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

6:10 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: CNN, Firedoglake, The Hill, Washington Post, Salon, Guardian, AMERICAblog, The Week, Business Insider, Politicker, neo-neocon, Connecting.the.Dots, The Caucus, Taylor Marsh and New York Times

New York Times:

Narrower Tax Deal Floated as Lawmakers Sit With Obama — WASHINGTON — Congressional leaders prepared for what was looming as a make-or-break White House meeting on the fiscal crisis Friday afternoon as top aides said they were exploring a scaled-back proposal that would prevent tax increases on household income of $400,000 or below.

Discussion: 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:

Obama to demand up-or-down vote on fiscal cliff proposal — A last-minute deal at Friday's White House meeting to avert the fiscal cliff appears highly unlikely, according to senior officials on both sides, with President Barack Obama expected to renew his demands for a plan to raise taxes on families who earn more than $250,000.

Discussion: CNN, The Lonely Conservative and Daily Kos

Alexander Bolton / The Hill:
Optimism for ‘fiscal cliff’ agreement grows ahead of White House meeting

Discussion: Booman Tribune

Alex Isenstadt / Politico:
The logic of House GOP intransigence

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

Steven T. Dennis / Roll Call:
Pessimism Abounds as White House Calls Cliff Meeting

Discussion: The Other McCain

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: JustOneMinute, Wired, Mother Jones, Techdirt, Firedoglake, The Atlantic Online, The Raw Story and The Verge

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

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

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

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

Rachel Weiner / Post Politics:

John Kerry, Vicki Kennedy, DSCC support Ed Markey for Senate — The Democratic establishment inside and outside Massachusetts is quickly lining up behind Rep. Ed Markey (D) in the likely special election for Sen. John Kerry's seat. — Kerry himself is supporting the longtime House member …

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

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

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

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

Sam Stein / The Huffington Post:

High-Capacity Magazines Bill To Be Introduced By Democrats On First Day Of Congressional Session … REACT: — FOLLOW: — Gun Control, Video, Politics News, Assault Weapons, Assault Weapons Ban, Democrats Gun Control, Gun Control Bills, Gun Control Democrats, Gun Control Laws …

Discussion: Weekly Standard, Weasel Zippers and Hot Air

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, Twitchy, Weasel Zippers and The Lonely Conservative

Sky News:

Gang-Rape In India: Teen Victim Kills Herself — Video: Women mourn the death of the teenager — A 17-year-old Indian girl who was allegedly gang-raped killed herself after police pressured her to drop the case and marry one of her attackers, police and a relative said on Thursday.

Discussion: BBC, Gawker, JONATHAN TURLEY and ECHIDNE OF THE SNAKES

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: PoliticusUSA, Mediaite, The Reaction and Gawker

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 …