Top Items:
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Obama Is Set to Shuffle His Staff — WASHINGTON — President Obama is planning the first major reorganization of his administration, preparing to shuffle several positions in the West Wing as he tries to fortify his political team for the realities of divided government and his own re-election.
Discussion:
Washington Post, The Moderate Voice and New York Magazine
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Obama library fight pits Chicago vs. Honolulu — HONOLULU - As President Barack Obama prepares to battle with Republicans for a second term, another fight is already brewing: where to enshrine his legacy once he leaves office. — The effort to play host city to Obama's presidential library …
Discussion:
Taegan Goddard's … and Alan Colmes' Liberaland
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Napolitano Scolds Reporter for Airing Complaints of Dead Border Agent's Family — Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, leaving the funeral of a murdered Border Patrol agent Wednesday, scolded a reporter for asking her to address the victim's family's concerns that not enough is being done to secure the southern border.
Discussion:
theblogprof, Scared Monkeys, Wake up America, The Gateway Pundit and iOwnTheWorld.com
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Jo Becker / New York Times:
U.S. Approved Business With Blacklisted Nations — Despite sanctions and trade embargoes, over the past decade the United States government has granted special licenses allowing American companies to do billions of dollars in business with Iran and other countries blacklisted as state sponsors of terrorism …
Discussion:
Firedoglake and Fausta's Blog
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Anemona Hartocollis / New York Times:
Medical Schools in Region Fight Caribbean Flow
Medical Schools in Region Fight Caribbean Flow
Discussion:
Ezra Klein, Gothamist and Marginal Revolution
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Obama Family Vacation Runs Into Troubled Waters: Again — The first family just can't seem to enjoy a beach vacation near clean, pristine water, and the current presidential vacation is no different. — Hawaii has been plagued with heavy rains recently, and the Oahu village of Kailua …
Discussion:
Weasel Zippers and iOwnTheWorld.com
Paul Krugman / New York Times:
The Humbug Express — Hey, has anyone noticed that “A Christmas Carol” is a dangerous leftist tract? — I mean, consider the scene, early in the book, where Ebenezer Scrooge rightly refuses to contribute to a poverty relief fund. “I'm opposed to giving people money for doing nothing,” he declares.
Discussion:
Newshoggers.com
Luke Harding / Guardian:
It's all politics, claims Julian Assange — WikiLeaks founder says it would be ‘politically impossible’ for Britain to extradite him to the US — Julian Assange said today that it would be “politically impossible” for Britain to extradite him to the United States, and that the final word …
Discussion:
Raw Story
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Tom Diemer / Politics Daily:
WikiLeaks' Julian Assange Fires Back at ‘Idiot’ Critics
WikiLeaks' Julian Assange Fires Back at ‘Idiot’ Critics
Discussion:
The Nation, The Wire and New York Times, more at Mediagazer »
Ta-Nehisi Coates / The Atlantic Online:
Crisis Of The Public Intellectual — Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy — A few days ago a friend of mine who works at MSNBC asked if I'd come on to talk about Haley Barbour. I declined because Kenyatta had a final that evening and my son had math homework, as well as a bedtime.
Discussion:
The Agitator and The Daily Dish
Sewell Chan / New York Times:
Economists See Signs of Stronger Recovery — WASHINGTON — Eighteen months after the recession officially ended, the government's latest measures to bolster the economy have led many forecasters and policy makers to express new optimism that the recovery will gain substantial momentum in 2011.
