embassy cable, sent from Baghdad to the Foreign Office in 1976. The subject is Iraq's new leader. His quiet coup d'etat is reassuringly described as …
Discussion:
The Daily Caller, Hot Air, JOSHUAPUNDIT, Tim Blair, Daniel W. Drezner, Telegraph and New York Times, more at Mediagazer »
BBC:
Wikileaks' Visa payments suspended
Discussion:
The Huffington Post and Salon, more at Techmeme »
CNN:
Assange arrested in London on Swedish warrant
Discussion:
Parker Spitzer, Outside the Beltway and Gawker
Anthony Faiola / Washington Post:
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange arrested on Swedish warrant
Discussion:
Hot Air and Kirk James Murphy …
Declan McCullagh / CNET News:
MasterCard pulls plug on WikiLeaks payments
Discussion:
The Firewall, Yahoo! News, Threat Level, Techdirt, TPMMuckraker, BBC, Raw Story, TechCrunch, Salon, The Excavator, South Capitol Street, Guardian, Sky Dancing and Gawker, more at Techmeme »
Associated Press:
Elizabeth Edwards gravely ill with cancer — WASHINGTON (AP) — Elizabeth Edwards over the past six years has seen her husband's presidential ambitions thwarted, retreated from public life as their marriage disintegrated over his affair, then emerged to advocate for changes …
Discussion:
The Jawa Report, WTVD-TV, Feministing, TalkLeft, Pam's House Blend and Balloon Juice
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Condoleezza Rice / Wall Street Journal:
New Start: Ratify, With Caveats — The treaty helpfully reinstates on-site verification of Russian nuclear forces, but senators should make it clear to Moscow that they don't see it as limiting U.S. missile defenses. — When U.S. President Bush and Russian President Putin signed the Moscow Treaty in 2002 …
Discussion:
The Politico, Washington Monthly and ThinkProgress
The Star-Ledger Editorial Page:
Christie's bully act getting old — Two years ago, when Chris Christie announced he was running for governor, he dismissed questions about his days as the Godzilla freeholder — when he breathed fire on almost every issue, insulted Morris County colleagues and needlessly stomped on countless toes.
Wall Street Journal:
U.S. Unloads Citi Stake for a $12 Billion Profit — The U.S. Treasury sold the last of its Citigroup Inc. common shares in a $10.5 billion offering that capped the government's biggest bank bailout of the financial-market meltdown. — The stock sale, which was finalized Monday evening …
Discussion:
msnbc.com and Taegan Goddard's …
Jerry Seper / Washington Times:
Panel finds Justice reluctant to take cases of white victims — The Justice Department stonewalled efforts by the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights to investigate the dismissal of a civil complaint against the New Black Panther Party, leaving open the question of whether the department is willing …
Discussion:
Sister Toldjah and Patterico's Pontifications
Sam Dillon / New York Times:
Top Test Scores From Shanghai Stun Educators — With China's debut in international standardized testing, students in Shanghai have surprised experts by outscoring their counterparts in dozens of other countries, in reading as well as in math and science, according to the results of a respected exam.
Discussion:
Hugh Hewitt's TownHall Blog and Prairie Weather
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