Top Items:
Robert Pear / New York Times:
Obama Returns to End-of-Life Plan That Caused Stir — WASHINGTON — When a proposal to encourage end-of-life planning touched off a political storm over “death panels,” Democrats dropped it from legislation to overhaul the health care system. But the Obama administration will achieve the same goal by regulation, starting Jan. 1.
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Cables Portray Expanded Reach of Drug Agency — WASHINGTON — The Drug Enforcement Administration has been transformed into a global intelligence organization with a reach that extends far beyond narcotics, and an eavesdropping operation so expansive it has to fend off foreign politicians …
Discussion:
Crooks and Liars, Raw Story and TalkLeft
Jordan Fabian / The Hill:
Napolitano: Invasive scans, pat-downs unlikely to change — Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said Sunday that controversial new airport security procedures are likely to remain in place since they have been effective. — Some airline passengers and lawmakers have objected …
Discussion:
The Moderate Voice and The Page
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Who Killed the Disneyland Dream? — OF the many notable Americans we lost in 2010, three leap out as paragons of a certain optimistic American spirit that we also seemed to lose this year. Two you know: Theodore Sorensen, the speechwriter present at the creation of J.F.K.'s clarion call to …
Discussion:
Prairie Weather
Jordan Fabian / The Hill:
Jarrett: Obama to spend more time outside of Washington in 2011 — President Obama will spend more time outside of Washington, D.C., next year engaging with he public, according to a top White House adviser and close friend of the president. — One year before Obama faces reelection …
Discussion:
CNN and JammieWearingFool
James Warren / New York Times:
Surprise Representative Plans Surprises of His Own in Washington — Joe Walsh's anonymity is dissipating and, by the time it's gone, we may have an answer to an intriguing political question. — If you win in anger, can you govern in anger? — Mr. Walsh was not just a little-noticed …
Discussion:
DownWithTyranny! and No More Mister Nice Blog
Jordan Fabian / The Hill:
Gibbs: 'It's going to be a while' before Gitmo prison is shut down — Even though nearly a year has passed since the administration's self-imposed deadline to close the Guantanamo Bay military prison, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Sunday the facility will not go away any time soon.
Discussion:
CNN and JammieWearingFool
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Wikileaks suspect Bradley Manning's health ‘declining’ — The only person to visit Wikileaks suspect Pte Bradley Manning in custody other than his lawyer says his health has declined in the past four months. — Pte Manning, a US soldier, is being held in solitary confinement …
Discussion:
Wake up America, The Jawa Report, Sky Dancing, The Moderate Voice and Truthdig
Steve Benen / Washington Monthly:
IT DEPENDS ON THE MEANING OF ‘EXTRAORDINARY’.... The head of the Republican Party in Palm Beach County, Florida, recently told Time that [shameless criminal] Gov.-elect Rick Scott (R) “is going to be within six months of taking office one of the most extraordinary national figures we've seen in years.”
Discussion:
ThinkProgress
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Best, worst of YouTube politics — Back in the day, political currents could shift thanks to, say, a bad headline in the morning paper or a revealing story on the evening news. — Nowadays, videos posted online have proven just as powerful in upending the political world.
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Iraqis defy threats to pack massacre church on Xmas — BAGHDAD — Hundreds of Christians packed Baghdad's Our Lady of Salvation church for Christmas on Saturday, defying threats of attacks less than two months after militants massacred worshippers and priests there.
Discussion:
Firedoglake, BLACKFIVE, Grim's Hall and The Jawa Report
RELATED:
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Taliban Challenge U.S. in Eastern Afghanistan — JUMAH KALA, Afghanistan — The villagers gathered on mounds of dirt to watch as the American armored vehicles rolled in. The streets were narrow and banked by high mud walls; the bulky vehicles could barely squeeze through.
Discussion:
ATTACKERMAN
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Hospitals Send Bill if Mental Patients Win Suits — Daniel J. Langevin was 35, mentally ill and broke. He had been living in psychiatric institutions on and off since his early 20s. — A friend who visited him at the Rochester Psychiatric Center in February 1995 remembered that Mr. Langevin …
Discussion:
Gothamist