Top Items:
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.
Discussion:
The Huffington Post, National Review, Fox News, Right Turn, Scared Monkeys, The Reaction, GayPatriot, The Page, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, The Gateway Pundit, Pat Dollard, CNN, FrumForum, Nice Deb, Hot Air and TPMDC
RELATED:
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 …
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:
Poliglot, Good As You and Towleroad News #gay
Alexander Bolton / The Hill:
$1.1 trillion spending bill collapses as GOP senators yank support — Senate Democrats have given up on their plan to pass a $1.1 trillion omnibus spending bill in the face of unified Republican opposition. — The bill's collapse will take with it more than 6,000 earmarks …
Discussion:
Right Wing News and JOSHUAPUNDIT
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 …
Discussion:
The Politico, TPMDC, Hot Air, Wall Street Journal, Towleroad News #gay, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, AMERICAblog Gay, Box Turtle Bulletin, Wonk Room, The Plum Line, Firedoglake, The Hill, Talking Points Memo, CNN, DownWithTyranny!, Balloon Juice, Daily Kos, Washington Monthly, Salon, No More Mister Nice Blog, USA Today, Weasel Zippers, iOwnTheWorld.com, Advocate, Booman Tribune, Gawker, FrumForum, Poliglot, Indecision Forever and Outside the Beltway
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.
The Politico:
Democrats keep 'don't ask' on wish list — Senate Democrats on Thursday moved one step closer to repealing the Pentagon's “don't ask, don't tell” policy, with Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) scheduling a key vote Saturday on a bill to end the ban on openly gay service members.
Discussion:
AMERICAblog Gay and The Hill
The Hill:
Sen. Wyden to have surgery for prostate cancer, will miss votes
Sen. Wyden to have surgery for prostate cancer, will miss votes
Discussion:
The Note, AMERICAblog Gay and FrumForum
Andrew Stiles / National Review:
BREAKING: Reid Caves on Omnibus
BREAKING: Reid Caves on Omnibus
Discussion:
Left Coast Rebel and Transterrestrial Musings
Evan McMorris-Santoro / TPMDC:
DADT Moves In The Senate: Reid To File Cloture Tonight, Vote On Saturday
DADT Moves In The Senate: Reid To File Cloture Tonight, Vote On Saturday
Discussion:
Gawker, Washington Wire and FrumForum
Vicki Needham / The Hill:
Reid pulls back from yearlong omnibus, aims for short-term funding resolution
Reid pulls back from yearlong omnibus, aims for short-term funding resolution
Discussion:
The Foundry, Right Turn and Doug Ross
John Aravosis / AMERICAblog Gay:
Reid files for cloture on DADT tonight (wonky but important)
Reid files for cloture on DADT tonight (wonky but important)
Discussion:
Good As You and Pam's House Blend
Allahpundit / Hot Air:
Victory: Reid pulls earmark-packed omnibus spending bill
Victory: Reid pulls earmark-packed omnibus spending bill
Discussion:
AmSpecBlog, The Sundries Shack, Patterico's Pontifications and Pajamas Media
Tanya Somanader / ThinkProgress:
Durbin: The $1.1 Trillion Omnibus Spending Bill Is 'Exactly …
Durbin: The $1.1 Trillion Omnibus Spending Bill Is 'Exactly …
Discussion:
The Hill, The Huffington Post and Daily Kos
Jennifer Steinhauer / New York Times:
Bid to Repeal 'Don't Ask' Law Draws Support in Senate
Bid to Repeal 'Don't Ask' Law Draws Support in Senate
Discussion:
Oliver Willis
Greg Sargent / The Plum Line:
Good news and bad news on DADT
Good news and bad news on DADT
Discussion:
AMERICAblog Gay, Advocate, Wonk Room, Firedoglake, The Politico, Talking Points Memo and Washington Monthly
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 …
Discussion:
Washington Post, The Politico, Hot Air, Swampland, Michelle Malkin, Firedoglake, Sky Dancing, CNN, Daily Kos, Open Congress, The Other McCain, Taylor Marsh, Nice Deb and Weasel Zippers
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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
Discussion:
Scared Monkeys, Gothamist, AOL News, First Draft and Gawker
RELATED:
Megan McArdle / The Atlantic Online:
Government Arguing That Health Insurance Premiums Are Really Taxes? — The arguments on the health care mandate in Florida went forward today, with the government trying to clarify how the mandate is a tax, (though not in a way that would mean Barack Obama lied about raising taxes on people …
Discussion:
Hit & Run, Bloomberg and Online NewsHour
RELATED:
Jennifer Haberkorn / The Politico:
Health judge fears ‘broccoli’ mandate
Health judge fears ‘broccoli’ mandate
Discussion:
Swampland and NewsBusters.org blogs
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:
Board of Governors …, Firedoglake, The Atlantic Online and Clusterstock
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:
JOSHUAPUNDIT, Left Coast Rebel and Pajamas Media
John / Power Line:
100,000,000 — Some time tonight, this site will receive its 100 millionth visit since October 2008. It seems like an opportune moment for reflection. — We have told this story many times, but here it goes again: by 2002, Scott and I had been writing newspaper op-eds, magazine articles and research papers together for a decade.
Tommy Christopher / Mediaite:
Olbermann Refuses To Correct Treatment Of Assange Rape Allegations On Twitter - Update — Update: Keith Olbermann has announced that he is suspending his Twitter account “until this frenzy is stopped.” — Update 2: This is serious. He has even taken down his profile picture.
Discussion:
Kate Harding, The Huffington Post, Salon, NewsBusters.org blogs, BlogPost, Hot Air, American Power, Tiger Beatdown, Shakesville, Gawker and AOL News
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:
Hot Air, Cold Fury, Cato @ Liberty, Modeled Behavior, Outside the Beltway, NY Daily News and JammieWearingFool
Frank Dikötter / New York Times:
Mao's Great Leap to Famine — HONG KONG — 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 to which it was a direct result of the forcible herding …
Discussion:
The Mahablog, The Volokh Conspiracy, Questions and Observations, The Peking Duck, Fausta's Blog and Althouse
RELATED:
Glenn Reynolds / Instapundit:
AND YET APOLOGISTS IN AMERICA WERE COMPARING HIM TO THE EARLY …
AND YET APOLOGISTS IN AMERICA WERE COMPARING HIM TO THE EARLY …
Discussion:
Mudville Gazette, The Daily Dish, Questions and Observations, Cold Fury and Moe Lane
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 and JammieWearingFool
Bob Egelko / San Francisco Chronicle:
NOW goes after Hooters for catering to kids — (12-16) 17:51 PST SAN FRANCISCO — The National Organization for Women filed complaints against local Hooters restaurants Thursday, but not for exploiting its scantily clad waitresses by subjecting them to leering and groping customers.
Discussion:
Weasel Zippers and Doug Ross
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, New York Times, Runnin' Scared, Wonkette and pandagon.net