Good Morning FishbowlDC Readers

No Labels To Launch on December 13th
If you haven’t heard yet, a new organization has popped up that promises to be a non-partisan/Centrist/independent/moderate/whathaveyou alternative for the rest of us. It’s called No Labels and it’s launching next Monday. Happy Birthday to me. Also, the symbol of the “party” is a Buffalo. I was born in Buffalo, NY. Coincidence? Yes, completely. Donklephant contributor and author of the Rise of the Center blog, Solomon Kleinsmith, will be at the launch and has thi...

Republicans Give Flat COLA
Hey Tea Party "Don't Tread On Me" seniors, here's what your Republicans really think about you. House and Senate Republicans on Wednesday thwarted Democratic efforts to award $250 checks to Social Security recipients facing a second consecutive year without a cost-of-living increase. President Barack Obama and Democrats have urged approval of the one-time payment, saying seniors barely getting by on their Social Security checks face undue hardships without the COLA increase. But most Republicans...

Leaked Fox News Memo: Don't Call It the 'Public Option'
Media Matters has received an internal memo from Fox News Washington managing editor Bill Sammon urging Journalists not to use the phrase "Public Option," favoring "government option," at the height of the national Health Care Debates in 2009. The idea apparently came from Republican pollster Frank Luntz, who, in an August appearance on Sean Hannity's show, explained that people responded much more favorably to the former term. Luntz argued that "if you call it a 'public option,' the American ...

Way To Graciously Acknowledge Your Nepotism, Luke Russert!
NBC Congressional Correspondent and Tim Russert progeny Luke Russert's first major profile was published today by The Daily Beast's Howard Kurtz. There are no surprises and it's pretty softball, but that feels about right for someone who comes from an interesting family and is working their first job. Although Russert has been in the spotlight for two years, NBC has been careful to keep him on the interviewing side, explains Kurtz. "He is relaxed, earnest and witty during the rare interview, g...

The 2 sides of Elizabeth Edwards
Why I gave a break to Elizabeth Edwards, I do not know. She hadn’t asked me to, and it was not my practice to do so. We were at the airport in Manchester, N.H., in April 2002. It was her and her husband’s first campaign trip to the Granite State, and they had gotten an impressive reception: ferociously wind-whipped sleet that coated trees, light poles and the two of them. Continue Reading Text Size - + reset Politico 44 It was the end of a long day, John was staying overnight to...

The 2 sides of Elizabeth Edwards
Posted by Politico on Dec 9 2010 Filed under Politico. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed. Click here to cancel reply. Playing defense & #8211; but at a price? We allow third-party companies to serve ads and/or collect certain anonymous information when you visit our web site. These companies may use non-personally identifiable information (e.g., click stream information, browser typ...

Remembering Elizabeth Edwards
Elizabeth Edwards, wife of Vice Presidential Candidate John Edwards, points from the podium at the FleetCenter during the Democratic National Convention in Boston, July 28, 2004. By Alison Schwartz Dorfman, who covered the Edwards campaign in 2003-2004. When I heard about the death of Elizabeth Edwards yesterday, along with the rest of the country, I was very saddened. Over the years we have all gotten to know Elizabeth for many different reasons - the wife of a presidential and Vice President...

When We Said We Were Going to Ban Earmarks, You Didn't Think We Were Going to Ban Earmarks, Did You?
When congressional Republicans backed a two-year earmark Moratorium in a wave of post-election enthusiasm, apparently they didn't understand that banning Earmarks would entail not having any more earmarks. Now—after failing to drag Democrats into their porkless hell—they're freaking out. After agreeing to kill earmarks, some of the most conservative GOP lawmakers are already starting to ask themselves: What have we done?... So some Republicans are discussing exemptions to the earmark ban, a...

If It's Thursday...
New Jobless Claims down 17k to 421k, but continuing claims dropped like a rock, some 191,000 people fell off the continuing claims cliff. But the real story is that some 600,000 plus Americans lost their jobless benefits as they were unable to apply for new ones after 26 weeks of Unemployment as the numbers for the Republican hostage-taking start to come in. Just in time for Christmas. Email This BlogThis! Share to Twitter Share to Facebook Share to Google Buzz ...

