Top Items:
Howard Kurtz / Washington Post:
Bush Presses Editors on Security — President Bush has been summoning newspaper editors lately in an effort to prevent publication of stories he considers damaging to national security. — The efforts have failed, but the rare White House sessions with the executive editors of The Washington Post …
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Sabrina Tavernise / New York Times:
Shiites Decline Sunni Bid for More Iraq Parliament Seats — Baghdad, IRAQ, Dec. 25 - Sunni Arab political leaders asked the main Shiite political block today to give them 10 Shiite seats in the new parliament in an early attempt to defuse tensions over the results of last week's election.
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Alastair Macdonald / Reuters:
Bombs, protests as Iraq election mood sours — BAGHDAD (Reuters) - At least five Iraqis and a U.S. soldier were killed in violence in Iraq on Sunday as fresh street protests over election results kept up tension that has soured the mood after a peaceful ballot 10 days ago.
Washington Post:
Bloggers, Money Now Weapons in Information War — U.S. Recruits Advocates to the Front, Pays Iraqi TV Stations for Coverage — BAGHDAD — Retired soldier Bill Roggio was a computer technician living in New Jersey less than two months ago when a Marine officer half a world away made him an offer he couldn't refuse.
Peter Slevin / Washington Post:
Scholar Stands by Post-9/11 Writings On Torture, Domestic Eavesdropping — Former Justice Official Says He Was Interpreting Law, Not Making Policy — John Yoo knows the epithets of the libertarians, the liberals and the lefties. Widely considered the intellectual architect …
Robert Steinback / Miami Herald:
Fear destroys what bin Laden could not — One wonders if Osama bin Laden didn't win after all. He ruined the America that existed on 9/11. But he had help. — If, back in 2001, anyone had told me that four years after bin Laden's attack our president would admit that he broke U.S. law …
Discussion:
Middle Earth Journal
Michael Janofsky / New York Times:
Professors' Politics Draw Lawmakers Into the Fray — While attending a Pennsylvania Republican Party picnic, Jennie Mae Brown bumped into her state representative and started venting. — "How could this happen?" Ms. Brown asked Representative Gibson C. Armstrong two summers ago …
New York Times:
Huge Rise Looms for Health Care in City's Budget — When the Metropolitan Transportation Authority proposed making new workers chip in more to its pension fund than current workers do, it was enough to send the union out on strike and bring the nation's largest mass-transit system to a halt for three days.
Eric Lipton / New York Times:
On Gulf Coast, Big Difference Between Corps and Private Cleanups — PASCAGOULA, Miss. - There is an eerie stillness here on Edgewood Avenue. Toys, broken glass and random pieces of furniture are strewn across yards. Not a single person is in sight. The only movement …
Adam Liptak / New York Times:
Courts Criticize Judges' Handling of Asylum Cases — Federal appeals court judges around the nation have repeatedly excoriated immigration judges this year for what they call a pattern of biased and incoherent decisions in asylum cases. — In one decision last month, Richard A. Posner …
Discussion:
TalkLeft
MSNBC:
Transcript for December 25 — MR. TIM RUSSERT: And on this Christmas morning, we have a very special program. We'll talk about the biggest news stories of the year, and perhaps the stories that didn't receive enough attention. And we'll reflect on the ethical and legal challenges confronting the media.
Anne Gearan / Associated Press:
Analysis: Rice's Stock Is on the Rise — WASHINGTON - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has become the most popular member of the Bush administration and a potential candidate to succeed her boss in the White House, even as Americans lose confidence in the president she serves and patience with the Iraq war she helped launch.
Mark Steyn / Chicago Sun Times:
Falling birth rates not just a problem in Europe — "But the angel said unto him, Fear not, Zacharias: for thy prayer is heard; and thy wife Elisabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John." — If, like increasing numbers of Europeans, you have "some problems …
Discussion:
Middle Earth Journal
Gina Holland / Associated Press:
White House Aids Playboy Playmate in Court — WASHINGTON - Playboy playmate Anna Nicole Smith has an unusual bedfellow in the Supreme Court fight over her late husband's fortune: the Bush administration. — The administration's top Supreme Court lawyer filed arguments on Smith's behalf …
Reuters:
Gas attack poisons dozens of Russian shoppers — ST PETERSBURG, Russia (Reuters) - A gas smelling of garlic hurt dozens of Russian shoppers when it was released into a supermarket on Monday in the city of St Petersburg, but police ruled out a terrorist attack.
