Top Items:

The new comeback kid — If Barack Obama wins reelection in 2012, as is now more likely than not, historians will mark his comeback as beginning on Dec. 6, the day of the Great Tax Cut Deal of 2010. — Obama had a bad November. Self-confessedly shellacked in the midterm election …
Discussion:
The Note, AOL News, Pajamas Media, Don Surber, Betsy's Page, Althouse, Firedoglake and Taylor Marsh
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Congress Sends $801 Billion Tax Cut Bill to Obama — WASHINGTON — Congress at midnight Thursday approved an $801 billion package of tax cuts and $57 billion for extended unemployment insurance. The vote sealed the first major deal between President Obama and Congressional Republicans …


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, TPMDC, Fox News, Hugh Hewitt's TownHall Blog, Right Turn, National Review, The Hill, Gawker, Taylor Marsh, AMERICAblog Gay, Washington Post, The Hill, Scared Monkeys, The Reaction, Box Turtle Bulletin, Transterrestrial Musings, JustOneMinute, Left Coast Rebel, The Page, The Gateway Pundit, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, FrumForum, Nice Deb, Riehl World View, CNN, Doug Ross, Pat Dollard, Wonk Room, Balloon Juice, No More Mister Nice Blog, The Plum Line, Washington Monthly, Weasel Zippers, Hot Air, iOwnTheWorld.com and Outside the Beltway

$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:
Firedoglake, The American Independent, TPMDC, ThinkProgress, Booman Tribune, The Politico, Right Wing News, Associated Press, The Hill and JOSHUAPUNDIT
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Dems are earmark junkies but GOP goes straight — Press coverage of the budget frenzy on Capitol Hill has suggested that pork-barrel earmark spending is still a bipartisan problem, that after months of self-righteous rhetoric about fiscal discipline, Republicans and Democrats remain equal-opportunity earmarkers.
Discussion:
Hot Air and The Gateway Pundit

The GOP's Secret Senate Plan — One of the oddities of the debate over repealing Don't Ask Don't Tell is that Republican moderates seem far more interested in procedure than substance. They favor repeal, but they oddly seem to care more that the Senate hew to Mitch McConnell's run …
Discussion:
Balkinization and The Hill

Reid Gives Up on Spending Bill
Discussion:
Washington Monthly, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Wonkette, RedState and Moe Lane


Bid to Repeal 'Don't Ask' Law Draws Support in Senate
Discussion:
ThinkProgress, AMERICAblog Gay, ourfuture.org/blogs_chrono/* and Oliver Willis

PolitiFact's Lie of the Year: ‘A government takeover of health care’ — In the spring of 2009, a Republican strategist settled on a brilliant and powerful attack line for President Barack Obama's ambitious plan to overhaul America's health insurance system.
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Government Arguing That Health Insurance Premiums Are Really Taxes?
Discussion:
protein wisdom, theblogprof, Hit & Run, Bloomberg and Online NewsHour

Exclusive: Sarah Palin on 2012 Plans, Double Standards for Women — Palin Says Thinking About Presidential Run Is a ‘Prayerful Consideration’ — Sarah Palin is surveying the lay of the land to consider whether to make a presidential run in 2012, she told “Good Morning America” …
Discussion:
National Review, The Daily Dish, CNN and Politics Daily
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Sarah Palin: Tax Cut Deal is ‘Lousy,’ New Congress Should Take up Issue — In Exclusive Interview With ABC's Robin Roberts, Palin Discusses Economy, New Book — In an exclusive interview with “Good Morning America” co-anchor Robin Roberts, Sarah Palin said she doesn't support the “lousy” …
Discussion:
CNN, Online NewsHour and The Page

The Revolution Next Time? — It has been 15 years since the Rehnquist court began applying the constitutional brakes to assertions of federal power that had seemed unassailable since the New Deal. Its first target was modest, a five-year-old federal statute called the Gun-Free School Zones Act …
Discussion:
New York Times, Hit & Run and The American Scene
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Judge Hints He May Rule Against Health Law
Discussion:
JustOneMinute, ACS Blog and Wonk Room


Retailer praised after killing 3 robbers in Houston — In the back room of a humble jewelry store and pawn shop in Houston's East End Thursday afternoon, a gunman tied Eva Castillo's wrists tightly — too tightly. She complained of the pain, so he loosened the bindings.
Discussion:
The Jawa Report, msnbc.com and JammieWearingFool


