The Filter: Replacing Karzai and a Big Jobs Bill

(Dec. 17) -- With so many news aggregators out there, who can keep up? Sphere filters the filters to steer you to the headlines that really matter.

Skip Those, Read This: The read of the day, which everyone picks up, is the New York Times lead story, detailing how the No. 2 United Nations official in Afghanistan, American Peter Galbraith, proposed enlisting the White House in a plan to replace Afghan President Hamid Karzai after he won a highly fraud-tainted election. Soon after, Galbraith was pulled from the country and relieved of his post, which reports at the time attributed to his outspoken uneasiness with the degree of fraud that led to Karzai's victory.

Whither "Hopenhagen?" While the Washington Post's lead story is headlined "U.S. Commits to $100B fund for poor nations" at Copenhagen, The Slatest's more dour take is "Copenhagen Talks at Risk of Collapse," and it links to a Reuters report. The pledge, Reuters indicates, does little to change the fact that the "overall picture appears bleak" for progress regarding climate change.

Whiff of the Day: No one picks up news, reported by The Times of India, that Maoists have seized control of Nepal's capital of Kathmandu. It's the latest development in which Maoist rebels have declared parallel governments throughout the country, and both sides declare the other has violated provisions of an earlier peace agreement.

Legislative Crush: The Huffington Post leads with its own coverage of the House's passage of a $154 billion jobs bill, while The Daily Beast links to the Washington Post's coverage, which gives greater prominence to the passage of a $636 billion Pentagon funding bill. The Senate may not get to the jobs legislation until after the new year, after the holiday recess. But the Senate will probably pass the war bill, which funds U.S. operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, by the end of the week.

Oops!: Newser and The Slatest pick up a Wall Street Journal story reporting that insurgents in Afghanistan and Iraq are using cheap software to hack into million-dollar U.S. drones flying overhead. While the security hole doesn't allow insurgents to seize control of the drones, they can get a look at what U.S. operators are seeing, which is a huge tactical benefit. Fixing the problem would be expensive, and the U.S. is getting ready to spend $4.5 billion on a new line of drones that will have the same problem.

Tiger Watch: The Huffington Post and The Daily Beast link to People magazine's breathless report, based on anonymous sources and the Sherlock Holmes-worthy observation that Elin Nordegren has not been wearing her wedding ring, claiming the former nanny is going to give Tiger Woods the heave-ho. More interesting is the New York Times report, which no one picks up, detailing the nuts and bolts of how Accenture is handling dropping its star endorser -- which turns out to be a long and awkward process. Meanwhile, in other sports news, another domestic dispute has led to a much more tragic outcome. Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Chris Henry died Thursday after falling from a moving vehicle a day earlier. He had been arguing with his fiancee, who sped away in a truck; Henry jumped in the back and later tumbled out, suffering serious head injuries.