CommonDreams.org

Young Luke is quite the analyst. You can see why he was vaulted to the top of the American news business over the heads of others who have far more training, brains and ability. It's in the blood.

Luke Russert: Harry Reid, no matter what happens, he is showing to the liberal base that he has done everything in his power to get a bill with a public option to the floor at least up for debate.

This satisfies the liberals, this satisfies the MoveOn.org crowd, and really, I think it will show him to be the standard bearer of the liberal cause, Andrea.

The PBS mainstay Bill Moyers said he is retiring from weekly television and will end his Friday night public affairs show "Bill Moyers Journal" on April 30, 2010. That date will also be the last for "Now on PBS," which has been canceled.

Poor Goldman Sachs. Everybody, even their own shareholders, hates them for their gluttonous ways. They cancelled their holiday party and told employees not to hold private parties. Now a skeptical media is being so bold as to note that their much-touted charitable fund to small business is insultingly small potatoes: $100 million a year, or the worth of one good day of trading, or 3 percent of the obscene $16-plus billion they're paying themselves. God's work: It's a tough gig.

"So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by men." - Matthew 6:2

A Florida jury has ordered tobacco giant Philip Morris to pay almost $300 million in damages to a former smoker, the largest fine ever levied against nicotine peddlers. The case of Cindy Naugle, 61, who quit smoking but developed severe emphysema, is one of 4,000 similar claims pending in federal court.

"The cigarette companies managed to hide the truth about their product for a long time, but the truth is out now."

Katharine Seelye on the New York Times Prescriptions Blog this afternoon:

Representative John Conyers Jr., Democrat of Michigan and the second-most senior member of the House, today ripped into President Obama and Rahm Emanuel, the White House chief of staff, accusing them of "bowing down" to "nutty right-wing" proposals just to get a health care bill passed.

"I'm getting tired of saving Obama's can in the White House."

Bob Dylan just released his first Christmas album, with proceeds going to three organizations fighting worldwide hunger - World Food Program, Feeding America, and Crisis. More here.

What to do with the Palin furor? Oh yeah. Turn to Comedy Central. To see Stewart complain "there's no onion there," Colbert declare her so-called book "a steaming pile of shit," and little kids hilariously proclaim they'd rather kill themselves than read it, go here