Check out Mini-memeorandum for simple mobiles or memeorandum Mobile for modern smartphones.
11:20 PM ET, December 15, 2009

memeorandum

 Top Items: 
Greg Sargent / The Plum Line:
Howard Dean: “Kill The Senate Bill”  —  In a blow to the bill grinding through the Senate, Howard Dean bluntly called for the bill to be killed in a pre-recorded interview set to air later this afternoon, denouncing it as “the collapse of health care reform in the United States Senate,” the reporter who conducted the interview tells me.
RELATED:
Nate Silver / FiveThirtyEight:
Why Progressives Are Bats**t Crazy to Oppose the Senate Bill  —  Pick your subheadline:  —  a) It's time to stop being polite and start getting real.  —  b) Here's hoping a picture is worth 1,000 words.  —  Any questions?  —  OK, I imagine that there will be a few.  Here's how I came up with these numbers.
Carrie Budoff Brown / The Politico:
Nelson: 'I'm not on the bill'  —  The White House meeting Tuesday between President Barack Obama and Senate Democrats has raised expectations that they have nailed down 60 votes for the health care bill.  —  But as he prepared to leave for the White House with other senators, Sen. Ben Nelson …
Discussion: Politics Daily and Wonk Room
Jonathan Cohn / The New Republic:
Pssst.  This Isn't Over.  (Updated)  —  Via Politico, here's what Nebraska Senator Ben Nelson said as he left a White House meeting with the rest of the Democratic caucus a little while ago:  —  I'm not on the bill.  I have spoken with the president and he knows they are not wrapped up today.
John Aravosis / AMERICAblog News:
The GOP had at most 55 Senators during Bush's presidency  —  I've heard people say that it's not fair to criticize the Democrats for botching health care reform because the Democrats never truly had a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate.  Sure, they have 60 votes in principle …
David M. Herszenhorn / Prescriptions:
Burris Pushes Back  —  The backlash has begun.  —  Senator Roland W. Burris, Democrat of Illinois, has vowed that he will not vote for a health care bill that does not include a government-run insurance plan, or public option.  —  And on Monday, after Democrats indicated that they were prepared …
Discussion: Hit & Run and MyDD
Michael Goldfarb / Weekly Standard:
Source: Dems Threaten Nelson In Pursuit of 60  —  While the Democrats appease Senator Lieberman, they still have to worry about other recalcitrant Democrats including Nebraska Senator Ben Nelson.  Though Lieberman has been out front in the fight against the public option and the Medicare buy-in, Nelson was critical of both.
David M. Herszenhorn / Prescriptions:
Lieberman: The Fallout  —  The question is inescapable: by going on national television and threatening to join Republicans to defeat President Obama's top domestic priority, did Senator Joseph I. Lieberman actually save the Democrats' big health care bill?  —  There is no evidence that Mr. Lieberman's role was scripted.
Myglesias / Matthew Yglesias:
Health Reform Would Dramatically Expand Access to Health Insurance  —  Nate Silver has pulled together a nice chart showing the impact of health reform on a family of four trying to buy health care on the individual market in 2016:  —  I've seen Marcy Wheeler characterize the plan as an “industry bailout.”
Ezra Klein:
The heroes of health-care reform
Discussion: TalkLeft, Swampland and TigerHawk
Ed Morrissey / Hot Air:
White House using base-closure process to extort Nelson's vote on ObamaCare?
The Politico:
Conn. colleagues ‘fed up’ with Joe  —  Liberal anger at Sen. Joe Lieberman spread across Capitol Hill on Tuesday, with a House Democrat from Connecticut calling for his recall and Lieberman himself acknowledging the angst he has caused.  —  “No individual should hold health care hostage …
RELATED:
Carrie Budoff Brown / The Politico:
Lieberman spoke, acknowledged Dem anger
Discussion: AMERICAblog News
Ben Smith / Ben Smith's Blog:
Lieberman allies: Lincoln should thank him
Discussion: The Hill and The Politico
ABCNEWS:
Double Punch of Economy, Health Care Sends Obama to New Lows in Approval  —  ABC News/Washington Post Poll: President Obama's Approval Ratings Keep Sliding  —  A double punch of persistent economic discontent and growing skepticism on health care reform has knocked Barack Obama's key approval ratings …
RELATED:
Allahpundit / Hot Air:
WaPo/ABC poll: Obama hits new lows on health care, overall approval rating  —  His numbers are down across the board since last month, so technically there's a trend here.  But not really.  The problem with WaPo's polls is that they've been using samples that skew overwhelmingly Democratic …
Discussion: GayPatriot
Washington Post:
Public cool to health-care reform as debate drags on, poll finds
Eliot Van Buskirk / Epicenter:
Pranksters Make Short Work of GOP's URL Shortener for Conservatives  —  The Republican National Committee's GOP.am home page was offline Tuesday morning, and several URLs entered into the system by pranksters have been blocked.  —  Revised and expanded at 12:50 ET, with comment from Political Media president Larry Ward.
Discussion: Raw Story and TechCrunch
RELATED:
Tim Craig / Washington Post:
D.C. Council approves bill legalizing gay marriage  —  Bill heads to Fenty's desk, still must survive congressional review period  —  The D.C. Council gave final approval Tuesday to a bill to legalize same-sex marriage, setting off a wave of excitement in the gay community even as opponents vow to continue the fight on Capitol Hill.
RELATED:
Mike DeBonis / City Desk:
Gay Marriage Passes Final D.C. Council Vote
Discussion: Hot Air
Michael Hirsh / Newsweek:
An Odd Post-Crash Couple  —  Spurning Obama, McCain and Cantwell propose resurrecting Glass-Steagall to break up Wall Street. … John McCain lost the 2008 presidential election because of the financial crisis—at least that's what his chief strategist, Steve Schmidt, suggested.
RELATED:
Daily Express:
CLIMATE CHANGE IS NATURAL: 100 REASONS WHY  —  HERE are the 100 reasons, released in a dossier issued by the European Foundation, why climate change is natural and not man-made:  —  1) There is “no real scientific proof” that the current warming is caused by the rise of greenhouse gases from man's activity.
Gerry Tuoti / The Taunton Gazette News RSS:
Taunton second-grader suspended over drawing of Jesus  —  A Taunton father is outraged after his 8-year-old son was sent home from school and required to undergo a psychological evaluation after drawing a stick-figure picture of Jesus Christ on the cross.  —  The father said he got …
RELATED:
Ed Morrissey / Hot Air:
Great moments in Christmas: School says Jesus on cross “violent image”
Jon Walker / Firedoglake:
President Obama Lies About Health Care Reform Cost Control  —  After exiting a meeting with the Senate Democratic caucus, President Obama approached the microphone and proceeded to tell a bald-faced lie about health care reform: … This statement is 100% false-and Obama knows that.
Lance Mannion:
Time for another blogger bailout  —  I apologize for this, but I need to do some serious begging here.  The car's making noises like it can't decide which of three potential problems it wants to develop and my settle on all three.  The laptop desperately needs an upgrade and a new power cord.
Paul Rolly / Salt Lake Tribune:
Check from Palin in the mail?  —  Sarah Palin not only annoyed leaders of the Utah Republican Party when she didn't have time for them during her book signing stop in Salt Lake City last week.  She also took off from her hotel after arranging for a last-minute hair appointment without paying …
AnnArbor.com News:
Young Pittsfield Township man struggles with sex offender label  —  Matthew Freeman is struggling to move on with his life, six years after being convicted of having sex with a high school girlfriend who was one year below the legal age of consent.  —  Freeman, who is required to register …
Discussion: Hit & Run
Josh Marshall / Talking Points Memo:
The best argument I've heard from people who say the emerging bill isn't just insufficient but just bad law is this: If you're going to force people to buy coverage (mandates), you need to provide them an alternative to buying private sector health insurance to prevent them from getting gouged by the insurance companies.
Discussion: TalkLeft
 
