Top Items:
Michael Moore / Open Mike:
Why I'm Posting Bail Money for Julian Assange — Yesterday, in the Westminster Magistrates Court in London, the lawyers for WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange presented to the judge a document from me stating that I have put up $20,000 of my own money to help bail Mr. Assange out of jail.
Discussion:
Salon, Yahoo! News, Guardian, Taylor Marsh, NewsBusters.org blogs, The Stir By CafeMom, CNN, Stop the War Coalition …, The Nation, The Daily Caller, The Other McCain, JammieWearingFool, National Review, Threat Level, Gothamist, AOL News, Pat Dollard, Raw Story, Shakesville, The Gateway Pundit, The Powers That Be and PC Magazine
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Matthew Weaver / News: News blog:
Julian Assange granted bail: live updates — • Assange granted bail to cheers from supporters — • He remains in custody as Sweden says it will appeal — • Assange criticises Visa, MasterCard and Paypal from cell — • Police worked case against Madeleine McCann's parents
Discussion:
The Atlantic Online, BBC, Politics Daily, Guardian, PC Magazine, Latest Open Salon Blog, The Nation, Online NewsHour, msnbc.com, CNN, The Lede, The Daily Dish, Tea & Tech, Raw Story, TPMMuckraker, The Firewall, The Next Web, AOL News, The Gateway Pundit, Clusterstock, Boing Boing, American Power, Reuters, Gawker and Foreign Policy
Ezra Klein:
Why the tax deal might fail — I listed some of the conservative critics of the tax deal in Wonkbook today (Rush Limbaugh, Sarah Palin, the Tea Party Patriots, Charles Krauthammer), but Playbook shows their ranks are growing: Mitt Romney has an op-ed in USA Today saying the tax deal gives “President Obama ... reason to celebrate.
Discussion:
TalkLeft, The New Republic, The Daily Dish, A plain blog about politics, Hot Air, TPMDC and ourfuture.org/blogs_chrono/*
Rajiv Chandrasekaran / Washington Post:
Richard Holbrooke dies: Veteran U.S. diplomat brokered Dayton peace accords — Longtime U.S. diplomat Richard C. Holbrooke, whose relentless prodding and deft maneuvering yielded the 1995 Dayton peace accords that ended the war in Bosnia - a success he hoped to repeat as President Obama's chief envoy …
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The Huffington Post, Ben Smith's Blog, Checkpoint Washington, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic Online, msnbc.com, Mudville Gazette, TPMDC, Los Angeles Times, The American Independent, Agence France Presse, US Department of State, New Atlanticist, Nicholas D. Kristof, Politics Daily, AOL News, Hot Air, Weasel Zippers, FrumForum, Online NewsHour, ThinkProgress, The Daily Beast, PostPartisan, BlogPost, Firedoglake, Gothamist, Raw Story, Outside the Beltway, Guardian, Salon, Talking Points Memo, The Washington Note, Taylor Marsh, Booman Tribune, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Political Punch, Wonkette, Balloon Juice and AMERICAblog News
New York Times:
Release on Bail of WikiLeaks Founder Is Delayed by Appeal — LONDON — After a week in detention facing possible extradition, Julian Assange, the founder of the WikiLeaks antisecrecy group, was ordered released on $310,000 bail by a court on Tuesday as he challenges a Swedish prosecutor's demand …
Discussion:
Hot Air, Washington Post, The Lede, Firedoglake, Wonkette, FrumForum and Salon
Mike In / Michael Moore:
WITNESS STATEMENT OF MICHAEL MOORE — WITNESS STATEMENT — (CJ Act 1967, s.9 MC Act 1980, ss.5A(3)(a) and 5B; — Criminal Procedure Rules 2010, Rule 27) — This statement (consisting of 2 pages each signed by me) is true to the best of my knowledge and belief and I make it knowing that …
Discussion:
newsfeed.time.com, Vanity Fair, Guardian, Foreign Policy, Weasel Zippers, AOL News, The American Independent, The Gateway Pundit and FrumForum
Alexis Madrigal / The Atlantic Online:
Photos: Here's The Manor Where Julian Assange Will Be Staying — So, this is where Julian Assange will be vacationing from prison. It's Ellingham Hall in Suffolk, England, an estate owned by the independently wealthy journalist Vaughan Smith (and his parents, according to the UK title).
Discussion:
Little Green Footballs
Brian Beutler / TPMDC:
Amateur Hour: VA Judge Makes Elementary Error In Health Care Ruling — The Virginia federal district court judge who ruled yesterday that the individual mandate in the health care bill is unconstitutional is catching a lot of flack — and not just for having a financial interest in an anti-health care reform consulting firm.
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Washington Post:
Health reform will survive its legal fight — In March, New Hampshire preschool teacher Gail O'Brien, who was unable to obtain health insurance through her employer, was diagnosed with an aggressive form of lymphoma. Her subsequent applications for health insurance were rejected because of her condition.
