Pelosi Dear Democratic Colleague on CRomnibus  —  It is clear from this recess on the floor that the Republicans don't have enough votes to pass the CRomnibus.  This increases our leverage to get two offensive provisions of the bill removed: the bank bailout and big money for campaigns provision.

Scott Rudin On Obama's Favorite Movies: “I Bet He Likes Kevin Hart”  —  An exchange between Sony Pictures chair Amy Pascal and producer Scott Rudin turned into a riff on films they thought the president liked.  UPDATE: Both Rudin and Pascal have apologized for the emails.  —  Danny Moloshok / Reuters

Jeb Bush Has a Mitt Romney Problem  —  Over the last several months, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush has been giving speeches, campaigning for candidates, appearing at public forums, and meeting with wealthy donors, which has led many people to believe that he may soon enter the race to become the next Republican presidential nominee.

Open Carry Activist Charged With Shooting Ex-Husband And Stepdaughter Dead  —  A woman charged with shooting and killing her ex-husband and stepdaughter has strong connections to groups advocating for expanding open carry gun laws in Texas.  —  Local news outlets on Wednesday reported …

Full scale of plastic in the world's oceans revealed for first time  —  Over five trillion pieces of plastic are floating in our oceans says most comprehensive study to date on plastic pollution around the world  —  More than five trillion pieces of plastic, collectively weighing nearly 269,000 tonnes …

Government shutdown would not stop Obama on immigration  —  Even if Republicans shut down the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) next year, President Obama could still carry out his executive actions giving legal status to up to 5 million undocumented immigrants.

Joe Manchin Joins Democrats Opposed To Obama Treasury Pick Antonio Weiss  —  WASHINGTON — Another Democrat is adding his name to a small but growing list of senators opposed to President Barack Obama's nominee for a top Treasury Department post.  —  Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) …

Why The Media's Fact Problems Are Way Bigger Than Rolling Stone  —  George Packer argues in The New Yorker that journalism's big crisis is just a business crisis.  In the very first paragraph, noting the collapse of Rolling Stone's story about a violent gang rape at a University of Virginia fraternity …

I'm an Obama supporter.  But Obamacare has hurt my family.  —  Obamacare has been far more frustrating than I'd ever dreamed.  —  At the moment President-elect Barack Obama proclaimed that “change has come to America,” I stood at the foot of my husband's bed in the cardiac ICU of Mission Hospital in Mission Viejo.

Obama Justice Department Was Involved In IRS Targeting, Lerner Emails Reveal  —  Sadly, the 18 month investigation into the IRS targeting of conservative groups isn't over, and it may be worse than anyone thought.  A federal judge has broken loose more emails that the DOJ had surely hoped would never surface.

And the Bum Steer of the Year Is . . .  Was 2014 the year of the Un-Bum Steer?  So many of our usual suspects behaved themselves (more or less) that we wondered if something was amiss.  Texas A&M didn't do anything too Aggie-like, the Dallas Cowboys were actually in the playoff hunt for a change …

Bill Cosby Drugged Me.  This Is My Story.  —  Like most Americans, I spent the 60s, 70s, and part of the 80s in awe of Bill Cosby and his total domination of popular culture.  He was the first African American to star in a dramatic television series, I Spy, a show my family in Buffalo, New York, always watched.

The Plague of Overcriminalization  —  America might at long last be ready to stare into the abyss of its criminal-justice system.  —  A portrait of Eric Green seen during a protest in New York City, December 5, 2014.  —  By history's frequently brutal dialectic, the good that we call …