Friday, December 13, 2013   Published Weekday Mornings   To see the full version of today's cartoon, click on the preview graphic of the cartoon (below the Commentary) to be taken to the full version in your favorite web browser. Leaving A Mark House passes 2-year bipartisan budget deal The Breakdown: Who voted for the budget bill? Stopgap farm bill passes U.S. House, averts 'dairy cliff' House also quickly OKs $632.8B defense bill Budget Deal May Be Good News for Pentagon Boondoggles Patrick Caldwell: No, the Budget Deal Isn't a "Compromise" Brad Plumer: Maybe Repubs aren't winning on spending, after all Paul Krugman: The Biggest Losers From The Budget Deal Bill Moyers: "That Sound You Hear Is the Shredding of the Social Contract" The Venn Diagram That Explains How the Ryan-Murray Budget Deal Happened Nancy Pelosi to Democrats before the vote: 'Embrace the suck' in the deal House Dems threatened budget deal because of Repubs backdoor temporary "doc fix" - but didn't act Greg Sargent: Over one million Americans now set to lose unemployment insurance Ed Kilgore: Disposable Americans & The Budget Deal The GOP Civil War Boehner attacks tea party groups, even as House approves budget deal Republicans and Tea Party Activists in 'Full Scale Civil War' Greg Sargent: Boehner boils over on extremist conservative groups Speaker Boehner: Conservative Groups 'Have Lost All Credibility' Republicans are falling out of love with outsider groups Gallup: Tea Party Favorability Falls to Lowest Yet  Dreaming Of A White Christmas Fox's Megyn Kelly: 'Jesus and Santa were white' Aisha Harris: What Fox News Doesn't Understand About Santa Claus Jamelle Bouie: Yes, Megyn Kelly, Santa CAN Be Black (and Jesus Can, Too) Jonathan Merritt: Insisting Jesus Was White Is Bad History and Bad Theology The Fight To Vote Ohio voting bill could lead to long lines, voter purges North Carolina Shows Why the Voting Rights Act Is Still Needed The Spying Game At Senate hearing, NSA director defends spying program Panel Set to Recommend Modest Changes to NSA Surveillance Programs Energy, Climate & Environment Cars and trucks in U.S. post record gas mileage Canadian Oil Producers May Have A Lot More Riding On The Keystone XL Pipeline Than Transcanada Nations In Turmoil U.N. confirms multiple uses of chemical weapons in Syria Bangladesh execution sparks violent protests Violence intensifies in Central African Republic conflict Ukraine to offer amnesty to protesters The War Over There U.S. drone strike kills 15 civilians in wedding convoy, inYemen, by mistake Michael Lehnert, Guantanamo commander: Why it's long past time that we close Guantánamo American missing in Iran since 2007 was on unapproved CIA mission International News North Korea says leader's uncle was executed North Korean purge of leader's uncle sparks stability fears Greenpeace activists "freed", but barred from leaving Russia Mexican Congress approves historic energy bill, opening oil industry to private companies Midwest Roundup Nebraska GOP governor on his own bungled appointment: 'I don't think that will happen again.' Powerball ticket sold in Gretna, Neb. makes a Nebraskan a multi-millionaire Iowa plans to close some rest stops, encourage drivers to go elsewhere Iowa prosecutors make deal in kickback case Get Them Out Before They Do More Damage As both the House and Senate begin to wrap up their latest embarrassing display of gutlessness and cowardice, we can't help but be glad to see them get the hell of out of town. After passing a budget bill that's draconian and regressive, the House slammed through a temporary stopgap Farm Bill. They also jammed through a $632.8 billion defense bill that will keep in place billions of dollars of Pentagon boondoggles. House Republicans also insisted on stuffing deficit reduction into the budget they rapidly pushed through at the last minute. Unsurprisingly, it didn't seem to matter to Republicans that the federal budget deficit already is continuing to narrow rapidly, even without