Evening Edition is an Open Thread

1 Putin leads backlash over WikiLeaks boss detention

by Maria Antonova, AFP

42 mins ago

2 African Union suspends Ivory Coast

by Roland Lloyd Parry, AFP

2 hrs 1 min ago

3 Nobel jury tries to abate Chinese fury at peace pick

by Nina Larson, AFP

Thu Dec 9, 1:13 pm ET

4 Nobel tries to assuage China ahead of ceremony

by Nina Larson, AFP

Thu Dec 9, 11:41 am ET

5 China on the offensive over Nobel award ceremony

by Marianne Barriaux, AFP

Thu Dec 9, 6:12 am ET

6 Climate talks make progress as Bolivia calls for more

by Shaun Tandon, AFP

2 hrs 12 mins ago

7 Parmalat boss gets 18 years for ‘Europe’s Enron’

by Mathieu Gorse, AFP

1 hr 13 mins ago

8 In blow to Obama, allies reject tax deal

by Olivier Knox, AFP

51 mins ago

9 Steeplechase champion in Spanish doping probe

by Gabriel Rubio, AFP

1 hr 4 mins ago

10 Four dead as Haiti vote protests turn ugly

by Clarens Renois, AFP

Wed Dec 8, 7:06 pm ET

11 Hackers hit credit card giants after WikiLeaks’ funding cut

AFP

Wed Dec 8, 6:32 pm ET

12 WikiLeaks supporters step up cyber war

by Danny Kemp, AFP

Thu Dec 9, 6:52 am ET

13 EU official urges easing in Greek repayment schedule

AFP

Thu Dec 9, 12:57 pm ET

14 Students clash with police outside UK parliament

by Danny Kemp, AFP

Thu Dec 9, 11:23 am ET

15 UK coalition under strain in university fees vote

by Sam Reeves, AFP

Thu Dec 9, 8:13 am ET

16 WikiLeaks backers threaten more cyber attacks

By Georgina Prodhan and Jeremy Pelofsky, Reuters

1 hr 58 mins ago

17 Analysis: Wikileaks battle: a new amateur face of cyber war?

By Peter Apps, Political Risk Correspondent, Reuters

Thu Dec 9, 3:33 am ET

18 Democrats defy Obama, oppose tax deal

By Kim Dixon and Donna Smith, Reuters

53 mins ago

19 U.S. tax deal squeezes potential home buyers

By Al Yoon and Daniel Trotta, Reuters

Wed Dec 8, 10:01 pm ET

20 Nobel head: Liu’s prize based on "universal values"

By Wojciech Moskwa and Sui-Lee Wee, Reuters

1 hr 24 mins ago

21 MasterCard buys Travelex prepaid unit for $459 million

By Maria Aspan and Sudip Kar-Gupta, Reuters

Thu Dec 9, 1:49 pm ET

22 Special Report: The Chinese consumer awakens

By Alan Wheatley, Global Economics Correspondent, Reuters

Thu Dec 9, 2:23 am ET

23 U.N. climate talks seek to avert damaging failure

By Alister Doyle and Robert Campbell, Reuters

Wed Dec 8, 11:48 pm ET

24 Despite arrest, Assange extradition faces hurdles

By RAPHAEL G. SATTER, Associated Press

15 mins ago

25 Protests, cyber-skirmishes rage over WikiLeaks

By RAPHAEL G. SATTER and JILL LAWLESS, Associated Press

2 mins ago

26 US, Canada are close allies. That’s classified?

By MATT APUZZO, Associated Press

Thu Dec 9, 6:27 am ET

27 Students attack Prince Charles’ car after fee hike

Associated Press

10 mins ago

28 House Democrats reject tax plan without changes

By CHARLES BABINGTON and STEPHEN OHLEMACHER, Associated Press

11 mins ago

29 Democrats delay action on young immigrants bill

By JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVIS, Associated Press

12 mins ago

30 Authorities burn down explosive-laden Calif house

By JULIE WATSON, Associated Press

14 mins ago

31 Doors’ Jim Morrison pardoned for indecent exposure

By BRENDAN FARRINGTON and SUZETTE LABOY, Associated Press

16 mins ago

32 Kids go on expensive buying sprees in iPhone games

By PETER SVENSSON, AP Technology Writer

2 hrs 13 mins ago

33 Haiti officials to re-count disputed election

By JONATHAN M. KATZ, Associated Press

2 hrs 19 mins ago

34 Anti-China protests in Oslo over Nobel peace prize

By MATTI HUUHTANEN and CHRISTOPHER BODEEN, Associated Press

Thu Dec 9, 12:42 pm ET

35 Likely GOP hopefuls line up against nuclear treaty

By LIZ “Sprinkles” SIDOTI, AP National Political Writer

Thu Dec 9, 2:25 pm ET

36 Abortion rights foes look to spread fetal pain law

By TIMBERLY ROSS, Associated Press

14 mins ago

37 Report: For-profit colleges cashing in on military

By ERIC GORSKI, AP Education Writer

18 mins ago

38 Jury deliberating 1975 SD reservation slaying case

By NOMAAN MERCHANT, Associated Press

1 hr 35 mins ago

39 Wyo. officials say yes to Teton land sale to feds

By MEAD GRUVER, Associated Press

1 hr 41 mins ago

40 Imam behind NYC mosque plan sees hope after fury

By DAVID B. CARUSO, Associated Press

Thu Dec 9, 9:06 am ET

41 Vandalism mars Hanukkah in Ind. college town

By CHARLES WILSON, Associated Press

Thu Dec 9, 6:57 am ET

42 Docs show Calif.’s worldwide execution drug search

By PAUL ELIAS, Associated Press

Thu Dec 9, 5:53 am ET

43 Cancun climate talks hunt for compromises

By CHARLES J. HANLEY, AP Special Correspondent

Thu Dec 9, 1:51 am ET

44 India’s ambassador gets pat-down at Miss. airport

By HOLBROOK MOHR, Associated Press

Wed Dec 8, 9:31 pm ET

45 APNewsBreak: NJ nuke plant closing 10 years early

By WAYNE PARRY and ANGELA DELLI SANTI, Associated Press

Wed Dec 8, 6:33 pm ET

46 AP IMPACT: Caught by mistake in foreclosure web

By MICHELLE CONLIN, AP Real Estate Writer

Wed Dec 8, 6:19 pm ET

It looks like all out war has just been declared on Capitol Hill and not by the Republicans, although they continue to lob their missiles at anything Democratic. Are the House Democrats, at last, taking a stand against Reagan/Bush/Obamanomics?