Facebook To Reimburse Gay Staffers For Partner Benefit Tax Inequities
Facebook is joining the small but growing list of companies who are reimbursing their gay employees for the tax inequities incurred by carrying their partners on their Insurance. The new policies follow similar announcements by Barclays, and also this year, Google. A handful of other large organizations, including Cisco, Kimpton Hotels and the Gates Foundation also cover these costs. Under federal law, employer-provided health benefits for domestic partners are counted as taxable income, if th...

Pre-Marketing 12/9
* Nicholas Carson: Why Groupon said no to Google. Pretty much the same reason David Pakman suggested last week. * Facebook co-founders Zuckerberg and Moskovitz among those agreeing to give away at least half of their fortunes. No word on the philanthropic plans of those Winklevoss twins. * Bloomberg poll: A majority of American are dissatisfied with the Fed. Unfortunately, the pollsters didn't first ask if respondents even know what the Fed does (or if they simply follow @SarahPalinUSA...

Facebook to Reimburse Gay Workers for Benefit Tax
The movement to equalize health benefits among gay employees with domestic partners continues to pick up speed. As it stands now, gay workers who are fortunate enough to work for employers that extend Health Insurance to domestic partners are still at a disadvantage because they are taxed on the value of that coverage — a tax that is not paid by the Heterosexual married person in the next cubicle. But a growing number of companies, now including Facebook, Bain & Company and possibly Bo...

Hackers Defend WikiLeaks, Testing Online Speech
On Wednesday, anonymous Hackers took aim at companies perceived to have harmed Wikileaks after its release of a flood of confidential diplomatic documents. MasterCard, Visa and PayPal, which had cut off people’s ability to donate money to WikiLeaks, were hit by attacks that tried to block access to the companies’ Web sites and services. To organize their efforts, the Hackers have turned to sites like Facebook and Twitter. That has drawn these Web giants into the fray and created a p...

Psychoanalysis of Kim Jong-il must end
How does Pyongyang claim to deserve respect when it won’t even begin to respect parties in the talks? If it wants to be taken seriously, then that means North Korea should begin taking seriously its own role and responsibility in these negotiations, not its shoot-ready-aim policies of the past.   Think of the precedent such behavior potentially establishes. If we succumb to the North’s demands, then what do we do with the Taliban? Iran? Let them attack anything and everyone because we don

Assange allies claim scalps in online warfare
A Sydney man has emerged as a key player among the thousands of attackers who blitzed the servers of the world's two biggest Credit Card companies and PayPal, knocking them offline yesterday. The man, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the attacks on the MasterCard, Visa and PayPal websites - dubbed Operation Payback - were to support Wikileaks and its jailed editor, Julian Assange. All three companies choked off donations to Wikileaks after pressure from US politicians. The attacker said...

Procter & Gamble moves from soap operas to tweets
CINCINNATI (AP) — Goodbye, “Guiding Light.” Hello, YouTube. Procter & Gamble Co., whose sponsorship and production of daytime TV dramas helped coin the term “Soap Operas,” has pulled the plug after 77 years. Instead, the maker of Tide detergent, Ivory soap and Olay skincare is following its customers online with a big push on YouTube, Twitter and Facebook. “The digital media has pretty much exploded,” marketing chief Marc Pritchard said in an intervi...

Happy Hour Vid: Has Megyn Kelly Finally Met Her Match? (The Atlantic Wire)
WASHINGTON, DC – Megyn Kelly is rapidly becoming Fox News's most tenacious interrogator. In July, her aggressive dressing down of Malik Zulu Shabazz, the chairman of the Black Panther Party, drew wide attention. Today, however, she may have met her match. In a combative interview with Democratic Rep. Anthony Weiner, they spar over the "death tax" and President Obama's latest Compromise with Republicans. As you can see, Weiner puts up a pretty tough fight: Follow Yahoo! News on Twitter, b...

