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:
Left Coast Rebel, Salon, Taylor Marsh, NewsBusters.org blogs, CNN, Guardian, The Daily Caller, JammieWearingFool, Threat Level, Stop the War Coalition …, The Other McCain, AOL News, The Stir By CafeMom, National Review, Gothamist, Pat Dollard, The Nation, Raw Story, The Gateway Pundit, Shakesville and The Powers That Be
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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:
Guardian, The Atlantic Online, BBC, Politics Daily, msnbc.com, CNN, The Nation, PC Magazine, Latest Open Salon Blog, The Lede, Online NewsHour, Tea & Tech, Raw Story, TPMMuckraker, The Firewall, The Next Web, AOL News, The Gateway Pundit, Clusterstock, Boing Boing, Hit & Run, The Daily Dish, AMERICAblog News, Reuters, Gawker, American Power and Foreign Policy, more at Techmeme »
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 …
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 …
Alexis Madrigal / The Atlantic Online:
Photos: Here's The Manor Where Julian Assange Will Be Staying
Photos: Here's The Manor Where Julian Assange Will Be Staying
Discussion:
Little Green Footballs
Meredith Chaiken / Washington Post:
Poll: Americans say WikiLeaks harmed public interest; most want Assange arrested
Poll: Americans say WikiLeaks harmed public interest; most want Assange arrested
Discussion:
Yahoo! News, Firedoglake, Hullabaloo and Prairie Weather
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.
Hudson And Scalia, Ctd.
Discussion:
Balkinization, Right Turn, A plain blog about politics, The Volokh Conspiracy and Hullabaloo
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:
Weigel, TalkLeft, The New Republic, No More Mister Nice Blog, The Daily Dish, TPMDC, Hot Air and ourfuture.org/blogs_chrono/*
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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 …
Discussion:
Checkpoint Washington, The Huffington Post, Wall Street Journal, Don Surber, msnbc.com, the brain police, Mudville Gazette, TPMDC, Los Angeles Times, Agence France Presse, AmSpecBlog, Nicholas D. Kristof, Hot Air, Weasel Zippers, FrumForum, The Atlantic Online, The American Independent, BlogPost, US Department of State, Online NewsHour, Gothamist, The Daily Beast, New Atlanticist, PostPartisan, ThinkProgress, New York Times, Firedoglake, Raw Story, Outside the Beltway, Talking Points Memo, Guardian, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Taylor Marsh, Salon, Booman Tribune, Wonkette and The Washington Note
Ben Smith / Ben Smith's Blog:
Holbrooke's last words — The Washington Post first reported …
Holbrooke's last words — The Washington Post first reported …
Discussion:
Gawker, Washington Post, The Huffington Post, Swampland and Checkpoint Washington
Alexander Bolton / The Hill:
Senate Dems unveil $1.1T spending bill — Senate Democrats have filed a $1.1 trillion omnibus spending bill that would fund the government through fiscal year 2011, according to Senate GOP sources. — The 1,924-page bill includes funding to implement the sweeping healthcare reform bill …
Discussion:
The Politico, The Note, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion and Weasel Zippers
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Stephen Dinan / Washington Times:
Reid threatens to keep Congress into next year — New spending bill totals $575.13 million per page — Forget about going quietly into the night. — Senate Democrats on Tuesday unveiled a broad agenda for an end-of-session sprint that, in other years, could be a whole year's worth of activity …
Discussion:
Fox News and Weasel Zippers
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Greg Sargent / The Plum Line:
Harry Reid must vow to hold vote on DADT repeal
Harry Reid must vow to hold vote on DADT repeal
Discussion:
TPMDC, Wonk Room, Washington Monthly, The Hill, A plain blog about politics, The Politico, PostPartisan, AMERICAblog Gay and AOL News
Jonathan Weisman / Washington Wire:
Senate Looks at After-Christmas Votes
Senate Looks at After-Christmas Votes
Discussion:
Michelle Malkin and Pundit & Pundette
The Hill:
Liberals giving up tax fight — A House liberal who has led the effort to stop President Obama's tax compromise with the GOP says efforts to change the package are futile. — Rep. Peter Welch (D-Vt.), who just a week ago circulated a letter signed by 54 Democrats urging opposition to the deal, now says the “die is cast.”
Discussion:
The Daily Caller, Washington Post, Online NewsHour, Right Turn, Guardian, National Review and The Other McCain
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Simmi Aujla / The Politico:
Steny Hoyer: Estate tax a ‘great concern’
Steny Hoyer: Estate tax a ‘great concern’
Discussion:
The Hill and Ezra Klein
Tyler Cowen / The American Interest:
The Inequality That Matters — Does growing wealth and income inequality in the United States presage the downfall of the American republic? Will we evolve into a new Gilded Age plutocracy, irrevocably split between the competing interests of rich and poor?
Discussion:
Economix, JustOneMinute, Ross Douthat, Democracy in America, Free exchange, Marginal Revolution, The Glittering Eye and EconLog
Igor Volsky / ThinkProgress:
Marine Commandant Suggests Presence Of Gays Would Endanger The Lives Of Straight Marines — Speaking to reporters this afternoon, Marine Commandant Gen. James Amos — who has opposed repealing Don't Ask, Don't Tell — suggested that if Congress lifts the ban against open service and allows gays …
Discussion:
Wonk Room and Pam's House Blend
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Patrick Healy / ArtsBeat:
Actress Thora Birch Fired From ‘Dracula’ — The producers of the Off Broadway revival of “Dracula” fired their star actress Thora Birch on Friday, four days before the play's first performance, the production's director and Ms. Birch said in interviews on Monday.
Jennifer Epstein / The Politico:
Carter: Biggest failure was '80 loss — Former President Jimmy Carter says his biggest failure during his term in the White House was that he didn't get to spend another four years there. — “I guess my biggest failure was not getting reelected,” he said in an interview with Big Think, referring to the 1980 presidential election.
Discussion:
Weasel Zippers
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, Balloon Juice, Joe. My. God. 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, The Right Scoop and Weasel Zippers
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
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
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:
Firedoglake, ourfuture.org/blogs_chrono/* and Yglesias
The Huffington Post:
Obama's Judges Blocked At Historic Rate — WHAT'S YOUR REACTION? … As the first congressional session of Obama's presidency draws to a close, what began as a slow process of confirmation has ballooned into a full-blown judicial crisis. The Senate has overseen the slowest pace …
Discussion:
Washington Monthly, The Daily Dish, The New Republic, AOL News and Hullabaloo
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 and Associated Press
Patrik Jonsson / Christian Science Monitor:
Census: Segregation hits 100-year lows in most American metro areas — New Census figures released Tuesday shows that 75 percent of US metro areas - most of them in the South and West - saw racial segregation drop to levels not seen for more than a century. — Atlanta
Discussion:
Hit & Run
CNBC:
Moody's May Cut US Rating on Tax Package — Moody's warned Monday that it could move a step closer to cutting the U.S. Aaa rating if President Obama's tax and unemployment benefit package becomes law. — The plan agreed to by President Obama and Republican leaders last week could push up debt levels …
Discussion:
Right Wing News
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 …