Snub for Obamas as Royal sources reveal they will not be invited to Prince William's wedding — President Obama and his wife Michelle will not be invited to Prince William's wedding next year. — Because Prince William is not yet heir to the throne, his wedding to Kate Middleton is not classed …
Discussion:
Fox Nation, Gothamist and Gawker
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Why is Obama leaving the grass roots on the sidelines? — In the wake of President Obama's deal to extend the Bush tax cuts to the wealthiest Americans, pundits have focused on how Obama has alienated the left. But the issue isn't the left - it's the list.
Discussion:
The Huffington Post

The Limits of the Taxing Power — An interesting question emerges from one of my comment threads on whether or not congress should be able to use the taxing power to get over limits on its enumerated powers. — 1) Can Congress enact a $50,000 tax on second term abortions?
Discussion:
Outside the Beltway


In 500 Billion Words, New Window on Culture — With little fanfare, Google has made a mammoth database culled from nearly 5.2 million digitized books available to the public for free downloads and online searches, opening a new landscape of possibilities for research and education in the humanities.
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In Seconds Before Blast, the Making of a Hero — BALAD RUZ, Iraq — As the suicide bomber clutched the detonator to his explosive belt, preparing to spray fire and shrapnel into a religious procession here, an Iraqi police officer named Bilal Ali Muhammad faced a choice between his own life and something larger.
Discussion:
FrumForum

Breaking? Study Finds Fox News Viewers Are The Most Misinformed — To perhaps nobody's surprise, a study released this week finds that Fox News viewers are the most misinformed of any news consumers. — The University of Maryland study, called “Misinformation and the 2010 Election,” …


Tax Cut Bill Moves to the President — Just to mop this up, last night around midnight, the House of Representatives gave final passage to the tax cut bill. The final roll call vote on the “Airport and Airway Extension Act,” the name of the shell bill used as a vehicle to move the legislation, was 277-148.
Discussion:
Ballot Box, Los Angeles Times, U.S. Congressman John … and TalkLeft

Columbia U. vs. the little guy — Tweet — We often hear politicians and pundits denounce property rights. Property rights, we're told, protect the fat cats against the needs of the public. They're a tool for keeping the little guy down. — Like a lot of what we hear from politicians and pundits …
Discussion:
Hit & Run


Muslim ‘Radicalization’ Is Focus of Planned Inquiry — WASHINGTON — The Republican who will head the House committee that oversees domestic security is planning to open a Congressional inquiry into what he calls “the radicalization” of the Muslim community when his party takes over the House next year.
Discussion:
Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Weasel Zippers, ATTACKERMAN and Jihad Watch


Boxes found — and mystery solved at Emanuel's home — The mayoral-race mystery of where candidate Rahm Emanuel stored boxes of personal items has been solved. — Attorneys for Emanuel visited the house he owns in Ravenswood at 1:30 p.m. Thursday, located the much-discussed “crawl space …
Discussion:
Lynn Sweet

Hollywood's Growing Chorus of Obama Criticism — Hollywood's adoration for President Obama has never really been all that shocking, but what may be surprising is how famous singers and actors are increasingly saying they aren't so happy with the commander-in-chief.
Discussion:
Questions and Observations

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:
Sister Toldjah, The Powers That Be, The Confluence, Weasel Zippers and Doug Ross

Wall Street Whitewash — When the financial crisis struck, many people — myself included — considered it a teachable moment. Above all, we expected the crisis to remind everyone why banks need to be effectively regulated. — How naïve we were. We should have realized …
Discussion:
AMERICAblog News and Paul Krugman

How Would President Romney Govern? — “Sincerity is everything - once you can fake that, you've got it made.” — There's Mitt Romney's problem in 1 sentence. He cannot fake sincerity. His insincerity is blatant, inescapable, clumsy and off-putting. Ross Douthat phrased the indictment …
Discussion:
Ezra Klein, Yglesias, Eunomia, Right Turn and The New Republic


Tax and Spend — I'm a tax enthusiast, in part thanks to the work of Lane Kenworthy. But taxes are unpopular. So unpopular, in fact, that a combination of political opportunism and psychic revulsion from advocating for tax hikes leads progressives to spend a lot of time dreaming up ways …