Top Items:
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, Questions and Observations, JOSHUAPUNDIT, The Powers That Be, And So it Goes in Shreveport, Scared Monkeys, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, The Note, The Hill, The Gateway Pundit, The Daily Caller, National Review, Doug Ross, Hugh Hewitt's TownHall Blog, Weasel Zippers and The Democratic Daily
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Scott Wong / The Politico:
Omnibus includes $8B in earmarks
Discussion:
Sky Dancing, The Note, Daily Kos and FrumForum
David M. Herszenhorn / The Caucus:
Dreaming of a Post-Christmas Congress
Discussion:
Washington Monthly, Yglesias, TPMDC, Taegan Goddard's … and Daily Kos
Washington Post:
Senators load spending bill with earmarks
Discussion:
Washington Monthly, Ezra Klein, USA Today and Right Turn
Fox News:
Revolt: Republicans Angry About Omnibus Spending Bill Decry ‘Total Mess’
Discussion:
And So it Goes in Shreveport, RedState, Hot Air, Right Turn and National Review
Yuval Levin / National Review:
The Democrats' Capstone — The proposed Senate omnibus bill makes …
Discussion:
Cold Fury
James Richardson / RedState:
RedState Action Alert: Dissect the Omnibus
Discussion:
Hot Air, National Review, gopleader.gov, Betsy's Page and Whiskey Fire
The Note:
Thune vs. Romney: First Skirmish of the Campaign for 2012 GOP …
Discussion:
The Politico, CNN and The Page
Stephen Dinan / Washington Times:
Reid threatens to keep Congress into next year
Discussion:
RedState, Pat Dollard, Weasel Zippers and Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion
The Politico:
Obama plans 2011 staff makeover — President Barack Obama has delayed the most significant staff shuffle of his presidency until after New Year's — but the changes may be more sweeping than anticipated and could include the hiring of high-profile Democrats defeated in the midterms.
Discussion:
Ben Smith's Blog and FrumForum
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Sam Youngman / Ballot Box:
The left's frustration with President Obama will hamper his fundraising — President Obama's stark move to the middle will cost him. As in cash, and lots of it. — Democrats in Washington think President Obama is hurting his mighty fundraising prowess by repeatedly ticking off the people …
Discussion:
JammieWearingFool
Patrick Gavin / The Politico:
WHITE HOUSE APPOINTS JON BON JOVI — Actor. Poet. Musician. Performer. Rocker Jon Bon Jovi can now add one more title to his impressive resume: White House appointee. — On Tuesday, President Barack Obama signed an executive order establishing the White House Council for Community Solutions …
Discussion:
Michelle Malkin and Scared Monkeys
Ed O'Keefe / Federal Eye:
Obama taps Jon Bon Jovi for new advisory board
Discussion:
Firedoglake and Weasel Zippers
Reuters:
Financial Crisis Panel In Turmoil As Republicans Defect; Plan To Blame Government For Crisis — WHAT'S YOUR REACTION? … The four Republicans appointed to the commission investigating the root causes of the financial crisis plan to bypass the bipartisan panel and release their own report Wednesday …
Discussion:
Guardian and Emptywheel
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Sewell Chan / New York Times:
G.O.P. Panelists Dissent on Cause of Crisis — WASHINGTON — The Republican members of the commission appointed by Congress to investigate the causes of the financial crisis plan to release on Wednesday a document that assigns government housing policies substantial blame for the origins of the 2008 financial crisis.
Discussion:
naked capitalism and Prairie Weather
Jeffrey M. Jones / Gallup:
Congress' Job Approval Rating Worst in Gallup History — Thirteen percent approve of the way Congress is handling its job — PRINCETON, NJ — Americans' assessment of Congress has hit a new low, with 13% saying they approve of the way Congress is handling its job.
Discussion:
The Hill, Online NewsHour, The Foundry, Hot Air, Outside the Beltway, The Gateway Pundit, CNN, Top of the Ticket and JammieWearingFool
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Washington Post:
Post-ABC Poll: Public not yet sold on GOP — Republicans made major gains in the November elections, but they have yet to win the hearts and minds of the American people, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll. — The midterm elections - where Republicans gained 63 seats …
Discussion:
Federal Eye, Outside the Beltway, Daily Kos, Front Row Washington, Behind the Numbers, The Politico, Politics Daily and CNN
Eric Schmitt / New York Times:
Air Force Blocks Sites That Posted Secret Cables — WASHINGTON — The Air Force is barring its personnel from using work computers to view the Web sites of The New York Times and more than 25 other news organizations and blogs that have posted secret cables obtained by WikiLeaks, Air Force officials said Tuesday.
