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Time Taps Zuckerberg as Person of the Year

He may disagree with his characterization in “The Social Network,” but screen scribe Aaron Sorkin’s and director David Fincher’s depiction of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg in their overachieving film might have done the boy some good, as it turns out. Related Entries December 9, 2010 The WikiLeaks Hacker War Rages On December 8, 2010 Rolling Stone Finds ‘Lost’ Lennon Interview

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Now that he has six years, I guess he’s got more latitude to hit them harder, which he is. Here’s the transcript: In just a few minutes we’re going to proceed to the START treaty. I’m told the Republicans are going to make us read the entire treaty in an effort to stall us from passing it. Isn’t that wonderful? That piece of — that treaty has been here since April or May {14:10:49} (Mr. Reid) { not an official transcript } of this year. Plenty of time to read it. These are additional days of wasted time we could be using to pass legislation to get home for the holidays. Yet some of my Republican colleagues have the nerve to whine about having to stay and actually do the work of the American people. We make large salaries, madam president. We could work as most Americans do during the holidays. Perhaps Senators Kyl and DeMint have been in {14:11:22} (Mr. Reid) { not an official transcript } Washington too long because in my state, Nevadans employed in casinos and hotels and throughout the state of nevada and on ranches, basically every place have to work hard on holidays, including Christmas, to support their families. The mines don’t shut down in nevada on Christmas. People work. They get paid double time a lot of times when they have good contracts, but they work on Christmas holidays. Most people don’t get two weeks off on any time, let alone Christmas week. And these {14:11:54} (Mr. Reid { not an official transcript } people who are lucky enough to have a job in these trying times need to work extra hours to make ends meet. So it’s offensive to me and millions of working Americans across this country for any senator to suggest that working through the Christmas holidays is somehow sacrilegious. They decide to work with us, we can all have a {14:12:30} (Mr. Reid) { not an official transcript } happy holiday. If they don’t, we’re going to continue until we finish the people’s business. Madam President, i move to proceed to executive session to calendar number 7, the START treaty. I ask for the yeas and nays. Shortly thereafter, it was announced that a full reading of the START treaty would not be necessary.

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House Passes DADT Repeal

The push to repeal “don’t ask, don’t tell” has met with mixed reactions in Congress in recent weeks, but on Wednesday, the House of Representatives made a decisive move to promote the cause by passing another measure designed to cancel out the controversial policy. The next formidable frontier, however, is the Senate.

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MSNBC's “Morning Joe” hosted a pity party for President Obama on Wednesday. Discussing public opinion of President Obama amidst his trials as President, liberal Watergate journalistic “legend” Carl Bernstein won the pity prize, asserted that Obama inherited a bigger mess than any other president since the 1930s. “Very few presidents have come into office inheriting what President Obama has taken on,” Bernstein opined on Wednesday's “Morning Joe.” “You'd have to go back, I think, to the thirties to really have a comparable situation,” Bernstein continued. Bernstein also blamed staunch GOP opposition and a broken political system for Obama's travails. “He's been trying to deal with it with a Republican opposition that has said 'no' to everything, and a political system – we keep going back to it – that simply is not functional or concerned with the national good.” The segment began with MSNBC anchor Chuck Todd and “Morning Joe” co-host Joe Scarborough agreeing that the current White House suffers more bad news than normal. “This White House always seems to have incoming,” Scarborough noted. “Just constant, and it's been constant from the day they walked in the front door.” read more

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Sen. Olympia Snowe pledges support for repeal of DADT UPDATED

enlarge Credit: Twitter Press Herald: U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe said Wednesday she would support the repeal of the military policy that prevents gays from serving openly. The announcement came as the U.S. House of Representatives voted on repealing the policy, known as ‘don’t ask, don’t tell.’ “After careful analysis of the comprehensive report compiled by the Department of Defense and thorough consideration of the testimony provided by the Secretary of Defense, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the service chiefs, I support repeal of the ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ law,” Snowe said in a statement. U.S. Sens. Susan Collins , R-Maine, and Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., revived repeal efforts by sponsoring a stand-alone bill minutes after a Senate vote on a larger bill that contained the provision failed last week. There’s great momentum finally behind repealing DADT in Congress after the HOUSE just passed Murphy’s standalone bill that seems pretty real. If Snowe and Collins do carry out their plans then it could actually get done. TPMDC writes: Snowe was among several theoretical supporters of repeal who said she voted against cloture because of procedural issues: Sens. Scott Brown (R-MA) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) objected to the time allotted to debate the underlying bill; and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) said that the timing for repeal was, in his view, not quite right. Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) said, on the other hand, that she’d missed the vote because of a dental appointment . So, with Snowe’s support, repeal supporters are within 1 vote of cloture — and a repeal of DADT. UPDATE: Please join the Courage Campaign and Rep. Murphy on a public conference call taking place at 4PM PST. Join the Courage Campaign and Representative Patrick Murphy on a short call today at 7 p.m. EST/ 4 p.m. PST. Sign up filling out the form here.