any further assistance from Congress. The safety of America's kids also didn't seem to matter to Congress, since one year after the horrible carnage at the school in Sandy Hook, Congress has still only passed one gun safety bill. After that kind of half-assed governing, we don't frankly care how Congress gets out of town. We just want them gone before they do any more legislative damage. If Jeff Bezos over at the Washington Post wants to lend us some drones, we'll happily hook up a few members of Congress to his flying robots - from either side of the aisle - if it'll get them out of our sight any faster. Sadly, due to a temper tantrum continuing to be thrown by the ever-childish Republicans in the Senate, members of the upper chamber will have to stick around - and actually remain in session - into... To continue reading... click here. And now, for your Daily Felltoon preview for December 13, 2013 (Click the preview cartoon above to see the full version of the cartoon) Jobs & The Economy Jobless Fear Looming Cutoff of Benefits Laura D'Andrea Tyson: Raising the Minimum Wage - Old Shibboleths, New Evidence Lizzie O'Leary: Mish-mash of tax credits about to expire Neil Irwin: No Corporate America, 2013's holiday sales aren't a total disaster Newtown: One Year Later Newtown: One Year After With no official memorial, Newtown residents still perform random acts of kindness to commemorate Alec Macgillis: A Year After Newtown, Little Has Changed. Blame these politicians. More Than Half of Americans Now Have Tougher Gun Laws - But Only At The State Level Wall Street Watch Stanley Fischer, tapped for Fed job, Has Activist Past Appelbaum: Young Stanley Fischer and the Keynesian Counterrevolution Economic Inequality Cities See Big Spike In The Need For Food Pantries And Kitchens Bill Moyers: Who's Really Waging the Class War? Health Care Checkup Pres. Obama Offers Last-Minute Fix For Obamacare Enrollees - With A Catch Vermont Is Kicking Everyone's Ass at Signing Up People for Obamacare Turning the corner? In California, at least, Obamacare sign-up numbers are way up | Sen. Tom Coburn Flip-Flops: Now Says Obamacare Exchanges 'Will Work And Work Well' Jonathan Cohn: What Really Separates Conservatives and Liberals in the Obamacare Debate Americans In Medicaid Gap Enlisted To Fight Back Against GOP Guvs Communications Breakdown FCC considers cellphone service on U.S. flights - but no calls Twitter Reverts Changes To Blocking Function After Strong Negative Reaction Media Matters Legendary Satire Newspaper'The Onion' Releases Last Print Edition Orange County Register newspaper owner to launch Los Angeles daily newspaper Did You Miss It On Wednesday? Here It Is Again! Your HuskerNutz Preview for December 13, 2013 (Click the preview cartoon above to see the full version of the cartoon) National Politics Lawrence Lessig: Congress Can Be Corrupt Without Corrupt People On The Right Mich.GOP raises max donation limits; Campaign donors remain anonymous White House Update White House Wins Delay Over Congress on New Iran Sanctions Obama administration extends state high-risk insurance pools through January News From Capitol Hill Senate Repubs to continue with pointless "debate" through weekend Ryan Cooper: On Senate rules reform, Democrats should still aim higher On The Left Sen. Elizabeth Warren destroys Bloomberg hosts on Social Security 'entitlements crisis' Irin Carmon: Why Democrats' doomed family leave bill matters Democrats in Tough Races in 2014 Need to Stick Up For Obamacare Millennials: The most progressive generation since FDR On The Right Pew Research Center: Republicans More Optimistic than Democrats about Midterms GOP Look-Alike Websites Mocking Democrats May Violate Election Laws What GOP Rebound? Battleground Survey Finds Repubs Vulnerable Huckabee says he may make another run for GOP presidential nod We hope you enjoy "The Daily Felltoon" every business day. Thanks for continuing to be a member! Paul Fell Shawn "Smith" Peirce Paul Fell Cartoons, Inc.