memeorandum: WEST ANTARCTIC MELT RATE HAS TRIPLED (Newsroom)

11:20 AM ET, December 3, 2014

Top Items:

Conservatives scoff at Boehner deal — Hardliners are again ready to cause leaders problems. — The “Hell No” caucus is once again causing headaches for Republican leadership. — A cadre of the House's most conservative members will meet Wednesday morning at the Capitol Hill Club …

Discussion: Daily Kos, Outside the Beltway, The PJ Tatler, The Daily Caller and Daily Signal

Politico:

A Pelosi bailout? — House GOP's deal to keep government open may fall apart without Democratic votes. — The government will shut down in just eight days unless Congress acts, and Republican lawmakers and aides in and around leadership fear their two-step government-funding plan cannot pass without help — from Nancy Pelosi.

Discussion: The Hill, The Atlantic Online, The Dish, DownWithTyranny!, The Daily Caller, Washington Post and New York Times

Peter Sullivan / The Hill:

Paul targets Bush: GOP is ‘conservative’ — Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) took a shot at former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R), a potential presidential primary rival, on Tuesday night, saying Bush misunderstands the Republican Party. — Bush said on Monday at a Wall Street Journal event …

Discussion: Political Wire

The Hill:

Reid backs Boehner on deal to avoid government shutdown — After two years of constant fighting, Republicans and Democrats are laying down their arms and working to strike deals in the hopes of leaving town at the end of next week. — While there are voices of dissent in both parties …

Discussion: Hot Air

Thomas B. Edsall / New York Times:

Is Obamacare Destroying the Democratic Party? — Charles Schumer, the third-ranking Democrat in the Senate, has forced a debate over fundamental party priorities out into the open. Should Democrats focus primarily on the problems of the poor or should they first address the economic struggles of the working and middle classes?

Discussion: Washington Monthly, EconoSpeak and Democratic Strategist

Susan Page / USA Today:

Kathleen Sebelius: Jonathan Gruber? Who? — WASHINGTON — Former Health and Human Services secretary Kathleen Sebelius, disputing the description of MIT professor Jonathan Gruber as an architect of the Affordable Care Act, says she had never met with him and minimized the significance …

Discussion: Washington Post, Betsy's Page, The Daily Caller and Hot Air

Alexander Bolton / The Hill:

ObamaCare author: Health law is ‘really complicated’ — Sen. Tom Harkin, one of the coauthors of the Affordable Care Act, now thinks Democrats may have been better off not passing it at all and holding out for a better bill. — The Iowa Democrat who chairs the Senate Health, Education …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo and Hot Air

Alexander Bolton / The Hill:

Mitch McConnell already running the show for the GOP — Sen. Mitch McConnell won't become majority leader until next month, but he's already acting the part. — The Kentucky Republican, who will visit President Obama Wednesday at the White House, has taken the lead on a variety of thorny issues …

Discussion: Political Wire

Greg Sargent / Washington Post:
Mitch McConnell: We can't repeal Obamacare, but Supreme Court may ‘take it down’ instead

Discussion: Daily Kos, The New Republic, Talking Points Memo, Hullabaloo and Wall Street Journal

Jeffrey Sparshott / Wall Street Journal:
McConnell ‘Perplexed’ by Obama's Reaction to Midterm ‘Butt Kicking’

Discussion: Hot Air, ThinkProgress, PoliticusUSA, Daily Kos and OnPolitics

Keith L. Alexander / Washington Post:

Former Democratic congressional aide pleads guilty to sexual assault — A former Democratic congressional aide pleaded guilty Tuesday to sexually assaulting two women in 2010. — Donny Ray Williams Jr., 37, who served as a staff director for the Senate Homeland Security …

Discussion: The Daily Caller and JustOneMinute

Newsroom | AGU Newsroom:

WEST ANTARCTIC MELT RATE HAS TRIPLED — WASHINGTON, D.C. - A comprehensive, 21-year analysis of the fastest-melting region of Antarctica has found that the melt rate of glaciers there has tripled during the last decade. — The glaciers in the Amundsen Sea Embayment in West Antarctica …

Discussion: ThinkProgress and Slate

Mary Childs / Bloomberg:

Fall of the Bond King: How Gross Lost Empire as Pimco Cracked — Bill Gross, the 70-year-old king of bonds, rushed through the offices of his $2 trillion empire on a Friday morning distributing hand-written notes. He knew his reign was over. — The billionaire co-founder …

Discussion: Bloomberg View

Michael Allen / opposingviews.com/homepage.xml:

Georgia Town Votes To Ban Muslim Mosque, Residents Hate Islam (Video) — While anti-Muslim protesters waved signs outside the Kennesaw City Hall, the City Council voted against allowing an Islamic group the opportunity to rent a retail space in the small Georgia town.