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Rep. Patrick Murphy on Repealing ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ Chris Geidner has been following this closely: On a 250-175 vote, and with 15 Republicans supporting the measure, the House of Representatives — in a chamber temprorarily presided over by Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) — passed a stand-alone bill aimed at the repeal of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy on Wednesday, Dec. 15.

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Oh noes! The War On Christmas takes a slightly bizarre variation as first Sen. Jon Kyl and then Sen. Jim DeMint complain that it’s just not right to make them vote on the START treaty during the Christmas season. I mean, what will Baby Jesus think ? To Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ), Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s suggestion that the Senate come back the week after Christmas isn’t just a way to complete a busy lame duck agenda — but an attack on people of the Christian faith . “It is impossible to do all of the things that the majority leader laid out,” Kyl said today, “frankly, without disrespecting the institution and without disrespecting one of the two holiest of holidays for Christians and the families of all of the Senate, not just the senators themselves but all of the staff.” Not one to miss this opportunity to proclaim his Christian superiority against those mean little heathen Democrats, Jim DeMint quickly jumped on to the “Who Cares About Nukes?” sleigh : Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) called Democrats’ push to force through an arms control treaty and an omnibus spending bill right before Christmas “sacrilegious,” and warned he’d draw the process out to wage his objections. “You can’t jam a major arms control treaty right before Christmas,” he told POLITICO. “What’s going on here is just wrong. This is the most sacred holiday for Christians. They did the same thing last year – they kept everybody here until (Christmas Eve) to force something down everybody’s throat. I think Americans are sick of this.” I think Americans are definitely sick of something, but making Republicans work during the latter half of December is not one of them. Maybe they should be grateful they have a job at all. Way too many Americans don’t during this sacred holiday, and nothing the Republicans are doing will make that better. As Democratic strategist Karen Finney tweets: So the Demint/(Kyl) position on START is that a peace treaty is inconsistent with Judeo-Christian values during the season of peace. Exactly. And just because it’s the holiest of holidays and voting for critical peace treaties would be sacrilegious, doesn’t mean that it’s not prime fundraising time. This Christmas, preserve that blessing by giving them the same gift your parents and grandparents gave you: the gift of Christmas future. By making a contribution to the Republican National Committee, you’ll be providing the resources that we need to continue to protect the America you know and love. You’ll also be ensuring that your children and grandchildren will be able to give future generations the same Christmas you’ve given them. And at that, Baby Jesus wept.

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Since When Does Interpol Care About Women?

Laura Flanders points out that Interpol’s pursuit of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange over sexual assault allegations is yet another example of women’s bodies serving ulterior political motives. Where is Interpol, Flanders asks, for the sexually assaulted women of the U.S. military or those in Haitian refugee camps? Related Entries December 15, 2010 Army of Fun December 14, 2010 ‘Assangination’: From Character Assassination to the Real Thing

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Time Editor Says Tea Party Not Named ‘Person of the Year’ Because They’re Not a Person

Time's managing editor Richard Stengel appeared on MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell Reports, on Thursday, to promote his magazine's Person of the Year issue and after he cited the reasons for selecting Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, he explained the reason the Tea Party didn't was because they were a group. After host Andrea Mitchell asked him to explain his rationale for not picking the other runners-up, Stengel lamely told her he disqualified the Tea Party because he's “biased in favor of putting a single person on the cover.”

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U.S. Sues BP, Transocean for Damages ‘Without Limitation’

Attorney General Eric Holder says the government is going after nine companies involved with the Deepwater Horizon spill “for government removal costs, economic losses and environmental damages without limitation.” Guess that relationship between the Obama administration and BP was less cozy than it appeared. Halliburton, which was recently blamed by a presidential commission for some of the Macondo well’s shoddy construction , is off the hook—for now. Holder says new charges and new defendants may still be added to the suit.

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