Now that the House has passed the three month suspense of the debt limit, it is safe to say President Obama won this standoff. The original Republican position was that any debt limit increase had to be accompanied by spending cuts. Obama said he would not negotiate this time and wanted a debt limit increase without cuts. This temporary increase has no cuts.

Over at La Figa, Firedoglake‘s politics, entertainment and pop culture blog, Lisa Derrick will be live blogging the Oscars, including the Red Carpet special. Derrick put up a post yesterday on what she thinks we have to look forward to during the Oscars, hinted at the fact that the “French,” through The Artist, could sweep the Oscars and she highlighted the “heavyweight” battle in Best Director category.

So, why is the guy that writes about WikiLeaks, drones, the Occupy movement, torture, etc, doing a post on his Oscar picks?

Why is The Dissenter posting a top ten list (in no particular order) of films?

I graduated from Columbia College Chicago with a Film/Video degree. I enjoy writing about film. I especially enjoy writing about films that help call attention to important political or social issues in society (see my review of The Whistleblower this year, which happens to be on the list below). I am by no means a professional movie critic, but I do like to use film to interrogate the world and I also appreciate directors/producers/screenwriters, etc, that dare to interrogate the world or provoke thought in society through film.

In the immediate aftermath of the Japanese earthquake and tsunami that triggered the horrific and ongoing disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power generating station, President Barack Obama went out on a bit of a limb, striking a tone markedly different from his fellow leaders in the industrialized world. Speaking about Japan and its effect on America’s energy future–once within days of the quake, and again later in March–the president made a point of reassuring Americans that his commitment to nuclear power would stay strong. While countries like Germany and Japan–both more dependent on nuclear power than the US–took Fukushima as a sign that it was time to move away from nuclear, Obama wanted to win the future with the same entrenched industry that so generously donated to his winning the 2008 election.

But a funny thing happened on the way to winning our energy future–namely, our energy present.

Amid high but nit uniformly high turnout, voters took to the polls today in Wisconsin in six recall elections against Republican incumbents of the state Senate. The stakes are pretty simple: if Democrats manage to flip three of these seats, they take control of the Senate (provided they hold two incumbent seats in recall elections next week, as expected).

Happy 83rd annual Academy Awards! Are your tiara’s in place? Bowls of popcorn and plates of caviar balanced on your knees? The bubble poured and coffee brewing? Well let’s get down to business. BTW, this list is from the Academy themselves, and I have no clue if this order in which they’ll be presented, so we’ll have to stay a bit on our toes. Who’s your favorite to win–odds favorite and heart and soul favorite? And as always, snark and accolades welcome!

Welcome to the Firedoglake Red Carpet Liveblog, a chance to get our snark on and cheer lubricated for the main event, the Academy Awards, which starts in an hour on whatever your ABC affiliate might be.

So it’s that time of year, at long last — the time when bloggers run out of ideas and resort to making lists we reflect thoughtfully on the past year and make resolutions to improve ourselves in the next one.

Tomorrow is the last day of 2010, and it’s the biggest giving day of the year to nonprofits as people make their last tax-deductible contributions of the calendar year. We hope you’ll consider donating to the FDL Writer’s Foundation.

For donations of  contribute $100 or more, we’re delighted to offer copies of books by authors who had some of the most successful book salons of 2010: you can choose from the works of  Matt Taibbi, Arianna Huffington, Ryan Grim, Bill McKibben or Yves Smith as our gift to you.

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The core message being delivered by the President actually persuades people to vote for Republicans over Democrats.