 
 Archived Page Info: 
This is a snapshot of memeorandum at 11:20 PM ET, December 15, 2009.

View the current page or another snapshot:


 
 See Also: 
memeorandum: site main
memeorandum River: reverse chronological memeorandum
memeorandum Mobile: for phones
memeorandum Leaderboard: memeorandum's top sources
 
 Subscribe: 
memeorandum RSS feed
memeorandum on Mastodon
 
 
 More Items: 
Jim Hoft / Gateway Pundit:
It's Official!  Media Matters Morphs Into One-Stop Fisting …
Discussion: The Jawa Report
James Rowley / Bloomberg:
House Discussing Renewal of Glass-Steagall Act, Hoyer Says
Alan Colmes' Liberaland:
Senate Says No To Importing Low-Price Drugs
Discussion: Associated Press
Eric Kleefeld / TPMDC:
Bachmann Invokes ‘Charge Of The Light Brigade’ (Note: They Lost!)
KOKI-TV:
Oral Roberts Dead At 91
Ed Morrissey / Hot Air:
Edwards' contacts with witnesses raises red flags
Discussion: POWIP
Aaron Blake / The Hill:
Herron's website deleted reference to ‘liberal causes’
 Earlier Items: 
The Huffington Post:
Rep. Capuano Tells Fellow Dems: 'You're Screwed'
Discussion: Eschaton
Buddy Winston / The Huffington Post:
Bill O'reilly Admits Obama is Smarter than George W. Bush
Discussion: Mediaite