Discussion: WXIA-TV, Liberaland and ThinkProgress

Steve Almasy / CNN:

Charles Barkley: We never talk about race until something bad happens — Watch Brooke Baldwin's full interview with Charles Barkley on CNN on Wednesday at 2 p.m. ET — (CNN) — Charles Barkley — who once said he doesn't create controversies, he just brings them to our attention — is at it again.

Discussion: SBNation.com and CBS St. Louis

Alana Goodman / Washington Free Beacon:

Media in Frenzy Over Hill Staffer's Comments on Obama's Daughters — Five days after Elizabeth Lauten published a Facebook post criticizing the outfits worn by President Barack Obama's daughters, the previously obscure Republican Hill staffer is being inundated with threatening messages …

Discussion: Washington Post, Hot Air, Patterico's Pontifications, Fox News and The Federalist

New York Times:

Why Our Memory Fails Us — NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON, the astrophysicist and host of the TV series “Cosmos,” regularly speaks to audiences on topics ranging from cosmology to climate change to the appalling state of science literacy in America. One of his staple stories hinges on a line …

Discussion: The Federalist and The Daily Caller

Cristina Marcos / The Hill:

House passes bill to end benefits for Nazis — The House on Tuesday passed legislation to terminate Social Security benefits for suspected Nazi war criminals. — Passed 420-, the bill was approved after an October Associated Press report found that dozens of suspected Nazi war criminals forced …

Discussion: Bloomberg Politics

Erik Wemple / Washington Post:

Rolling Stone whiffs in reporting on alleged rape — For the sake of Rolling Stone's reputation, Sabrina Rubin Erdely had better be the country's greatest judge of character. On Nov. 19, the magazine published Erdely's story about a ghastly alleged gang rape at the stately Phi Kappa Psi fraternity at the University of Virginia.

Discussion: National Review, The Daily Caller, Poynter, Hot Air, New York Times, The College Fix, RedState, The Dish, Hit & Run, Power Line, Los Angeles Times, Taylor Marsh, JustOneMinute, ThinkProgress and Wall Street Journal, more at Mediagazer »

Richard Sisk / Military.com:

US Army Plans to Send Abrams Tanks and Bradleys to Eastern Europe — The new Army commander in Europe plans to bolster the U.S. armored presence in Poland and the Baltic states and keep rotations of U.S. troops there through next year and possibly beyond to counter Russia.

Discussion: Shakesville, Vox Popoli and Hot Air

Peter Hamby / CNN:

The plight of the Southern Democrat — Southern Democrats who lost key races this election cycle — New Orleans (CNN) — The 2014 elections seemed like the final reckoning for Southern Democrats, the culmination of a political metamorphosis that began in the Civil Rights era and concluded under the nation's first black President.

Roger Simon / Politico:

Hillary should stop dithering — The media have moved from Hillary fatigue to Hillary exhaustion — Blessed art they who are ready for Hillary, for they have the patience of saints. — Each day, they gather money and names and deep data to lay at her feet in preparation for her presidential announcement.

Discussion: Bloomberg Politics, Mediaite and CNN

Department of Justice:

Acting United States Attorney Annette L. Hayes — Western District Of Washington — Kirkland Resident Arrested For Interstate Threats To Kill — Posts Threats to Kill Police following Events in Ferguson, Missouri — A Kirkland, Washington resident was arrested on a criminal complaint …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo and Mediaite

Daily Mail:

Canadian woman leaves husband's body decomposing in bedroom for SIX MONTHS while family prays for his resurrection — He had refused to go to the hospital to treat an infected left foot, deciding God would cure him, and died at 51 after slipping into a coma

Discussion: FOX News Radio and Liberaland

Sean Trende / Real Clear Politics:

Economy Doesn't Make Clinton a Favorite in 2016 — I'd intended to write about the Democratic and Republican primaries this week, but an article from the New Republic's very smart Danny Vinik caught my eye. So, the primaries will have to wait. Referencing a piece by Ed Luce in the Financial Times …

Discussion: Political Wire and The Dish

Jeffrey M. Jones / Gallup:

U.S. Partisanship Shifts to GOP After Midterms — Story Highlights — PRINCETON, N.J. — Since the Republican Party's strong showing on Election Day last month, Americans' political allegiances have shifted toward the GOP. Prior to the elections, 43% of Americans identified as Democrats …

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Politico, The Moderate Voice and Washington Free Beacon

Anthony McCartney / Associated Press:

Woman sues Bill Cosby, claiming underage abuse — Associated Press 3 hrs ago — LOS ANGELES (AP) — Bill Cosby was sued Tuesday by a Southern California woman who claims the comedian molested her in a bedroom of the Playboy Mansion around 1974 when she was 15 years old.

Discussion: FOX News Radio

Rory Cellan-Jones / BBC:

Stephen Hawking warns artificial intelligence could end mankind — Prof Stephen Hawking, one of Britain's pre-eminent scientists, has said that efforts to create thinking machines pose a threat to our very existence. — He told the BBC:"The development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race."

Discussion: Telegraph, Mashable, Samizdata and The Daily Caller