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David Rogers / The Politico:
Democrats concede budget fight to Republicans — Senate Democrats abruptly abandoned an omnibus budget bill for the coming year, pushing major spending decisions into the next Congress and giving Republicans immense new leverage to confront President Barack Obama priorities.
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The Note:
Big Boost for Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal: Brown Backs Senate Bill — ABC News' Matthew Jaffe reports: — Massachusetts Republican Scott Brown today voiced his support for a stand-alone repeal of the military's Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy, bringing the bill one vote over the 60-vote threshold …
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The Politico, TPMDC, Hot Air, Firedoglake, CNN, The Plum Line, Wonk Room, Washington Monthly, Balloon Juice, DownWithTyranny!, Towleroad News #gay, The Hill, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Talking Points Memo, Salon, No More Mister Nice Blog, Daily Kos, AMERICAblog Gay, USA Today, Weasel Zippers, Booman Tribune, iOwnTheWorld.com, Gawker, Indecision Forever, Advocate, FrumForum and Outside the Beltway
Alexander Bolton / The Hill:
GOP will paralyze Senate floor with reading of 1,924-page spending bill — Republicans will paralyze the Senate floor for 50 hours by forcing clerks to read every single paragraph of the 1,924-page, $1.1 trillion omnibus spending bill. — Senate clerks are expected to read the massive bill …
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The Note, Mother Jones, The Politico, Firedoglake, Cubachi, Michelle Malkin, Washington Monthly, Stop The ACLU, Pundit & Pundette, The Democratic Daily, Weasel Zippers, JOSHUAPUNDIT, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Doug Ross, The Powers That Be, Althouse, New York Times, Outside the Beltway, Pirate's Cove and Don Surber
The Hill:
Sen. Wyden to have surgery for prostate cancer, will miss votes — Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) will undergo surgery next week to treat early-stage prostate cancer, forcing him to miss Friday's Senate session and parts of next week. — Wyden's impending absence threatens to significantly …
Discussion:
The Note, CNN, AMERICAblog Gay and FrumForum
Manu Raju / The Politico:
Senators might make it home for holidays — Senators might make it home for Christmas after all. — Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announced Thursday night that he would scrap a $1.1 trillion omnibus spending bill that would fund the entire government, in favor of a short-term resolution whose length has not been determined.
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National Review
John Aravosis / AMERICAblog Gay:
Reid files for cloture on DADT tonight (wonky but important) — Senator Reid has apparently just announced his intent to file for cloture later this evening on DADT and the DREAM Act. Another report, from Advocate reporter Kerry Eleveld, says that Reid has filed for cloture on both.
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Good As You and Pam's House Blend
Igor Volsky / Wonk Room:
Reid Files Cloture On Don't Ask, Don't Tell And DREAM, Schedules Cloture Votes For Saturday — Moments ago, citing a shortage of votes, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) unexpectedly pulled the omnibus bill off the floor and instead filed cloture on the stand-alone Don't Ask …
Discussion:
Good As You and Towleroad News #gay
Vicki Needham / The Hill:
Reid pulls back from yearlong omnibus, aims for short-term funding resolution — Without an agreement in hand, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said he'd work to complete a short-term continuing resolution instead of a yearlong bill before the current funding expires Saturday night.
