Top Items:
Erik Wasson / The Hill:
Club for Growth will punish members voting for Sandy flood aid — The conservative Club for Growth said Friday that it will punish House members who voted for a flood insurance measure aimed at helping pay for Hurricane Sandy's damage. — The Club will “key-vote” the measure, using it to compile an annual rating for each lawmaker.
Discussion:
ABCNEWS
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Justin Sink / The Hill:
Gingrich warns Boehner could have ‘disaster on his hands’ — Newt Gingrich warned Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) that he risks losing control of his conference without a more coherant strategy. — “He can't keep thinking the way he's thought the last few months without having a disaster on his hands …
Discussion:
Politico, Washington Monthly and msnbc.com
Raymond Hernandez / New York Times:
Congress Passes $9.7 Billion in Relief for Hurricane Sandy Victims
Congress Passes $9.7 Billion in Relief for Hurricane Sandy Victims
Discussion:
Politico, Business Insider, City Room, The National Memo, The Maddow Blog and Capital New York
Pete Kasperowicz / The Hill:
House approves $9.7 billion in Sandy relief
House approves $9.7 billion in Sandy relief
Discussion:
Alan Colmes'Alan Colmes' and Mediaite
Russell Berman / The Hill:
Boehner to GOP: Public is behind us on spending, debt limit fight
Boehner to GOP: Public is behind us on spending, debt limit fight
Discussion:
The Hill and Booman Tribune
Kevin Robillard / Reuters:
Barney Frank: I want to be senator — Barney Frank, one day out of Congress, said on Friday that he has asked Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick to send him back as an interim senator when Sen. John Kerry becomes secretary of state. — “A month ago, or a few weeks ago, I said I wasn't interested,” Frank said on MSNBC's “Morning Joe.”
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Justin Sink / The Hill:
Former Rep. Barney Frank wants interim appointment to replace Kerry in Senate
Former Rep. Barney Frank wants interim appointment to replace Kerry in Senate
Discussion:
Michelle Malkin, CNN and Twitchy
Tom Kludt / Talking Points Memo:
Barney Frank Would Welcome Interim Appointment To Fill Kerry's Senate Seat (VIDEO)
Barney Frank Would Welcome Interim Appointment To Fill Kerry's Senate Seat (VIDEO)
Discussion:
Balloon Juice and The Raw Story
Kevin Drum / Mother Jones:
No, a $1 Trillion Platinum Coin is Not Legal — For some reason, the possibility of evading the debt ceiling by minting a $1 trillion platinum coin is getting some blogospheric love again. This is based on a 2000 revision to the U.S. statute on money and finance that reads:
Discussion:
The Plum Line, No More Mister Nice Blog, Balloon Juice, Unfogged and Capital New York
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Josh Barro / Bloomberg:
Why We Must Go Off the Platinum Coin Cliff
Why We Must Go Off the Platinum Coin Cliff
Discussion:
msnbc.com, Capital New York, The Week, Wonkblog, Balloon Juice, Taegan Goddard's …, Business Insider, Firedoglake, New York Sun, Corrente, Mediaite and Hot Air
Jason Linkins / The Huffington Post:
Can We Avert The Coming Debt Ceiling Crisis With A Magic Coin?
Can We Avert The Coming Debt Ceiling Crisis With A Magic Coin?
Discussion:
American Prospect, The New Republic, Mother Jones, The Plum Line and Suburban Guerrilla
Eric Lach / Talking Points Memo:
Former NRA President Equates Gun Laws With Racism — Those looking for moderation and sensitivity in the gun control debate probably, by this point, know better than to look to the National Rifle Association. — But even by the standards of what we've heard from the NRA recently …
Discussion:
The Maddow Blog and The Raw Story
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Alyssa Rosenberg / ThinkProgress:
How To Change Pop Culture's Reliance On Violence
How To Change Pop Culture's Reliance On Violence
Discussion:
The Atlantic Online
Stephen L. Carter / Bloomberg:
Angry at the NRA? That Won't Reduce Gun Violence
Angry at the NRA? That Won't Reduce Gun Violence
Discussion:
protein wisdom and The New Republic
Brian Stelter / Media Decoder:
Gore Went to Bat for Al Jazeera, and Himself — Al Gore at the Current TV studios in San Francisco in 2005. He said Al Jazeera's coverage was “thorough, fair and informative.” — Al Gore's Current TV was never popular with viewers, but it was a hit where it counted: with cable and satellite providers.
