memeorandum: GOP and Feinstein join to fulfill Obama's demand for renewed warrantless eavesdropping | Glenn Greenwald (Glenn Greenwald/Guardian)

7:25 PM ET, December 28, 2012

Top Items:

Jonathan Allen / Politico:

Why they want to go over the cliff — Washington's Democratic and Republican power brokers have sent the message to the nation that going over the fiscal cliff is a worst-case scenario. But they're not acting that way, not at all. — Instead, many of them have calculated that it's better …

Discussion: ABCNEWS, CNN, Washington Post, The Hill, Firedoglake, Salon, Guardian, AMERICAblog, The Week, Politicker, ABCNEWS, Business Insider, neo-neocon, Connecting.the.Dots, The Caucus, Taylor Marsh and New York Times

New York Times:

Leaders Meet at White House in Urgent Bid for Fiscal Deal — WASHINGTON — President Obama said Friday evening that progress had been made in make-or-break talks on the fiscal crisis and pronounced himself cautiously “optimistic,” as Senate leaders worked furiously on an agreement toward …

Discussion: The Hill, Taegan Goddard's …, Outside the Beltway and Balloon Juice

Ezra Klein / Wonkblog:

‘Come together’ breaks Washington apart — Twitter has been rather amused by Starbucks' plan to solve the fiscal cliff by scrawling “come together” on every peppermint mocha and salted caramel latte sold in the Beltway. — This will not bring people together. (EVA HAMBACH/AFP/Getty Images)

Discussion: Hullabaloo

Manu Raju / Politico:

Reid, McConnell will try to cut deal — President Barack Obama called on Senate leaders to hammer out a last-minute deal to prevent taxes from rising on Americans across every income group, warning that he otherwise would push Congress to allow an up-or-down vote on an emergency fiscal package just before the new year's deadline.

Discussion: The Lonely Conservative, Washington Examiner and Daily Kos

Alexander Bolton / The Hill:

Optimism for ‘fiscal cliff’ agreement grows ahead of White House meeting — Senators are growing more optimistic of a deal to avoid part of the fiscal cliff as Senate Republican Mitch McConnell (Ky.) works with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and President Obama to craft a last-minute deal.

Discussion: Politico and Booman Tribune

Talking Points Memo:
Obama To Congress: Come To A Deal - Or Else

Discussion: Balloon Juice

Alex Isenstadt / Politico:
The logic of House GOP intransigence

Discussion: Los Angeles Times, Wake up America, Booman Tribune and CNN

Glenn Greenwald / Guardian:

GOP and Feinstein join to fulfill Obama's demand for renewed warrantless eavesdropping | Glenn Greenwald — The California Democrat's disgusting rhetoric recalls the worst of Dick Cheney while advancing Obama's agenda — To this day, many people identify mid-2008 as the time they realized …

Discussion: Mother Jones, Wired, JustOneMinute, Hullabaloo, Techdirt, Firedoglake, The Raw Story, The Verge, The Atlantic Online, Electronic Frontier Foundation and Hit & Run

Matt Sledge / The Huffington Post:
FISA Warrantless Wiretapping Program Renewed By Senate

Discussion: PostPartisan, The Hill, Electronic Frontier Foundation, msnbc.com and The Daily Caller

Adam Serwer / Mother Jones:
Senate to Intel Agencies: We Don't Need to Know How Often You Spy on Americans

Discussion: Cato Institute, Techdirt and The Raw Story

Ramsey Cox / The Hill:
Senate approves bill to reauthorize foreign surveillance programs

Discussion: Hit & Run and The Maddow Blog

Paul Krugman:

A Double Shot of Misunderstanding — One of the enduring fantasies of the pundit class - most dramatically demonstrated by the ludicrous Politico piece on What Insiders Know - is that all we need to fix our economic problems is to get the great and the good together and bypass those pesky elected officials.

Discussion: Politico, Mother Jones, Balloon Juice, Business Insider and The Week, more at Mediagazer »

Emily Schultheis / Politico:

Kerry, Dems back Markey for Senate — Democrats both nationally and in Massachusetts are throwing their support behind Rep. Ed Markey to replace Sen. John Kerry in Massachusetts, hoping to clear the field for him in what could become a crowded Democratic primary.