Discussion:
The Foundry, Right Turn and Doug Ross
Evan McMorris-Santoro / TPMDC:
DADT Moves In The Senate: Reid To File Cloture Tonight, Vote On Saturday
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The Page
Greg Sargent / The Plum Line:
Good news and bad news on DADT
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Wonk Room, Talking Points Memo, The Politico, Firedoglake, Advocate, AMERICAblog Gay and Washington Monthly
Allahpundit / Hot Air:
Victory: Reid pulls earmark-packed omnibus spending bill
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AmSpecBlog, Pajamas Media and Patterico's Pontifications
Taegan Goddard's Political Wire:
Extra Bonus Quote of the Day
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A plain blog about politics and The Daily Dish
Steve Benen / Washington Monthly:
OBNOXIOUS DELAYS FOR THE SAKE OF OBNOXIOUS DELAYS.... The irony is …
Discussion:
The Caucus, The Note, Pat Dollard and Balloon Juice
Russell Berman / The Hill:
House tax vote could be delayed — A final House vote on President Obama's tax proposal could be delayed after Democratic leaders were forced to pull a procedural measure off the House floor Thursday. — The House was set to vote on the rule governing debate on the broad tax bill …
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The Politico, Swampland, Washington Wire, Hot Air, Michelle Malkin, Firedoglake, Open Congress, The Other McCain, Taylor Marsh, Weasel Zippers, Shopfloor, The Page and Daily Kos
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The Hill:
Late-night House tax vote back on after Pelosi appeases liberals
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Outside the Beltway
Jordan Fabian / The Hill:
Rep. Weiner compares Senate to the ‘1970s Politburo’
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Weasel Zippers
Washington Post:
Senate overwhelmingly approves tax-cut deal
Discussion:
Firedoglake, PostPartisan, Big Think, Federal Eye, Wall Street Journal, FrumForum, The Hill, New York Times and The Politico
Fhardingj / CNN:
BREAKING: House Democratic leaders pull the tax bill from the House floor
Discussion:
Firedoglake, msnbc.com, The Politico, USA Today, Sky Dancing and Nice Deb
Glenn Reynolds / Instapundit:
AND YET APOLOGISTS IN AMERICA WERE COMPARING HIM TO THE EARLY CHRISTIANS: Mao's Great Leap To Famine: “The worst catastrophe in China's history, and one of the worst anywhere, was the Great Famine of 1958 to 1962, and to this day the ruling Communist Party has not fully acknowledged the degree …
Discussion:
The Daily Dish, Questions and Observations, Mudville Gazette, Moe Lane and Cold Fury
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Frank Dikötter / New York Times:
Mao's Great Leap to Famine
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Questions and Observations, The Peking Duck, Fausta's Blog and Althouse
Megan McArdle / The Atlantic Online:
Where Freedom Goes to Die: The Center for Science in the Public Interest — I find it deeply disturbing that such a lawsuit was even contemplated in my country, even if it is likely to be thrown out on appeal: … One shudders to consider that when Patrick Henry stood up in St. John's Church and declared …
Discussion:
NY Daily News, Modeled Behavior, Cato @ Liberty, Cold Fury, JammieWearingFool, Outside the Beltway and The Daily Caller
Bloomberg:
Visa, MasterCard Plunge as Fed Issues Rules to Cut Debit Fees — Visa Inc. and MasterCard Inc. plunged more than 10 percent in New York trading after the Federal Reserve Board proposed rules that could slash debit-card interchange fees by 90 percent. — The new rules, posted today by the Fed …
Discussion:
Firedoglake, The Atlantic Online and Clusterstock
Tanya Somanader / ThinkProgress:
Durbin: The $1.1 Trillion Omnibus Spending Bill Is ‘Exactly The Number’ McConnell Asked For — Senate Republicans have spent the last few days acting shocked and outraged over this year's omnibus spending bill, which would fund the government through next Sept. 30.
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The Hill, The Huffington Post and Daily Kos
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John Cook / Gawker:
The Daily Beast Has Stopped Editing Meghan McCain — Meghan McCain is the illiterate daughter of a ruined man, which makes her “column” for the Daily Beast something of a challenge for her editors. But by the looks of today's offering, they've given up. — Were you wondering what McCain thinks …
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The Daily Beast and Mock, Paper, Scissors
Aljean Harmetz / New York Times:
Blake Edwards, Prolific Comedy Director, Dies at 88 — Blake Edwards, a writer and director who became a Hollywood master of screwball farces and rude comedies like “Victor/Victoria” and the “Pink Panther” movies, died Wednesday night in Santa Monica, Calif. He was 88. — Enlarge This Image
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Scared Monkeys, Gothamist, AOL News, First Draft and Gawker
Sally C. Pipes / Forbes:
The Fatal Move From The FDA — Some women will face shorter, more painful lives without Avastin. — On Dec. 17 the Food and Drug Administration is expected to take the radical step of revoking approval for an advanced drug in the treatment of one of the country's most deadly diseases.
