Top Items:
Politico:
Lessons learned, Obama takes fights to Congress — Barack Obama is looking for a few good fights. — Obama, the same president who campaigned twice on breaking the cycle of conflict in Washington, sees the utility — even the necessity — of rattling Republican cages as he plunges …
Discussion:
The Hill and NBC Politics
Sahil Kapur / Talking Points Memo:
Chuck Hagel Expanded On ‘Aggressively Gay’ Slur In 1998 — Then-Sen. Chuck Hagel's remark to the Omaha World-Herald in 1998 that Clinton ambassadorial nominee James Hormel was “openly, aggressively gay” was only a part of what Hagel told the paper about his opposition to Hormel's nomination.
Discussion:
PostPartisan, Towleroad News #gay, The Reaction and Power Line
Claudine Zap / Yahoo! News:
Australia's weather is so hot, new colors added to weather map — The forecast in Australia: Hot, hot, hot—and getting hotter. — As a record-breaking heatwave hovers over many regions and territories (which are in their summer months now), the continent's Bureau of Meteorology has added …
Discussion:
KDVR.com
RELATED:
Justin Gillis / New York Times:
Not Even Close: 2012 Was Hottest Ever in U.S. — The numbers are in: 2012, the year of a surreal March heat wave, a severe drought in the Corn Belt and a huge storm that caused broad devastation in the Middle Atlantic States, turns out to have been the hottest year ever recorded in the contiguous United States.
Discussion:
Washington Post, NewsBusters.org blogs, The Agonist, msnbc.com, Wonkblog, Weekly Standard and Lawyers, Guns & Money
Carl Franzen / Talking Points Memo:
NOAA: 2012 Warmest Year On Record For U.S., Second Most Extreme Weather
NOAA: 2012 Warmest Year On Record For U.S., Second Most Extreme Weather
Discussion:
Informed Comment, BillMoyers.com, Hullabaloo and The Verge
Paul Krugman:
Rage Against the Coin — (From Talking Points Memo). — Well, the trillion-dollar-coin thing — deal with the debt ceiling by exploiting a legal loophole to have the Treasury mint one or more large-denomination coins, deposit them at the Fed, and use the cash in the new account to pay bills — has really taken off.
Discussion:
The Daily Caller, Business Insider, The Huffington Post and The Week
RELATED:
Jeffrey M. Jones / Gallup:
In U.S., Democrats Re-Establish Lead in Party Affiliation — In 2012, 47% identified or leaned Democratic, 42% Republican — PRINCETON, NJ — An average of 47% of Americans identified as Democrats or said they were independents who leaned Democratic in 2012, compared with 42% who identified as or leaned Republican.
Byron York / Washington Examiner:
Why can't Republicans enforce law against Harry Reid? — WASHINGTON, DC - DECEMBER 11: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) arrrives for a weekly policy luncheon with Democratic members of the U.S. Senate December 11, 2012 in Washington, DC. The U.S. Congress is still negotiating pending …
Discussion:
Betsy's Page, Hot Air, Weasel Zippers and Power Line
RELATED:
Jim Acosta / CNN:
TRENDING: Reid adviser: Senate majority leader ‘in a different place’ on gun control
TRENDING: Reid adviser: Senate majority leader ‘in a different place’ on gun control
Discussion:
Weasel Zippers
Center for American Progress:
The Deficit Reduction We Have Achieved So Far — Since the start of fiscal year 2011, President Barack Obama has signed into law approximately $2.4 trillion of deficit reduction for the years 2013 through 2022. Nearly three-quarters of that deficit reduction is in the form of spending cuts …
Discussion:
ThinkProgress, Prairie Weather, Quartz, Wonkblog, Hullabaloo and Mother Jones
Alexander Burns / Politico:
Hagel pick: Final snub of George W. Bush — The final insult to George W. Bush's foreign policy may have come in the form of a Republican ex-senator from Nebraska. — Chuck Hagel's nomination for secretary of defense has stirred opposition on both the left and the right …
Discussion:
Taegan Goddard's …
James Hohmann / Politico:
At 100, still little love for Nixon — Richard Nixon would have turned 100 Wednesday, but about the only people marking the occasion are historians, family members and loyalists from the disgraced 37th president's administration. — And even they're slowly dying off.
Discussion:
ABCNEWS
John Cook / Gawker:
Here Is a List of All the A**holes Handsome Law-Abiding Citizens Who Own Guns Some People in New York City — Last month, the Journal News sparked a firestorm of protest when it published a mappable database of every licensed gun owner in Westchester and Rockland counties, north of New York City.
