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For Obama, Tax Deal Is a Back-Door Stimulus Plan — A year ago, President Obama and the Democrats made the mistake of assuming that an economic recovery was under way. This week's deal to extend the Bush tax cuts shows that the White House's top priority is avoiding the same mistake again …
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Washington Post, Washington Monthly, Wall Street Journal, Economix, CNSNews, ourfuture.org/blogs_chrono/*, Center for American Progress, TaxVox, Associated Press, The Reid Report, ThinkProgress, New York Times, The Big Picture, Suburban Guerrilla, Ezra Klein, Yglesias, Democracy in America and PERRspectives
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DeMint To Oppose “the Deal” — Senator JimDeMint just announced on my program that he will oppose the deal as well as a vote for cloture on the deal. He is reluctant to criticize GOP Senate leadership, but believes the deal at a minimum has to be paid for, and that we need “a permanent economy” …


How the White House cut its deal and lost its base — If you look at the numbers alone, the tax cut deal looks to have robbed Republicans blind. The GOP got around $95 billion in tax cuts for wealthy Americans and $30 billion in estate tax cuts. Democrats got $120 billion in payroll-tax cuts …
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Washington Post, New York Times, Comments from Left Field, Stop The ACLU, TaxVox, Mother Jones, TPMDC, Althouse, The Hill, Outside the Beltway, Guardian, Roll Call, Daily Kos, Marbury, Prairie Weather, Greg Mankiw's Blog, The Atlantic Online, TigerHawk, Economix, Liberal Values, PostPartisan, RedState, Zandar Versus The Stupid, National Review, Betsy's Page, Commentary, The New Republic, msnbc.com, Pajamas Media and Classical Values


Harry Reid tries to add online poker to tax bill — Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is trying to use the tax cut package President Barack Obama brokered with Republicans to legalize online poker, POLITICO has learned — a move that could further complicate the deal Obama announced Monday.
Discussion:
ThinkProgress, The Hill, The Foundry, Scared Monkeys, National Review, Clusterstock, The Daily Beast and Top of the Ticket

Centrist Dem senator supports repealing 'Don't ask, don't tell' — A key centrist Democratic senator said Wednesday that he now favors repealing the military's ban on openly gay service members. — Sen. Mark Pyor (Ark.) explained that he was convinced by the results of the Pentagon's 10-month study …


Pryor Announces Support For Repealing Don't Ask, Don't Tell: 'I Accept The Pentagon's Recommendations' — This morning, Sen. Mark Pryor (D-AR) — who told a local newspaper last month that he considered homosexuality a “sin” — released a statement saying that he accepted the military's recommendations …
Discussion:
AMERICAblog Gay, Joe. My. God. and AMERICAblog News

Democrats to draw line at estate tax after Obama's deal with Republicans
Discussion:
Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion and George's Bottom Line

Americans Support Two Major Elements of Tax Compromise
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The Page and The Daily Caller


Biden and G.O.P. Leader Helped Hammer Out Bipartisan Tax Accord
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The Huffington Post, The Note, The Hill, The Politico, Suburban Guerrilla and Towleroad News #gay

Jim DeMint: I'll vote to filibuster the tax cuts deal
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Politics Daily, Washington Times, The Politico, The Sundries Shack, Washington Wire, South Capitol Street and The Plum Line

Obama Lashes Out At ‘Hostage-Taking’ Republicans, Sanctimonious Democrats
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The Huffington Post, The Moderate Voice, Washington Monthly, msnbc.com and The Hill

O'Donnell calls extending jobless benefits a ‘tragedy’ — Christine O'Donnell on Tuesday compared the “tragedy” of extending unemployment benefits to Pearl Harbor and the death of Elizabeth Edwards. — “Today marks a lot of tragedy,” O'Donnell, the Tea Party-backed GOP Senate candidate from Delaware …
Discussion:
The Moderate Voice, Ben Smith's Blog, Prairie Weather, ourfuture.org/blogs_chrono/* and Hit & Run
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A Political Life Filled With Cruel Reversals — Elizabeth Edwards, who as the wife of former Senator John Edwards gave America an intimate look at a candidate's marriage by sharing his quest for the 2008 presidential nomination as she struggled with incurable cancer and, secretly …

