The Latest Gitmo Speed Bump

(Dec. 23) -- 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 Slatest leads with -- and other aggregators pick up -- a New York Times report that Gitmo, the U.S.-detention center in Cuba housing alleged terrorists, will remain open until at least 2011 -- a full year longer than President Barack Obama once pledged. The problem is funding. Moving the suspected terrorists to American shores is proving politically controversial, and Congress has thus far put off allocating money for the upgraded facilities needed to detain them. Of course, we're already housing terrorists on U.S. soil, as this earlier Slate story details. And no one has ever escaped from a "supermax" prison, which is the opposite of cushy. The best read on how awful life at one of these prisons can be came recently from The New Yorker.

Surprise, Surprise: The Daily Beast leads with The Washington Post's report that AIG executives have thus far failed to live up to their end of a bargain with the government and repay millions in bonus money. Earlier this year, when it was revealed that AIG was awarding $165 million in bonuses to the very same department that precipitated the company's downfall, the public reacted with outrage and New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo threatened to publicly release the rewarded executives' names. Executives promptly promised to pay back $45 million by the end of the year (originally taxpayer money, since the government had to step in and save the company) but has returned less than half. Your move, Mr. Cuomo!

Catch of the Day: Late Tuesday, long after The Filter was off duty, the aggregators linked to a New York Times account of chilling news in Mexico's drug war. After the burial of a Navy special forces sailor, who was killed in one of Mexico's most successful drug raids in recent memory, gunmen broke into the deceased sailor's home, killing his mother and three other relatives. Only The Slatest picks up today's continued coverage by The Wall Street Journal and The Los Angeles Times. It's worth a read if you missed this harrowing story, which doesn't bode well for the drug war.

Obama Agonistes: The Huffington Post leads with its own take on health care reform in response to Obama's challenge to identify a "gap" between what he promised during his campaign and the reform bill Congress is likely to pass. In fact, on the campaign trail, Obama lashed out at mandates (supported by then-Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton) and taxing private insurance (proposed by Sen. John McCain) -- but both provisions are part of the Congressional health care reform bill.

Blame China: Most of the aggregators pick up this report from Britain's Guardian newspaper, in which an insider at the Copenhagen climate summit describes how China undermined any possibility of a substantive deal. While many Western countries were desperate for an agreement to bring back to their constituents, China's leaders didn't need that outcome.