First up, 54 House Democrats have sent a letter telling President Obama that they cannot accept his capitulation compromise bill with the hostage takers Republicans in its current form.

House Democrats Voice Opposition to Tax Cut Deal

In a closed door caucus meeting on Thursday morning, House Democrats voted to reject the tax cut deal between the White House and Congressional Republicans “as currently written.”

The House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, in a statement after the vote said changes would need to be made to the bill before she allows it to come to the floor for a vote.

“In the caucus today, House Democrats supported a resolution to reject the Senate Republican tax provisions as currently written,” Ms. Pelosi said. “We will continue discussions with the President and our Democratic and Republican colleagues in the days ahead to improve the proposal before it comes to the House floor for a vote.”. . . . . .

“House Democrats share the president’s commitment to providing the middle class with a tax cut to grow the economy and create jobs,” Ms. Pelosi said. “The House passed a bill last week to provide tax cuts for all Americans but not a bonus tax cut to millionaires and billionaires. The extra tax cut for the top 3 percent does not create jobs and increases the deficit. Unfortunately, Senate Republicans blocked the bill from being approved by the Senate.”

Ms. Pelosi added, “Democratic priorities remain clear: to provide a tax cut for working families, to create jobs and economic growth, to assist millions of our fellow Americans who have lost their jobs through no fault of their own, and to do this in a fiscally sound way.”

The President continues to tout that this bill will create “millions of jobs”. Really? When in the last 10 years have these tax cuts created one job? This is just more trickle down, voodoo economics. Obamanomics.

The economy will move “backward” if lawmakers don’t approve a deal to extend tax cuts for the rich in exchange for more unemployment benefits, President Obama said Thursday.

“Every economist that I’ve talked to or that I’ve read over the last couple of days agrees that this agreement will boost economic growth over the next couple of years and has the potential to create millions of jobs,” Obama said at a meeting with his Export Council.

Families will welcome tax cuts in their paychecks in January with the deal, Obama said, warning that “if this framework fails, the reverse is true.” He added, “Americans would see it in smaller paychecks that would have the effect of fewer jobs.”.

The vote on the Dream Act and the Defense Authorization Act which contains the repeal of DADT have also been postponed by Majority Leader Reid.

With time running out on the lame-duck session of Congress, the Senate Wednesday postponed a vote on the controversial immigration bill known as the DREAM Act and didn’t take up the Defense Authorization bill, which includes an amendment aimed at repealing “Don’t ask, Don’t tell,”

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid also announced postponement of plans to consider a measure to provide health care compensation to 9/11 first responders. The DREAM Act and 9-11 measure will be taken up Thursday.

“We sometimes run into roadblocks in the Senate,” Reid said, as he explained that a scheduling conflict with the House delayed the DREAM act vote. The House passed the DREAM Act late Wednesday by a vote of 216 to 198.

This morning the Republicans blocked the 9/11 Health Bill as well as Workers’ Rights, Social Security cost of living and Mine Safety Bills.

If the President thinks for one minute that giving the Republicans while they hold the majority of the country hostage, he’s either a fool or a liar. I believe he’s the latter and a bad one at that.

“Punting the Pundits” is an Open Thread. It is a selection of editorials and opinions from around the news medium and the internet blogs. The intent is to provide a forum for your reactions and opinions, not just to the opinions presented, but to what ever you find important.

Thanks to ek hornbeck, click on the link and you can access all the past “Punting the Pundits”.

Robert Reich: Why the Obama Tax Deal Confirms the Republican Worldview

Apart from its extraordinary cost and regressive tilt, the tax deal negotiated between the president and the Republicans has another fatal flaw.

It confirms the Republican worldview.

Americans want to know what happened to the economy and how to fix it. At least Republicans have a story — the same one they’ve been flogging for thirty years. The bad economy is big government’s fault and the solution is to shrink government.

Here’s the real story. For three decades, an increasing share of the benefits of economic growth have gone to the top 1 percent. Thirty years ago, the top got 9 percent of total income. Now they take in almost a quarter. Meanwhile, the earnings of the typical worker have barely budged.

David Sirota: Watch the Outfielders In Baseball, Watch the Corporate Lobbyists On Taxes

When I went to Phillies games as a kid, my dad would always remind me that if you want to know what’s going on in the game, its more important to watch the fielders than to watch the ball after the ball is hit. Watching the fielders like Von Hayes and Lenny Dykstra and how they reacted told you if the ball hit by Tim Raines or Ron Gant was going to be a foul, an out, a base hit or a homer.

It’s sorta the same thing in politics – if you want to know what a bill really does, it’s more important to watch corporate lobbyists’ reaction than to listen to the politicians pushing the bill. That’s because whereas politicians have a vested interest in making themselves look good for purposes of reelection and party advancement, lobbyists jealously represent Big Money, without regard for partisanship or electoral maneuvering.

Michael Winship: The Heartbreak of Premature Capitulation

There’s this old joke about the French Revolution. A group of prisoners is lined up before the guillotine. One by one, their heads are lopped off. Then, the next man is put in place. The lever is pulled, but the blade stops just inches above his neck. This must be a sign of divine intervention, the judge in charge declares, and the man is freed.  

