memeorandum: 'Don't ask, don't tell' bill clears Senate procedural vote (Ed O'Keefe/Federal Eye)

1:35 PM ET, December 18, 2010

Top Items:

DREAM Act dies in Senate — The weeks of rallies, hunger strikes and sit-ins and the thousands of phone calls placed to Senate offices didn't pay off for immigration activists. — The decade-old DREAM Act once again failed to break a filibuster in the Senate on Saturday morning …

Discussion: Ben Smith's Blog, Weigel, The Gateway Pundit and FrumForum

Andrea Nill / ThinkProgress:

As DREAM Act Fails, Graham Tells Undocumented Youth They Wasted Their Time — Today, the Senate failed to invoke cloture on the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act. Fourty-one mostly Republican senators voted against a bill which would have provided young undocumented immigrants …

Discussion: The Hill and Left Coast Rebel

David M. Herszenhorn / New York Times:

Senate Blocks Bill for Illegal Immigrant Students — The Senate on Saturday blocked a bill that would create a path to citizenship for certain illegal immigrant students who came to the United States as children, completed two years of college or military service and met other requirements including passing a criminal background check.

Discussion: Outside the Beltway

msnbc.com:

DREAM Act blocked in Senate — Carrie Dann writes: A measure that would have offered provisional legal status to some adults who came to America illegally as children failed to advance in a Senate vote Saturday. — Democratic backers of the legislation fell short of the 60 votes to move the DREAM Act legislation forward.

Discussion: Hot Air, Crooks and Liars, Weasel Zippers, USA Today, Wake up America and Moe Lane

Bridget Johnson / The Hill: Pro-immigration groups decry ‘shameful’ vote; enforcement groups vow new push

Julia Preston / New York Times:
Immigration Bill Fails in Senate Vote

Discussion: The Note, ABCNEWS, The Politico, CNN, NewsBusters.org blogs, America's Voice Blog and White House.gov Blog Feed

Michelle Malkin:
Operation Buck Up redux: Stop the DREAM Act; Sessions' last action …

Discussion: National Review, The Hill, Examiner, Don Surber, Human Events, NumbersUSA, Get Schooled, The Gateway Pundit and TRAIL BLAZERS

Carl Hulse / New York Times:

Repeal of 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' Advances — WASHINGTON — After a 17-year struggle, the Senate on Saturday cleared the way for repealing the Pentagon's ban on gay men and lesbians serving openly in the military. — By a bipartisan vote of 63 to 33, the Senate acted to cut off debate …

Discussion: Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Runnin' Scared and Outside the Beltway

The Hill:

Senate breaks GOP filibuster, advances 'Don't ask' repeal — A proposal to repeal the military's “Don't ask, don't tell” policy cleared a major hurdle in Congress on Saturday when the Senate voted to end a GOP-led filibuster. — The Senate voted 63 to 33 to advance a stand-alone bill …

Discussion: The Politico, The Note and Weasel Zippers

Patricia Murphy / Politics Daily:

Don't Ask Don't Tell Repeal Clears Major Senate Hurdle … After months of fits and starts, a bill repealing “don't ask, don't tell,” the ban against gays serving openly in the military, cleared its last major hurdle to passage Saturday when the Senate voted 63 to 33 to end debate on the bill.

Discussion: Balloon Juice

Evan McMorris-Santoro / TPMDC:

Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal Advances In Senate — Final Vote Likely This Weekend — The Senate took a big step toward ending the military's ban on openly gay servicemembers today. By a vote of 63 to 33, the Senate voted to end debate on a bill repealing the military's Don't Ask …

Discussion: Blue Wave News, Wake up America and FrumForum

Anne Flaherty / Associated Press:
Senate advances bill to lift military gay ban

Discussion: The Other McCain

Ed O'Keefe / Federal Eye:
'Don't ask, don't tell' bill clears Senate procedural vote

Discussion: Washington Post, PostPartisan, DownWithTyranny!, The Gateway Pundit and USA Today

CNN:
Senate votes to advance 'don't ask, don't tell,' DREAM Act fails

Discussion: Washington Post

Amelia Hill / Guardian:

WikiLeaks: Cuba banned Sicko for depicting ‘mythical’ healthcare system — Authorities feared footage of gleaming hospital in Michael Moore's Oscar-nominated film would provoke a popular backlash — Cuba banned Michael Moore's 2007 documentary, Sicko, because it painted such a “mythically” …

