memeorandum: Unemployment Insurance is an Expensive Free Lunch (Chris Edwards/Townhall.com)

5:10 AM ET, December 19, 2011

Top Items:

North Korean Leader Kim Jong Il, 69, Has Died — SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Kim Jong Il, North Korea's mercurial and enigmatic leader, has died. He was 69. — Kim's death was announced Monday by state television from the North Korean capital, Pyongyang.

Discussion: Los Angeles Times, The Atlantic Online, Outside the Beltway, Blogs of War, Taylor Marsh, Ricochet Conversations Feed, Gawker, Israel Matzav, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion and Balloon Juice

BBC:

N Korean leader Kim Jong-il dies — North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has died at the age of 69, state-run television has announced. — His death was announced in an emotional statement read out on national television. — The announcer, wearing black, said he had died on Saturday of physical and mental over-work.

Discussion: News Desk, Hot Air, his vorpal sword, Catholic Bandita, Tim Blair, ThinkProgress, Gothamist, The Duck of Minerva and The Other McCain

CNN:

North Korean leader Kim Jong Il dead, state TV reports — (CNN) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Il is dead, North Korean state TV said Monday. — Kim, 69, died Saturday, state TV said. — South Korean news agency Yonhap — which based its reporting on its monitoring off North Korean state television …

Discussion: The Atlantic Online, This Just In, Boing Boing, The Moderate Voice, The Spectacle Blog and CANNONFIRE

New York Times:

N. Korea Says Dictator, Kim Jong-il, Dies — SEOUL, South Korea — Kim Jong-il, the North Korean leader who realized his family's dream of turning his starving country into a minor nuclear-weapons power even as the isolated nation sank further into despotism, died on Saturday of a heart attack …

Discussion: World Now, NO QUARTER, Weasel Zippers, Towleroad News #gay, Michelle Malkin and The Informer

Bill Austin / Bloomberg:

Kim Jong Il, North Korea's ‘Dear Leader’ Dictator, Dead at 70 — Kim Jong Il, the second-generation North Korean dictator who defied global condemnation to build nuclear weapons while his people starved, has died, Yonhap News reported. He was 70. — The news came in a radio broadcast …

Discussion: CNN, Doug Ross and neo-neocon

Reuters:

North Korean leader Kim Jong-il dead, son hailed as heir — (Reuters) - North Korean leader Kim Jong-il died of a heart attack while on a train trip, state media reported on Monday, sparking immediate concern over who is in control of the reclusive state and its nuclear program.

Discussion: Mashable!, Ed Driscoll, The PJ Tatler and Sister Toldjah

Tom Jensen / Public Policy Polling:

Paul leads in Iowa — Newt Gingrich's campaign is rapidly imploding, and Ron Paul has now taken the lead in Iowa. He's at 23% to 20% for Mitt Romney, 14% for Gingrich, 10% each for Rick Santorum, Michele Bachmann, and Rick Perry, 4% for Jon Huntsman, and 2% for Gary Johnson.

Discussion: Firedoglake, Talking Points Memo, Outside the Beltway, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Taegan Goddard's …, Political Mojo and Ricochet Conversations Feed

Washington Examiner:

GOP will take off the gloves if Ron Paul wins Iowa — The Republican presidential primary has become a bit feisty, but it will get downright ugly if Ron Paul wins the Iowa caucuses. — The principled, antiwar, Constitution-obeying, Fed-hating, libertarian Republican congressman …

Discussion: LewRockwell.com Blog

Jennifer Steinhauer / New York Times:

Payroll Tax Cut Rejected by House Republicans — WASHINGTON — The House Republican leader on Sunday flatly rejected a short-term, bipartisan Senate measure to extend a payroll tax break and unemployment insurance, setting the stage for a bitter year-end Congressional collision and the potential loss …

Discussion: The Impolitic, Balloon Juice, Booman Tribune and AMERICAN FUTURE

David M. Drucker / Roll Call:
John Boehner: House GOP Will Reject Extenders Bill

Discussion: Outside the Beltway and Zandar Versus The Stupid

Associated Press:
House GOP demands new payroll tax cut bill

Discussion: The Mahablog

Russell Berman / The Hill:
Speaker Boehner opposes Senate's two-month payroll tax cut extension

Discussion: The Politico

Russell Berman / The Hill:
House Republicans voice opposition to Senate payroll tax cut package

Discussion: Reuters, Firedoglake, New York Times, ThinkProgress, Speaker, RedState, Washington Post, The White House and Washington Monthly

Amie Parnes / The Hill:
Keystone climbdown leaves Obama supporters scratching their heads

Discussion: The Politico, Roll Call and The Huffington Post

E.J. Dionne / The Moderate Voice:

Newt and the Revenge of the Base — WASHINGTON — It is one of the true delights of a bizarrely entertaining Republican presidential contest to watch the apoplectic fear and loathing of so many GOP establishmentarians toward Newt Gingrich. They treat him as an alien body whose approach to politics they have always rejected.

Lucy Madison / CBS News:
Gingrich: Gov't branches should rule 2 out of 3

Discussion: The Volokh Conspiracy, FiveThirtyEight, Instapundit, The Atlantic Online and Caffeinated Thoughts

Steve Benen / Washington Monthly:
Quote of the Day — At this week's debate for Republican …

Discussion: ThinkProgress and Political Mojo

Alexander Bolton / Ballot Box:
Gingrich: Congress can send Capitol Police to arrest rogue judges

Discussion: Patterico's Pontifications

David G. Savage / Los Angeles Times:
Newt Gingrich says he'd defy Supreme Court rulings he opposed

Discussion: Hullabaloo, CBS News, A Blog For All, The Moderate Voice, Little Green Footballs, Outside the Beltway, The Strata-Sphere, Alan Colmes' Liberaland and Towleroad News #gay

Chris Edwards / Townhall.com:

Unemployment Insurance is an Expensive Free Lunch — Extending the extra unemployment insurance benefits would be bad for the federal budget and bad for the economy, and there is a better long-term solution for unemployment than the current UI system. — With respect to the budget …

Discussion: American Spectator

Inderdeep Bains / Daily Mail:

The brave women of the Middle East: Female protesters brutally beaten with metal poles as vicious soldiers drag girls through streets by their hair in day of shame — After being viciously beaten by a 10-strong mob of Egyptian male soldiers, this woman lies helplessly on the ground as her shirt …

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit, Power Line, Newshoggers.com, americanthinker.com, Don Surber and Atlas Shrugs

Ynetnews:

Report: Hezbollah in dire financial straits — French daily Le Figaro says Lebanese terror group hit hard by civil uprising in Syria, sanctions against Iran — Ynet — While Nasrallah appeared to be in high spirits recently during a rare public — According to the article …

Discussion: Israel Matzav

Ted Mann / The Atlantic Wire:

Vaclav Havel is Dead — Vaclav Havel, the former president of Czechoslovakia and leader of its peaceful anti-Communist revolution, died this weekend at 75, according to an official statement. — Havel, a playwright and essayist by trade, rose to prominence with a band of liberal reformers …

Discussion: CNN, emptywheel and Alan Colmes' Liberaland