World News
- Kim Jong Un: Uncle's execution offers rare look into Hermit Kingdom
- Two men hanged by government in Japan in latest 'secret executions'
- Saudi activist 'sentenced to lashes and jail'—"Omar al-Saeed had called for a constitutional monarchy and attacked the ruling family over its human rights record."
- Canada: MP staffers forced to sign lifelong gag orders to get raises
- Ukraine Protesters Want Answers on $15 Billion Russia Aid
- South Sudan clashes 'kill 400-500' after coup claim
- Elian Gonzalez lashes out at U.S.
- Arrest, detention of Indian diplomat in New York triggers uproar—Naturally, they're angry [NYT].
- S Africa investigates 'fake signer' security checks
- Simunic banned for 10 games for pro-Nazi chant
Obstructionism
- Obama: Republicans Must Be Embarrassed For Having Done So Little
- House Republican Strategy for 2014 Victory: Think Small, Do Little—"With the generic ballot surprisingly turning their way, no one wants to jinx it."
- GOP blocks more Obama nominees in Senate
- GOP Plan to "Punish" Democrats Is Probably the Stupidest Thing You've Ever Heard Of
- A more functional Senate—"Since the 'nuclear option' was executed a few weeks ago, something strange has happened in the Senate: the chamber has become more efficient and productive."
Budget
- Budget deal aims to avert another shutdown
- The War Over Austerity Is Over. Republicans Won.
- Paul Ryan Indicates GOP Willing To Hold Debt Limit Hostage Again
- Mitch McConnell Predicts Debt Ceiling Won't Be Raised Without A Hostage
- Krugman: The Biggest Losers—"Democrats and Republicans can argue over who won and who lost in the budget battle, but what is crystal clear is that American workers lost the most." NYT
US Politics
- The GOP civil war just got worse—"Seven of the 12 Republican senators running for reelection next year now face capable or potentially tough primary challengers." WaPo
- John Boehner Fed Up With 'Ridiculous' Tea Party Intransigence on Budget—All for show [Salon]?
- Peter King Takes on Rand Paul, Ted Cruz With New Anti-Tea Party PAC
- Texas Judge Leaves GOP, Will Run For State Supreme Court As A Democrat
- Texas woman admits to sending ricin to Obama
- Chris Kapenga, Mark Levin, and Article V: The secret campaign to pass conservative amendments in 34 states
- Haters gonna hate. But they plan to vote Republican. WaPo
- Obenshain concedes Virginia attorney general's race WaPo
Corruption
- Congress Bottoms Out in New Honesty and Ethics Ratings—"Americans view members of Congress as some of the least honest and ethical professionals, according to a Gallup poll released today." And lobbyists rank lower.
- Maine CDC shredded documents justifying grant awards—"Investigators find evidence that the award to at least one program was manipulated and that records justifying allocations were destroyed."
- Chris Christie's traffic jam?—"Did a close ally of the New Jersey governor cause a massive traffic jam on purpose to punish a Democratic foe?" He just resigned.
- Inside A Disgraced Congressman's Floating 'Party Palace'
- How John Beale Swindled the EPA Out of $1 Million
Public-Private Partnerships
- Treasury closes the book on GM bailout with final stock sale—"The Treasury Department has sold its final stake in General Motors, closing the book on its 2009 bailout of the auto industry. GM has been revived and is now profitable, but taxpayers are out more than $10 billion dollars." Outgoing CEO says this was "net gain for taxpayers."
- We Just Dumped a Bag of Money on a Congressman -- Here's Why—"Congressman Jim Himes has drawn the ire of a budding American anti-corruption movement. Not because he broke any laws, but for something astonishingly legal: he let lobbyists for his top donor, CitiGroup, write their own Wall Street-friendly bill, and led it to passage in the U.S. House over the last month."
- US Government Pays Contractors Twice as Much as Civil Servants for the Same Work
- Accidental Tax Break Saves Wealthiest Americans $100 Billion
- US drops royalty hike plan for drilling; taxpayers hit—study
- Seven Ripoffs Capitalists Would Like to Keep out of the Media
- The plot to kill the U.S. Postal Service—"The fire sale of postal properties is a textbook case of a favored few squeezing profits from a manufactured crisis."
Obamacare
- Who are the new uninsureds?—"It was always the case that the nation's medically uninsured were disproportionately non-white, poor and southern. These people were the prime targets of the Affordable Care Act , which aimed to bring them coverage in part by the federally-funded expansion of Medicaid."
- Indiana and Oklahoma Are Suing To Make It Harder For Their Residents To Get Health Insurance — Here's Why
- Map: How Is Obamacare Enrollment Going?
- Obamacare Is Over (If You Want It)—"Why 2014 will see many more threats, legal and otherwise, to the Affordable Care Act."
- Navigator-gate!—"The right-wing’s latest Obamacare scare tactic is to go after health care - the same way they went after ACORN. Chris Hayes explains."
Vote Machinations
- States with higher black turnout are more likely to restrict voting WaPo
- Fewer debates, dumber reporters—"According to Peter Hamby of CNN, a special party subcommittee is considering dramatically reducing the number of Republican debates and taking control over which journalists get to moderate them." Politico
- Iowa Republican Spent $150,000 To Expose Voter Fraud, Instead Found Nothing Significant
- Florida Supreme Court rules lawmakers must testify in redistricting case—"The state Supreme Court ruled Friday that legislators and their staffs must testify in a case that accuses Republicans of redrawing political boundaries for partisan advantage in violation of the state Constitution." Update: Redistricting documents? What redistricting documents?
- The Daily Show: American Horrible Story - Gerrymandering
Racism
- Teacher Disciplined for 'Santa Is White' Remark
- Libertarian Radio Host: Santa Is White Just Like MLK Was Black
- Passing for white and straight: How my looks hide my identity—"I'm neither straight nor white, but I'm frequently mistaken for both -- and it's taught me a lot about privilege." Salon
- Alabama Man Pleads Guilty To Burning Cross With Former KKK Leader
- Mixed-race Miss France sparks racist backlash online
NSA Spying
- Who broke the law, Snowden or the NSA?
- NSA ruling fallout hits White House—"The ruling also underscores the awkwardness of a president who won office in part by railing against the national security state established by President George W. Bush trying to defend much of that establishment while maintaining his vow to restore civil liberties and bring an end to what seemed like a permanent war on terror." Politico
- Judge Has Record of Wrestling With Thorny Issues, and the U.S. Government—"Judge Richard J. Leon is a conservative and a vivid writer who has criticized the federal government on pornography, death penalty drugs and terrorism suspects at Guantánamo Bay." NYT
- Editorial: Congress should take judge's lead on NSA spying
- Why this week's anti-NSA court ruling could backfire Salon
- Snowden: 'I Would Rather Be without a State than without a Voice'—"Open letter to Brazilian people is a testimony of continued purpose, not a quid pro quo."
- Would James Madison Have Agreed With Edward Snowden?—"What the Fourth Amendment originally meant."
- '60 Minutes' Trashed For NSA Piece—Pure obsfucating propaganda.
- Silicon Valley to White House, NSA: "What the hell are you doing?"—"Twitter, Google, Microsoft, and others press their case to Obama Administration."
- Merkel compared NSA to Stasi in heated encounter with Obama—"German chancellor furious after revelations US intelligence agency listened in on her personal mobile phone."
- Brazil will not grant Snowden asylum: report
- Dictionary.com's 2013 Word of the Year: Privacy
