memeorandum: Judge rebuffs feds' secret arguments on no-fly list (Josh Gerstein/Politico)

1:20 AM ET, December 30, 2012

Top Items:

How the fiscal cliff fight will end (unhappily for Republicans) … The word among some Senate Republicans is that a fiscal cliff deal is likely to be struck by Sunday, or Monday at the latest. (And Monday, being December 31st, is in fact the latest a deal could be struck to avoid January 1 tax increases.)

Discussion: Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, National Review and Power Line

Politico:

GOP unlikely to oust Boehner as speaker of the House — It's a truth that fire-breathing conservatives will have to handle: John Boehner isn't going anywhere as speaker of the House. — Boehner's grip on leadership is no doubt weaker after a faction of his caucus blocked his “Plan B” to avoid the fiscal cliff.

Discussion: Hullabaloo

Erik Wasson / The Hill:

Congress, federal workers to get raise — Members of Congress will be getting a small pay increase next year. — Under an executive order issued by President Obama on Thursday, members of Congress will join federal workers in seeing their pay rise by 0.5 percent after March 27.

Discussion: BuzzFeed and Addicting Info

Politico:

Sunday showdown: Reid, McConnell try for small deal — Senate leaders are headed into a critical Sunday session of Congress with a singular mission to avoid historic tax hikes, setting the stage for a high-wire final act of fiscal cliff negotiating just two days before the country is hit with a series of tough austerity measures.

Discussion: Power Line

Sahil Kapur / Talking Points Memo:
Obama Gives Republicans A Tough Ultimatum On Taxes

Discussion: Alan Colmes'Alan Colmes' and Washington Monthly

Sam Stein / The Huffington Post:
Fiscal Cliff Deal Not Reached, Leaders Agree To Continue Talks

Discussion: The Hill, Wall Street Journal, Hot Air, The Impolitic, The New Republic, Addicting Info, Politico and The Daily Caller

Alexander Bolton / The Hill:
Reid, McConnell working on fiscal cliff deal after meeting Obama

Discussion: Hot Air, Saint Petersblog and New York Times

Marc Santora / New York Times:

Woman Accused of Hate-Crime Murder in Subway Push — A 31-year-old woman was arrested on Saturday and charged with a hate crime in connection with the death of a man who was pushed onto the tracks of an elevated subway station in Queens and crushed by an oncoming train.

Discussion: Atlas Shrugs, The Gateway Pundit, The Hinterland Gazette, The Other McCain and The Raw Story

Piers Morgan / Daily Mail:

Deport me? If America won't change its crazy gun laws... I may deport myself says Piers Morgan — I have fired guns only once in my life, on a stag party to the Czech capital Prague a few years ago when part of the itinerary included a trip to an indoor shooting range.

Discussion: American Power, Weasel Zippers and Jammie Wearing Fools

Mary Ellen Godin / Reuters:

Claim seeks $100 million for child survivor of Connecticut school shooting — Reuters/Reuters - A U.S. flag hangs over stockings left as a memorial for victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, along a fence surrounding the Sandy Hook Cemetery in Newtown, Connecticut December ...more

Discussion: Addicting Info, The Hinterland Gazette, The Right Scoop and Outside the Beltway

Josh Gerstein / Politico:

Judge rebuffs feds' secret arguments on no-fly list — A federal judge in California has rejected the Obama administration's effort to use secret arguments and evidence to defeat a lawsuit relating to the so-called no-fly list designed to keep suspected terrorists off of airline flights.

Shushannah Walshe / ABCNEWS:

Dick Armey Defends His $8 Million Deal to Leave FreedomWorks — Former House majority leader Dick Armey says he took an $8 million consulting deal in return for leaving the conservative organization FreedomWorks because the group was “dishonest” and because he “couldn't leave with empty pockets.”

Discussion: Hullabaloo, Washington Monthly and Talking Points Memo

Lynn Sweet:

Obama urging state lawmakers to legalize gay marriage in Illinois: Sun-Times exclusive — WASHINGTON—President Barack Obama is urging the Illinois General Assembly to legalize gay marriage in his home state as lawmakers are poised to take up the measure as early as this week in Springfield.

Discussion: Firedoglake, Politico and The New Civil Rights Movement

N. Gregory Mankiw / New York Times:

Wishful Thinking and Middle-Class Taxes — IN the continuing fiscal negotiations between President Obama and House Republicans, both sides have, from the very beginning, agreed on one point: Taxes on the middle class must not rise. But maybe it's time to reconsider this premise.

Discussion: Business Insider, American Power and Greg Mankiw's Blog

Josh Barro / Bloomberg:

When Getting Your Butt Kicked Is the Strategy — Buzzfeed has one of many pieces about anonymous Republicans bemoaning their party's strategic incompetence, this time about the debt ceiling deal. They report: … Here's what Buzzfeed is missing: For Republicans, losing the political fight isn't a downside of the strategy.

Discussion: National Review and BuzzFeed

Reuters:

French court rejects 75 percent millionaires' tax — (Reuters) - France's Constitutional Council on Saturday rejected a 75 percent upper income tax rate to be introduced in 2013 in a setback to Socialist President Francois Hollande's push to make the rich contribute more to cutting the public deficit.

Discussion: Weasel Zippers, Sister Toldjah and Althouse