Here's the most thought-provoking and perhaps most important piece I've seen written on the Public Option. And it was written back in June. (Here's a follow-up debate on the argument advanced in the linked article.)

When I first focused on the public plan proposals back in the spring what was never clear to me was why, far from gobbling up the whole private insurance market, it wouldn't become a dumping ground for all the sick people the insurance companies can't make a profit insuring. That is especially the case if you restrict its availability to people who aren't currently insured. (Remember: the private health insurance business model is covering as many healthy people and as few sick people as possible.) That's exactly what Paul Starr thinks would happen in a poorly structured Public Option. And what he calls a poorly structured public option sounds uncomfortably like what we have on the table right now.

As you can see, we're featuring our Top Ten Reader Tips We're Thankful For. But I wanted to take this opportunity to thank our regular readers for you continued tips, support, readership and helpful critiques over the course of this year.

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Limbaugh jokes about wanting a military coup when Obama visits West Point next week.

White House releases spoof video of traditional Turkey pardon.

Dana Perino tells Sean Hannity: No terrorists attacked America on Bush's watch.

But Hasan attacked on Obama's watch.

I was just looking at this run-down of recent polls by Tom Jensen at Public Policy Polling. The upshot is that while it seems extremely unlikely Republicans could regain control of the senate next year, it's not impossible and they look well positioned to make a big dent in the Dems' majority in the upper chamber.

Most of this has to do with the factors we know about -- a bad economy, a charged up right-wing, President Obama's decline in popularity. But looking more closely at the races something else stood out to me: just how many of the vulnerable seats are ones where bad or questionable picks by Democratic governors have put Democrats in an unnecessarily weak position.

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No. This isn't a joke, at least not an intentional one. The new would-be politician Lou Dobbs is coming out for "amnesty" and rebranding himself as the best friend Hispanic immigrants could ever hope for.

Dean Pot: Kettle is black!

One of the remaining threads of the 2007 US Attorney scandal is the case of former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman (D), who was convicted in trial rife with evidence of politicization and prosecutorial misconduct, with a lot of at least circumstantial (probably more) evidence of Karl Rove's involvement hovering in the background. Siegelman was ordered released pending appeal in March 2008 and this month the Obama Justice Department argued that in a new legal filing that the Supreme Court should not consider Siegelman's appeal.

TPMMuckraker's Justin Elliott talked to Siegelman yesterday about his reactions to the Obama administration's position on his case.

The White House will be releasing more visitor log names -- about 1600 of them -- later this afternoon.

With so much happening in the world, I hadn't given too much thought to Lou Dobbs' sudden departure from CNN. But taking stock of it now I had not considered the boon it is for people in the political mockery business -- and that's not nothing in these uncertain economic times.

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You knew health care reform has death panels, rationing, no cancer tests and you have to get most medical exams at the DMV. But now it turns out it will also take away your guns.

I just learned that the first national Tea Party convention will be held in February and both Palin and Bachmann will be headlining. It does raise the question/possibility whether it could lead to some sort of matter/anti-matter type blow up if they come into sustained contact with the non-crazy universe.

Given who some of the critics are, I guess this is a rhetorical question. But have those who worry that KSM & Co. are going to use their trial as a platform to make jihadist speeches and spout hateful rhetoric ever seen how federal criminal trials are actually conducted? How tightly controlled they are and how little most defendants are allowed to say much of anything at all?

We've now got a pretty good view into what the final lap for health care reform in the senate is going to look like -- Harry Reid's high-wire with four moderate and conservative Democrats, Landrieu, Lieberman, Lincoln and Nelson. (The Dems clearly have a mid-alphabet problem.) But each is in the catbird seat for a different reason, each has different needs and demands with different mixes of ego, ideology, self-preservation and cantankerousness. So today, for your late afternoon reading, we've put together your TPM Final Four Playbook. Think of it like a program at the ballgame or a playbill at the theater, a run-down of the key data to help you understand the bickering and negotiating we're likely to see with these four from here on out.