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9:50 PM ET, December 17, 2009

memeorandum

 Top Items: 
The Hill:
Nelson a ‘no’ on health reform bill pending further changes  —  Centrist Democratic Sen. Ben Nelson (Neb.) won't advance healthcare reform efforts unless further changes are made, the senator said Thursday afternoon.  —  Nelson said that modifications to the bill, including provisions …
RELATED:
Alexander Bolton / The Hill:
DeMint promises to delay health bill, force Christmas Eve vote  —  Sen. Jim DeMint said Thursday he is prepared to use every procedural tool to delay a vote on the Democratic healthcare legislation.  —  Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is planning to schedule votes around the clock …
Steve Benen / Washington Monthly:
NELSON PREPARED TO JOIN GOP FILIBUSTER.... Going into the week, Senate Democrats were still hoping to get support for health care reform from Sens. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Ben Nelson (D-Neb.).  After making some very painful concessions, Lieberman seemed happy.
Mary Katharine Ham / Weekly Standard:
Nelson on Health-Care Deadline: ‘This Christmas or Next Christmas?’
Discussion: Politics Daily and AmSpecBlog
Associated Press:
Franken shuts down Lieberman on Senate floor  —  WASHINGTON — Democratic Sen. Al Franken took the unusual step Thursday of shutting down Sen. Joe Lieberman on the Senate floor.  —  Lieberman, a Connecticut independent, currently is the target of liberal wrath over his opposition …
RELATED:
Michelle Malkin:
Franken's little snit fit against Lieberman; Reid moves to adjourn Senate until 12:01am; cloture vote on defense authorization to follow; McConnell: Demcare is a “literal political nightmare”  —  “As the Senator from Minnesota, I object.”  —  Sen. Joe Lieberman is on board with Demcare now …
Rachel Slajda / TPM LiveWire:
Franken Cuts Lieberman Off, Won't Let Him Finish Floor Speech (VIDEO)  —  In a fun bit of drama on the Senate floor today, Sen. Al Franken cut off Sen. Joe Lieberman during a speech, angering Lieberman's good friend Sen. John McCain.  —  Here's what happened; Lieberman was giving a ten-minute speech on health care reform.
Mike Allen / The Politico:
Axelrod: Left ‘insane’ to sink bill  —  Trying to stave off a sudden fusillade from the left, White House senior adviser David Axelrod said Thursday that Howard Dean's criticisms of health-care reform are “predicated on a bunch of erroneous conclusions” and that for progressives to torpedo the legislation …
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Andy Stern / SEIU:
Letter from President Andy Stern to SEIU members: Where do we go from here?  —  A little over a year ago, you stood up and showed a nation that Yes, We Can.  You knocked on doors, picked up phones, wrote your friends and family and neighbors and helped ring in a resounding victory.
Paul Krugman:
Health care and Iraq  —  Steve Benen is right: for the most part the debate among progressives about whether the final product on health reform is worth supporting has been edifying.  Serious people are making serious arguments, in a way that puts conservatives, who have offered nothing but smears and lies, very much to shame.
RELATED:
Myglesias / Matthew Yglesias:   Health Care and Iraq
The Politico:
Monica's back - says Clinton lied  —  In the years since their bitter battle, both former President Bill Clinton and independent counsel Ken Starr have predicted they'd be vindicated in the history books.  —  Now the first definitive history of the Clinton scandal is about to arrive …
Ezra Klein:
Chat transcript: Reconciliation, cost controls and Lieberman, oh my!  —  Reconciliation: Howard Dean and others on the left are saying that a better health-care bill can still pass through reconciliation.  What is your take on this?  —  Ezra Klein: I think there's no chance of it.
RELATED:
Ezra Klein:
Five cost controls in the Senate health-care bill
Andrew Sullivan / The Daily Dish:
Life As Part Of Sully's Brain, Ctd  —  News Busters has a field day with my last post.  Lachlan Markay pretends that my doing research for Andrew is the same as Lynn Vincent writing Sarah Palin's book.  I wish I'd the talent to ghostblog for Andrew.  As I've written numerous times …
Discussion: JustOneMinute
RELATED:
Lachlan Markay / NewsBusters.org:
Blogger Who Bashed Palin for Employing Ghostwriter Employs ‘Ghostbloggers’
Discussion: TMZ.com, Hot Air, Althouse and Pajamas Media
David Sirota / Open Left:
Dorgan Accuses White House of Unethically Politicizing Safety Warnings From the FDA  —  We've been aggressively covering the crazy story of the Obama administration crushing drug importation legislation that President Obama campaigned on as a presidential candidate and supported as a U.S. Senator.
Discussion: Firedoglake and AMERICAblog News
RELATED:
Alicia Mundy / Washington Wire:
CSI Washington: Who Killed Drug Imports?
Discussion: Firedoglake
Ivan Watson / CNN:
Rare gender identity defect hits Gaza families  —  Editor's Note: Watch Connect the World tonight 9pm GMT, 4pm ET.  —  Gaza City (CNN) — Two Palestinian teenagers stroll amid the mounds of rubble left by last year's Israeli military offensive, listening to the tinny beat of a Turkish pop song playing on a cell phone.
Amanda Terkel / Think Progress:
Matthews: The netroots ‘get their giggles from sitting in the backseat and bitching.’  —  Today on MSNBC's Hardball, Chris Matthews brought on John Heilemann from the New Yorker to talk about President Obama's popularity with Democrats.  When Heilemann noted that the “Democratic left” …
