The media is circulating a proposal in which the GOP House votes for the 2-month tax cut extension on condition there’s a conference committee to work on the full year extension and bound to the rule that its costs are offset by spending cuts. It lets the GOP crazies completely off the hook while forcing more spending cuts in government programs. Auhor! Author!

Kevin William Harpham of Colville, WA, confessed to leaving an explosive device near the intended route of a Martin Luther King Day Unity March in Spokane. Stored in a backpack, it was packed with fishing weights coated with rat poison. Now he faces 32 years in prison.

The European Central Bank is firing its bazooka and lending massive amounts to European banks, which they can use to purchase Euro government debt that pay higher interest for some easy money. It’s a backdoor way of being the lender of last resort for sovereign debt, while bailing out the banksters.

Bradley Manning’s Article 32 hearing or, as it is more generally called, pre-trial hearing resumes today. The US government has finished presenting evidence. The defense will now begin to present its side of the case. Here are today’s developments and a recap of yesterday.

House Republicans left behind eight “conferees” for a conference on the payroll tax/UI/doc fix bill, and plan to hold showy events where they sit in a room alone, but Democrats have adamantly refused to reopen negotiations until the short-term bill passes. Meanwhile, half of the conferees opposed the payroll tax cut extension as recently as a few weeks ago. So far, nobody’s buying the GOP spin.

The group Americans Elect is planning to run a independent candidate for president and has now been certified to appear on the ballot in California.

The President showed up unscheduled at a White House briefing today to excoriate House Republicans for fouling up a Senate deal on a stopgap measure to extend the payroll tax cut, unemployment benefits and a doctor’s reimbursement fix. But there are a number of other measures that also will not get extended into next year, including the production tax credit for wind energy.

Continuing FDL’s live coverage of the Pre-trial hearing for Bradley Manning. This is the second part of the testimony of Adrian Lamo.

Dayen’s news roundup from Tuesday night. House GOP acting like children but hurting everyone; Politifact will need its own fact checking; secret drone wars; Joe Biden vs Taliban; delay in derivatives rules; 61 active occupation camps; US taking over Sheriff Arpaio jails? And much more.

A variety of links to articles/interviews on current topics that may, or may not, be of interest.