The same thing happens to the next prisoner, and the next and the next. Finally, as the very last man is prepared for execution, he looks up at the mechanism and exclaims, “Wait! I think I see your problem!”  

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you President Barack Obama, providing needless aid and comfort to those who would do him wrong, handing over his own head without a fight, afflicted with a curious syndrome we men of science have decided to call Premature Capitulation.

E.J. Dionne Jr.: Casting liberal allies aside will hurt Obama in the long run

What does President Obama think of those who fought and bled to pass his bills in Congress (in some cases losing in this year’s election for their pains) while also defending him against wild charges from the right wing? Are they among the liberals he described as “sanctimonious,” who long for the “satisfaction of having a purist position and no victories for the American people”?

Obama’s comments make you wonder: Whom does he think he can count on when conservatives try to repeal the health-care law, force cuts in programs he supports, investigate his administration down to the last pencil and continue to denounce him as an un-American socialist?

Robert Sheer: From Jefferson to Assange

All you need to know about Julian Assange’s value as a crusading journalist is that The New York Times and most of the world’s other leading newspapers have led daily with important news stories based on his WikiLeaks releases. All you need to know about the collapse of traditional support for the constitutional protection of a free press is that Dianne Feinstein, the centrist Democrat who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee, has called for Assange “to be vigorously prosecuted for espionage.”

Writing in the Wall Street Journal, Feinstein, who strongly supported the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, has the audacity to call for the imprisonment of the man who, more than any other individual, has allowed the public to learn the truth about those disastrous imperial adventures — facts long known to Feinstein as head of the Intelligence Committee but never shared with the public she claims to represent.

Feinstein represents precisely the government that Thomas Jefferson had in mind when he said, in defense of unfettered freedom of the press, “[W]ere it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.”

Cenk Uygur: The Hidden Cost of Capitulation

Now that the president has signaled yet another collapse in agreeing to tax cuts for the rich, there is a hidden cost to this capitulation. He is now stuck defending this deal for the rest of his term. I predicted this on the show yesterday and today it’s playing out exactly the way I imagined, with the [president sending out advisers to talk about what a great idea it is to give tax cuts to the rich].

Once you sign off on a political position, you own it. This could be a corollary to Colin Powell’s doctrine on foreign policy. Powell said if you break it, you own it. In this case, if you make it, you own it.

The president claims he will fight hard against these same tax cuts two years from now. It’s hard to stop laughing long enough to make a point against that, but I will try. If you are sending out your people to talk up polls about how right the Republicans were on the tax cuts for the rich now, how are you going to send out the same people to talk about how wrong they were – and how wrong you were – two years from now?

Ari Berman: Obama Supporters ‘Dismayed, Betrayed, Insulted’ by Tax Deal

In his press conference yesterday, President Obama testily defended his tax cut deal with Republicans and labeled Democratic opponents of the plan “sanctimonious” and “purist.”

So do Obama supporters agree with the president’s assessment that this was the best compromise he could get and he did all he could to fight for middle-class tax cuts and not those for the wealthy?

The answer seems to be a pretty resounding no. A poll commissioned by MoveOn.org yesterday found that 74 percent of Obama volunteers or financial backers in ’08 oppose the deal. More than half said they’d be less likely to support Democrats in 2012 who back the compromise and would be less likely to donate to Obama’s re-election campaign. Pretty sobering statistics for the president and his team.

John Nichols: What Elizabeth Edwards Did for the Antiwar Movement

Elizabeth Edwards was a distinct political figure-the wife of a vice-presidential nominee and leading presidential contender who was consistently willing to stake out more dynamic and detailed positions than her husband. She was, for instance, dramatically more supportive of gay rights than John Edwards-so much so that when the former senator was asked about the issue during 2008 presidential debates he ended up having to explain why he had not yet “evolved” toward Elizabeth’s more enlightened stances in favor of same-sex marriage and rescinding “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”

I always enjoyed interviewing Elizabeth more than John because Elizabeth, who has died at age 61 after a long battle with cancer, was so much more likely to say something that mattered. And where Elizabeth Edwards said the most that mattered during the time of her greatest political prominence was in her embrace of the anti-war movement at a point when her husband and other leading Democrats remained troublingly tentative.

Always more deeply and specifically critical of the Iraq War, Elizabeth Edwards played an essential role in moving her husband toward a more aggressively anti-war position as he prepared for his 2008 presidential run. But it was not just John Edwards that Elizabeth moved. With a specific act in the aftermath of the 2004 presidential contest, the wife of the Democratic party’s vice presidential candidate in that race gave a sort of official blessing to a more militant-and meaningful-anti-war activism.

November 3, 1969–

I believe that one of the reasons for the deep division about Vietnam is that many Americans have lost confidence in what their Government has told them about our policy. The American people cannot and should not be asked to support a policy which involves the overriding issues of war and peace unless they know the truth about that policy.

…

Let historians not record that when America was the most powerful nation in the world we passed on the other side of the road and allowed the last hopes for peace and freedom of millions of people to be suffocated by the forces of totalitarianism.

And so tonight-to you, the great silent majority of my fellow Americans-I ask for your support.

So what does the “silent majority” want today?

The New Silent Majority

Richard (RJ) Eskow, The Huffington Post

December 9, 2010 03:50 AM

Only 4% of people polled by CBS News after November’s election thought that Congress should focus on deficits, and only 2% thought Washington should make taxes its highest priority. … Politicians and the media obsessed over them and ignored the topic that 56% of the public considered its highest priority: jobs and the economy.

…

Now it’s on everybody’s lips – conveniently enough, just as it could be applied to extending tax cuts for the wealthy. That part of yesterday’s deal was opposed by 64% of the American public.

Is it any surprise that over 70% of those polled by CBS were either “dissatisfied” or “angry” with the way Washington works?

…

When asked how we should cut the deficit, the public would rather raise taxes on the wealthy than cut Social Security – by more than two to one.

