Top Items:
Ron Fournier / NationalJournal.com:
‘This Is the End of the Presidency’ — Tracking the same horrible second-term path as Bush, can Obama learn from the past? — Claiming a mandate he never had, the newly reelected president foisted a bold agenda upon Congress and the public, then watched it collapse within months …
Discussion:
Outside the Beltway, Politico, Hit & Run, Mediaite and ABC News
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Washington Post:
Obama suffers most from year of turmoil, poll finds — President Obama is ending his fifth year in office matching the worst public approval ratings of his presidency, with record numbers of Americans saying they disapprove of his job performance and his once-hefty advantages over Republicans …
Discussion:
Washington Monthly, Outside the Beltway, Scared Monkeys and Althouse
Washington Post:
Post-ABC poll: Obama, Republicans, Health care and 2014 midterm — Poll Questions
Discussion:
The Fix, CNN, No More Mister Nice Blog and The Daily Caller
Gary Langer / ABC News:
A Drop in Opposition to Obamacare Helps Stabilize a Struggling Presidency
A Drop in Opposition to Obamacare Helps Stabilize a Struggling Presidency
Discussion:
Daily Kos and NewsBusters
Brett LoGiurato / Business Insider:
Obama's Current Approval Rating Is The Ugliest Since Nixon
Obama's Current Approval Rating Is The Ugliest Since Nixon
Discussion:
The Week
New York Times:
A Powerful Rebuke of Mass Surveillance — For the first time since the revelation of the National Security Agency's vast dragnet of all Americans' telephone records, a federal court has ruled that such surveillance is “significantly likely” to be unconstitutional.
Discussion:
Daily Kos, Mediaite, Vox Popoli, Prairie Weather, ThinkProgress, DISSENTING JUSTICE, The Reaction, Poynter, Outside the Beltway, Freedom Outpost, Mashable, Taegan Goddard's Wonk Wire, Hit & Run, The Raw Story, TalkLeft, TIME, Taylor Marsh, Talking Points Memo, Althouse and Liberal Values
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Emily Bazelon / Slate:
Snap Out of It — If this judge doesn't buy the legal basis for the NSA's intrusive phone snooping, no one should. — If you have been lulled into a state of somnolence about former government contractor Edward Snowden's revelations that the government is collecting records …
Discussion:
The Atlantic Online, Close Read, The Volokh Conspiracy, BillMoyers.com, Politico, The Dish, SCOTUSblog and ThinkProgress
Scott Lemieux / American Prospect:
Four Takeaways from Yesterday's NSA Ruling
Four Takeaways from Yesterday's NSA Ruling
Discussion:
Guardian, No More Mister Nice Blog, Firedoglake, Lawyers, Guns & Money and NYT Bits, more at Mediagazer »
Sheryl Gay Stolberg / New York Times:
‘Passionate’ Judge Has Record of Wrestling With Thorny Issues, and the U.S. Government
‘Passionate’ Judge Has Record of Wrestling With Thorny Issues, and the U.S. Government
Discussion:
Politico, Washington Post, The Volokh Conspiracy and The BLT
Seung Min Kim / Politico:
White House to tap Microsoft exec to fix HealthCare.gov — The White House is tapping the private sector for its next point man to oversee the troubled Obamacare website. — The administration is set to announce that Kurt DelBene, an executive at Microsoft, will succeed Jeff Zients …
Discussion:
CNN, TheBlaze.com, Mediaite, Hot Air, Gigaom and Weasel Zippers
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Kathleen Sebelius / HHS.gov:
Former Microsoft Executive Kurt DelBene To Replace Jeff Zients — Today, I am pleased to announce Kurt DelBene as my Senior Advisor and successor to Jeff Zients. Jeff did an outstanding job working with our team to provide management advice and counsel on the HealthCare.gov project.
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo, Wonkblog, Post Politics, “The Lid”, The Verge, Business Insider and First Read
David Brooks / New York Times:
The Thought Leader — Little boys and girls in ancient Athens grew up wanting to be philosophers. In Renaissance Florence they dreamed of becoming Humanists. But now a new phrase and a new intellectual paragon has emerged to command our admiration: The Thought Leader.
