For a long time the Army and the US military in general were very leery of soldiers having digital gadgets that might breach security in various ways. But now the Army wants every soldier on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan equipped with their own Smartphone along with special DOD-designed apps to run on them.

Brian Beutler has more on disgruntled House Democrats pushing back on the White House’s tax cut plan.

It’s hardly surprising that the editors at Fox News send out memos instructing on-air talent to mimic GOP talking points in how they describe key policy questions. But it takes it to another level to see the actual staff emails giving them the instructions.

Harry Reid has called for a cloture vote on the defense authorization bill which contains the DADT repeal provision, with Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) still not onboard with proceeding. So it looks like DADT repeal is going to fail, at least for now. We’ll have a better read in a few minutes on whether they may come back to DADT repeal later in the session.

Late Update: This may be it for DADT repeal. “I don’t know what more we can do,” a Senate Democratic leadership aide tells us. “It’s not on the up and up.”

Has Susan Collins really been playing Democrats this entire time? Should I not be surprised?

It’s probably no good when the headline reads “State Dept: No One Touched the ‘Dancing Boy’ At Dyncorp Party.”

Harry Reid’s move for cloture on the defense authorization bill only got 57 of the 60 votes necessary to cut off debate. Strangely, in the end, Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), who had been the main sticking point on this issue, voted with the Democrats. But by then it was clear the bill would fail.

Given the mind-numbing back and forth over DADT repeal in the last 48 hours before it collapsed, I don’t want to overplay this but Joe Lieberman says he and others will soon be introducing a standalone DADT repeal bill (remember the provision that just failed was in the big annual defense spending bill) and that Harry Reid has promised to bring that new bill to a vote before the lame duck session ends.

Yes, I’m skeptical, too. But there you have it.

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From TPM Reader LF …

Watching Ralph Nader on TV blasting the President’s tax deal and suggesting that someone primary him. Considering this is the 10-year anniversary of this abomination, which was caused by Nader’s sanctimonius narcissistic delusions, and resulted in the country’s worst decade, he can go to hell. It makes me even more convinced that the President is right.

Freshman Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin (WV) explains why he cast a no vote on DADT repeal.

Meanwhile, did I mention that outgoing Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) was at the dentist and missed the vote entirely?