Cheat Sheet - Biden Draws Fire for Taliban Remarks

Today: Kim Jong-un to Share Power: Report, Senate Republicans Slam the House, U.S. Asks Journals to Censor Flu Study December 21, 2011 BACKLASH 1. Biden Draws Fire for Taliban Remarks Did Joe Biden put his foot in his mouth again? The vice president is taking heat from comments about the Afghanistan war he made in a Newsweek interview. "Look, the Taliban per se is not our enemy," Biden told the magazine, adding that Obama has never said so either. The Daily Beast's Howard Kurtz reports on how the GOP is pouncing on the remarks. Plus, an Afghan war vet and a 9/11 responder weigh in. Read it at The Daily Beast NORTH KOREA 2. Kim Jong-un to Share Power: Report Kim Jong-un may not enjoy absolute power, after all: A source tells Reuters that he will share power with his uncle, Jang Song-thaek, and military leaders. Kim will still head the ruling committee, but it is nevertheless the first time since 1948 that the country is not ruled by a single, authoritarian ruler. Reuters says Kim Jong-il made the arrangement before his death. Kim Jong-un's uncle with whom he will share power, Jang Song-thaek, is married to Kim Jong-il's sister, Kim Kyong-hu, a woman characterized by her rivals as a "mean drunk." Read it at Reuters ON THE HILL 3. Senate Republicans Slam the House President Obama is still in Washington but Republicans in the House have begun heading home after they rejected the Senate's bipartisan compromise to extend the payroll-tax cut Tuesday. Their Senate counterparts, meanwhile, are fuming. "It is harming the Republican Party," Senator John McCain said on CNN. An anonymous senior Senate aide is harsher in a quote to Politico: "This is a colossal fumble by the House Republicans. Their inability to recognize a win is costing our party our long-held advantage on the key issue of tax relief. It's time for Boehner and [House Majority Leader Eric] Cantor to look these rookies in the eye and explain how the game is won or lost." Read it at CNN BIOTERRORISM 4. U.S. Asks Journals to Censor Flu Study This is a new twist on the peer review process. The U.S. government has asked the journals Science and Nature not to publish crucial details of biomedical experiments that created an extremely transmissible form of bird flu. The National Science Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity does not want terrorists to get hold of "experimental details and mutation data that would enable the replication of the experiment." Essentially, the papers show the way the virus can evolve into a form which is easily spread through coughing and sneezing. Coincidentally, Hong Kong has begun slaughtering thousands of birds after a chicken tested positive for the H5N1 virus. Read it at The New York Times CYBERATTACK 5. Chamber of Commerce Hacked Something that's definitely bad for business: Chinese hackers. A group of Chinese hackers attacked the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the country's largest pro-business lobby, in 2009 and 2010, according to The Wall Street Journal. The hackers apparently gained access to everything stored on the lobby's systems, including information about its 3 million members. They honed in on the work of four Chamber employees who worked on Asia policy and stole six weeks of their emails. It is possible that the hackers had access to the Chamber's network for more than a year when the breach was discovered and shut down in May 2010. Since then, the Chamber has overhauled its security system. Read it at The Wall Street Journal 2012 Newt Lashes Out at 'Smear Campaign' As he fades in the polls. INVESTIGATION Local Cops Ready for War Armed with military-style equipment. THIRD PARTIES Gary Johnson to Run as Libertarian Drops out of GOP primary. REAL ESTATE 22 Year Old Buys $88M Apartment Daughter of Russian billionaire. FILM The Hobbit Trailer Released Peter Jackson returns to Middle Earth. GET The Cheat Sheet A speedy, smart summary of news and must-reads from across the Web. You'll love the featured original stories on politics, entertainment, and more from The Daily Beast's diverse group of contributors. GET The Yes List Weekly cultural recommendations from The Daily Beast. Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich's Hypocrisy on Super PACs by Michael Waldman Why DSK's Wife Beat Out Christine Lagarde as France's Woman of the Year by Leslie Bennetts Kobe Bryant Marital Breakup Reveals the Ugly Side of NBA Marriages by Allison Samuels

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