Adam Serwer / American Prospect:
Hudson And Scalia, Ctd. — Like me, Jason Mazzone believes that Justice Antonin Scalia was Judge Henry E. Hudson's intended audience in his ruling striking down the individual mandate in the Affordable Care Act: … My personal belief is that Republicans hate the law and want to see it gone …
Discussion:
Balkinization, Right Turn, A plain blog about politics, Hullabaloo and Washington Monthly
Jonathan H. Adler / The Volokh Conspiracy:
Further Thoughts on the Virginia Health Care Ruling and the Necessary …
Further Thoughts on the Virginia Health Care Ruling and the Necessary …
Discussion:
Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, New York Times, Balkinization, The Incidental Economist, The New Republic, Daily Kos and TalkLeft
Alexander Bolton / The Hill:
Huge Senate majority votes to advance $858B tax package — President Obama's $858 billion tax package won a huge bipartisan majority in the Senate Monday evening, setting it up for a contentious debate in the House. — In a 83-15 vote, the Senate quashed a filibuster by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Va.).
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Jonathan Weisman / Washington Wire:
Senate Looks at After-Christmas Votes
Senate Looks at After-Christmas Votes
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Michelle Malkin
Alexander Bolton / The Hill:
Reid, Senate Dems plan to move START arms treaty as soon as Wednesday
Reid, Senate Dems plan to move START arms treaty as soon as Wednesday
Discussion:
FrumForum
Igor Volsky / Wonk Room:
Hoyer And Murphy Introduce DADT Measure In The House
Hoyer And Murphy Introduce DADT Measure In The House
Discussion:
Washington Monthly, The Plum Line, TPMDC, AOL News, Salon and Daily Kos
Washington Post:
Tax-cut package clears procedural hurdle in Senate
Tax-cut package clears procedural hurdle in Senate
Discussion:
Federal Eye, The Fix, Online NewsHour, Sweet Home Potomac, msnbc.com, The Caucus, Blue Virginia and Outside the Beltway
Jordan Fabian / The Hill:
House Dems introduce stand-alone measure to repeal 'Don't ask'
House Dems introduce stand-alone measure to repeal 'Don't ask'
Discussion:
The Plum Line and FrumForum
Matt Bai / New York Times:
As Electoral Ground Shifts, Bloomberg Could Skip the Party — On Sunday, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg flatly ruled out an independent run for president in 2012. On Monday, he appeared at the national unveiling in New York of No Labels, a group that aspires to build a grass-roots movement …
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James C. McKinley Jr / New York Times:
Atheist Ads on Buses Rattle Fort Worth — FORT WORTH — Stand on a corner in this city and you might get a case of theological whiplash. — A public bus rolls by with an atheist message on its side: “Millions of people are good without God.” Seconds later, a van follows bearing a riposte: “I still love you.
Discussion:
Vox Popoli, Joe. My. God., Balloon Juice and American Power
Jeff Poor / The Daily Caller:
Scarborough blasts MSNBC's bias: They always will say ‘a George W. Bush-appointee,’ ‘a Reagan appointee’ — “Morning Joe” host Joe Scarborough doesn't let much slip by him - well not today, at least. — On his December 14 program, Scarborough pointed out the bias at his network, MSNBC, and even offered a particular example.
Discussion:
Hot Air, Mediaite, Weasel Zippers and The Right Scoop
Tim Cavanaugh / Hit & Run:
“Erin Brockovich” Town Shows No Cancer Cluster — Hinkley, California, the town made famous in the Oscar-winning Julia Roberts movie Erin Brockovich, does not show any evidence of an increased rate of cancers. — Pacific Gas and Electric, which released a toxic plume of hexavalent chromium 6 …
Discussion:
Big Hollywood, Outside the Beltway, Associated Press and Overlawyered
Michael O'Brien / The Hill:
Corker assembling bloc to demand reforms ahead of debt ceiling vote — Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) said Tuesday he's hoping to assemble a bloc of senators who will demand tax and spending reforms before agreeing to vote to raise the U.S. debt ceiling next year.
Discussion:
Yglesias, ourfuture.org/blogs_chrono/* and FrumForum
Abdon M. Pallasch / Chicago Sun Times:
Key questions surrounding the Rahm Emanuel residency case — As Rahm Emanuel prepares to testify in the residency case challenging his eligibility to run for mayor of Chicago, here are some questions and answers. — Q. Isn't this just a big joke? — A. No, this is serious business.
Discussion:
Reuters, Politics Daily and Taegan Goddard's …
Paul Waldman / American Prospect:
Some Tax Context. — As we move toward some kind of resolution of the tax debate, I thought it might be worthwhile to put some things in context, particularly the question of the top marginal tax rate. That's the one conservatives are so desperate to keep low, and part of the reason liberals …
Discussion:
Yglesias
Kat Stoeffel / New York Observer:
No Labels and Other Ripped Off Designs — Brooklyn-based artist Thomas Porostocky's friends and fans have been tipping off NY media that his art has been used without permission by the bi-partisan political group No Labels. — Porostocky designed star-spangled giraffes …
Discussion:
Crooks and Liars, City Room, bjkeefe, TPMDC and The Daily Caller
Eric Boehlert / Media Matters for America:
Memo to the media: They're called “obstructionists” — That sore-loser phrase doesn't seem to get much use these days. Yet watching Senate Republicans in the minority essentially close down the chamber, not allowing any votes to proceed until their demands are met regarding tax cuts for the very wealthy …
Discussion:
Yglesias, Crooks and Liars and Daily Kos
67.59.172.92:
Lifting gay ban could endanger US Marines: general — The chief of the US Marine Corps said Tuesday that ending a ban on openly gay troops in the military could jeopardize the lives of Marines in combat by undermining closely knit units. — General James Amos, commandant of the Marine Corps …
Discussion:
ThinkProgress and AMERICAblog Gay