That includes 71% of independents, 77% of Republicans–and 76% of Tea Party supporters. That’s the populist face of the New Silent Majority.

…

What else does the “new silent majority” stand for, besides jobs, protecting Social Security, and taxes for the rich?

• 72% want the government to crack down on Wall Street more than it has.
• 81% want the government to do more to reduce poverty.
• Eight out of ten oppose cutting Medicare.

Despite the widespread support for these views by members of both parties (bipartisanship at last!), the political and media landscapes are dominated by journalists and politicians who keep telling us these positions are “extremist” and politically unrealistic.

…

Historians will marvel someday at our current president’s iron-willed refusal to fight for policies that are both widely popular and broadly considered by experts to be the best solutions: stimulus spending to achieve jobs and growth, more regulation to reign in reckless and greedy banking, and ironclad protections for core social benefit plans. They’ll wonder why deficits were given higher priority than the bleeding wounds of a jobless economy, while the deficit-busting costs of military spending and an overly privatized health care system were considered off-limits.

…

And yet President Obama doesn’t just fail to fight for the New Silent Majority and its positions. He gets visibly angry when he’s asked about about it. The president known for keeping his cool loses it whenever the subject comes up. Why?

Part of the answer may lie in this line in an article by Matt Bai (this leads to a bad link, the one Eskow intended is here): “Privately, Mr. Obama has described himself, at times, as essentially a Blue Dog Democrat.”

Unfortunately for Mr. Obama, his administration, and Democrats, ‘The New Silent Majority’ doesn’t like ‘Blue Dog’ policies, only the Versailles Village Idiots do.

As was amply proven in November when 50% of the ‘Blue Dogs’ lost their jobs.

And as will be proven again in 2012.

The Obama tax deal with Republicans is insane

Tony Wikrent, Real Economics

Wednesday, December 8, 2010, 8:54 PM

If you look under the hood of the industrial economy, you easily see why there is this counter-intuitive relationship between tax rates and economic growth . With high taxes, the only way to retain the bulk of the wealth created by a business is by reinvesting it in the business — in plants, equipment, staff, research and development, new products and all the rest. But if tax rates are low, then there is more incentive to pull the wealth out, by declaring it as profits that are taxed at what turns out to be too low a rate. In other words, low taxes create an incentive for profit taking.

…

If tax rates are high enough to discourage profit taking – forcing wealth created by a business to be recycled back into the business – then businesses are pushed toward longer-term planning, as they invest in new plant and equipment that will be used for many years. And you do not get the absurd situation you have now, where companies are posting record breaking profits, but are not buying new equipment, nor hiring new employees.

Low tax rates encourage taking wealth out of industrial companies; the wealth taken out must then be “put to work.” That means more money chasing “investment” opportunities, leading to price increases in financial capital or real estate or some other asset. In other words, an asset bubble. The rise in prices of an asset bubble has nothing to do with the creation of real wealth. It all looks like prosperity – until the asset bubble bursts. That’s where we are now.

Is it that simple?  Yes, yes it is.  It’s just that simple.

I encourage you to read the whole thing which also includes 3 great historical failures of low tax policies and a prescription for a modest financial transactions tax to further encourage investment in capital (as opposed to financial) assets.

(h/t Corrente)

This is your morning Open Thread. Pour your favorite beverage and review the past and comment on the future

Find the past “On This Day in History” here.

December 9 is the 343rd day of the year (344th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 22 days remaining until the end of the year.

On this day in 1861, The Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War is established by the U.S. Congress.

The Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War was a United States Congressional investigating committee created to handle issues surrounding the American Civil War. It was established on December 9, 1861, following the embarrassing Union defeat at the Battle of Ball’s Bluff, at the instigation of Senator Zachariah T. Chandler of Michigan, and continued until May 1865. Its purpose was to investigate such matters as illicit trade with the Confederate states, medical treatment of wounded soldiers, military contracts, and the causes of Union battle losses. The Committee was also involved in supporting the war effort through various means, including endorsing emancipation, the use of black soldiers, and the appointment of generals who were known to be aggressive fighters. It was chaired throughout by Senator Benjamin Wade of Ohio, and became identified with the Radical Republicans who wanted more aggressive war policies than those of Abraham Lincoln.

History

Union officers often found themselves in an uncomfortable position before the Committee. Since this was a civil war, pitting neighbor against neighbor (and sometimes brother against brother), the loyalty of a soldier to the Union was simple to question. And since Union forces had very poor luck against their Confederate counterparts early in the war, particularly in the Eastern Theater battles that held the attention of the newspapers and Washington politicians, it was easy to accuse an officer of being a traitor after he lost a battle or was slow to engage or pursue the enemy. This politically charged atmosphere was very difficult and distracting for career military officers. Officers who were not known Republicans felt the most pressure before the Committee.

During the committee’s existence, it held 272 meetings and received testimony in Washington and at other locations, often from military officers. Though the committee met and held hearings in secrecy, the testimony and related exhibits were published at irregular intervals in the numerous committee reports of its investigations. The records include the original manuscripts of certain postwar reports that the committee received from general officers. There are also transcripts of testimony and accounting records regarding the military administration of Alexandria, Virginia.

One of the most colorful series of committee hearings followed the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863, where Union Maj. Gen. Daniel Sickles, a former congressman, accused Maj. Gen. George G. Meade of mismanaging the battle, planning to retreat from Gettysburg prior to his victory there, and failing to pursue and defeat Robert E. Lee‘s army as it retreated. This was mostly a self-serving effort on Sickles’s part because he was trying to deflect criticism from his own disastrous role in the battle. Bill Hyde notes that the committee’s report on Gettysburg was edited by Wade in ways that were unfavorable to Meade, even when that required distorting the evidence. The report was “a powerful propaganda weapon” (p. 381), but the committee’s power had waned by the time the final testimony was taken of William T. Sherman on May 22, 1865.

