memeorandum: Can Obama lift Cuba embargo alone? (Peter Schroeder/The Hill)

11:45 AM ET, December 18, 2014

Top Items:

Obama libre — The last five weeks of the president's year were better than almost all the rest. — If President Barack Obama's year ended in November, it would have been one of the worst of his presidency. — Good thing he had the last five weeks. — Story Continued Below

Discussion: Weekly Standard

Rich Lowry / Politico:

The Castros finally hit the jackpot — Even if you oppose the isolation of Cuba, this is not a good trade. — Candidate Barack Obama said that, as president, he would talk to anti-American dictators without precondition. He didn't mention that he would also give them historic policy concessions without precondition.

Discussion: National Review

Lauren French / Politico:

How Republicans could stop Obama's Cuba play — Hill Republicans started making a to-do list immediately. — President Barack Obama's plan to normalize relations with Cuba has hit a familiar roadblock: Republicans on Capitol Hill. — Just hours after Obama announced that a prisoner swap …

Discussion: Washington Post, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, The Mahablog, FiveThirtyEight, Balloon Juice and ABC News

Washington Post:

Obama gives the Castro regime in Cuba an undeserved bailout — IN RECENT months, the outlook for the Castro regime in Cuba was growing steadily darker. The modest reforms it adopted in recent years to improve abysmal economic conditions had stalled, due to the regime's refusal to allow Cubans greater freedoms.

Discussion: Power Line, Slate, Washington Times, NBC News, Fausta's Blog, Hot Air, John Hawkins' Right Wing News, Scared Monkeys, RedState, The White House, Slantpoint, National Review, Outside the Beltway and Vox Popoli

Steve Benen / msnbc.com:

Republicans hardly unanimous on new Cuba policy — We've grown accustomed to some clear divisions among Republicans on foreign policy, with the Dick Cheney wing of the GOP aggressively at odds with the Rand Paul wing. It's not exactly a 50-50 split - the former contingent is vastly larger than the latter …

Discussion: The Hill, Daily Kos, Politico and Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion

Peter Schroeder / The Hill:

Can Obama lift Cuba embargo alone? — President Obama has significant powers at his disposal to make the U.S. trade and travel embargoes on Cuba meaningless, though action by Congress is required to formally lift the sanctions. — Six separate laws dictate the terms of sanctions on Cuba.

Discussion: Hinterland Gazette, Talking Points Memo, Instapundit and Daily Kos

miamiherald: A roll of the dice on Cuba

Politico:
The Democrats' risky Cuba bet

Discussion: The Hill, NPR, Associated Press, Slantpoint, Washington Post and Hot Air

New York Times:
Mr. Obama's Historic Move on Cuba

Discussion: Washington Post, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, The Nation, The Huffington Post, Gawker, Addicting Info, Fausta's Blog and Real Clear Politics

New York Times:

U.S. Said to Find North Korea Ordered Cyberattack on Sony — WASHINGTON — American officials have concluded that North Korea ordered the attacks on Sony Pictures's computers, a determination reached as the studio decided Wednesday to cancel the release of a movie comedy about the assassination …

Erik Hayden / Hollywood Reporter:

Texas Theater to Show ‘Team America’ In Place of ‘The Interview’ — After Sony canceled the release of the North Korea assassination comedy The Interview, a Texas theater said it would swap the film with Paramount's 2004 film Team America: World Police for one free screening.

Discussion: National Review, Hit & Run, Nerdist, The Verge, The Daily Caller, Truth Revolt, Inside Movies, Jezebel and NPR

USA Today:
Official: North Korea behind Sony hack

Discussion: TMZ.com and National Review

NY Daily News:
Terrorists 1, Hollywood 0 — Sony Pictures buckles to faceless …

Discussion: Balloon Juice

Mike Fleming / Deadline:
North Korea-Based Thriller With Gore Verbinski And Steve Carell Canceled

Christopher Rosen / The Huffington Post:
Sony Cancels Plans To Release ‘The Interview’ On Christmas Day

Discussion: Los Angeles Times, Tech Times, Slantpoint, Variety, Washington Post, Associated Press and CBS Philly

Ted Bridis / Associated Press:
Sony emails show a studio ripe for hacking

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Associated Press and abc11.com

David Auerbach / Slate:
The Sony Hackers Are Terrorists

Discussion: BillMoyers.com, The Verge, Tech Times, Mashable, The Daily Banter and EW.com

Associated Press:
Five biggest theater chains pull “The Interview” over threats

Discussion: Addicting Info, Gawker, Hollywood Reporter, The Huffington Post, Hot Air, The Dish, Talking Points Memo, National Review and The Hill, more at Mediagazer »

