Top Items:
Politico:
Vivek Murthy confirmed as surgeon general — The Senate on Monday narrowly confirmed Vivek Murthy to be the nation's surgeon general, making him one of the highest-profile beneficiaries of the Senate's nuclear option. — The nomination was strongly opposed by the National Rifle Association …
RELATED:
Burgess Everett / Politico:
Harry Reid plays hardball in lame duck — Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid pulled out one of his most familiar threats during perhaps his last week as majority leader, pledging to keep the Senate in session through the weekend to get 23 of President Barack Obama's nominations confirmed …
Discussion:
The Moderate Voice, The Hill and Hot Air
Sabrina Siddiqui / The Huffington Post:
Senate Confirms Vivek Murthy As Surgeon General Over NRA Opposition — WASHINGTON — In a rare show of defiance of the National Rifle Association, the Senate on Monday confirmed Dr. Vivek Murthy to serve as surgeon general of the United States. Murthy's nomination had been stalled for nearly …
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo, BuzzFeed, Liberaland, Business Insider and FOX News Radio
Russell Berman / The Atlantic Online:
Finally, a New Surgeon General
Finally, a New Surgeon General
Discussion:
Capital New York and Daily Kos
Erik Telford / Washington Examiner:
Senate Republicans need to decide who their leader is
Senate Republicans need to decide who their leader is
Discussion:
The Daily Caller, Washington Post, RedState, ABC News and The Dish
Alex Isenstadt / Politico:
Carolina on Jeb's mind
Peter Beinart / The Atlantic Online:
Get Ready for the Obama Boomlet — Remember when pundits loved the president? The conditions are right for that old feeling to return. — Remember when pundits loved Barack Obama? It's been quite a few years now. But I suspect some of the adoration is about to come back. — There are three reasons.
Discussion:
Hot Air
RELATED:
Harry Enten / FiveThirtyEight:
Don't Bet On Clinton Faltering In Iowa A Second Time
Don't Bet On Clinton Faltering In Iowa A Second Time
Discussion:
Washington Monthly, Wall Street Journal, OnPolitics and iotwreport.com
BBC:
Australia commandos end Sydney cafe siege — Australian commandos have stormed a cafe in Sydney, ending a 16-hour siege by a gunman identified as an Iranian refugee who took dozens of hostages. — Paramedics carrying stretchers raced towards the cafe moments after the commandos entered the building.
Discussion:
The Other McCain, Guardian, New York Times, Talking Points Memo, Washington Free Beacon, NPR, Gawker and New York Magazine
RELATED:
Matt Wilstein / Mediaite:
Fox's Hasselbeck Uses Sydney Siege to Defend CIA Torture Program
Fox's Hasselbeck Uses Sydney Siege to Defend CIA Torture Program
Discussion:
Daily Kos, The Huffington Post and ThinkProgress
CNN:
Sydney gunman reportedly demands ISIS flag as some hostages escape
Sydney gunman reportedly demands ISIS flag as some hostages escape
Discussion:
The Daily Beast, HeraldSun, Sydney Morning Herald, Christian Science Monitor, Gawker, The Gateway Pundit, Guardian, USA Today, Mashable, Mediaite, WTVR-TV, Fox News, PoliticusUSA, Taylor Marsh, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, KFOR-TV, Questions and Observations, ABC News, Daily Kos, New York Magazine, The Daily Caller, BARE NAKED ISLAM and The Jawa Report
Steve Inskeep / WBUR:
Sen. Warren Warns That Spending Bill Sets Dangerous Precedent — Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass. (right), a member of the Senate banking committee, and Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., ranking member of the House financial services committee, express their outrage to reporters …
RELATED:
Alexandra Jaffe / CNN:
Warren says (4 times) she's not running for president
Warren says (4 times) she's not running for president
Discussion:
New York Post and National Review
Nick Ralston / Sydney Morning Herald:
Martin Place, Sydney siege gunman identified as Man Haron Monis — Siege hostage taker identified as Man Monis — The man who held more than a dozen people hostage, placing Sydney's CBD into lockdown is no stranger to the NSW police or the judiciary. — Self-described cleric …
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Michael Lewis / Bloomberg View:
Eight Things I Wish for Wall Street — It's a wonderful life on Wall Street, yet here is a holiday wish list to make it even better. — 1. The financial sector rids itself of anyone with even the faintest reason to believe that he or she is unusually clever.
Marquis Moore.jpg / PennLive.com:
Harrisburg man insulted by racial slur found on Zembie's receipt — Marquis Moore displays a Zembie's receipt containing a racial slur a bartender used to identify him with after he placed a to-go order at the Harrisburg bar Saturday night. … Marquis Moore was about to eat an order …
Discussion:
Raw Story, Mediaite, Jezebel and Liberaland
Catherine Thompson / Talking Points Memo:
Cleveland Cops Demand Apology For Browns Player's Tamir Rice Protest Shirt — A Cleveland police union has demanded that the Cleveland Browns football team apologize for a player who wore a T-shirt before Sunday's game protesting the police shootings of two black people.
