We take a look back at the 2012 year in muck. And my, what a year it was.

A community bookshop in Washington Heights is doing an end of the year fundraiser to survive. The video is really powerful and it seems like a very special place. I first saw this video about it from writer Junot Diaz, after the jump … Read More

President Obama’s most recent attempt to cut a big budget deal with John Boehner ended with a conciliatory Obama agreeing to cut Social Security benefits and a hapless Boehner launching his disastrous Plan B debacle. Liberals were angry at Obama for conceding too much; conservatives were angry at Boehner for — well, for a variety of things, but mainly they were upset that their backs were up against a wall and they had no way to prevent taxes from going up.

It was a mess. But there was a certain logic to it. Read More

My favorite part of tonight’s fiscal cliff wrap:

In a tremendous irony, Republican requests for lower tax rates, a high estate tax threshold, and a permanent AMT fix; combined with Democratic requests to delay the sequester, include a “doc fix” for Medicare physicians, and extend emergency unemployment benefits; have left the parties negotiating toward a plan that would result in no net deficit reduction over 10 years, according to Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin.

Senate Republicans are backing off a last-ditch effort to include a Social Security cut in an eleventh-hour fiscal cliff deal.

We’ve seen these budget talks break down so many times now that it’s hard to get too exercised about it, including today, when there’s almost no time left for negotiators to reach even a modest accommodation.

The drama might be more pitched if the consequences of blowing past the tax and sequestration deadlines were more immediate and onerous, but realistically if everything falls apart tonight and tomorrow, it can be put back together again fairly quickly next year.

What we’re witnessing in these waning hours, though, reveals a lot about the current balance of power in Washington, and the way the parties are responding to the outcome of the election. Read More

McConnell reaches out to Biden for help as talks again break down.

Obama on Meet the Press: “I am skeptical that the only answer is putting more guns in schools.”

A very cool mini-documentary on the first same-sex marriages which took place last night in Maine.

Watch after the jump … Read More

The Sun-Times Lynn Sweet reports that President Obama is personally lobbying home-state lawmakers to pass a marriage equality law in Illinois. Read More