Discussion:
Washington Monthly and JustOneMinute
Leslie Kaufman / New York Times:
Bush Policy on Lands Is Reversed — The Interior Department reversed a Bush-era policy on wilderness on Thursday, restoring the authority of its Bureau of Land Management to identify and recommend new areas for protection. — Since 2003, the department has excluded wilderness as a criterion …
Discussion:
The Foundry and Weasel Zippers
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Fresh humiliation for eurozone as China says it will bail out debt-ridden nations — China has said it is willing to bail out debt-ridden countries in the euro zone using its $2.7trillion overseas investment fund. — In a fresh humiliation for Europe, Foreign Ministry spokesman Jiang Yu …
Discussion:
Weasel Zippers, Hot Air and Sister Toldjah
Bryan Fischer / afa.net:
Whoops: homosexuals lose “get out of jail free” card — According to National Review Online, there may be a whole lot of homosexuals who just got an unpleasant surprise. With the repeal of the law prohibiting homosexual service in the United States military, they just lost their “get out of jail free” card.
Discussion:
Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Truth Wins Out and Right Wing Watch
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Taxes and the Top Percentile Myth — A 2008 OECD study of leading economies found that ‘taxation is most progressively distributed in the United States.’ More so than Sweden or France. — When President Obama announced a two-year stay of execution for taxpayers on Dec. 7 …
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Pryor, four other Ohio State football players receive five-game suspensions in 2011 — Terrelle Pryor and four of his Ohio State teammates will be suspended from the first five games of the 2011 season because of NCAA violations, the school and NCAA announced today.
Discussion:
MarkDaniels.Blogspot.com
Jim Bergamo / KVUE-TV:
Woman arrested at ABIA after refusing enhanced pat down — Early Wednesday morning, a computer glitch shut down a security checkpoint for a couple of hours at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport. The line snaked out the door as many travelers waited for more than an hour and some missed their flights.
Discussion:
Weasel Zippers
Brian Beutler / Talking Points Memo:
Why Republicans Gave In — One X-factor in the Dems' run of lame duck wins was the GOP. They didn't exactly make it easy for Dems to do stuff...but they could've made it harder. Much harder. They ceded back hours of time; they handed Dems the food-safety bill after Dems basically botched it …
Discussion:
Hullabaloo and The BRAD BLOG
Christian Heinze / GOP 12:
Rove: Hillary might run in 2016 — Karl Rove talked about a Hillary Clinton 2016 bid on Fox News last night.
Discussion:
Weigel, Daily Kos and New York Magazine
The Huffington Post:
Sarah Palin Uses Info Gleaned From ‘Treasonous’ WikiLeaks To Pen Op-Ed On Dangers Of Iran — WHAT'S YOUR REACTION? … Sarah Palin sought to build her foreign policy credentials on Tuesday, with a new op-ed arguing that the Obama administration needs to “toughen up” on Iran based on information …
Sen. Robert Menendez / The Huffington Post:
A Letter to Santa Claus — What's Your Reaction: — Dear Santa Claus, — I am writing out of concern, because you may have to move from the North Pole due to the dramatic melting of Arctic sea ice. The Navy's chief oceanographer says that by the summer of 2020 the North Pole …
Discussion:
Michelle Malkin, Don Surber, The Caucus and Weasel Zippers
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Don't Believe the Reapportionment Hype — The decennial census has told the same story for the better part of a century—it's a story of exodus from the Northeastern and Midwestern regions and of an exploding South and West, a migration from the cold winters of industrial demise toward the bright sun of economic innovation.
Discussion:
FiveThirtyEight, Weigel and Democratic Strategist
Christopher Weber / Politics Daily:
Gates Reminds Troops That 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' is Still in Effect … The president has signed the repeal of “Don't ask, Don't tell,” but Defense Secretary Robert Gates is warning troops that the policy banning gays from serving openly in the military is still in effect.
Discussion:
NationalJournal.com, The Confluence and New York Magazine
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Barbara Starr / CNN:
Gates tells troops 'don't ask, don't tell' is still in effect
Asianews.it:
Christmas in Bethlehem: the cross banished from souvenirs — For fear of Islamic fundamentalism, textile workshops in Hebron and Jerusalem, produce and sell T-shirts and other items depicting the Church of the Nativity without the cross. Discrimination and economic crisis are forcing Christians …
Discussion:
The Gateway Pundit, Fox Nation and Weasel Zippers