The war it was investigating completed, the committee ceased to exist after this last testimony, and the final reports were published shortly thereafter. The later Joint Committee on Reconstruction represented a similar attempt to check executive power by the Radical Republicans.

 730 – Battle of Marj Ardabil: the Khazars annihilate an Umayyad army and kill its commander, al-Djarrah ibn Abdullah

1425 – The Catholic University of Leuven is founded.

1531 – The Virgin of Guadalupe first appears to Juan Diego at Tepeyac, Mexico City.

1793 – New York City’s first daily newspaper, the American Minerva, is established by Noah Webster.

1824 – Patriot forces led by General Antonio Jose de Sucre defeat a Royalist army in the Battle of Ayacucho, putting an end to the Peruvian War of Independence.

1835 – The Republic of Texas captures San Antonio, Texas.

1851 – The first YMCA in North America is established in Montreal, Quebec.

1856 – The Iranian city of Bushehr surrenders to occupying British forces.

1861 – American Civil War: The Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War is established by the U.S. Congress.

1872 – In Louisiana, P. B. S. Pinchback becomes the first serving African-American governor of a U.S. state.

1875 – The Massachusetts Rifle Association, “America’s Oldest Active Gun Club”, is founded.

1888 – Statistician Herman Hollerith installs his computing device at the United States War Department.

1897 – Activist Marguerite Durand founds the feminist daily newspaper, La Fronde, in Paris.

1905 – In France, the law separating church and state is passed.

1917 – In Palestine, Field Marshal Edmund Allenby captures Jerusalem.

1922 – Gabriel Narutowicz is announced the first president of Poland.

1931 – The Constituent Cortes approves the constitution which establishes the Second Spanish Republic.

1935 – Walter Liggett, American newspaper editor and muckraker, is killed in gangland murder.

1937 – Second Sino-Japanese War: Battle of Nanjing – Japanese troops under the command of Lt. Gen. Asaka Yasuhiko launch an assault on the Chinese city of Nanjing.

1940 – World War II: Operation Compass – British and Indian troops under the command of Major-General Richard O’Connor attack Italian forces near Sidi Barrani in Egypt.

1941 – World War II: The Republic of China, Cuba, Guatemala, the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea, and the Philippine Commonwealth, declare war on Germany and Japan.

1941 – World War II: The 19th Bombardment Group attacks Japanese ships off the coast of Vigan, Luzon.

1946 – The “Subsequent Nuremberg Trials” begin with the “Doctors’ Trial”, prosecuting doctors alleged to be involved in human experimentation.

1950 – Harry Gold is sentenced to thirty years in jail for helping Klaus Fuchs pass information about the Manhattan Project to the Soviet Union. His testimony is later instrumental in the prosecution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg.

1953 – Red Scare: General Electric announces that all communist employees will be discharged from the company.

1956 – Trans-Canada Air Lines Flight 810, a Canadair North Star, crashes near Hope, British Columbia, Canada, killing all 62 people on board.

1958 – The John Birch Society was founded in the United States.

1960 – The first episode of Britain’s longest running television soap opera Coronation Street is broadcast.

1961 – The trial of Nazi Adolf Eichmann in Israel ends with verdicts of guilty on 15 criminal charges, including charges of crimes against humanity, crimes against the Jewish people and membership of an outlawed organization.

1961 – Tanganyika becomes independent from Britain.

1962 – The Petrified Forest National Park is established in Arizona.

1965 – The Kecksburg UFO incident: a fireball is seen from Michigan to Pennsylvania; witnesses report something crashing in the woods near Pittsburgh. In 2005 NASA admits that it examined an object.

1966 – Barbados joins the United Nations.

1968 – NLS (a system for which hypertext and the computer mouse were developed) is publicly demonstrated for the first time in San Francisco.

1971 – The United Arab Emirates join the United Nations.

1979 – The eradication of the smallpox virus is certified, making smallpox the first and to date only human disease driven to extinction.

1987 – Israeli-Palestinian conflict: The First Intifada begins in the Gaza Strip and West Bank.

2000 – The Supreme Court of the United States stays the sixth Florida recount.

2003 – A blast in the center of Moscow kills six people and wounds several more.

2006 – Moscow suffers its worst fire since 1977, killing 45 women in a drug rehabilitation center.

2008 – The Governor of Illinois, Rob Blagojevich, is arrested by federal officials for a number of alleged crimes including attempting to sell the United States Senate seat being vacated by President-elect Barack Obama’s election to the Presidency.

Holidays and observances

   * Anna’s Day, a Swedish name day, celebrating all people named Anna and marks the day to start the preparation process of the lutefisk to be consumed on Christmas Eve. (Sweden and Finland)

   * Christian Feast Day

         o Juan Diego

         o Leocadia

         o Nectarius of Auvergne

         o Peter Fourier

   * Day of Remembrance for Egil Skallagrimsson (Asatru)

   * [ Feast of the Conception of the Most Holy Theotokos by St. Anne] (Orthodox Church)

   * Independence Day, celebrate the independence of Tanganyika from Britain in 1961. (Tanzania)

   * International Anti-Corruption Day (International)

   * National Heroes Day, formerly V.C. Bird Day. (Antigua and Barbuda)

   * Yuri’s Day in the Autumn (Russian Orthodox Church)

As jurors go online, U.S. trials go off track

Facebook, Twitter and smart phones cause mistrials, appeals and overturned verdicts

Reuters  

ATLANTA – The explosion of blogging, tweeting and other online diversions has reached into U.S. jury boxes, raising serious questions about juror impartiality and the ability of judges to control courtrooms.

A Reuters Legal analysis found that jurors’ forays on the Internet have resulted in dozens of mistrials, appeals and overturned verdicts in the last two years.

