memeorandum: Jon Huntsman: GOP Primary Barriers To Entry Were ‘Pretty Damn Low’ (Sam Stein/The Huffington Post)

3:40 PM ET, November 29, 2012

Top Items:

Inside the talks: Fiscal framework emerges — Listen to top Democrats and Republicans talk on camera, and it sounds like they could not be further apart on a year-end tax-and-spending deal - a down payment on a $4 trillion grand bargain. — But behind the scenes, top officials …

Ezra Klein / Wonkblog:

The GOP's Medicare confusion — The austerity crisis talks have hit a peculiar impasse. The problem isn't, as most analysts expected, taxes, where Republicans seem increasingly resigned to new revenue. It's Medicare. And the particular Medicare problem isn't that Democrats are refusing the GOP's proposed Medicare cuts.

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Hit & Run, Daily Kos and The New Republic

Ford O'Connell / Pundits Blog:
Dems dishonest in ‘fiscal cliff’ dealings

Discussion: Riehl World News, The PJ Tatler, Talking Points Memo and Daily Kos

Russell Berman / The Hill:
‘Disappointed’ Boehner calls on Obama to get serious on spending in deficit talks

Discussion: ABCNEWS, The Page and Taegan Goddard's …

Greg Sargent / Washington Post:
Inside the ‘fiscal cliff’ haggling over Medicare

Discussion: Hullabaloo, Politico, Business Insider and Eschaton

Washington Examiner:
Morning Examiner: We're going over the cliff

Discussion: Hit & Run, Daily Kos, THE WESTERN EXPERIENCE, Politico and Reuters

Politico:
Inside the talks: Fiscal framework emerges

Discussion: Firedoglake, The Gateway Pundit and The Daily Dish

Tom Cohen / CNN:
Mistrust continues to vex fiscal cliff talks

Discussion: New York Times and PoliPundit.com

James Cowie / Renesys Blog:

Syrian Internet Is Off The Air — Starting at 10:26 UTC (12:26pm in Damascus), Syria's international Internet connectivity shut down. In the global routing table, all 84 of Syria's IP address blocks have become unreachable, effectively removing the country from the Internet.

Discussion: WorldViews, Internet Events Bulletin, AllThingsD, Guardian, New York Times, SocialTimes, The Lede, NO QUARTER USA NET, Wired, Business Insider, National Review, The Verge, Betabeat, GigaOM, Via Meadia, The Daily Dish, Outside the Beltway and WJLA-TV

Oliver Holmes / Reuters:
Damascus fighting cuts off Internet, airport

Discussion: The Atlantic Online, Los Angeles Times, The Week, Taylor Marsh and Guardian

New York Times:
U.S. Is Weighing Stronger Action in Syrian Conflict

Discussion: Weekly Standard, Weasel Zippers, Via Meadia, National Review, The Caucus, ABCNEWS and The Week

Steven Greenhouse / New York Times:

Drive to Unionize Fast-Food Workers Begins — After three years of working at the McDonald's restaurant on 51st Street and Broadway, Alterique Hall earns $8 an hour — and is yearning for something better. — So when he heard about an unusual campaign that aims to unionize dozens …

Discussion: American Prospect, Politicker, Washington Examiner, Weasel Zippers, Daily Kos, Firedoglake, Taylor Marsh and Jammie Wearing Fools

Josh Eidelson / Salon:
In rare strike, NYC fast-food workers walk out

Discussion: Colorlines

Sarah Jaffe / The Atlantic Online:
McJobs Should Pay, Too: It's Time for Fast-Food Workers To Get Living Wages

Discussion: The Raw Story and OccupyWallSt News

Erick Erickson / RedState:

The Incestuous Bleeding of the Republican Party — If money is the root of all evil, for the Republican Party evil is located on the fifth floor of 66 Canal Center Plaza, Alexandria, VA 22314. — Strip away the candidate and coalition and it is on the fifth floor of 66 Canal Center Plaza …

Discussion: americanthinker.com, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, The Hinterland Gazette and Taylor Marsh

Joel B. Pollak / BREITBART.COM:

EXCLUSIVE: UN CONSPIRES TO EXPEL PROMINENT JEWISH GROUP FROM PALESTINE VOTE — Today, for the first time, the United Nations will name Palestine a (non-member) “observer state” by first engaging in exactly the charge that they press against Israel: apartheid.

Discussion: The Jawa Report, Algemeiner.com, Israel Matzav and The PJ Tatler

Jeff Dunetz / “The Lid”: Today The UN Will Make Arafat Proud and Steal Jewish Heritage

CAMERA Snapshots:
Where's the Coverage? “Palestine” Doesn't Qualify as a State

Discussion: TIME, Hot Air, New York Times, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion and IHT Rendezvous

J. David Goodman / New York Times:

Photo of Officer Giving Boots to Barefoot Man Warms Hearts Online — On a cold November night in Times Square, Officer Lawrence Deprimo was working a counterterrorism post when he encountered an older, barefooted homeless man. The officer disappeared for a moment, then returned with a new pair of boots …

Discussion: The Week, Weasel Zippers, Newsday, Telegraph, Ricochet Conversations Feed, Gawker, Memphis Commercial Appeal, This Just In, Gothamist and New York Magazine