Discussion:
Big Government, Doug Ross, theblogprof and AOL News
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First Read / msnbc.com:
First Thoughts: As bad as it gets? — New NBC/WSJ poll: If this is as bad as it gets for Obama, he's in good shape for 2012... If not, watch out... What's benefiting the president right now: a strong base and the fact the public finds him likeable... Palin's poor poll position …
Discussion:
Mother Jones, Outside the Beltway, Alan Colmes' Liberaland and The New Republic
Adrian Chen / Gawker:
The Creepy, Lovesick Emails of Julian Assange — Julian Assange, the founder of the world's most notorious secret-sharing operation, has some embarrassing documents in his own past. We've obtained a series of emails detailing his stalkery courtship of a teenager in his pre-Wikileaks days.
Discussion:
CNN, The Huffington Post, Runnin' Scared, Wonkette and pandagon.net
Ross Douthat:
The Strange Case for Mitt Romney — David Frum, puzzling over the inconsistencies in Mitt Romney's recent op-ed attacking the tax deal: … I hear similar things from Romney supporters (or people trying to convince themselves to be Romney supporters) with remarkable frequency.
Discussion:
Eunomia, The New Republic and Commentary
Fran Spielman / Chicago Sun Times:
Meeks says minority contracts should only go to blacks — Mayoral challenger James Meeks scrambled Thursday to put out a political fire touched off by his suggestion that only African-Americans should be eligible for city contracts set aside for minorities and women.
Discussion:
Weasel Zippers, Say Anything and JammieWearingFool
Ben Armbruster / ThinkProgress:
Warning: ‘Greater Exposure’ To Fox News Will Lead To ‘Increased Misinformation’ On Policy Issues — Last week, World Public Opinion (WPO) released a poll exploring political information in a post-Citizens United national election and found that 90 percent of voters “said that in the 2010 election …
Discussion:
Crooks and Liars, Booman Tribune, Liberal Values and AlterNet
Alexia Tsotsis / TechCrunch:
Is Yahoo Shutting Down Del.icio.us? [Update: Yes] — For a couple of days now, we've been hearing rumors that the Yahoo layoffs included the entire Delicious team. Now Former Yahoo employee and Upcoming founder Andy Baio has tweeted out the above Yahoo! product team meeting slide that seems …
Discussion:
The Next Web, Lifehacker, Gizmodo, Geekosystem, Bits and Greg's Opinion, more at Techmeme »
Jeff Poor / The Daily Caller:
Barbra Streisand glad Hillary not first female president: They'd have ‘blamed her gender’ for economic crisis — On Wednesday's broadcast of “Larry King Live” on CNN, the second-to-final show for host Larry King, singer Barbra Streisand explained why she left the country during November's midterm.
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Commentary
Matt Taibbi / Rolling Stone:
Bernie Sanders Puts Barack Obama to Shame — In an era of Democratic waffling and compromise, the Independent from Vermont actually stands up for what he believes in — Not long ago I was sitting at home writing something for publication - I won't say what, except that it was a passage about a certain politician on the Hill.
Discussion:
Balloon Juice
William A. Jacobson / Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion:
It Also Was Called The Soviet Union — I traveled extensively throughout the Soviet Union during the early 1980s, both with groups and on my own approved itineraries. I also lived in Moscow, and had a chance to slip out of the ring road with Soviet friends into the countryside …
Discussion:
National Review, JOSHUAPUNDIT and Left Coast Rebel
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