For decades, courts have instructed jurors not to seek information about cases outside of evidence introduced at trial, and jurors are routinely warned not to communicate about a case with anyone before a verdict is reached. But jurors these days can, with a few clicks, look up definitions of legal terms on Wikipedia, view crime scenes via Google Earth, or update their blogs and Facebook pages with snide remarks about the proceedings.

WikiLeaks vs The Machine

US government tells firms to pull plug on whistleblowing website as hackers cause chaos with revenge attacks on Assange’s ‘enemies’

By Martin Hickman Thursday, 9 December 2010

The American corporations blamed for trying to silence WikiLeaks are under sustained attack from a loose global alliance of anonymous cyber hackers.

As the 39-year-old Australian editor-in-chief of WikiLeaks languished in Wandsworth Prison accused of sex offences, the financial and technological giants that withdrew support from the website in the face of pressure from the US government were hit by online hacking attacks, paralysing their net operations. MasterCard’s website was downed.

USA

US Energy Secretary Plays Climate Activist

Chu in Cancun  

By Christian Schwägerl in Cancun, Mexico

After getting this much praise, most politicians would smile proudly and bask in the recognition. But Steven Chu, who had just flown in from Washington and was sitting in Building D at the conference center in Cancun, where the United Nations Climate Change Conference is currently being held, didn’t move a muscle as his achievements were listed. He knows full well that he was recognized as a top researcher at Stanford and Berkeley, that he is a member of elite science academies in both the United States and China, and that he received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1997 — and he isn’t interested in the things he already knows.

US targets groups with ties to website



Ewen MacAskill in WASHINGTON and Josh Halliday

December 9, 2010

THE list of targets is expanding daily as Washington, smarting over the damage caused by the release of secret diplomatic cables, mounts a revenge operation against WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, and anyone associated with them.

MasterCard, the world’s second-biggest payments network, is the latest business to cut access to WikiLeaks. Visa Europe had earlier announced it would do so.

Europe

WikiLeaks cables: Shell’s grip on Nigerian state revealed

US embassy cables reveal top executive’s claims that company ‘knows everything’ about key decisions in government ministries

David Smith in Lagos

The oil giant Shell claimed it had inserted staff into all the main ministries of the Nigerian government, giving it access to politicians’ every move in the oil-rich Niger Delta, according to a leaked US diplomatic cable.

The company’s top executive in Nigeria told US diplomats that Shell had seconded employees to every relevant department and so knew “everything that was being done in those ministries”. She boasted that the Nigerian government had “forgotten” about the extent of Shell’s infiltration and was unaware of how much the company knew about its deliberations.

‘Ultra’ football fans protest over shooting  



By Shaun Walker in Moscow  Thursday, 9 December 2010

Fans of SpartakMoscow football club have blocked one of the Russian capital’s main thoroughfares and chanted nationalist slogans, demanding revenge, after one of the club’s fans was killed by a migrant from the country’s troubled North Caucasus.

Yegor Sviridov, a 28-year-old Spartak fan believed to be part of an “ultra” group, was with his friend, 25-year-old Dmitry Filatov on Sunday night, when the pair got into a fight with a group of men.

According to police reports, he was shot four times – including once in the head – and died, while Mr Filatov is currently in hospital with stomach injuries.

Middle East

US says efforts to revive Middle East talks have failed

The Irish Times – Thursday, December 9, 2010

MARK WEISS in Jerusalem

PALESTINIAN PRESIDENT Mahmoud Abbas is due to hold talks in Cairo today with Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak as the parties in the region weigh their responses to the US announcement that efforts to revive the direct peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians have failed.

Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said a next step would be to ask the United States to recognise a Palestinian state.

Yasser Abed Rabbo, a top aide to Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, said the Palestinians were assessing their options before responding to the American announcement.

Iran is still talking, if nothing else  



Paul McGeough

December 9, 2010  

It could hardly be called an agreement. But when talks between Iran and a European Union-led delegation broke up in Geneva on Tuesday, a faint promise of more powwow hung in the chill Swiss air.

The deal was that the two sides would reconvene in Istanbul next month. But the history of this brittle discourse has been that dates and venues can change in a thrice as one side or the other gets in a huff, mooted talks evaporate and what is thought to be an agreement falls apart.

The Tehran delegation was determined to lard the agenda for the Geneva meeting, but the US and its P5+1 team – representatives of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council and Germany – were focused almost entirely on Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

Asia

China crackdown on dissent ahead of Nobel ceremony



By Steven Jiang, CNN

December 9, 2010 — Updated 0346 GMT

Zeng Jinyan knows all too well what it was like to be a prisoner in her own home.

“Living under police watch for a long time and with all connections to the outside world cut off — it was very painful and hard to endure,” said the 27-year-old charity worker.

Zeng was not charged with any crime but was put under house arrest for several months in 2008 after police arrested her husband Hu Jia, a pro-democracy activist. Hu was later sentenced to three and a half years’ imprisonment for “inciting subversion of state power.”

Varanasi blast breaks terror lull  

 

By Sudha Ramachandran  

BANGALORE – The relative lull in terror attacks in India has been broken by a blast at Varanasi in northern India on Tuesday.

A two-year-old child was killed and five others were injured in the explosion, while about 20 people, including several foreigners, were injured in the stampede that it triggered.

The blast, caused by an improvised explosive device (IED) placed in a milk container, took place on the paved steps of the Sitala Ghat, adjacent to the more famous Dashashwamedh Ghat and near Varanasi’s famous Kashi-Vishwanath temple.

Africa

Southern Sudan accuses North of fresh attacks



THURSDAY, 09 DECEMBER 2010 00:00    

THE Southern Sudan’s main party has accused the north of launching new bomb attacks on the region.

Pagan Amum, secretary-general of the former rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Movement, said the air attacks occurred this week in the states of Western and Northern Bahr al-Ghazal.

There has been no independent confirmation of the alleged bombings.

Amum said the attacks are an attempt by Sudan’s ruling National Congress Party to disrupt the south’s referendum on independence, scheduled for January 9.

