Top Items:
Tom Daschle / Washington Post:
Power We Didn't Grant — In the face of mounting questions about news stories saying that President Bush approved a program to wiretap American citizens without getting warrants, the White House argues that Congress granted it authority for such surveillance in the 2001 legislation authorizing the use of force against al Qaeda.
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Glenn Greenwald / Unclaimed Territory:
The Bush justifications for law-breaking (con't) — My post yesterday requested that Bush defenders explain how there can be any limits at all on his power under the theories of Executive Power which they are advocating to argue that Bush had the right to violate Congressional law.
Barton Gellman / Washington Post:
Daschle: Congress Denied Bush War Powers in U.S. — The Bush administration requested, and Congress rejected, war-making authority "in the United States" in negotiations over the joint resolution passed days after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, according to an opinion article …
Charles Krauthammer / Washington Post:Impeachment Nonsense — 2005 was already the year of the demagogue …
Discussion:
Brad DeLong's Semi …
Sinan Salaheddin / Associated Press:
Iraqis March, Say Elections Were Rigged — BAGHDAD, Iraq - Large demonstrations broke out across the country Friday to denounce parliamentary elections that protesters say were rigged in favor of the main religious Shiite coalition. Also, the U.S. military said two soldiers were killed …
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Donna Cassata / Associated Press:
Alito Defended Officials From Wiretap Suits — WASHINGTON - Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito defended the right of government officials to order domestic wiretaps when he worked for the Reagan Justice Department, documents released Friday show. — He advocated a step by step approach …
Karen Travers / ABCNEWS:
Cheney's iPod Takes Top Priority on Extended Flight — Reporters Wait to File Stories as VP's MP3 Player Charges — WASHINGTON, Dec. 22, 2005 — After a four-day overseas trip that took him to four countries in the Middle East, Vice President Dick Cheney really wanted to get his iPod charged …
New York Times:
Postponing Debate, Congress Extends Terror Law 5 Weeks — WASHINGTON, Dec. 22 - In a frantic finish before adjourning for the year, Congress extended on Thursday the broad antiterrorism bill known as the USA Patriot Act by five weeks after the Republican chairman of the House Judiciary Committee balked at a longer extension.
Discussion:
ProfessorBainbridge.com, Power Line, The Carpetbagger Report and No More Mister Nice Blog
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New York Times:
Mr. Cheney's Imperial Presidency — George W. Bush has quipped several times during his political career that it would be so much easier to govern in a dictatorship. Apparently he never told his vice president that this was a joke. — Virtually from the time he chose himself …
Dafna Linzer / Washington Post:
GOP Blocks Action on Senate Intelligence Authorization Bill — Senate Republicans late Wednesday blocked the authorization bill that guides the country's intelligence programs. It was the first time in 27 years that the bill had failed to pass before the end of the calendar year.
Discussion:
The Washington Monthly, War and Piece, The Carpetbagger Report and Democrat Taylor Marsh …
Washington Post:
Brown's Turf Wars Sapped FEMA's Strength — Director Who Came to Symbolize Incompetence in Katrina Predicted Agency Would Fail — On Sept. 15, 2003, one of Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge's deputies lobbed a bureaucratic hand grenade across his desk.
Edward Cody / Washington Post:
China Vows Peaceful Use Of Its Power — White Paper Tries to Ease Fears of Growing Strength — BEIJING, Dec. 22 — The Chinese government, responding to doubts in the United States and neighboring Asian countries, made what it called a "solemn promise" Thursday that its growing power will never become a threat to other nations.
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Radio Blogger:
University of Chicago Professor Cass Sunstein on the NSA intelligence kerfuffle. — HH: Yesterday, you heard me talking with my friend John Eastman, my colleague at Chapman Law School, and Erwin Chemerinsky, my longtime friend, one from the right, one from the left.
Discussion:
Betsy's Page, Patterico's Pontifications, Stop the Bleating!, Power Line and Hugh Hewitt
Tim Golden / New York Times:
A Midlevel Aide Had a Big Role in Terror Policy — Moments after planes crashed into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, lawyers in the Justice Department's elite Office of Legal Counsel began crowding into the office of one of the agency's newest deputies, John C. Yoo, to watch the horror unfold on his television set.
Discussion:
The Rude Pundit
John Cole / Balloon Juice:
The Holiday for the Rest of Us — Partially inspired by this, and wholly inspired by Seinfeld, it is time for the First Annual Airing of Grievances at Balloon Juice: — (Thanks to whoever made this screen capture originally) — The Airing of Grievances is the traditional time of the year …
New York Times:
Workers Choose to Come Back and Talk — Thousands of New York City transit workers put down their picket signs and streamed into bus depots and railyards last night to restart the nation's largest transit system, after leaders of their union agreed to a tentative framework for a new contract …
Discussion:
the talking dog
