Top Items:
ABCNEWS:
Poll: Assessment of Afghanistan War Sours — ABC News/Washington Post Poll: Record Six in 10 Say it's ‘Not Worth Fighting’ — A record 60 percent of Americans say the war in Afghanistan has not been worth fighting, a grim assessment — and a politically hazardous one …
Discussion:
Hot Air
RELATED:
Karen DeYoung / Washington Post:
July troop withdrawal on track, review of Afghan war strategy indicates
July troop withdrawal on track, review of Afghan war strategy indicates
Discussion:
ThinkProgress, Online NewsHour, AOL News and AMERICAblog News
Duncan Gardham / Telegraph:
Drone kills white al-Qaeda pair in Pakistan mountains
Drone kills white al-Qaeda pair in Pakistan mountains
Discussion:
Weasel Zippers and FrumForum
Sam Youngman / The Hill:
Afghanistan review shows progress, but terror concerns remain
Afghanistan review shows progress, but terror concerns remain
Discussion:
Ben Smith's Blog, Washington Post, The Politico and Prairie Weather
Helene Cooper / New York Times:
Afghan Report Sees July Troop Pullouts Despite Perils
Afghan Report Sees July Troop Pullouts Despite Perils
Discussion:
Wonkette, FP Passport, Wonk Room, Wall Street Journal and The Page
Steve Benen / Washington Monthly:
COUNTING VOTES (AND IGNORING GOHMERT).... The floor of the U.S. House offered quite a debate yesterday on repealing the “Don't Ask, Don't Tell” policy, including some beautiful speeches from Democrats on the importance of respect and equality. — On the other end of the spectrum, there was Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas).
Discussion:
Washington Post and AMERICAblog Gay
RELATED:
Igor Volsky / ThinkProgress:
House Approves DADT Repeal, Gohmert Warns Of ‘End Of Existence’
House Approves DADT Repeal, Gohmert Warns Of ‘End Of Existence’
Discussion:
AMERICAblog Gay, The Huffington Post and Open Left
Charlie Savage / New York Times:
U.S. Tries to Build Case for Conspiracy by WikiLeaks — WASHINGTON — Federal prosecutors, seeking to build a case against the WikiLeaks leader Julian Assange for his role in a huge dissemination of classified government documents, are looking for evidence of any collusion in his early contacts …
RELATED:
Matthew Weaver / Guardian:
Julian Assange granted bail at high court
Julian Assange granted bail at high court
Discussion:
The Lede, The Moderate Voice, TalkLeft and Raw Story
Mark Murray / msnbc.com:
Poll: Obama down but not out — NBC/WSJ survey shows president leading in 2012 match-ups — Below: — Deputy Political Director — After his party's midterm losses and with the unemployment rate still hovering around 10 percent, President Barack Obama might be down.
RELATED:
Wall Street Journal:
Support for Obama's Move to the Center
Support for Obama's Move to the Center
Discussion:
Hotline On Call and The Caucus
Christopher Weber / Politics Daily:
Obama in Good Shape for 2012 Despite Current Woes, Poll Finds
Obama in Good Shape for 2012 Despite Current Woes, Poll Finds
Discussion:
Public Policy Polling and Outside the Beltway
Jordan Fabian / The Hill:
Obama tells lawmakers not passing tax deal could end presidency, Dem says — In urging lawmakers to vote for his tax deal, President Obama is using one of his go-to lines from the healthcare debate, according to a Democratic lawmaker. — Obama is telling members of Congress that failure …
Victor Davis Hanson / National Review:
Two Californias — The last three weeks I have traveled about, taking the pulse of the more forgotten areas of central California. I wanted to witness, even if superficially, what is happening to a state that has the highest sales and income taxes, the most lavish entitlements …
Discussion:
protein wisdom, Sense of Events, Pajamas Media, Right Wing News and Cold Fury
Michael O'Brien / The Hill:
Biden scolds GOP on treaty: ‘Get out of the way’ — Vice President Biden issued a stern warning to Senate Republicans to “get out of the way” of Democrats trying to ratify a nuclear arms treaty. — The vice president sharply criticized Senate Republicans who have opposed ratification …
Discussion:
The Hill, Firedoglake and Washington Monthly
RELATED:
David Dayen / Firedoglake:
Servicers Downgraded Credit Score of Man Who Asked for His Note — (Graphic via SEIU's WheresTheNote.com site) — Many homeowners have taken advantage of SEIU's Where's the Note website. It helps you generate letters to your bank to ask for evidence that they hold the mortgage note, or the IOU on the property.