Scott Shane / New York Times:

Big Issues Are Lost in Focus on Libya Talking Points — WASHINGTON — Three days after the lethal attack on the American Mission in Benghazi, Libya, Representative C. A. Dutch Ruppersberger of Maryland, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, asked intelligence agencies to write …

Discussion: NewsBusters.org blogs, Right Wing News, the daily howler and The Moderate Voice

Wall Street Journal:
The Trouble With Susan Rice

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Hot Air, Cognitive Dissidence and New York Times

Joshua Green / Business Week:

The Science Behind Those Obama Campaign E-Mails — One fascination in a presidential race mostly bereft of intrigue was the strange, incessant, and weirdly overfamiliar e-mails that emanated from the Obama campaign. Anyone who shared an address with the campaign soon started receiving messages …

Discussion: Politico, The Week, Mediaite, Taegan Goddard's …, Washington Examiner and Washington Post

Dane Schiller / Houston Chronicle:

Former President George H.W. Bush hospitalized in Houston — Former President George H.W. Bush remains in a Houston hospital, where he has been for seven days as doctors battle a lingering cough that has drawn concern, officials said Thursday. — Bush, 88, has bronchitis …

Discussion: Politico, Associated Press, The Hill and WJLA-TV

KHOU-TV:

Surveillance video shows violent confrontation at gas station — HOUSTON—As family members of a man who was shot by a Valero clerk in southeast Houston called for the store clerk's arrest, the store owner released surveillance video. — Alexander Calloway, 21, and his two cousins were trying …

Discussion: Moonbattery, The Last Refuge and The Gateway Pundit

Tom Jensen / Public Policy Polling:

Booker could win Senate seat — New Jersey voters like Frank Lautenberg well enough. He has a 43/36 approval rating and in a hypothetical match up with Republican Lieutenant Governor Kim Guadagno he would lead right now by a 15 point margin at 48/33. — Democratic primary voters …

Discussion: The Fix, Taegan Goddard's … and Ballot Box

Chuck Bennett / New York Post:

David Petraeus says he ‘screwed up royally’ in letter to old Army buddy — Ex-CIA chief David Petraeus took the blame for the extramarital affair that torpedoed his career, but his forgiving wife, Holly, is sticking by him, according to a newly revealed private letter.

Discussion: WorldViews, New York Magazine, CBS DC and Mediaite

Jessica Yellin / CNN:

White House personnel shuffle: Who's on the list — Washington (CNN) - Staff and cabinet reshuffles are one of the many unknowns in Washington as impending departures leave question marks about who will fill the roles of treasury secretary, chief of staff, secretary of state and secretary of defense.

Discussion: Politico

Patrick Gavin / Politico:

Mitt Romney face tattoo man does an about-face — Critics of Mitt Romney accused him of being a flip-flopper. Now one of his die-hard supporters is guilty of the same charge. — Eric Hartsburg, the 30-year-old resident of Michigan City, Ind., inked the Romney/Ryan campaign's distinctive …

Discussion: Addicting Info, Mediaite, New York Magazine, Boston Globe, Gawker, First Read and The Raw Story

Brady Dennis / Washington Post:

Mortgage-interest deduction could be on the table in ‘fiscal cliff’ debate — Of all the deductions woven into the sprawling U.S. tax code, few have been more fiercely guarded than the enormous tax break that lets homeowners deduct the interest they pay on their mortgages.

Discussion: Guardian, americanthinker.com, Hugh Hewitt's TownHall Blog and National Review

Summer Anne Burton / BuzzFeed:

Barack Obama Now Has A Fish Named After Him — Al Gore, Bill Clinton, Teddy Roosevelt, and Jimmy Carter are also honored by the names of these new freshwater darter species. — Last week, five new fish species were given some left-leaning names after being recognized as distinct species for the first time.

Discussion: Washington Examiner, Stinque and The Daily Caller

Sam Stein / The Huffington Post:

Jon Huntsman: GOP Primary Barriers To Entry Were ‘Pretty Damn Low’ … REACT: — FOLLOW: — Jon Huntsman, Republican Party, Republican Party, Video, Grover Norquist, Jon Huntsman Republican Primary, Gop 2012, Gop Future, Jon Huntsman Foreign Policy, Jon Huntsman Gay Marriage …

Discussion: Politico, American Prospect, FishbowlDC and CNN

JTA:

Source: Stevie Wonder to cancel Friends of IDF gig — (JTA) — Stevie Wonder is set to pull out of a performance at a fundraiser for the Israel Defense Forces, a source told JTA. — Wonder's representatives will claim that he did not know the nature of the group, the Friends of the Israel Defense Forces …

Discussion: Weasel Zippers and The Daily Caller

Igor Volsky / ThinkProgress:

Rick Warren: Churches Are ‘Probably’ Responsible For Negative Attitudes Towards Gays — Pastor Rick Warren admitted on CNN on Thursday that Evangelical churches are at least partly responsible for some of the negative attitudes towards gay and lesbian people.

Discussion: Mediaite, The Raw Story, Shakesville, Christian Today Australia and Crooks and Liars