Emmer to concede governor's race — Emmer will make a “major announcement” about the recount at 10:30 a.m., at his Delano home. A GOP source with knowledge of Emmer's plans said he would concede the election. — Republican Tom Emmer is expected to concede the Minnesota governor's race …
Discussion:
TPMDC and The Caucus
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Emmer to concede election to Dayton
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South Capitol Street and Public Policy Polling

Dayton poised to win the recount
Discussion:
Ballot Box, Towleroad News #gay and Shot in the Dark


Obama Goes Medieval on the Left — Damn. I skipped Obama's press conference today, but I guess that was a big mistake. If my Twitter feed is anything to go by, progressive heads were exploding all over the intertubes. Here is Philip Klein's summary:
Discussion:
Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, ourfuture.org/blogs_chrono/*, Booman Tribune, AmSpecBlog, Yglesias and Commentary
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Obama administers a stern scolding to lefty critics
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The Fix, Zandar Versus The Stupid, FiveThirtyEight, South Capitol Street, Alan Colmes' Liberaland and Raw Story


Julian Assange's Great Luck — Why his arrest and jailing in the United Kingdom is good news for him. — A U.K. magistrates' court denied Julian Assange bail and jailed him this morning over charges filed in Sweden that he had violated sex laws in that country last summer.
Discussion:
The Daily Dish, Connecting.the.Dots, Threat Level, South Capitol Street, Guardian, Raw Story, Boing Boing and Mediaite
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President Obama's Sister Souljah week — President Obama's liberal critics are furious, vocal and useful to a White House trying to solve the riddle of reelection. — White House officials who last year viewed the “professional left” as an annoying bunch of ungrateful idealists living …
Discussion:
JammieWearingFool
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Murmurs of Primary Challenge to Obama — WASHINGTON — President Obama's compromise with Republicans on extending tax cuts for the wealthy, which his self-described progressive critics see as a profound betrayal, is bound to intensify a debate that has been bubbling up on liberal blogs …
Discussion:
Commentary, Balloon Juice, American Power and Crooks and Liars


At CNN, Talk Show Tensions — In one sweeping move, the 8 p.m. political talk show “Parker Spitzer” could have turned around CNN's flailing prime-time ratings, publicly rehabilitated the fallen New York governor Eliot Spitzer, and turned his co-host Kathleen Parker into a television star.
Discussion:
Mediaite, more at Mediagazer »


1st C.D.: Altschuler concedes (Update) — Here is the Altschuler campaign's just-released statement: — Randy Altschuler, Republican/Conservative candidate, this morning conceded the hard-fought race for New York's 1st Congressional District seat. With approximately 977 absentee ballots left …
Discussion:
Taegan Goddard's … and msnbc.com

New McCain, New DREAM. — John McCain has co-sponsored several previous versions of the DREAM Act, including the far more liberal 2003 version that didn't have an age cap. The much narrower legislation under consideration this year, which would offer a path to citizenship for immigrants …
Discussion:
Michelle Malkin, AILA and The Huffington Post

In Which Thomas Friedman Insults the Chinese By Pretending That He Can Think Like Them — Let's go to the tape: … Where to begin? — First off, fight over “how and where an airport security officer can touch” Americans is one that goes to the very core of privacy concerns that have been part …
Discussion:
Hot Air


Obama's Deal to Extend High-Earner Tax Cuts Unpopular in Poll — Americans don't approve of keeping the breaks for upper-income taxpayers that are part of the deal President Barack Obama brokered with congressional Republicans, a Bloomberg National Poll shows.
Discussion:
Los Angeles Times

Tax Package Will Aid Nearly All, Especially Highest Earners — The deal to extend the Bush-era tax cuts for two years includes a bevy of additional credits and deductions that will reduce the burden on nearly all households. — But the tax benefits will flow most heavily to the highest earners …
Discussion:
Firedoglake and TBogg


Scientists see fatal flaws in the NASA study of arsenic-based life. — On Thursday, Dec. 2, Rosie Redfield sat down to read a new paper called, “A Bacterium That Can Grow by Using Arsenic Instead of Phosphorus.” Despite its innocuous title, the paper had great ambitions.
Discussion:
Gizmodo, msnbc.com, Watts Up With That?, Gawker, Hot Air, LewRockwell.com Blog and Pharyngula