Top Items:
Charlie Savage / New York Times:
Administration Weighs Legal Action Against States That Legalized Marijuana Use — WASHINGTON — Senior White House and Justice Department officials are considering plans for legal action against Colorado and Washington that could undermine voter-approved initiatives to legalize the recreational use …
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Andrew Sullivan / The Daily Dish:
Mr President, Don't Even Think About It — Charlie Savage reports on the Obama administration's response to the legalization of marijuana in Colorado and Washington. Balko is discouraged: … Pete Guither sees the article as a trial balloon: … Well, since they're asking …
Discussion:
Washington Monthly, The Reality-Based Community, Mediaite, Weasel Zippers, The Plum Line and Hit & Run
Tim Dickinson / Rolling Stone:
Obama's Pot Problem — Now that states have started legalizing recreational marijuana, will the president continue the government's war on weed? — By — When voters in Colorado and Washington state legalized recreational marijuana in November, they thought they were declaring a cease-fire in the War on Drugs.
Emily Swanson / The Huffington Post:
Marijuana Legalization Poll Finds Americans Want Federal Government To Leave States Alone
Marijuana Legalization Poll Finds Americans Want Federal Government To Leave States Alone
Discussion:
Firedoglake and AMERICAblog
Paul Krugman:
I Hope This Isn't True — Ezra Klein says that the shape of a fiscal cliff deal is clear: only a 37 percent rate on top incomes, and a rise in the Medicare eligibility age. — I'm going to cross my fingers and hope that this is just a case of creeping Broderism, that it's a VSP fantasy …
Discussion:
Mediaite and AMERICAblog
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Ezra Klein / Wonkblog:
The fiscal cliff deal comes clearer: a 37% top tax rate and a higher Medicare eligibility age — Something hilarious happened in the Senate on Thursday. — The White House has been pushing a plan to transfer authority for the debt ceiling to the executive.
Discussion:
Politico, National Review and Hullabaloo
Molly Ball / The Atlantic Online:
Sorry, Democrats: 4 Ways Progressives Are About to Have Their Hopes Dashed — Liberals are fired up about Obama's second term and Elizabeth Warren's election. They're about to be disappointed. — Reuters/The Atlantic — Ever since Election Day, the left has been riding high.
David Dayen / Firedoglake:
Jon Chait's Miserable Endorsement of Raising the Medicare Eligibility Age
Jon Chait's Miserable Endorsement of Raising the Medicare Eligibility Age
Discussion:
Crooks and Liars, Washington Monthly, New York Magazine, Hullabaloo, Balloon Juice, Wonkblog and Slate
Adam Liptak / New York Times:
Supreme Court to Take Up Gay Marriage — WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court announced on Friday that it would enter the national debate over same-sex marriage, agreeing to hear a pair of cases challenging state and federal laws that define marriage to include only unions of a man and a woman.
Discussion:
American Prospect, The Plum Line, Mashable!, Guardian, Outside the Beltway, Hot Air, Towleroad News #gay, Gallup and The Week
RELATED:
Sam Baker / The Hill:
Supreme Court to hear historic same-sex marriage cases — The Supreme Court announced Friday that it will hear a challenge to the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) — the federal law that defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman. The court also agreed to hear …
Discussion:
Reuters, Washington Monthly, GOP 12 and CNN
Kali Borkoski / SCOTUSblog:
Live blog anticipating orders, hopefully regarding same-sex marriage (sponsored by Bloomberg Law) (Update: Completed) — We anticipate orders this afternoon, including likely in the same-sex marriage cases. Our list of “Petitions to watch” for this Conference is here.
Discussion:
The Raw Story, Mediaite, The Daily Dish, The Maddow Blog and Advocate
Greg Stohr / Bloomberg:
Gay Marriage Gets Supreme Court Review for the First Time
Gay Marriage Gets Supreme Court Review for the First Time
Discussion:
Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, TBogg, Reuters, SCOTUSblog and Daily Kos
Andrew Kirell / Mediaite:
‘Gangnam Style’ Singer PSY's Vitriolic Anti-American Past Revealed, Outrage Ensues — He has the most-watched YouTube video of all-time, an international phenomenon of a mega-hit in “Gangnam Style,” has made appearances on nearly every American morning talk show under the sun from Today to Ellen …
Discussion:
NY Daily News, Twitchy, Mashable!, Red Alert Politics, Weasel Zippers, The Week, The Daily Caller, Hot Air, Gawker and BuzzFeed
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Rosie Gray / BuzzFeed:
President Still Set To Attend “Gangnam Style” Artist's Performance — It's for charity. — The First Family will attend a “Christmas in Washington” concert where South Korean rapper Psy will perform, a White House spokesman said, despite the artist's Iraq War-era anti-American remarks that have surfaced.
