Top Items:
Talking Points Memo:
Obama To Congress: Come To A Deal - Or Else — Following a meeting with congressional leaders at the White House on Friday, President Obama appeared before the press to urge all parties to take immediate action to reach a deal before a set of major tax increases and spending cuts kick in on Jan. 1.
Discussion:
The Moderate Voice, PERRspectives, Balloon Juice and CANNONFIRE
RELATED:
Sam Stein / The Huffington Post:
Fiscal Cliff Deal Not Reached, Leaders Agree To Continue Talks … REACT: — FOLLOW: — Harry Reid , John Boehner, Barack Obama , Barack Obama , Video, 2012 Fiscal Cliff, Harry Reid Fiscal Cliff, US Fiscal Cliff, Boehner Fiscal Cliff, Fiscal Cliff, Fiscal Cliff 2012, Fiscal Cliff Deal …
Discussion:
Addicting Info, The New Republic and The Daily Caller
Brett Taylor / Twitchy:
Dude, where's Nancy Pelosi's car? Minority leader appears lost in parking lot — The suspense! Usually, lawmakers exit a closed door meeting and head straight for the TV cameras. House Speaker John Boehner and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi were uncharacteristically quiet leaving …
Discussion:
Associated Press and Right Wing News
Ezra Klein / Wonkblog:
‘Come together’ breaks Washington apart
‘Come together’ breaks Washington apart
Discussion:
The National Memo and Hullabaloo
Bloomberg:
French Court Says 75% Tax Rate on Rich Is Unconstitutional — President Francois Hollande's 75 percent millionaire-tax is unconstitutional because it fails to guarantee taxpayer equality, France's top court ruled today. — The tax, one of Hollande's campaign promises …
Discussion:
BBC and National Review
PR Newswire:
ASPCA Pays $9.3 Million in Landmark Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus Settlement — Feld Entertainment RICO Lawsuit Will Continue against the Humane Society of the United States, the lawyers, and other remaining defendants — Feld Entertainment, Inc., the producer of Ringling Bros …
Discussion:
American Spectator and Overlawyered
Marc A. Thiessen / Washington Post:
Why not let taxes rise on the middle class? — Barring a last-minute breakthrough, taxes will go up for every American taxpayer on Jan. 1 — and that's a development conservatives should welcome. — Don't get me wrong, it would be better not to raise taxes on anyone …
Discussion:
Unqualified Offerings, National Review, The Lonely Conservative and Hot Air
Alexander Bolton / The Hill:
Leading proponent of filibuster reform claims he has 51 votes — Sen. Tom Udall (D-N.M.), a leading proponent of filibuster reform, said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (Nev.) has the 51 votes he needs to change Senate rules with the “nuclear option.” — The maneuver would be controversial …
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo, Booman Tribune, Post Politics and Wonkblog
Megan McArdle / Asymmetrical Information:
Should People Be Forced to Buy Liability Insurance for their Guns? — The latest gun-control idea is forcing owners to buy liability insurance. That may help a few victims, but it won't stop crime, writes Megan McArdle. — Novel gun control ideas continue to percolate through the commentariat.
Discussion:
Hot Air, Wonkblog, The Reality-Based Community, National Review, Prairie Weather and Instapundit
Michael Medved / The Daily Beast:
The Liberal God Delusion — Our government has been hijacked by a party obsessed with a higher power. But I'm not talking about the GOP. I'm talking about the left and their worship of government. — As Washington staggers into a new year, one side of the political spectrum polarizes …
Discussion:
Washington Monthly
New York Times:
Woman Dies After a Gang Rape That Galvanized India — NEW DELHI — A young woman who had been in critical condition since she was raped two weeks ago by a group of men who lured her onto a bus here died early Saturday, an official at the hospital in Singapore that was caring for her said.
Phillip Reese / Sacramento Bee:
California gun sales jump; gun injuries, deaths fall — Gun deaths and injuries have dropped sharply in California, even as the number of guns sold in the state has risen, according to new state data. — Dealers sold 600,000 guns in California last year, up from 350,000 in 2002 …
Discussion:
Outside the Beltway and About.com Conservative …
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:
Wired, JustOneMinute, Booman Tribune, Mother Jones, Hit & Run, Hullabaloo, Techdirt, The Verge, Firedoglake, The Atlantic Online and The Raw Story
RELATED:
Matt Sledge / The Huffington Post:
FISA Warrantless Wiretapping Program Renewed By Senate
FISA Warrantless Wiretapping Program Renewed By Senate
Discussion:
Electronic Frontier Foundation, ReadWrite, Boing Boing, msnbc.com, The Daily Caller, The Hill and PostPartisan
Adam Serwer / Mother Jones:
Senate to Intel Agencies: We Don't Need to Know How Often You Spy on Americans
Senate to Intel Agencies: We Don't Need to Know How Often You Spy on Americans
Discussion:
Cato Institute, The Maddow Blog, Techdirt and The Hill
Joe Weisenthal / Business Insider:
There's Only One Way To Fix The Deficit — And Actually It's Totally Painless — People who insist that the US has a gigantic “spending problem” are ignorant of what really drives the deficit and the national debt, as Henry Blodget easily demonstrated in a series of charts.
Discussion:
Washington Monthly and Paul Krugman