Noah Rothman / Mediaite:
Alex Jones Fears For Life After Morgan Interview, Blames NYPD Or Bloomberg If 'We're Killed By Crackheads' — Moments after radio host Alex Jones taped an explosive interview with CNN host Piers Morgan, Jones took to YouTube where he expressed his fear that he would be harmed …
Discussion:
Forbes, The Immoral Minority, The Mahablog, Gawker, BuzzFeed, Guardian, Balloon Juice and Towleroad News #gay, more at Mediagazer »
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Stephen Wright / Daily Mail:
Police have stopped me 25 times... just because I'm black: Stephen Lawrence's teacher brother launches damning race case against the Met — Stephen Lawrence's brother last night claimed police have stopped him 25 times simply because of the colour of his skin.
Robert Winnett / Telegraph:
Coalition misses 70 election pledges — David Cameron and Nick Clegg will on Wednesday publish a candid assessment of the Coalition's successes and failures that was excluded from its Mid-term Review, The Daily Telegraph has learnt. — A section of the document discusses how Mr Cameron and Mr Clegg could explain ‘broken pledges’
New York Times:
Bank Hacks Were Work of Iranians, Officials Say — SAN FRANCISCO — The attackers hit one American bank after the next. As in so many previous attacks, dozens of online banking sites slowed, hiccupped or ground to a halt before recovering several minutes later.
Mike Clary / Sun-Sentinel:
FAU prof stirs controversy by disputing Newtown massacre — Gabby Giffords launches site to stop gun violence — A communication professor known for conspiracy theories has stirred controversary at Florida Atlantic University with claims that last month's Newtown, Conn. …
Discussion:
The Jawa Report, Daily Kos and No More Mister Nice Blog
Ryan Grim / The Huffington Post:
Call Time For Congress Shows How Fundraising Dominates Bleak Work Life … REACT: — FOLLOW: — Barney Frank, Congress, Video, Alcee Hastings, Congress Fundraising, Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, Call Time Congress, Campaign Fundraising, Congress Fundraising Calls …
Jessica E. Lessin / Wall Street Journal:
Apple Working on a Less-Expensive iPhone — Apple Inc. is working on a lower-end iPhone, according to people briefed on the matter, a big shift in corporate strategy as its supremacy in smartphones has slipped. — While Apple has explored such a device for years, the plan is progressing …
Discussion:
Washington Wire, TechCrunch, Quartz, AllThingsD and The Verge
Larry Bell / Forbes:
Al Gore's Oil-Fueled Al-Jazeera Deal Follows A String Of Green Energy Fiascos — Al Gore, chairman and co-founder of Current TV, and Joel Hyatt, executive vice chairman and co-founder of Current TV. (Image credit: via @daylife) — Al-Jazeera, the anti-Israeli network funded by Qatar …
McKay Coppins / BuzzFeed:
Glenn Beck Relaunching The Blaze As Global Libertarian News Network — Beck takes a shot at Fox as he expands his news network with foreign bureaus and a new show. “I consider myself a libertarian... I'm a lot closer to Penn Jillette than I am to Chuck Hagel.”
Discussion:
Politico, more at Mediagazer »
Washington Post:
Some in administration push for only a few thousand U.S. troops in Afghanistan after 2014 — Groups within the Obama administration are pushing to keep no more than a few thousand troops in Afghanistan after 2014, U.S. officials said, raising the prospect that the United States will be unable …
Discussion:
The Week and The Reaction
Dana Milbank / Washington Post:
Can Chris Christie rescue the GOP? — A pair of polls out this week shows the dire state the Republican Party finds itself in — and a way out of the wilderness, should Republicans choose to take it. — Poll No. 1: Rasmussen Reports found that views of the tea party …
Discussion:
Daily Kos, Business Insider, Crooks and Liars, Ballot Box and Weekly Standard
Thomas Kaplan / New York Times:
Cuomo to Propose Broader Ban on Assault Weapons — ALBANY — Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, pushing New York to become the first state to enact major new gun laws in the wake of the massacre in Newtown, Conn., plans on Wednesday to propose one of the country's most restrictive bans on assault weapons.
Glenn Harlan Reynolds / USA Today:
Column: How home schooling threatens monopoly education — In an era when everything is customizable, why not customize your child's education? — STORY HIGHLIGHTS — Americans across the country are voting with their feet and abandoning traditional public schools. — “What about home schooling?
Discussion:
Vox Popoli
Ben Shapiro / BREITBART.COM:
MEET THE ‘BULLIES’: BREITBART EDITOR EXPOSES OBAMA'S ARMY OF THUGS IN NEW BOOK — Note from Senior Management: — Andrew Breitbart built the platform that became Breitbart News Network to give young and important voices a chance to reach a broader audience.
Discussion:
Little Green Footballs