Top Items:
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 …
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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, Democratic Strategist, No More Mister Nice Blog and EconoSpeak
Susan Page / USA Today:
Kathleen Sebelius: Jonathan Gruber? Who?
Kathleen Sebelius: Jonathan Gruber? Who?
Discussion:
Washington Post, Betsy's Page, The Daily Caller, Fox News, National Review and Hot Air
New York Times:
Grand Jury Said to Bring No Charges in Staten Island Chokehold Death of Eric Garner — A Staten Island grand jury has voted not to bring criminal charges against the white New York City police officer at the center of the Eric Garner case, a person briefed on the matter said Wednesday.
Discussion:
ThinkProgress, Talking Points Memo, Outside the Beltway, Booman Tribune and Hot Air
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New York Post:
Cop cleared in chokehold death of Eric Garner — Eric Garner seen during his arrest last August. — A Staten Island grand jury cleared an NYPD cop Wednesday in the chokehold death of Eric Garner during his caught-on-video arrest for peddling loose cigarettes, The Post has learned.
Discussion:
Hit & Run, Raw Story, New York Magazine and Liberaland
Politico:
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:
Weekly Standard, Outside the Beltway, Daily Kos, The PJ Tatler, The Daily Caller, Associated Press and Daily Signal
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Steve Benen / msnbc.com:
The right's ‘State of the Union plan’ continues to percolate — Last week, shortly before Thanksgiving, the idea that congressional Republicans might block President Obama from delivering a State of the Union address first crossed the political world's radar.
Discussion:
Washington Post, Balloon Juice and Daily Kos
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Andrew Kaczynski / BuzzFeed:
Mike Huckabee: Brown Could Have Avoided Death “If He Behaved Like Something Other Than A Thug” — “I'm gonna tell you something â” what gets you shot is when you grab a police officer's gun, and you lunge at him, and you try to hit him in the face. View Video ›
Discussion:
Washington Monthly, Political Wire and Mediaite
Joe Romm / ThinkProgress:
2014 Headed Toward Hottest Year On Record — Here's Why That's Remarkable — 2014 is currently on track to be hottest year on record, according to new reports from both the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the U.K.'s Met Office Wednesday. Similarly, NOAA reported two weeks ago …
Discussion:
World Meteorological …, Met Office, bom.gov.au and Mashable
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, CBS St. Louis and theGrio
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Jason Hanna / CNN:
Michael Brown's stepfather sorry for outburst
Michael Brown's stepfather sorry for outburst
Discussion:
BizPac Review, New York Times and The Gateway Pundit
Mollie Hemingway / The Federalist:
Dear Media: This Elizabeth Lauten Nonsense Is Why Everybody Hates You — Last week, President Barack Obama pardoned a turkey prior to Thanksgiving Day, as is tradition. And as in previous years, his teenage daughters Malia and Sasha stood by his side. The daughters are cute as can be …
Discussion:
Ed Driscoll and Hot Air
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Alana Goodman / Washington Free Beacon:
Media in Frenzy Over Hill Staffer's Comments on Obama's Daughters
Media in Frenzy Over Hill Staffer's Comments on Obama's Daughters
Discussion:
Washington Post, FOX News Radio, Fox News, Hot Air and Patterico's Pontifications
Alan S. Blinder / New York Review of Books:
What's the Matter with Economics? — Seven Bad Ideas: How Mainstream Economists Have Damaged America and the World — The Queen of England famously asked British economists why nobody saw the financial crisis coming. Lots of nonroyal people also have a feeling that there's something wrong with economics.
Blake Ross / Medium:
Uber.gov — It's Time to Let the Government Drive — Flying to Vegas? Look to your left. Now look to your right. Statistically speaking, one of you is about to get ripped off by a cabbie. And it'll probably be you, the imbecile who chose the middle seat and paid $15 for plane wifi.
Discussion:
EconLog
Dan Froomkin / The Intercept:
12 Things to Keep in Mind When You Read the Torture Report — The Senate Intelligence Committee's torture report will be released “in a matter of days,” a committee staffer tells The Intercept. The report, a review of brutal CIA interrogation methods during the presidency of George W. Bush …
Discussion:
The Dish and Prairie Weather
Shreyas Doshi / The Twitter Blog:
Building a safer Twitter — In our continuing effort to make your Twitter experience safer, we're enhancing our in-product harassment reporting and making improvements to “block”. — Everything that happens in the world, happens on Twitter - to the tune of more than 500 million Tweets every day.
Discussion:
New York Times, Boing Boing, Wall Street Journal, NY Daily News, FOX News Radio, The Verge, The Daily Caller, Gigaom, Mediaite, Mashable and Poynter, more at Mediagazer »
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
Julie Hirschfeld Davis / New York Times:
Roy H. Beck Quietly Leads a Grass-Roots Army — He keeps grade cards for every member of Congress, deploys three million activists to blast lawmakers with anti-immigration-reform telephone calls, faxes and emails, and runs a website where his followers have called undocumented immigrants “criminal invaders” and “wolves at the door.”
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:
Slate, Shakesville and ThinkProgress
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:
Washington Monthly, WXIA-TV, ThinkProgress and Creative Loafing Atlanta
Jess Bravin / Wall Street Journal:
How Do You Solve a Problem Like Scalia? Set His Dissents to Music — Justice Inspires a Different Type of Courtroom Drama; Duet With Ginsburg — WASHINGTON—Justice Antonin Scalia , whose barbed wit entertains audiences at Supreme Court arguments, has some competition from Antonin Scalia, the fictional character.
Discussion:
The Verge and National Review