Top Items:
Thomas G. Donlan / online.barrons.com:
Unwarranted Executive Power — The pursuit of terrorism does not authorize the president to make up new laws — AS THE YEAR WAS DRAWING TO A CLOSE, we picked up our New York Times and learned that the Bush administration has been fighting terrorism by intercepting communications in America without warrants.
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Michelle Malkin:
THE NEW YORK TIMES STRIKES AGAIN — Bush's "impeachable crimes"... Yes, the New York Times continues to show its disregard for our nation's security, publishing additional classified information about the NSA's much-hyped surveillance program. Now it's a report that the NSA program traced …
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Right Wing Nut House:
THE WARRANTLESS GEIGER COUNTER — I'm having a very difficult time this morning maintaining my composure. Well, let me put it this way - a harder time than normal. The reason is this latest kerfluffle over pointing scientific instruments at the homes and businesses of Muslim Americans …
Kevin Drum / The Washington Monthly:MORE ON THE NSA PROGRAM....James Risen and Eric Lichtblau provide …
Discussion:
The Left Coaster, Hullabaloo, AMERICAblog, The Poor Man, The Carpetbagger Report and Mia Culpa
Tom Maguire / JustOneMinute:They're Not Going To Stop — The NY Times escalates its war …
Discussion:
Prairie Weather, Big Lizards, protein wisdom, Ezra Klein, BuzzMachine, Booman Tribune ~ Boo! and The Strata-Sphere
Jonathan Saltzman / Boston Globe:
Student's tall tale revealed — Confesses fabricating US surveillance story — It rocketed across the Internet a week ago, a startling newspaper report that agents from the US Department of Homeland Security had visited a student at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth …
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Ellen Knickmeyer / Washington Post:
U.S. Airstrikes Take Toll on Civilians — Eyewitnesses Cite Scores Killed in Marine Offensive in Western Iraq — RAMADI, Iraq — U.S. Marine airstrikes targeting insurgents sheltering in Iraqi residential neighborhoods are killing civilians as well as guerrillas along the Euphrates River …
Discussion:
Rantingprofs, David Corn, Booman Tribune ~ Boo!, Left I on the News, Today in Iraq and IntoxiNation-News …
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Bradley Graham / Washington Post:
Military Confirms Surge in Airstrikes — U.S. airstrikes in Iraq have surged this fall, jumping to nearly five times the average monthly rate earlier in the year, according to U.S. military figures. — Until the end of August, U.S. warplanes were conducting about 25 strikes a month.
Jack Straw / Times of London:
Have a little faith in the 'C' word — I don't know where the idea about offending other faiths by using 'Christmas' came from, but it's mad — THE CHRISTMAS CARD I sent out as Blackburn's MP is a proper one. It was designed by Anna Souroullas (Year 3 of Holy Souls RC Primary School) …
Discussion:
One Hand Clapping
BBC:
Killing of Iraq Kurds 'genocide' — A court in The Hague has ruled that the killing of thousands of Kurds in Iraq in the 1980s was an act of genocide. — The ruling came in the case of Dutch trader Frans van Anraat, who was given a 15-year sentence for selling chemicals to Saddam Hussein's regime.
TBogg:
A Very Lileks Christmas — Comin' to town.... Twas the night before Christmas, and through Jasperwood — We shut it down early, like good Lutherans should. — The presents were finished with none left to wrap. — In each festive package some more Target™ crap.
Washington Post:
U.S. Monitored Muslim Sites Across Nation for Radiation — Clandestine FBI and Energy Department teams have monitored private property in the United States for signs of radiation without warrants, U.S. officials said yesterday. — Officials said the monitoring, which intensified after the Sept. 11 …
Wall Street Journal:
A Holiday in Wartime — Writing from his position in Iraq, Capt. Noah Hanners says he and his troops will have no choice on Christmas Day but to carry out the normal yet dangerous tasks of an army at war. Still, Capt. Hanners is thinking about marking the holiday in his own quiet way …
New York Times:
Alito Memo in '84 Favored Immunity for Top Officials — The attorney general should be immune from lawsuits for ordering wiretaps of Americans without permission from a court, Samuel A. Alito Jr., President Bush's Supreme Court nominee, wrote in a memorandum in 1984 as a government lawyer in the Reagan administration.
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Mohammed / IRAQ THE MODEL:
More on election results crisis; Talabani has an initiative. — The different parties in conflict over the election results continued to make more statements in defense of their positions today. — Jawad al-Maliki of the Dawa Party said in a press conference for the UAI that talking …
Discussion:
Gateway Pundit
Benjamin Wallace-Wells / The Washington Monthly:
KOS CORRECTION... After we put up an online link yesterday to a profile I wrote of the blogger Markos Moulitsas Zuniga of Daily Kos, Moulitsas put up a pair of posts on his blog saying he'd found some errors in the piece. I spent much of today reconnecting with sources to seek clarification …
Jamie Wilson / Guardian:
Stars turn backs on America's troops in Iraq — · Danger and anti-war stance keep celebrities away — · Shows now depend on Christian hip-hop groups — During world war two American troops away from home for Christmas were entertained by Marlene Dietrich, Bing Crosby and the Marx Brothers.
Discussion:
Freedom Folks, The Left Coaster, A Blog For All, The Officers' Club, Say Anything, Gateway Pundit and NewsBusters.org