Bloggingheads.tv: Corn Goes Soft on Tax Cuts Deal
Thu Dec. 9, 2010 6:37 AM PST The headline is true—sort of. After talking to senior administration officials, I gained a better perspective on how President Barack Obama came to decide in favor of the Tax Cuts deal that will temporarily extend the Bush breaks for the wealthy. And I note that I'm somewhat sympathetic to how he confronted that dilemma (spin works!), though I still believe his miscalculations led him (and us) to this difficult point. I explain that in my latest Bloggingheads....

Harper sings a few songs for his party faithful
OTTAWA — Mick Jagger, eat your heart out. There’s a powerful politician roaming around in a black shirt who likes his day job — but he likes singing your stuff before an adoring crowd of fans just as much. That was apparent on Wednesday evening, as Prime Minister Stephen Harper surprised a packed ballroom of loyal Conservatives who had gathered for their annual Christmas Party. Tory MPs, senators, their staff and the media had all been expecting Harper to kick off the evening w...

Gross Overload
Sorry to hear you’re in the suckage…kinda been there myself. Christmas Party this Friday, I intend to wash away some Headaches with some cold Bombay and tonic water. Any law says we can’t start now? "Sign on, young man, and sail with me. The stature of our homeland is no more than the measure of ourselves. Our job is to keep her free. Our will is to keep the torch of freedom burning for all. To this solemn purpose we call on the young, the brave, the strong, and the free. Heed ...

Woman vanishes after crash that killed husband
A set of snowy footprints are the only trace of an Illinois mother who vanished from a car crash that killed her husband. Police continued a search Tuesday for Tanya Shannon, a mother of four who mysteriously vanished Sunday near Ransom, Ill., according to the LaSalle County Sheriff's Office. Shannon, 40, and husband Dale Shannon, 41, were last seen at a Christmas Party Saturday night until officers discovered the body of Dale inside the couple's vehicle, which reportedly slammed into a pole on ...

Grand Old Christmas Party 2010
The Williamson County Republican Party celebrated Christmas a bit early on Tuesday evening at the Georgetown Community Center with a potluck dinner, white elephant gift exchange, toy drive for needy children and a bit of politics, of course.   The event was organized by Nita Davidson, vice-chairman of the party, and featured children's activities including a visit by local balloon artist, Doodle Bug.   One of the highlights of the evening was the arrival of Santa Claus, to th...

Stephen Harper performs rock show at party event
Stevie Harper and the Herringbones rocked the Conservative Party Christmas Party Wednesday night, to raucous applause from what was, admittedly, a friendly house. Sweet Caroline started the show, with the Prime Minister in a grey shirt and playing an electric piano, assisted by local musicians Richard Linke on guitar and bass, Phil Nolan on drums and Andre Van Schyndel playing bass and accordion. The show continued with I’m On My Way by The Proclaimers, The Who’s The Seekers and a f...

Stephen Harper shows Tory faithful his rock star side
Stevie Harper and the Herringbones rocked the Conservative Party Christmas Party Wednesday night, to raucous applause from what was, admittedly, a friendly house. Sweet Caroline started the show, with the Prime Minister in a grey shirt and playing an electric piano, assisted by local musicians Richard Linke on guitar and bass, Phil Nolan on drums and Andre Van Schyndel playing bass and accordion. The show continued with I’m On My Way by The Proclaimers, The Who’s The Seekers and a f...

David Horowitzs Archives: William F. Buckley, Jr. Remembered
This article originally appeared at FrontPage Magazine, on February 28, 2008. In November 2005, National Review celebrated William Buckley’s 80th birthday and the magazine’s 50th with a big party in Manhattan. David Horowitz was unable to attend, but sent this birthday greeting to Mr. Buckley -The Editors. Dear Bill, It’s been twenty years since we both went up to Dartmouth to speak in support of the Darthmouth Review Students whose battle was an early harbinger of th...