NBC News:
N. Korean Hack on Sony Won't Go ‘Unanswered’: U.S. Official

Discussion: Bloomberg Politics, Los Angeles Times, Hot Air, CNN, The Federalist, The Huffington Post, ABC News, Deadline, Mashable, The Hill, Raw Story, Towleroad News #gay, CNNMoney.com and National Review

Kim Zetter / Wired:
The Evidence That North Korea Hacked Sony Is Flimsy

Discussion: Mediaite, Vox, Raw Story, Outside the Beltway, EW.com, Hit & Run, Power Line and New York Times

Dennis Romero / LA Weekly:
Killing The Interview Opens Studios to Terrorist Manipulation

Discussion: New York Times, Hot Air, Screen Rant and Power Line

Associated Press:
AP source: North Korea linked to Sony hacking

Discussion: Associated Press, ABC News and abc11.com

Reuters:
Sony cancels North Korea movie in apparent win for Pyongyang hackers

Discussion: National Review, The Great Debate and TalkLeft

CNN:

Officials: Boko Haram kidnaps 185 women and children, kills 32 people — Kano, Nigeria (CNN) — Boko Haram insurgents kidnapped at least 185 women and children, and killed 32 people in a raid in northeastern Nigeria this week, local officials and residents said.

Discussion: The Jawa Report and The Daily Caller

Lanre Ola / Reuters:

Suspected Boko Haram gunmen kidnap 100 women, children in Nigeria — (Reuters) - Suspected Boko Haram gunmen kidnapped more than 100 women and children and killed 35 other people on Sunday during a raid on the remote northeast Nigerian village of Gumsuri, a security source and resident said on Thursday.

Discussion: Gawker and Shakesville

Robert Schmidt / Bloomberg Politics:

Lawrence Summers' $28 Million Payday, Courtesy of Elizabeth Warren — Senator Elizabeth Warren famously declared “there is nobody in this country who got rich on his own.” — That truism presumably includes President Barack Obama's former economic chief Lawrence Summers …

Discussion: Booman Tribune

USA Today:

Putin: West wants to put Russian bear ‘on a chain’ — The collapse in Russia's rouble slows for a while, but fears of how the crisis will hit not only Moscow but its trade partners are deepening. As Ciara Lee reports, the repercussions could be felt far and wide. Video provided by Reuters Newslook

Discussion: kyivpost.com

Wall Street Journal:
Russian President Vladimir Putin Seeks to Reassure on Economy

Discussion: kyivpost.com

Megan Murphy / Financial Times:

Jeb Bush's web of interests face scrutiny as he ‘explores’ presidential bid — When Jeb Bush announced on Tuesday that he would “actively explore” a 2016 presidential bid, he jumped to the front of a long queue of Republican contenders that had been waiting to see whether the former Florida governor would enter the fray.

Discussion: ABC News, Politico, Bloomberg Politics and Talking Points Memo

Andrew Kaczynski / BuzzFeed: Jeb Bush Paid By Bank That Violated Cuba Sanctions

Marc Ambinder / The Week:
What the media gets wrong about Jeb Bush

Discussion: Political Wire and National Review

Kevin Drum / Mother Jones:

Obama's Had a Helluva Good Month Since the Midterms — So how have things been going for our bored, exhausted, and disengaged president? He's been acting pretty enthusiastic, energized, and absorbed with his job, I'd say. Let us count the things he's done since the November 4th midterm elections:

Discussion: Washington Monthly and Prairie Weather

Rush Limbaugh:

The Perfect Ticket: Clinton-Bush — RUSH: I got a note from a friend last night who was so captivated by my program yesterday that he was listening a second time, and made some observations based on things I had said. He said, “I never stopped to look at it that way. I never, ever stopped to look at that.”

Discussion: No More Mister Nice Blog, The Gateway Pundit and The Daily Caller

Noah Rothman / Hot Air:
It's official: GOP will have biggest House majority since before the New Deal

Discussion: Ed Driscoll

Peter Wehner / Commentary Magazine:
The GOP's Resurging Public Image

Discussion: Riehl World View

Joe Arnold / WHAS-TV:

Grimes pledges legal challenge if Paul attempts simultaneous races — Alison Lundergan Grimes says she will challenge Senator Rand Paul if he tries to get on the ballot for both Senate re-election and president — FRANKFORT, Ky. (WHAS11) — Six weeks after she lost her own bid for the U-S Senate …

Discussion: Bloomberg Politics, Politico, National Review, Washington Post, Balloon Juice and The Huffington Post

Nick Hanauer / The Hill:

Give Americans the overtime pay they've earned — Progressives are angry at the president for caving in to Republicans on the CRomnibus budget bill, and rightly so—the rollback of post-Great Recession regulations on financial derivatives is simply inexcusable.

Discussion: Hullabaloo