Top Items:
Abby D. Phillip / ABC News:
Republicans and Tea Party Activists in ‘Full Scale Civil War’ … Years of growing friction between the Republican Party leaders and its Tea Party faction has erupted into what one conservative said today was “full-scale civil war.” — House Speaker John Boehner, whose strategies …
Discussion:
Politico, The Fix, Talking Points Memo, CNN, Guardian, Yahoo! News, Business Insider, Hot Air, The Heritage Foundation, The Impolitic, Liberaland and NationalJournal.com
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The Hill:
House approves budget deal, handing major victory to Boehner — The House on Thursday approved a two-year budget deal that turns off $63 billion in sequester spending cuts, handing a major victory to Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio.). — Large majorities in both parties backed the bill in a 332-94 vote.
Discussion:
Hot Air, American Spectator and Instapundit
Sahil Kapur / Talking Points Memo:
John Boehner: Conservative Groups Have ‘Lost All Credibility’ (VIDEO) — House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) on Thursday held firm in his criticism of outside conservative groups after a war of words Wednesday, questioning their credibility and saying they've gone “over the line” …
Discussion:
RedState, Washington Post, Daily Kos and Guardian
Brian Beutler / Salon:
Obama's shutdown critics look like morons after budget deal — Guess what, tired Beltway pundits: Obama's successful leadership from October brought an end to GOP hostage-taking — Back in August and September, two opposing analytical frameworks dominated the media's coverage of the government shutdown and debt limit hostage crises.
Discussion:
Politico and Connecting.the.Dots
Jake Sherman / Politico:
House passes bipartisan budget deal
House passes bipartisan budget deal
Discussion:
Guardian, Outside the Beltway and Business Insider
Emma Dumain / Roll Call:
Boehner: Conservative Outside Groups ‘Have Lost All Credibility’
Boehner: Conservative Outside Groups ‘Have Lost All Credibility’
Discussion:
Hawkings Here
Andrew Stiles / National Review:
Boehner: Conservative Groups ‘Have Lost All Credibility’
Boehner: Conservative Groups ‘Have Lost All Credibility’
Discussion:
Power Line and FreedomWorks
Ginger Gibson / Politico:
Pelosi on deal: ‘Embrace the suck’
Pelosi on deal: ‘Embrace the suck’
Discussion:
Hot Air, Talking Points Memo, The Plum Line, Weasel Zippers, CNN, NBCNews and Daily Kos
Greg Sargent / The Plum Line:
Morning Plum: Top pollster advises Dems to go on offense on Obamacare
Morning Plum: Top pollster advises Dems to go on offense on Obamacare
Discussion:
Mediaite, Weasel Zippers, Hullabaloo, Talking Points Memo, Washington Post, Wonkblog, First Read, Washington Monthly and New York Times
Geoff Earle / New York Post:
Pelosi on budget deal: ‘Embrace the suck’
Pelosi on budget deal: ‘Embrace the suck’
Discussion:
Ed Driscoll, Althouse, Talking Points Memo and The Gateway Pundit
Hadas Gold / Politico:
Megyn Kelly: Jesus and Santa were white — On Wednesday night Megyn Kelly declared on her Fox News show that both Santa Claus and Jesus were white. Discussing a piece in Slate by Aisha Harris about a black versus white Santa, Kelly that “just because it makes you feel uncomfortable it doesn't mean it has to change.”
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Jonathan Merritt / The Atlantic Online:
Insisting Jesus Was White Is Bad History and Bad Theology — Fox News television host Megyn Kelly told viewers on her December 11 broadcast that Jesus and Santa are both white men. — “Just because it makes you feel uncomfortable doesn't mean it has to change,” Kelly said. “Jesus was a white man, too.
