Something to Know - 6 December

1.  Well, well, well.  Speaker Boehner has looked at the cards that he has in his hand, and realizes that he cannot win.   He is in a pickle.  He's made some house committee adjustments, and has removed any Tea Baggers from any leadership positions, and he's now said that yes, there will need to be taxes raised on the wealthy.  At the same time, the Tea Party is having its explosive internal hissy fits, and whatever the outcome is with them, it will not be good for the GOP:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/dana-milbank-republicans-wave-the-white-flag/2012/12/05/24c3c45e-3f1d-11e2-bca3-aadc9b7e29c5_print.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/ruth-marcus-the-shifting-line-on-tax-cuts/2012/12/04/e50bd63e-3e46-11e2-ae43-cf491b837f7b_print.html

2.  If you missed this, watch and read it now.  Rachel Maddow's report on how Rober Ailes, the big wig of Fox News, was fixin' (a Southern term) to make General Petraeus the Republican Party nominee.   Petraeus wound up as head of the CIA, instead, after the Etch-a-Sketch guy got the nominee job.   This story is not unusual for the fact that a celebrity personality is recruited run for president, but that the head of a national news agency, one that calls itself fair and balanced, actually is nothing more than shill for the Republican Party.\:

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/12/05/maddow-secret-petraeus-audio-means-fox-news-officially-part-of-the-gop/

3.  Rick Santorum, remember him?  Well, he's crafting some kind of strategy for the future.  It would appear that he's kind of stuck in being the right-wing nut who lords the nutty philosophy over some current GOP legislators.   The Republican Party is in such a state of flux, that no one really knows where it is going.  Yesterday's shameful failure to ratify the United Nations version of the American Disabilities Act is seen as a victory for Ricktorum.  Gail Collins has a good take on it:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/06/opinion/collins-santorum-strikes-again.html?ref=opinion&_r=0&pagewanted=print

4.  The anatomy of a strike, the talking points, the negotiations, the deal-making, and the settlement are laid out in short form here.  This is about the Los Angeles/Long Beach port strike that shut everything down for several days, and was hurtful to the local economy:

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-1205-ports-talks-20121205,0,581885,print.story

--
Juan

"I can believe anything, provided that it is quite incredible."
       -- Oscar Wilde

"The government is unresponsive to the needs of the little man. Under 5'7", it is impossible to get your congressman on the phone."
       -- Woody Allen

"Everywhere is walking distance if you have the time."
       -- Steven Wright

"A single death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic."
       -- Joseph Stalin