Discussion:
Post Politics, Mediaite, New York Magazine, FP Passport and Twitchy
David Brooks / New York Times:
The Republican Glasnost — Senator Marco Rubio won the Jack Kemp Foundation's Leadership Award earlier this week. In his speech accepting the award, he sketched out his Republican vision. Some of the policies he mentioned were pretty conventional for someone of his party: limiting regulations, approving the Keystone XL Pipeline.
Discussion:
Hot Air, Washington Monthly, driftglass, Crooks and Liars and Daily Kos
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Steve Kornacki / Salon:
What Jim DeMint figured out
What Jim DeMint figured out
Discussion:
First Read, The Plum Line, Little Green Footballs and Business Insider
Nick Baumann / Mother Jones:
GOP Resurrects Plan to Rig Electoral College — After Romney got walloped on November 6, Republicans want to change how electoral votes are awarded. — In September, top Pennsylvania Republicans shocked the nation by proposing a change to the state's election rules that would have rigged …
Discussion:
Firedoglake and Zandar Versus The Stupid
Dick / DickMorris.com:
Whites Stayed Home And Re-Elected Obama — Now that all the data is in, the fundamental reason for Romney's defeat is apparent, if largely unreported. It is not just that blacks, Latinos, and single women showed up in record numbers at the polls. It's that whites didn't.
Discussion:
Wonkette, Daily Kos, Little Green Footballs, Business Insider and Post Politics
The Caucus:
2012 Election Ended With Deluge of Donations and Spending — The most expensive general election in history ended with a bang, according to new reports filed with the Federal Election Commission, with both presidential campaigns raising and spending huge amounts in the final two weeks before Election Day and …
Discussion:
Taegan Goddard's …
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Donovan Slack / Politico:
Obama to take corporate cash for inauguration
Obama to take corporate cash for inauguration
Discussion:
Sunlight Foundation Blog, Change.gov, Associated Press, ABCNEWS, Weasel Zippers and The Impolitic
John Nichols / thenation.com/blogs/117:
GOP, Koch Brothers Sneak Attack Guts Labor Rights in Michigan — In the state where workers sat down in Flint General Motors plants seventy-five years ago and emboldened the industrial labor movement that would give birth to the American middle class, Republican legislators on Thursday voted to gut basic labor rights.
Discussion:
Crooks and Liars, Lansing State Journal, aflcio.org and Democratic Strategist
RELATED:
Ed Kilgore / Washington Monthly:
Racing To the Bottom In Michigan
Racing To the Bottom In Michigan
Discussion:
aflcio.org, The New Republic, New York Times and The National Memo
Dylan Byers / Politico:
Press fear Obama private swearing in — The White House Correspondents Association is strongly urging the Obama administration to allow press access to the president's official swearing-in ceremony on Jan. 20, following indications from inauguration committee officials that the event could potentially be closed to the press.
Discussion:
Mediaite
CNN:
New photo shows Obama taking Romney's concession call — (CNN) - A never-before-seen official White House photo, posted online Friday, shows President Barack Obama on Election Night speaking with his freshly defeated rival Mitt Romney. — The photo was taken in the presidential suite …
Discussion:
Politico, The Hinterland Gazette, Towleroad News #gay and Truthdig
Fox News:
Cheney Takes Flamethrower To Obama — Former Vice President Dick Cheney was honored last night at the Hudson Institute's 2012 Herman Khan Award Dinner at the Pierre Hotel in New York City. Cheney was introduced by Lewis “Scooter” Libby, who spoke in detail about Cheney's life and accomplishments …
Discussion:
No More Mister Nice Blog
Lilian Kim / KGO-TV:
Arpaio gets cold shoulder in San Francisco — immigration, san francisco news, lilian kim — SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — America's most controversial sheriff was in hostile territory Thursday night. Arizona's Joe Arpaio is in San Francisco as an invited guest, despite strong public sentiment against him.
Discussion:
Taegan Goddard's … and The Raw Story
Daniel Halper / Weekly Standard:
‘Welfare Spending Equates to $168 Per Day for Every Household in Poverty’ — The amount of money spent on welfare programs equals, when converted to cash payments, about “$168 per day for every household in poverty,” the minority side of the Senate Budget Committee finds.
Discussion:
Rush Limbaugh and Weasel Zippers
Bill McBride / Calculated Risk:
November Employment Report: 146,000 Jobs, 7.7% Unemployment Rate — From the BLS: … Click on graph for larger image. — There was uncertainty about this report because of Hurricane Sandy. — The headline number was above expectations of 80,000, but both September and October payroll growth was revised down.
Discussion:
Wonkblog, Hot Air, AEIdeas, Business Insider, Firedoglake, aflcio.org, The Democratic Daily and National Review
Reuters:
Egyptian protesters break barrier at Morsi's palace — Activists penetrate climb onto army tanks; opposition leaders reject national dialogue proposed by Islamist President Morsi. — CAIRO - Tens of thousands of Egyptian protesters surged around President Mohamed Morsi's palace in Cairo …
Discussion:
Weasel Zippers and Jihad Watch