Discussion:
CNBC and The Big Picture
Alex Kowalski / Bloomberg:
Jobless Claims in U.S. Unexpectedly Fell to 420,000 Last Week — The number of U.S. workers filing first-time claims for unemployment benefits unexpectedly declined last week, pointing to a labor market that is on the mend. — Applications for jobless insurance payments decreased by 3,000 to 420,000 …
Discussion:
The Page and Right Wing News
Ezra Klein:
Orszag and Citigroup — James Fallows gently chides me and my paper for not writing more on Peter Orszag's decision to take an executive position with Citigroup. He's probably right to do so, though my silence was in part motivated by terror at having to try and add anything to this brilliant post …
Discussion:
Yglesias, Ben Smith's Blog, The Atlantic Online and Clusterstock
Tommy Christopher / Mediaite:
Michael Moore's Comments on Julian Assange Rape Allegations Spark Outrage — Filmmaker Michael Moore is in hot water over comments he made during Tuesday night's Countdown with Keith Olbermann. In discussing rape allegations against Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, Moore appeared to dismiss …
Discussion:
Weasel Zippers, The Other McCain, The Awl, Theo Spark, Pat Dollard and Feministe
Hotline On Call:
Updating Hotline's RNC Chairman's Race Whip Count — Republican National Committee members now have a total of six candidates from which to choose as they contemplate their next chairman. And, slowly, the 168 members of the committee are making their decisions public.
RELATED:
Tim Mak / FrumForum:
RNC Candidate's Firm Got Clients Stimulus Funds
RNC Candidate's Firm Got Clients Stimulus Funds
Discussion:
Hotline On Call and The Gateway Pundit
Confederate Yankee:
God Help Me, I Agree with Greenwald — My feelings about U.S. Army PFC Bradley Manning are well documented by The Google, which has my blog entries Let's Try Bradley Manning for Treason and Brad Manning, I Hope They Hang You High being the #1 and #2 search results for a search on “Bradley Manning traitor.”
Discussion:
Right Wing News, Weasel Zippers, TalkLeft and Don Surber
William J. Broad / New York Times:
U.S. Rethinks Strategy for the Unthinkable — Suppose the unthinkable happened, and terrorists struck New York or another big city with an atom bomb. What should people there do? The government has a surprising new message: Do not flee. Get inside any stable building and don't come out till officials say it's safe.
Discussion:
Instapundit, Parker Spitzer, Gizmodo, Pajamas Media and Unfogged
Kenneth P. Vogel / The Politico:
Sarah Palin goes ‘lamestream’ — After making attacks on what she memorably labeled “the lamestream media” one of her signature issues, Sarah Palin has begun to experiment with a new strategy toward the press - engaging it. — The former Alaska governor has started cautiously cooperating …
Discussion:
Ben Smith's Blog, The Page and Conservatives4Palin.com
Madhu Rajaraman / American Journalism Review:
The Comment Police — NPR says it's pleased with the results of its decision to outsource the battle against offensive online comments. Posted: Wed, Dec. 15 2010 — Madhu Rajaraman (mrajaraman@ajr.umd.edu) is an AJR editorial assistant. — It was a victim of its own success.
Discussion:
The Moderate Voice and Poynter
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:
Instapundit and Althouse
Richard Florida / The Atlantic Online:
America's Most Walkable Cities — The great economic reset we are in the midst of extends even to Americans' choices of places to live. The popularity of sprawling auto-dependent suburbs is waning. A majority of Americans—six in 10—say they would prefer to live in walkable neighborhoods, in both cities and suburbs, if they could.
Discussion:
Outside the Beltway, Fausta's Blog and Gothamist
Tim Webb / Guardian:
BP blowout on Azerbaijan gas platform revealed — Embassy cables reveal energy firm ‘fortunate’ to have evacuated workers safely after blast similar to Deepwater Horizon disaster — Striking resemblances between BP's Gulf of Mexico disaster and a little-reported giant gas leak …
Discussion:
Booman Tribune, Climate Progress, Informed Comment, Raw Story, Clusterstock and Hullabaloo
Hélène Mulholland / Guardian:
Ed Miliband rebukes Ainsworth over call to legalise drugs — Former defence secretary described war on drugs as ‘nothing short of a disaster’ and called on government to look at other options — Ed Miliband, the Labour leader, said today that the legalisation of drugs would send out …