memeorandum: White House opposed new Iran sanctions (Josh Rogin/Foreign Policy)

10:45 AM ET, December 1, 2012

Top Items:

Michael Grunwald / TIME:

Fiscal Cliff Fictions: Let's All Agree to Pretend the GOP Isn't Full of It — It's really amazing to see political reporters dutifully passing along Republican complaints that President Obama's opening offer in the fiscal cliff talks is just a recycled version of his old plan …

Discussion: Prairie Weather, CANNONFIRE, Firedoglake, Balloon Juice, Mother Jones and Weekly Standard

Guy Benson / Townhall.com:

Republicans' Ace in the Hole: Simpson-Bowles? — Democrats appear to have the upper hand on the politics of the fiscal cliff, which might explain their brash pronouncements and mind-blowing conceptualization of “compromise.” This morning I outlined three possible contingencies for Republicans, none of which is especially attractive.

Discussion: Hugh Hewitt's TownHall Blog, Hot Air and National Review

Greg Sargent / Washington Post:

Mitch McConnell makes an offer — So this afternoon, Mitch McConnell made the most specific “fiscal cliff” offer we've seen thus far from Republicans. Here it is: … McConnell's offer is this: We'll give you increased revenues via the closing of loopholes — and in exchange …

Discussion: The Maddow Blog and Balloon Juice

Matt K. Lewis / The Daily Caller:
On the fiscal cliff, Republicans are so screwed

Discussion: Outside the Beltway, The Lonely Conservative and Business Insider

Wall Street Journal:
GOP Takes Aim at Entitlements

Discussion: Washington Free Beacon, Los Angeles Times, Wonkblog, Washington Wire, Hot Air and Daily Kos

Charles Krauthammer / Washington Post:
Cliff-jumping with Barack

Discussion: Mediaite, Mother Jones, Betsy's Page, Vodkapundit, Wake up America and Daily Kos

Jennifer Rubin / Washington Post:
Don't jump off the cliff yet

Discussion: The Other McCain, The Caucus, The Week, National Review and Connecting.the.Dots

Bfearnowcbs / CBS DC:

Study: American Households Hit 43-Year Low In Net Worth — WASHINGTON (CBS DC) - The median net worth of American households has dropped to a 43-year low as the lower and middle classes appear poorer and less stable than they have been since 1969. — According to a recent study …

Discussion: Scared Monkeys, The Gateway Pundit and The Lonely Conservative

Mike Lillis / The Hill:

House Dems try to force vote on extending middle-class tax rates — House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Friday announced Democrats would circulate a discharge petition to force a House vote to extend current tax rates only on annual household income below $250,000.

Jake Sherman / Politico:
Fiscal cliff: John Boehner declares stalemate

Discussion: CNN, Reuters and Daily Kos

Christi Parsons / Los Angeles Times:
Obama asks GOP to keep middle-class taxes low for Christmas

Discussion: The PJ Tatler and The Gateway Pundit

Lyle Denniston / SCOTUSblog:

No action on same-sex marriage — The Supreme Court, after taking most of the day to prepare new orders, took no action Friday on the ten same-sex marriage pleas now on the docket. It did agree to rule on whether taking a human gene out of the body for research is a process that can be patented.

Discussion: PoliticusUSA, Hot Air, Techdirt, Towleroad News #gay, ACS Blog, Advocate, The Raw Story and The Political Carnival

Tom Goldstein / SCOTUSblog:
History — At their Conference today, the Justices …

Discussion: BuzzFeed, msnbc.com, AMERICAblog and BuzzFeed

Ronald D. White / Los Angeles Times:

Small union is causing big problems for ports — A strike by about 800 clerical workers is disrupting the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach and costing them an estimated $1 billion a day. Above, trucks line up Thursday to enter Pier J at the Port of Long Beach. (Bob Chamberlin, Los Angeles Times / November 30, 2012)

Free exchange:

When indeed? — TYLER COWEN tweets: … One can't be sure, but the point Mr Cowen seems to be making is that America's 2.7% annual growth rate in the third quarter would seem to be fast enough to accept most of the fiscal cuts that are due to hit at the end of the year.

Discussion: Paul Krugman and Brad DeLong

Jodi Rudoren / New York Times:

Israel Moves to Expand Settlements in East Jerusalem — JERUSALEM — As the United Nations General Assembly voted overwhelmingly to upgrade the Palestinians' status Thursday night, Israel took steps toward building housing in a controversial area of East Jerusalem known as E1 …

Discussion: The Week, Israpundit, Power Line, Politico and Prairie Weather

Democracy Now:

Accused WikiLeaks Whistleblower Bradley Manning Testifies He Thought He Would “Die in Custody” … Bradley Manning, the U.S. Army private accused of leaking hundreds of thousands of classified documents to the whistleblowing website WikiLeaks, has testified for the first time since he was arrested in May 2010.

Discussion: Informed Comment, Firedoglake, Boing Boing, The Raw Story and Mashable!

Josh Rogin / Foreign Policy:

White House opposed new Iran sanctions — The White House announced its opposition to a new round of Iran sanctions that the Senate unanimously approved Friday, in the latest instance of Congress pushing for more aggressive punitive measures on Iran than the administration deems prudent.

Discussion: Jihad Watch, Weasel Zippers and Washington Free Beacon

Kevin Freking / Associated Press:

Congress looks at doing away with the $1 bill — Congressional auditors say doing away with dollar bills entirely ...more — WASHINGTON (AP) — American consumers have shown about as much appetite for the $1 coin as kids do their spinach. They may not know what's best for them either.

Discussion: CNN, Outside the Beltway, The PJ Tatler and LewRockwell.com Blog

Associated Press:

NY, NJ, Conn. join forces, seek nearly $83 billion in ‘flexible’ federal aid in Sandy recovery — ALBANY, N.Y. — New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy are joining forces in a regional effort to land nearly $83 billion in federal aid to recover from Superstorm Sandy.

Discussion: Capital Tonight and Politicker