memeorandum: Billionaire David Koch Says He's a Social Liberal (Benjamin Bell/ABC News)

9:05 AM ET, December 15, 2014

Top Items:

CNN:

Sydney gunman reportedly demands ISIS flag as some hostages escape — Sydney (CNN) — Australia, and the world, looked on with dread Monday as a gunman holding hostages inside a darkened Sydney cafe demanded an ISIS flag and a phone call with Prime Minister Tony Abbott.

Discussion: USA Today, Daily Kos, New York Magazine and BARE NAKED ISLAM

Nicholas McCallum / 9news.com.au:

LIVE STREAM: Hostages held up by armed gunman in Sydney cafe — Talkback radio host Ray Hadley says he has had a conversation off-air with a hostage inside the Lindt cafe in Sydney. — There are a number of hostages, believed to be anywhere between 13 and 50 people, being held inside …

Discussion: New York Times and “The Lid”

Matt Siegel / Reuters:

Hostages held in Sydney cafe, Islamic flag seen in window: local TV — (Reuters) - Hostages were being held inside a central Sydney cafe where a black flag with white Arabic writing could be seen in the window, local television showed on Monday, raising fears of an attack linked to Islamic militants.

Discussion: Zero Hedge, Scared Monkeys, NBC News, Hot Air, Washington Free Beacon, Vox Popoli and BuzzFeed

Michelle Innis / New York Times:
Some Hostages Flee as Standoff in Sydney Drags On

Discussion: Outside the Beltway and Business Insider

BBC:
Sydney siege: Gunman takes hostages in Lindt cafe

Discussion: Washington Post, Sydney Morning Herald, Guardian, Liberaland, New York Magazine, Associated Press, Gawker, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion and FOX News Radio

Daily Mail:
Terror in Sydney as gunman takes at least 13 hostages at Lindt cafe, forces crying women …

Discussion: Associated Press and The Gateway Pundit

CNN:
Sydney on alert as hostages held at cafe in heart of city

Discussion: American Spectator

Dana Ford / CNN:
Possible hostage situation unfolds in Sydney

Discussion: National Post and National Review

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 …

Discussion: Washington Post and Weekly Standard

Paul Krugman / New York Times:

Dodd-Frank Damaged in the Budget Bill — On Wall Street, 2010 was the year of “Obama rage,” in which financial tycoons went ballistic over the president's suggestion that some bankers helped cause the financial crisis. They were also, of course, angry about the Dodd-Frank financial reform …

Discussion: Washington Post and Financial Times

Peter Schroeder / The Hill:

What does Warren want? — She has a spot in Democratic leadership, a swelling alliance of liberals in Congress and a rabid following in the Democratic Party. — The question is: What does Elizabeth Warren want to do with all that power? — Groups on the left are trying to draft …

The Huffington Post:
The Speech That Could Make Elizabeth Warren the Next President of the United States

Discussion: AMERICAblog News and Philly.com

Zachary A. Goldfarb / Washington Post:
Elizabeth Warren was told to stay quiet, but she didn't - and it's paying off

Discussion: Campaign for America's Future, PoliticusUSA, naked capitalism, FOX News Radio and Prairie Weather

Glenn Harlan Reynolds / USA Today:

The great campus rape hoax: Column — The truth - that rape on campus is becoming less common - doesn't fit the left's narrative. — Americans have been living through an enormously sensationalized college rape hoax, but as the evidence accumulates it's becoming clear that the entire thing …

Discussion: Betsy's Page, The Daily Caller, The College Fix and Hot Air

David / Latest from Crooks and Liars:

Rove: CIA's Waterboarding Not Torture Like Japanese War Crimes Because We Raised Detainee's Legs — Republican strategist and former senior advisor to President George W. Bush argued on Sunday that the CIA's use of waterboarding on detainees could not be considered torture because it was “designed” to let the victim live.

Discussion: FOX News Radio

Aaron Sorkin / New York Times:

Journalists Shouldn't Help the Sony Hackers — “Jolie a ‘Spoiled Brat’ From ‘Crazyland,’ ” says The New York Post. — “Shocking New Reveals From Sony Hack,” says The Daily Beast. — “Sony's Hacked Emails Highlight Hollywood's Problems With Diversity,” says The Huffington Post.

Discussion: Mashable, Deadline, The Daily Beast, Guardian and Screen Rant, more at Mediagazer »

Juan Williams / The Hill:

Democrats must fight or lose young voters — The passionate stand by Americans across the country in protesting the failure of grand juries to indict policemen for killing two unarmed people - both poor, black men - is revving up the demand for a political response from Democrats in Washington.

Jane Mayer / New Yorker:

Torture and the Truth — It's hard to describe it as a positive development when a branch of the federal government releases a four-hundred-and-ninety-nine- page report that explains, in meticulous detail, how unthinkable cruelty became official U.S. policy.

Discussion: Wall Street Journal

Josh Gerstein / Politico:
Cheney: 'I'd do it again in a minute'

Discussion: Political Wire, The Moderate Voice, New Yorker, Washington Free Beacon and The Hill

William Kristol / Weekly Standard:

2014 Answer of the Year — I hereby nominate Dick Cheney's answer to Chuck Todd's question about a United Nations official who's called for the criminal prosecution of U.S. interrogators, as the 2014 Sunday Show Answer of the Year: … Short and sweet.

Discussion: Power Line, New Yorker and No More Mister Nice Blog

Elana Schor / Politico:

Will cheap oil kill Keystone? — Greens who want President Barack Obama to kill the Keystone XL pipeline are adding a new weapon to their arsenal of protests and lawsuits — the world's glut of cheap oil. — The same collapse in oil prices that is pumping dollars into motorists' wallets …