Aisha Harris / Slate:
What Fox News Doesn't Understand About Santa Claus — Earlier this week, I argued that our image of Santa Claus should no longer be a white man, but, instead, a penguin. I hoped the piece would come across as a little tongue-in-cheek, while at the same time expressing my real concern …
Steven Morris / Guardian:
Pupils' Christmas ‘ruined’ by vicar's Santa Claus origins story
Pupils' Christmas ‘ruined’ by vicar's Santa Claus origins story
Discussion:
Daily Kos, Booman Tribune and Unfogged
Angie Drobnic Holan / PolitiFact:
Lie of the Year: ‘If you like your health care plan, you can keep it’ — It was a catchy political pitch and a chance to calm nerves about his dramatic and complicated plan to bring historic change to America's health insurance system. — “If you like your health care plan, you can keep it …
Botho Molosankwe / IOL:
Sign language ‘fake’ blames illness — Johannesburg - The man who has been blasted on social networks and accused of providing “fake” sign language interpretation at Nelson Mandela's memorial service says he suffered a schizophrenic episode. — Thamsanqa Jantjie said his schizophrenia …
Discussion:
GlobalPost, BBC, The Moderate Voice, World News, New York Times, The Verge, BizPac Review, Outside the Beltway, Most Recent and USA Today
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John Bacon / USA Today:
Official who OK'd Obama birth papers dies in crash — One person is dead after a small plane crashed off the island of Molokai, Hawaii. Officials say the other eight people on the plane survived. (Dec. 12) AP — Hawaiian Health Director Loretta Fuddy was killed in a small plane crash off Hawaii.
Discussion:
Gawker, Talking Points Memo, AMERICAblog News, Mediaite, Weasel Zippers, The Beat: Blogging and Liberaland
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Kevin Drum / Mother Jones:
Vermont Is Kicking Everyone's Ass at Signing Up People for Obamacare — Which states are doing the best at signing up people for Obamacare? Business Insider has a state-by-state chart here showing the number of people who have completed the process 100 percent: they've actually chosen …
Discussion:
Firedoglake, The Dish and Business Insider
Associated Press:
MISSING AMERICAN IN IRAN WAS ON UNAPPROVED MISSION — You are here — Home » United States government » Missing American in Iran was on unapproved mission — WASHINGTON (AP) — In March 2007, retired FBI agent Robert Levinson flew to Kish Island, an Iranian resort awash with tourists …
Discussion:
Gawker and Mediaite, more at Mediagazer »
Ezra Klein / Wonkblog:
Obamacare exposes Republican hypocrisy on health care — Now that HealthCare.Gov is on a clear path to functionality, Republicans are having to come to terms with the fact that Obamacare will not conveniently collapse before anyone can purchase insurance. If the law is going to fulfill …
Discussion:
Yahoo! News, Washington Monthly, Washington Center … and NationalJournal.com
Ted Mann / Wall Street Journal:
Governors Spoke Privately About Bridge Controversy — Chris Christie Complained to Andrew Cuomo That His Appointee Was Pressing too Hard for Answers — New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie called New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo this week to complain about a Cuomo appointee's handling of a growing controversy …
Discussion:
Politico and Transportation Nation
Sibel Edmonds / Sibel Edmonds' Boiling Frogs:
BFP Breaking News- Omidyar's PayPal Corporation Said To Be Implicated in Withheld NSA Documents — The U.S. Government, An Implicated Billionaire, Fortune-Seeking Journalists & A Public in the Dark — Update 1: It is unfortunate to see how the subject (Greenwald & friends) …
Discussion:
Firedoglake and The Daily Banter
Josh Eidelson / Salon:
Exclusive: Chris Hayes attends secret union meeting with unhappy NBC workers — Amid workers alleging union-busting by an NBC Universal-owned company, MSNBC's prime-time host Chris Hayes recently met privately with a group of them to hear their concerns, according to several people present at the meeting.
Discussion:
NewsBusters, susiemadrak.com and Mediaite
Philip Klein / Washington Examiner:
HHS ‘encourages’ insurers to fix problems created by Obamacare — During the Obamacare rollout, stories have spread about millions of Americans losing their current health insurance coverage, preferred doctors and hospitals as plans restrict networks to comply with the law, and losing their prescription drug coverage.
Discussion:
Hot Air and Weekly Standard