Discussion:
Mediaite and Patterico's Pontifications
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Charles P. Pierce / Esquire:
WAS IT SOMETHING WE SAID? — Moral Hazard, the Irish setter owned …
WAS IT SOMETHING WE SAID? — Moral Hazard, the Irish setter owned …
Discussion:
Balloon Juice and Capital New York
Edward Snowden / folha.uol.com.br:
An Open Letter to the People of Brazil — Atualizado em 17/12/2013 às 08h11. — Six months ago, I stepped out from the shadows of the United States Government's National Security Agency to stand in front of a journalist's camera. — Espionage Whistleblower Edward Snowden to Seek Asylum in Brazil
Discussion:
Little Green Footballs, Guardian, BuzzFeed, Mashable, World News, WorldViews, The PJ Tatler and Gawker, more at Mediagazer »
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Bradley Brooks / Associated Press:
Snowden Petitions Brazil For Asylum In Exchange For Help With Spying
Snowden Petitions Brazil For Asylum In Exchange For Help With Spying
Discussion:
Outside the Beltway and Patterico's Pontifications
Kim Hjelmgaard / USA Today:
Snowden to Brazil: Swap you spying help for asylum
Snowden to Brazil: Swap you spying help for asylum
Discussion:
CNN, TechCrunch, The Daily Caller, Business Insider, The Week, The Verge, First Read, BillMoyers.com and New York Times, more at Mediagazer »
The Hill:
Rep. Wolf retires after 17 terms — Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.) announced Tuesday he will retire from Congress after 17 terms, opening up a competitive House seat in Northern Virginia. — Wolf, 74, has represented his district in North Virginia since 1981 and is the longest-serving member from the state.
Discussion:
Politico
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The Hill:
Senate GOP to decide filibuster strategy — Stinging from Senate Democrats' gutting of the filibuster, Senate Republicans will use their private caucus lunch Tuesday to decide on their strategy for holding back a string of nominees. — Now that Senate rules prevent the minority party …
Discussion:
The Plum Line, Daily Kos, New York Times and The World's Greatest …
RELATED:
Erik Wasson / The Hill:
Senate poised to approve budget
Senate poised to approve budget
Discussion:
Washington Monthly, CNN, KTOO and Roll Call
Seung Min Kim / Politico:
Senate poised to pass budget deal
Senate poised to pass budget deal
Discussion:
Power Line, The Plum Line and Reuters
David Nather / Reuters:
Next Obamacare crisis: Small-business costs? — Think the canceled health policies hurt the Obamacare cause? There's another political time bomb lurking that could explode not too long before next year's elections: rate hikes for small businesses. — Like the canceled individual health plans …
Discussion:
VodkaPundit, Politico and Talking Points Memo
RELATED:
Rick Kissell / Variety:
Fox News Remains Ratings Champ As 2013 Comes to Close — It and rivals CNN, MSNBC down from last year — Fox News Channel maintained its grip on the cable-news network ratings prize in 2013, drawing more viewers than the combined averages of CNN, MSNBC and HLN.
Discussion:
BREITBART.COM, Michelle Malkin, BizPac Review, Taylor Marsh, Scared Monkeys and The Gateway Pundit
James Hohmann / Politico:
Internal Rick Scott poll: Charlie Crist up in Florida — Charlie Crist leads Florida Gov. Rick Scott by 4 percentage points in an internal poll conducted by Scott pollster Tony Fabrizio. — The survey, taken in late November and obtained Tuesday by POLITICO, puts Crist …
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo and Naked Politics
Jorge Saenz / Associated Press:
Francis Dumps U.S. Cardinal Who Is Outspoken Critic Of Abortion, Gay Marriage — ST. LOUIS (AP) — Pope Francis announced changes in the influential Vatican office that evaluates and nominates candidates for bishop around the world. — Cardinal Donald Wuerl of Washington was appointed Monday to the Congregation for Bishops.
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo
Jordan Zakarin / BuzzFeed:
Shia LaBeouf Apologizes After Plagiarizing Artist Daniel Clowes For His New Short Film — UPDATED: The similarities between LaBeouf's HowardCantour.com and Clowes' Justin M. Damiano are astounding. “In my excitement and naiveté as an amateur filmmaker, I got lost in the creative process …
Scott Jaschik / Inside Higher Ed:
Too Risky for Boulder? — Patricia Adler stunned her students in a popular course on deviance Thursday by announcing that she would be leaving her tenured position teaching sociology at the University of Colorado at Boulder. — Adler said that officials told her that one of the highlights of the course …
Discussion:
The Latest Word, CBS Denver and The Raw Story
David Weigel / Slate:
Why 60 Minutes Tanked the NSA Story: The Producers Theory — It'll be a good 30 years until I can start collecting Social Security checks, and I can't say where I was when JFK was shot, so I'm not really in 60 Minutes' target audience. * Other reporters, who have closely covered the NSA story …
Discussion:
Guardian, New York Magazine and Politico, more at Mediagazer »
Sherry Jacobson / Dallas Morning News:
Texas congressmen take aim at Affordable Care Act's navigators — Dozens of Obamacare supporters attended Monday's congressional hearing at the Eisemann Center in Richardson. Luis Veloz, 20, of Dallas told the crowd that he and his family do not have health insurance.
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo and Mediaite
Bret Stephens / Wall Street Journal:
Of Jane Fonda and Pope Francis — The pontiff understands the power of moral example. Today's liberal high priests do not. — In the same week that Pope Francis was named Time's Person of the Year, word arrived of the charitable contributions made by the Jane Fonda Foundation.