But a prominent member of Sudan’s ruling National Congress Party (NCP) described as ridiculous accusations that his party was behind the latest bombing attack.

Rwandan archive on 1994 genocide opens tomorrow



THURSDAY, 09 DECEMBER 2010 00:00 BY FRANCIS OBINOR

AT the Kigali Genocide Memorial (KGM) in Rwanda tomorrow, on slopes above mass graves containing over 250,000 of those murdered, a documentation facility will be unveiled that is set to make the 1994 genocide one of the most comprehensively documented – and most easily researchable – genocides of all time.

In a statement made available to The Guardian yesterday, Dr. James Smith, Chief Executive of the Aegis Trust said “The Genocide Archive of Rwanda will provide unique and growing evidence for the present and future generations to enquire more about how genocide develops in order to better understand how it may be prevented.”

Latin America

Adrift on Robinson Crusoe Island, the forgotten few  

When the wave struck, islanders were abandoned to their fate. Patrick Bodenham reports from the Juan Fernandez archipelago.

Thursday, 9 December 2010  

As Chile’s President, Sebastian Piñera, basked in the plaudits that followed the successful rescue of 33 trapped miners, he toured European capitals handing out chunks of rock to national leaders retrieved from the bottom of the San Jose mine. David Cameron received his mounted piece of rock; in return he handed over a copy of Robinson Crusoe.

It may have seemed a curious diplomatic exchange, but it highlighted an earlier event that rocked Chile in 2010.

Ignoring Asia A Blog

Some premiers.  Great Performances’ Peter and the Wolf is not one of them.

Yes, this is Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, California. It’s about 5 0’clock in the morning. That’s the homicide squad, complete with detectives and newspaper men.  

The poor dope – he always wanted a pool. Well, in the end, he got himself a pool.

• ABC Family– Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, Miracle on 34th Street (not the good 1947 version)
• AMC– Road House (if you’re a huge Patrick Swazye fan)
• Bravo– Top Chef (last week’s and premier x 4)
• Disney– The Polar Express
• Discovery– Mythbusters (premier, Obama challenge- if you can stand it), Storm Chasers (‘Making of’ Finale, premier)
• ESPN– Hoopies, Nuggets @ Celtics, College Hoopies, Kentucky v. Notre Dame
• ESPN2– College Hoopies, Seton Hall @ Arkansas, Bradley @ Duke
• Food– New Throwdown
• FX– Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears a Who!, Are We There Yet?
• Lifetime– A Very Merry Daughter of the Bride
• Oxygen– Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous, Ocean’s Twelve
• Sci Fi– Hollywood Treasure x 2 (premiers)
• Turner Classic– Sunset Boulevard
• TNT– Bones marathon
• Travel– Man v. Food marathon (thank goodness)
• USA– Psych (premier)
• Vs.– Sharks @ Flyers

You’re Norma Desmond. You used to be in silent pictures. You used to be big.

I *am* big. It’s the *pictures* that got small.

Later-

Now you listen to me, I’m an advertising man, not a red herring. I’ve got a job, a secretary, a mother, two ex-wives and several bartenders that depend upon me, and I don’t intend to disappoint them all by getting myself “slightly” killed.

• AMC– Breaking Bad (Series Premier repeat)
• FX– Zoolander
• Turner Classic– Singin’ in the Rain (one of my avatar’s best performances outside of Inherit the Wind), North by Northwest
• USA– Burn Notice (this week’s), Psych (Instapeat)

Dave hosts Barbara Walters, Jayma Mays, and Alison Balsom (trumpeter).  Jon has Michelle Williams, Stephen Steve Martin (might be fun).  Conan hosts Ray Romano, Arianna Huffington, and The LXD.

Boondocks– The Red Ball (too funny, a must see)

Well, this is where you came in, back at that pool again, the one I always wanted. It’s dawn now and they must have photographed me a thousand times. Then they got a couple of pruning hooks from the garden and fished me out… ever so gently. Funny, how gentle people get with you once you’re dead.

And I promise you I’ll never desert you again because after ‘Salome’ we’ll make another picture and another picture. You see, this is my life! It always will be! Nothing else! Just us, the cameras, and those wonderful people out there in the dark!… All right, Mr. DeMille, I’m ready for my close-up.