Discussion:
Politico, Betsy's Page, Daily Download, NO QUARTER USA NET, Mediaite, Capital New York, Weasel Zippers, Hot Air and The Raw Story, more at Mediagazer »
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New York Times:
Al Jazeera in America — Al Jazeera, the pan-Arab news network, has long wanted to gain a bigger American television audience, and it may have finally found a way to do that by buying Current TV. But as the deal was being signed, Time Warner Cable announced it would immediately stop carrying Current …
Discussion:
Politico, Mediaite, CNN, Weasel Zippers, Jihad Watch, Media Decoder, The Raw Story, americanthinker.com, Gestetner Updates and PandoDaily, more at Mediagazer »
Associated Press:
Nancy Pelosi defends photoshopped picture of congresswomen — WASHINGTON (AP) — House minority leader Nancy Pelosi on Friday defended an altered picture of Democratic congresswomen that was posted on her Flickr photo-sharing site. — The photo showed four members who were not in the original picture …
Discussion:
CNN
Sam Baker / The Hill:
House rules aim to block controversial healthcare board's Medicare cuts — House Republicans signaled Thursday they will not follow rules in President Obama's healthcare law that were designed to speed Medicare cuts through Congress. — The House is set to vote Thursday afternoon on rules for the 113th Congress.
Discussion:
Washington Monthly, Hit & Run and The Incidental Economist
Jenn Taylor / Twitchy:
Hope and less change: Americans cringe at first paychecks of 2013; Stunned lib asks, ‘What happened?’ — Happy New Year and happy payday! Thank goodness our “lord and savior” Obama signed the fiscal cliff bill into law after proudly proclaiming, “Under this law, more than 98 percent …
Discussion:
National Review
Torie Bosch / Slate:
Leading Environmental Activist's Blunt Confession: I Was Completely Wrong To Oppose GMOs — Anti-Monsanto activists in Germany in 2009 — If you fear genetically modified food, you may have Mark Lynas to thank. By his own reckoning, British environmentalist helped spur the anti-GMO movement …
Discussion:
Hit & Run
David Weigel / Slate:
Eighty-Six Minutes of Joe Biden Being Incredible — I only spent a little time today watching Vice President Biden conduct ceremonial (read: photo-op) swearings-in for the 34 senators taking office today. My mistake: As the viral video wizards quickly proved, it was a movie-length event …
Hayley Peterson / Daily Mail:
Workers making $30,000 will take a bigger hit on their pay than those earning $500,000 under new fiscal deal — Middle-class workers will take a bigger hit to their income proportionately than those earning between $200,000 and $500,000 under the new fiscal cliff deal, according to the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center.
Discussion:
Michelle Malkin, The Gateway Pundit and The PJ Tatler
Scott Keyes / ThinkProgress:
Republican Congressman Claims Hammers Could Be Outlawed Under Assault Weapons Ban — A Republican congressman lambasted the push for gun control in the wake of the Sandy Hook massacre, stating on Friday that if lawmakers wanted to ban assault weapons, they would have to outlaw “hammers” and “machetes” as well.
Discussion:
The Raw Story
Greg Giroux / Bloomberg:
Final Tally Shows Obama First Since '56 to Win 51% Twice — Eight weeks after the Nov. 6 presidential election, a revised vote count in New York shows that Barack Obama is the first president in more than five decades to win at least 51 percent of the vote twice.
Discussion:
The Maddow Blog, The Reaction, Outside the Beltway and The New Republic
Adrienne LaFrance / Washington Post:
Library of Congress has archive of tweets, but no plan for its public display — In the few minutes it will take you to read this story, some 3 million new tweets will have flitted across the publishing platform Twitter and ricocheted across the Internet. The Library of Congress is busy archiving …
Ruby Cramer / BuzzFeed:
New Jersey's Cory Booker Problem — The Newark Mayor's decision to run for Senate has offended Lautenberg, and frustrated the state's Democratic party. “I'm not angry, I'm disappointed.” — Newark, N.J. Mayor Cory Booker — Image by Max Morse / Getty Images
Charles Krauthammer / Washington Post:
Return of the real Obama — The rout was complete, the retreat disorderly. President Obama got his tax hikes — naked of spending cuts — passed by the ostensibly Republican House of Representatives. After which, you might expect him to pivot to his self-proclaimed “principle” of fiscal …
Discussion:
Booman Tribune
Hollywood Reporter:
Post-Newtown, 70 Percent Say Hollywood Shows Too Much Violence (Poll) — The Hollywood Reporter and pollster Penn Schoen Berland asked consumers of movies and television how their views on depictions of violence were affected by the Dec. 14 shooting in Connecticut.
Discussion:
Reuters, Weasel Zippers, The Hill and Movieline