Discussion:
The Confluence, AMERICAblog News, ParaPundit, Wonkette and FrumForum
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Lev Grossman / Time:
Mark Zuckerberg — On the afternoon of Nov. 16, 2010, Mark Zuckerberg was leading a meeting in the Aquarium, one of Facebook's conference rooms, so named because it's in the middle of a huge work space and has glass walls on three sides so everybody can see in.
Discussion:
Hot Air, The Moderate Voice, Yahoo! News, The Next Web, The Gateway Pundit, This Just In, TechCrunch, The Page and PopEater, more at Techmeme »
Lori Montgomery / Washington Post:
House Democrats consider amendments to estate tax — As the Senate prepared Tuesday to push through a sweeping tax package negotiated by the White House and congressional Republicans, House leaders were looking to amend the measure to satisfy the concerns of angry liberals without unraveling the deal altogether.
RELATED:
David Cay Johnston / Nieman Reports:
It's Scary Out There in Reporting Land — ‘Beats are fundamental to journalism, but our foundation is crumbling.’ — To understand how badly we're doing the most basic work of journalism in covering the law enforcement beat, try sitting in a barbershop. When I was getting my last haircut …
Discussion:
Poynter and Philly.com
Martin Indyk / The New Republic:
How We Can Honor Richard Holbrooke's Memory — As Richard Holbrooke's friends and colleagues gathered in the entrance to George Washington Hospital last night to console each other and begin the vigil for his soul, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton came down from saying goodbye to her friend and adviser.
Discussion:
Shakesville
RELATED:
Jess Bravin / Wall Street Journal:
U.S. to Appeal Health Ruling — Move Advances Constitutional Struggle Likely to Reach Supreme Court by 2012 — The Justice Department said it would appeal a decision invalidating a core provision of the federal health-care overhaul, the next skirmish in a constitutional struggle likely …
RELATED:
Christian Heinze / Ballot Box:
In shift, Sarah Palin stresses electability as a reason to run for president — Over the past month, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) has quietly altered her case for the presidency in a savvy shift of rhetoric. — The lofty goal? Turning the main reason a Republican might oppose her into the primary reason for voting for her.
Ben Dimiero / Media Matters for America:
FOXLEAKS: Fox boss ordered staff to cast doubt on climate science — In the midst of global climate change talks last December, a top Fox News official sent an email questioning the “veracity of climate change data” and ordering the network's journalists to “refrain from asserting that the planet has warmed …
Discussion:
The Politico and TPMMuckraker
Michael C. Moynihan / Reason:
Assange's Extremist Employees — Why is WikiLeaks employing a well-known Holocaust denier and his disgraced son? — Last week, I wrote that the widely-linked article positing that the CIA was behind a Swedish woman's accusation of rape against Julian Assange was authored by a Russian-born …
Discussion:
The Local, Little Green Footballs, Weasel Zippers, Harry's Place and Hit & Run
Elisabeth Bumiller / New York Times:
Intelligence Reports Offer Dim Views of Afghan War — WASHINGTON — As President Obama prepares to release a review of American strategy in Afghanistan that will claim progress in the nine-year-old war there, two new classified intelligence reports offer a more negative assessment …
Discussion:
FrumForum and The Washington Note
Theodore H. Frank / Washington Examiner:
Manhattan Moment: Courts shouldn't ignore due process to create class actions — Wal-Mart v. Dukes, a case claiming job discrimination against at least 1.5 million women, reached the Supreme Court last week after the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco agreed, in a 6-5 vote …
Discussion:
Betsy's Page
Walter Shapiro / Politics Daily:
Will Liberals Challenge Obama Amid the Snows of New Hampshire? … Liberal Democrats are, by nature and history, a perpetually disappointed voting bloc. They are either consigned to wail in the political wilderness (the Bush years and the Reagan years) or else the fruits of victory quickly sour …
Discussion:
American Power
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