Evening Edition is an Open Thread

1 Four dead as Haiti vote protests turn ugly

by Clarens Renois, AFP

31 mins ago

2 Haiti on edge after disputed poll results

by Clarens Renois, AFP

Wed Dec 8, 3:46 am ET

3 Hackers launch cyber attacks after WikiLeaks’ funding cut

by Andre Lehmann, AFP

8 mins ago

4 WikiLeaks chief Assange behind bars in Britain

by Alice Ritchie, AFP

Tue Dec 7, 7:56 pm ET

5 Cyber attacks follow WikiLeaks’ funding cut

AFP

Wed Dec 8, 11:56 am ET

6 WikiLeaks unfurls more cables as founder behind bars

AFP

Wed Dec 8, 7:21 am ET

7 Eurogroup head attacks ‘un-European’ Germany

by Simon Sturdee, AFP

1 hr 23 mins ago

8 Fire in crowded Chile prison kills 81 inmates

by Miguel Sanchez, AFP

1 hr 13 mins ago

9 NASA, SpaceX giddy over historic orbit launch

by Kerry Sheridan, AFP

21 mins ago

10 US company launches first private space capsule

by Kerry Sheridan, AFP

Wed Dec 8, 1:30 pm ET

11 Retired French electrician says heir to second Picasso trove

by Celine Agniel, AFP

Wed Dec 8, 12:01 pm ET

12 UN chief warns world failing on climate

by Shaun Tandon, AFP

Tue Dec 7, 6:17 pm ET

13 Defiant Obama defends tax cuts, eyes 2012

by Jo Biddle, AFP

Tue Dec 7, 5:20 pm ET

14 Leg-spinner Warne ‘flattered’ by comeback calls

AFP

Wed Dec 8, 7:52 am ET

15 Tax deal moves forward despite doubts

By Kim Dixon and Richard Cowan, Reuters

48 mins ago

16 Treasury to cut AIG stake in big stock sale

By Paritosh Bansal and Ben Berkowitz, Reuters

27 mins ago

17 China casts net wide in Nobel Prize crackdown

By Ben Blanchard, Reuters

1 hr 51 mins ago

18 U.S. sends more subpoenas in insider trading probe

By Matthew Goldstein and Svea Herbst-Bayliss, Reuters

1 hr 6 mins ago

19 EU’s Juncker, Germany clash over euro zone bonds

By Sarah Marsh and Kirsten Donovan, Reuters

Wed Dec 8, 1:16 pm ET

20 U.S. fiscal health worse than Europe’s: China adviser

Reuters

1 hr 29 mins ago

21 Ireland sets out record austerity budget

By Padraic Halpin and Carmel Crimmins, Reuters

Tue Dec 7, 9:57 pm ET

22 Testy Obama fires back at Democrats over tax deal

By Steve Holland and Patricia Zengerle, Reuters

Wed Dec 8, 7:00 am ET

23 Australia blames U.S., not WikiLeaks, for leaks

By Rob Taylor, Reuters

Wed Dec 8, 1:38 am ET

24 Protests erupt as Haiti election goes to run-off

By Joseph Guyler Delva and Allyn Gaestel, Reuters

Wed Dec 8, 12:13 am ET

25 Haiti election protests spread through capital

By JONATHAN M. KATZ, Associated Press

21 mins ago

26 Hackers strike at MasterCard to support WikiLeaks

By RAPHAEL G. SATTER and JILL LAWLESS, Associated Press

22 mins ago

27 Obama facing tough sell in own party on tax deal

By STEPHEN OHLEMACHER, Associated Press

24 mins ago

28 House Democrats’ bill freezes most agency budgets

By ANDREW TAYLOR, Associated Press

23 mins ago

29 Democrats face long odds on immigration measure

By JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVIS, Associated Press

25 mins ago

30 Fire at overcrowded Chile prison kills 81

By EVA VERGARA, Associated Press

29 mins ago

31 Spacecraft splashes into Pacific on demo flight

By MARCIA DUNN, AP Aerospace Writer

27 mins ago

32 Father, son convicted in fatal Ore. bank bombing

By JONATHAN J. COOPER, Associated Press

3 mins ago

33 AP IMPACT: Caught by mistake in foreclosure web

By MICHELLE CONLIN, AP Real Estate Writer

1 hr 39 mins ago

34 AP Source: Union says NBA hasn’t moved in talks

By BRIAN MAHONEY, AP Basketball Writer

1 hr 54 mins ago

35 Judge delays Clemens trial by 3 months

By NEDRA PICKLER, Associated Press

2 hrs 35 mins ago

36 Obama confident Senate will ratify nuclear treaty

By JIM KUHNHENN, Associated Press

17 mins ago

37 AP-Petside.com poll: Dogs are Santa’s favorites

By SUE MANNING, Associated Press

Wed Dec 8, 10:40 am ET

38 Evidence for ET is mounting daily, but not proven

By SETH BORENSTEIN, AP Science Writer

2 hrs 1 min ago

39 NTSB: Government aircraft are safety ‘orphans’

By JOAN LOWY, Associated Press

Wed Dec 8, 1:23 pm ET

40 Obama urges action on deal to avoid Medicare cuts

By RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR, Associated Press

1 hr 1 min ago

41 Japan probe overshoots Venus, heads toward sun

By ERIC TALMADGE, Associated Press

Wed Dec 8, 3:30 am ET

42 Judge won’t delay burning of Calif. bomb house

By ELLIOT SPAGAT and JULIE WATSON, Associated Press

40 mins ago

43 APNewsBreak: Egg sales rebound after huge recall

By DAVID MERCER, Associated Press

1 hr 8 mins ago

44 Immigrants’ lawyers using culture as crime defense

By SAMANTHA HENRY, Associated Press

Wed Dec 8, 2:41 pm ET

45 Honda minivan tops in fuel economy

By ANN M. JOB, For The Associated Press

Wed Dec 8, 12:43 pm ET

46 Foreign language courses growing on campuses

By ERIC GORSKI, AP Education Writer

Wed Dec 8, 10:41 am ET

47 Report: Tough times far from over for states

By PAUL DAVENPORT, Associated Press

Wed Dec 8, 12:01 am ET

48 Debt-hit Irish publish harshest budget in history

By SHAWN POGATCHNIK, Associated Press

Tue Dec 7, 11:11 pm ET

49 Hearing on Texas death penalty stopped by court

By JUAN A. LOZANO, Associated Press

Tue Dec 7, 10:04 pm ET

(10 am. – promoted by ek hornbeck)

Obama is just caving to the hostage takers again like he did with health care. He just continues to lie and throw the true Democratic principle under the bus.

From James K. Galbraith

Whose side is the White House on anyway?

The president should know that, as Lincoln told Congress in 1862, he “cannot escape history”

This isn’t a parlor game. The outcome isn’t destined to be alright. It will not necessarily end in progress whatever happens. What we do, how we proceed, and how we effectively resist what is plainly about to happen, matters very greatly for the future of our country, of our children, and of another generation to come. We need to lose our fear, our hesitation, and our unwillingness to face the facts. If we thereby lose some of our hopes, let’s remember the dictum of William of Orange that “it is not necessary to hope in order to persevere.”

The president should know that, as Lincoln said to the Congress in the dark winter of 1862, he “cannot escape history.” And we are heading now into a very dark time, so let’s face it with eyes open. And if we must, let’s seek leadership that shares our values, fights for our principles, and deserves our trust.

History will not judge this President kindly.