Discussion: Michelle Malkin, Big Hollywood, Outside the Beltway, Doug Ross, Fausta's Blog, Hit & Run, Weasel Zippers, Liberal Values, Hot Air, Questions and Observations, normblog and This ain't Hell …

Michael Moore / The Huffington Post:

¡Viva WikiLeaks! Sicko Was Not Banned in Cuba — What's Your Reaction: — Yesterday WikiLeaks did an amazing thing and released a classified State Department cable that dealt, in part, with me and my film, Sicko. — It is a stunning look at the Orwellian nature of how bureaucrats …

Discussion: Hot Air, Guardian and Harry's Place

Guardian:
US embassy cables: US castigates much-vaunted Cuban health system

Discussion: NO QUARTER and Hit & Run

Josh Marshall / Talking Points Memo:

DADT Breaks Filibuster — The Senate just voted 63-33 to break the filibuster on the DADT repeal bill. — Late Update: Just so we're clear. This is not the passage of the actual DADT repeal bill. This is the vote that allows a straight majority vote, which will likely come tomorrow.

Discussion: The Moderate Voice and TPMDC

New York Times:

Newly Built Ghost Towns Haunt Banks in Spain — YEBES, Spain — It is a measure of Spain's giddy construction excesses that 250 row houses carpet a hill near this tiny rural village about an hour by car outside of Madrid. — Most of these units have never sold, and though they were finished …

Discussion: Clusterstock, Mish's Global Economic … and Vox Popoli

Nick Davies / Guardian:

10 days in Sweden: the full allegations against Julian Assange — Unseen police documents provide the first complete account of the allegations against the WikiLeaks founder — Documents seen by the Guardian reveal for the first time the full details of the allegations of rape and sexual assault …

Discussion: AOL News, The Reaction, CANNONFIRE, The Confluence, Runnin' Scared, Threat Level and Hot Air

Byron York / Washington Examiner:

BELTWAY CONFIDENTIAL — DREAM Act causes ugly breakup on left — Markos Moulitsas, the influential founder of the lefty website DailyKos, used to love Montana Democratic Sen. Jon Tester. Starting back in December 2004, when Moulitsas first praised Tester, then a farmer-turned-state-legislator …

Joe Nocera / New York Times:

Explaining the Crisis With Dogma — What was that about? — I'm talking about that odd 13-page “report” issued on Wednesday by the four Republican members of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission. The F.C.I.C., of course, is the 10-member, supposedly bipartisan panel that was created …

Discussion: Paul Krugman, JustOneMinute, Grasping Reality … and The Big Picture

Steve Benen / Washington Monthly:

‘MCWEASEL’ BLASTS 9/11 HEALTH BILL.... It's not enough for Senate Republicans to block a vote on the Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act. Now, members like John McCain (R-Ariz.) are condemning Democratic efforts to even try to pass the bill. … Let's unpack this a bit, because I think it's important.

Discussion: NY Daily News, No More Mister Nice Blog and The Caucus

The Huffington Post:

House Republicans Block Child Marriage Prevention Act — What's Your Reaction: … WASHINGTON — On Thursday, the House took up the International Protecting Girls by Preventing Child Marriage Act of 2010. The bill would ensure that child marriage is recognized as a human rights violation …

Discussion: Don Surber, ECHIDNE of the snakes, Brilliant at Breakfast, PostPartisan and Feministing

David A. Fahrenthold / Washington Post:

Lame-duck sessions supposed to be a thing of the past, historians say — Here's the funny thing about this month's lame-duck session of Congress, in which frantic lawmakers have pinballed from tax cuts to “don't ask, don't tell” to a nuclear weapons treaty: — It's not supposed to exist.

Discussion: Althouse, Federal Eye and Washington Monthly

Dana Milbank / Washington Post:

Make Julian Assange irrelevant — Julian Assange was insufferable as he left a London courthouse Thursday. — “During my time in solitary confinement in the bottom of a Victorian prison, I had time to reflect on the conditions of those people around the world also in solitary confinement …

Discussion: Salon, Prairie Weather and Firedoglake

CNN:

Richardson presents proposals to North Korea aimed at easing crisis — Pyongyang, North Korea (CNN) — New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson provided North Korea with a series of proposals Saturday in what he described as a “good meeting” with the country's chief nuclear negotiator …

Discussion: The Hill