memeorandum: McConnell slams the door on raising tax rates in deficit deal (Alexander Bolton/The Hill)

2:15 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, Daily Kos, Politico and The New Republic

Greg Sargent / Washington Post:

Inside the ‘fiscal cliff’ haggling over Medicare — Some more quick notes about that big Politico piece on what's going on in the fiscal cliff talks. The piece makes two points about the haggling over Medicare's future that are worth addressing. First, it says in passing that Dem aides …

Discussion: Politico, Hullabaloo, Business Insider and Eschaton

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

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

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

Discussion: Daily Kos, THE WESTERN EXPERIENCE, Politico and Reuters

Politico:
Inside the talks: Fiscal framework emerges

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit and The Daily Dish

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, Firedoglake, Politicker, Taylor Marsh, Washington Examiner, Weasel Zippers, Daily Kos and Jammie Wearing Fools

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

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

Discussion: Colorlines

Oliver Holmes / Reuters:

Damascus fighting cuts off Internet, airport — (Reuters) - Syrian rebels battled forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad just outside Damascus on Thursday, forcing the closure of the main airport road, and the Dubai-based Emirates airline suspended flights to the Syrian capital.

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

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, The Lede, NO QUARTER USA NET, AllThingsD, National Review, Business Insider, Guardian, Betabeat, GigaOM and WJLA-TV

Max Fisher / WorldViews:
Web monitor: 100 percent of Syria's Internet just shut down

Discussion: BBC, TechCrunch and Outside the Beltway

Renesys Events / Internet Events Bulletin:
77 networks out in Syria

Discussion: Wired and The Verge

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

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: Hot Air, TIME, 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, Telegraph, Newsday, Ricochet Conversations Feed, This Just In, Gawker, Memphis Commercial Appeal, Gothamist and New York Magazine

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, Washington Examiner, Taegan Goddard's … and Washington Post

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: 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

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, The Hill, Associated Press and WJLA-TV

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

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, Mediaite, New York Magazine and CBS DC

U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis:

National Income and Product Accounts Gross Domestic Product, 3rd quarter 2012 (second estimate); Corporate Profits, 3rd quarter 2012 (preliminary estimate) — Real gross domestic product — the output of goods and services produced by labor and property located in the United States …

Discussion: AEIdeas, Wonkblog, BBC, Business Insider and Balloon Juice

Nelson D. Schwartz / New York Times:
Despite G.D.P. Revision to 2.7%, Growth May Have Ebbed Since

Discussion: The Atlantic Online and The Maddow Blog

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

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

Alexander Bolton / The Hill:

McConnell slams the door on raising tax rates in deficit deal — Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) slammed the door Thursday morning on Democratic demands to raise tax rates on families earning more than $250,000 per year. — “We're insisting on keeping tax rates where they are …

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit and The Hill

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

Frank Newport / Gallup:

Democrats, Republicans Diverge on Capitalism, Federal Gov't — Little difference on small business, free enterprise, entrepreneurs — PRINCETON, NJ — Exemplifying a major partisan divide in modern politics, Democrats react significantly more positively to the term “federal government” …

Discussion: Power Line, Washington Monthly, National Review and Washington Examiner

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

Justin Sink / The Hill:

Romney, Ryan meet off Capitol Hill — Mitt Romney met for about ninety minutes with former running mate Paul Ryan ahead of his White House lunch Thursday with President Obama. — CNN reported that Romney and Rep. Ryan (R-Wis.) met at a Washington-area hotel and not on Capitol Hill.

Discussion: CNN