Discussion: Daily Kos and Open Left
Ben Smith / Ben Smith's Blog:
AFL demands ‘substantial changes’  —  AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka went a bit further than the SEIU's Andy Stern in a statement today, insisting that “[F]or this health care bill to be worthy of the support of working men and women, substantial changes must be made.”
Discussion: Hot Air and The Hill
RELATED:
Jon Walker / Firedoglake:
Senate Plan Nothing Like The Netherlands; Poor Regulation Makes …
TMZ.com:
Todd Palin Goes Rogue with Message Tee  —  Taking a cue from Sarah Palin's McCain Visor-Gate, Todd Palin is now speaking his mind with the use of bad fashion too.  —  The failed Vice Presidential nominee's man-wife was spotted in President Barack Obama's birth state of Hawaii on Wednesday wearing …
Kbh / KeithHennessey.com:
Updated health care reform projections  —  Updated projections  —  I am lowering from 50% to 35% my prediction for the success of comprehensive health care reform.  I now think the most likely outcome is a much more limited bill becomes law.  — Pass a partisan comprehensive bill through …
Mark Hemingway / Washington Examiner:
Report: Democratic districts received nearly twice the amount of stimulus funds as GOP districts  —  A new analysis of the $157 billion distributed by the American Reinvestment and Recovery act, popularly known as the stimulus bill, shows that the funds were distributed without regard for what states were most in need of jobs.
Washington Post:
Readers offer more fuel for climate-change debate  —  I'd like to thank Eugene Robinson for highlighting Alaska's achievements on climate change ["Palin's own ‘Climate- gate,’ " op-ed, Dec. 15] and for noting that I've “treated the issue as serious, complex, and worthy of urgent attention,” …
Wall Street Journal:
Insurgents Hack U.S. Drones  —  $26 Software Is Used to Breach Key Weapons in Iraq; Iranian Backing Suspected  —  WASHINGTON — Militants in Iraq have used $26 off-the-shelf software to intercept live video feeds from U.S. Predator drones, potentially providing them with information they need …
Toni O'Loughlin / Guardian:
Semi-nude Mary and Joseph spark outrage  —  Anglican church defends Christmas billboard campaign showing couple in bed together  —  A New Zealand church has sparked outrage by erecting a billboard depicting Mary and Joseph lying semi-nude beneath the sheets.
Discussion: The Reaction and The Agonist
Chuck Norris / Human Events:
What if Mother Mary Had Obamacare?  —  Washington is up to its old political shell game again, this time in an unprecedented way.  —  While Americans are focused upon the Christmas season and the mainstream media on health care and President Barack Obama's two trips to Europe …
Ezra Klein:
Private insurance in theory and in practice  —  One of the givens in this debate is that private insurers are awful.  And in some ways, they are.  But not compared to being uninsured.  I've quite a few friends at lefty institutions, and most all of them get private health-care insurance.
Discussion: TalkLeft
Ari Melber / The Nation:
Plouffe Counters Obama's Healthcare Critics  —  David Plouffe, the former campaign manager of Obama for America, has one of the lowest drama-to-power ratios in American politics.  As the Senate wrangling over health care hits solipsistic theatrics, even by Lieberman standards, the President's confidante remains decidedly calm.
Greg Sargent / The Plum Line:
Less Than One Fourth Of Dems And Liberals Have Very Positive View Of Their Party  —  The percentages of Democrats and liberals who have a very positive view of the Democratic Party is surprisingly low, checking in at less than one-fourth of each group, previously unreleased numbers …
Washington Times:
Walpin-gate may snag Mrs. Obama  —  Skullduggery alleged in White House dismissal of inspector general  —  No inspector general can unearth corruption without access to his office, computer or staff.  An “administrative leave” putting an IG in that position has the same effect, for all intents and purposes, as an immediate firing.
Wall Street Journal:
Aloha, Segregation  —  The Akaka bill would create a race-based state in Hawaii.  —  Printer  —  Friendly  —  President Obama speaks proudly of his childhood in Hawaii, so we wonder what the state's voters think of his support for a bill that would redistribute its wealth based on race.
Discussion: protein wisdom
Myglesias / Matthew Yglesias:
Missing Ted Kennedy  —  For those of us who like Barack Obama on some level think single-payer health care would be best but impractical, then hoped for a system with a public option, but who are still enthusiastic about health reform that doesn't include it, I think we've really reached …
 
 
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 More Items: 
Tony Romm / The Hill:
DOJ urges federal court to re-open ACORN case
Discussion: The Politico
Jonathan Martin / The Politico:
Ex-gov. emerges as next Ron Paul
Carrie Budoff Brown / The Politico:
Votes in dead of night and early morning
David Sessions / Politics Daily:
Greenpeace Stages Dramatic Protest at U.S. Chamber of Commerce
Discussion: The Hill and Think Progress
Aaron Blake / The Hill:
Outsider Senate candidates decline Republican party's offer to help
Anthony Watts / Watts Up With That?:
Lord Monckton reports on Pachauri's eye opening Copenhagen presentation
 Earlier Items: 
Mark Silva / The Swamp:
Obama's '10 challenge: ‘Waking liberals’
Discussion: PewResearch.org and D.C. Now
Susan Crabtree / The Hill:
GAO tells Smith, Issa it will probe ACORN