Discussion:
Plain Dealer, Flex, WEWS-TV, Mediaite, New York Magazine, Prairie Weather, ABC News and Hullabaloo
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John Paul Rollert / The Atlantic Online:
Meeting Ayn Rand on the Las Vegas Strip — For eight days last summer, a new generation of Randians was indoctrinated in the auditoriums of The Venetian. Where better to absorb Atlas Shrugged 's teachings than in a city of extremes? — 111-degree heat is confounding …
Discussion:
Washington Monthly
Tony Romm / Politico:
Uber answers Al Franken, takes aim at privacy questions — Uber on Monday strongly defended its privacy practices, telling Sen. Al Franken in a letter that the company “prohibits employees from accessing rider personal information except for business purposes” — but the Democratic senator said he still isn't convinced.
Ben Frumin / The Week:
Why TheWeek.com is closing the comments section — In the age of social media, the smartest and most vibrant reader conversations have moved off of news sites and onto Facebook and Twitter — Here at The Week, we have a deep respect for the intelligence and opinions of our readers …
Discussion:
Gigaom and Poynter, more at Mediagazer »
Todd S. Purdum / Politico:
The world according to Garth — Remembering the pioneer of the modern political ad. — He cut his teeth producing high school sports for local television, and his first political crusade was Adlai Stevenson's sentimental presidential campaign in 1960. He made the on-air advertisements …
Pew Research Center for the People and the Press:
About Half See CIA Interrogation Methods as Justified — Democrats Divided over CIA's Post-9/11 Interrogation Techniques — Following the Senate Intelligence Committee's report on CIA interrogation practices in the period following the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks …
Discussion:
Hot Air, Washington Post, WhoWhatWhy, Guardian, Moe Lane and Crime and Consequences Blog
RELATED:
Kurt Schlichter / Townhall.com:
Nothing Succeeds Like Liberal Secession: Blue America Without Red America Would Be A Basket Case — The July 4, 2019, ceremony marking the final dissolution of the United States of America was quite amicable compared to the anger and bitterness of the preceding five years.
Scott Malone / Reuters:
Newtown victims' families sue maker of gun used in 2012 attack — (Reuters) - The families of nine people killed in a 2012 massacre at a Newtown, Connecticut, elementary school sued the maker of the gun used in the attack on Monday, saying the weapon should not have been sold because it had no reasonable civilian purpose.
Discussion:
Liberaland and FOX News Radio
Catherine Lucey / Associated Press:
Branstad seeks to end Iowa GOP straw poll — DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad is pushing to end the state's Republican straw poll, but the state party chairman says the event may still go on next year. — Branstad said Monday that the poll — traditionally held in Ames …
Nicholas Kristof / New York Times:
A Shooter, His Victim and Race — TAMPA, Fla. — IAN MANUEL is a black man who has spent most of his life in prison. Yet he still has a most unusual advocate calling for his release: a white woman whom he met when he shot her in the face. — Manuel fired the bullet when he was barely 13 …
Discussion:
Guns.com and Joanne Jacobs
Jessica Pressler / New York Magazine:
12. Because a Stuyvesant Senior Made Millions Picking Stocks. His Hedge Fund Opens as Soon As He Turns 18. — Rumors, on Wall Street, can be powerful. A whisper can turn into a current that moves markets, driving a stock price up or sending it tumbling.
Discussion:
Business Insider, Fox News, Gawker, UPROXX, The PJ Tatler and New York Post
Conor Friedersdorf / The Atlantic Online:
Dick Cheney Defends the Torture of Innocents — When I was growing up, Americans thought of torture as a tactic used by history's villains. A brutal dictator might keep a depraved regime in power with torture. People in foreign countries might suffer inside torture chambers.
Discussion:
Salon, CNN, NBC News, The Intercept, Outside the Beltway, Daily Kos, Hit & Run, New York Magazine and Washington Monthly
PolitiFact:
2014 Lie of the Year: Exaggerations about Ebola — Thomas Eric Duncan left Monrovia, Liberia, on Sept. 19, for Dallas. Eleven days later, doctors diagnosed Duncan with Ebola. — Eight days after that, he was dead. — Duncan's case is just one of two Ebola-related fatalities in the United States …
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo, Mediaite and Liberal Values
Agence France-Presse:
Pope Francis offers US help in closing Guantanamo — Vatican City (AFP) - The Vatican on Monday offered to help the United States in its efforts to close Guantanamo prison, a goal fervently supported by Pope Francis. — The offer came during talks between the pontiff's Secretary of State …
Discussion:
BelfastTelegraph.co.uk and TalkLeft
Steve Benen / msnbc.com:
New Budget Committee chief: time for a new debt-ceiling standoff — Almost immediately after the 2014 elections, the conventional wisdom among much of the Beltway media was that power would change Republicans for the better. By taking control of both chambers of Congress, the argument went …
Discussion:
Daily Kos and Hullabaloo