Discussion: Weasel Zippers

Rachel Weiner / Post Politics:
John Kerry, Vicki Kennedy, DSCC support Ed Markey for Senate

Discussion: Boston Herald, Associated Press, The Maddow Blog, The Fix, The National Memo, Daily Kos and Boston Globe

Ed Morrissey / Hot Air:
Senate Republicans refuse to confirm Kerry until Hillary testifies about Benghazi

Discussion: Washington Monthly and Pirate's Cove

Gregory L. White / Wall Street Journal:

Putin Signs Ban on U.S. Adoptions — Children at an orphanage in Rostov-on-Don, Russia. A new law would ban Americans from adopting Russians. — MOSCOW—President Vladimir Putin signed a bill Friday banning U.S. citizens from adopting Russian children, raising tensions with Washington …

Discussion: Associated Press, Politico, LifeNews.com, Power Line and New York Times

Louis Charbonneau / Reuters:
National Rifle Association vows to fight arms trade treaty at U.N.

Discussion: Guardian

CNN:
Russia's Putin signs anti-U.S. adoption bill

Discussion: Rumproast, The Heritage Foundation, The Agonist and The Gateway Pundit

Tom Kludt / Talking Points Memo:

Tea Party Leader: Romney Was ‘The Worst Candidate In History’ — Tea Party Nation founder Judson Phillips on Thursday disputed that President Obama claimed a mandate in November's election, arguing that his re-election victory came over “the worst candidate in history in Mitt Romney.”

Discussion: Crooks and Liars

Chicago Tribune:

Grim milestone: Austin shooting apparently 500th homicide in Chicago — Gave Bates smiled through tears as she swiped her hand across her phone, flipping through pictures of her cousin playing around and striking goofy poses. — “He was a lot of fun, very good at imitating people,” Bates said of Nathaniel T. Jackson, 40.

Discussion: Weasel Zippers and Shot in the Dark

Associated Press:
Chicago reaches 500 homicides with fatal shooting

Discussion: Mediaite, Sister Toldjah and The Right Scoop

Chelsea Karnash / CBS Philly:

3 Officers Wounded After Suspect Opens Fire At Gloucester Township Police Station — CLEMENTON, NJ (CBS) — Police and rescue crews responded to the Gloucester County Municipal Building on Chews Landing Road this morning after shots were fired inside the Gloucester Township police station.

Discussion: Runnin' Scared, The Raw Story, Gawker and The Hinterland Gazette

WPVI-TV:
3 officers injured, gunman dead after NJ police station shooting

Discussion: WFTS and ABCNEWS

Dallas Morning News:

Exclusive: David Dewhurst campaign says aide stole at least $600,000 — Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst (front), receiving an endorsement during his U.S. Senate campaign from former rival Craig James, had hundreds of thousands of dollars stolen from his state political accounts by an aide, his campaign says.

Discussion: The Fix, Talking Points Memo, Politico, Ballot Box and Post Politics

Daniel Halper / Weekly Standard:

Obama Orders Pay Raise for Biden, Members of Congress, Federal Workers — President Barack Obama issued an executive order to end the pay freeze on federal employees, in effect giving some federal workers a raise. One federal worker now to receive a pay increase is Vice President Joe Biden.

Discussion: Michelle Malkin, The Gateway Pundit, Weasel Zippers, Twitchy and The Lonely Conservative

Garett Sloane / New York Post:

Rage against rules — Instagram revolt — Instagram users outraged over new rules made good on their threat to dump the popular photo-sharing app. — The app, which Facebook acquired for $1 billion earlier this year, may have shed nearly a quarter of its daily active users in the wake of the debacle …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Wired, Mashable!, Business Insider, Inside Facebook, The Verge, The Week, NYT Bits and TechCrunch, more at Mediagazer »

Jason Volentine / KASW-TV:

Sheriff Arpaio sending armed posse to protect schools — PHOENIX — Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio said Thursday that he plans to deploy his armed volunteer posse to protect Valley schools from the kind of violence that happened in the Connecticut shooting tragedy.

Discussion: AMERICAblog, Mediaite and The National Memo

Amanda Terkel / The Huffington Post:

112th Congress Set To Become Most Unproductive Since 1940s … REACT: — FOLLOW: — 112th Congress, Harry Reid , John Boehner, Republican Party, Congress Productivity, Olympia Snowe, Bipartisanship, Congress Unproductive, Fiscal Cliff, Unproductive Congress, Politics News

Discussion: The National Memo, PoliticusUSA, Mediaite, The Reaction and Gawker