memeorandum

Political Web, page A1 … for 2:20 PM ET, January 4, 2006
Current Politics Page     Also:   Tech

Top Items:

Jonathan Weisman / Washington Post:
GOP Leaders Seek Distance From Abramoff  —  Hastert to Donate Money Given by Lobbyist's Clients  —  With a House Republican committee chairman implicated in the criminal case and the highest echelons of the Republican Party increasingly vulnerable to charges, GOP leaders moved yesterday …
RELATED ITEMS:
Washington Post:
Case Bringing New Scrutiny To a System and a Profession  —  The biggest corruption scandal to infect Congress in a generation took down one of the best-connected lobbyists in Washington yesterday.  The questions echoing around the capital were what other careers — and what other familiar ways of doing business — are endangered.
Juan / Informed Comment:
Abramoff and al-Arian: Lobbyist's "Charity" a Front for Terrorism  —  The guilty plea of fabulously wealthy and highly corrupt lobbyist Jack Abramoff raised the question of whether he would roll over on congressmen involved in illegal fundraising and other crimes with him.
Los Angeles Times:
Lobbying Plan Was Central to GOP's Political Strategy  —  Abramoff was key to the 'K Street Project,' designed to extend the party's influence.  Changes are urged to avoid 'huge black eye.'  —  WASHINGTON — The corruption investigation surrounding lobbyist Jack Abramoff shows …
Sam Rosenfeld / TAPPED:
COLLATERAL DAMAGE.  This passage caught my eye in Sheryl Gay …
Discussion: Democratic Veteran
Anne E. Kornblut / New York Times:
Lobbyist Accepts Plea Deal
Discussion: Power Line
RELATED ITEMS:
Joby Warrick / Washington Post:
Safety Violations Have Piled Up at Coal Mine  —  Time and again over the past four years, federal mining inspectors documented the same litany of problems at central West Virginia's Sago Mine: mine roofs that tended to collapse without warning.  Faulty or inadequate tunnel supports.
CNN:
Grief, anger as all but one miner found dead  —  Initial reports indicated 12 had survived  —  TALLMANSVILLE, West Virginia (CNN) — Grief and anger replaced jubilation early Wednesday as mine officials announced that, despite earlier reports, only one of 13 trapped miners had survived a West Virginia mining accident.
Washington Post:
Twelve Found Dead in W.Va. Coal Mine  —  SAGO, W.Va., Jan. 4 — Great joy turned suddenly to deep sorrow Wednesday morning when stunned family members were told that 12 of the 13 miners trapped 13,000 feet into a mountainside since early Monday were dead rather than alive, as they, and the world, had been told hours earlier.
John Cole / Balloon Juice:
The Mining Tragedy  —  If there is any way to make a disaster worse, it happened last night.  I went to bed listening to the general euphoria of Rita Crosby as she interviewed family members, and woke up this morning and listened to those same family members dealing not only with tragic loss, but anger and a sense of betrayal.
Jennifer C. Yates / Associated Press:
Jubilation Turns to Anger, Outrage
Discussion: The Sundries Shack
William McQuillen / Bloomberg:
Mine Where Explosion Occurred Was Cited for Hazards (Update2)
Discussion: Think Progress
Maha / The Mahablog:   Dark as a Dungeon  —  I come from a long line of stone cutters …
RELATED ITEMS:
Charlie Savage / Boston Globe:
Bush could bypass new torture ban  —  Waiver right is reserved  —  WASHINGTON — When President Bush last week signed the bill outlawing the torture of detainees, he quietly reserved the right to bypass the law under his powers as commander in chief.  —  After approving the bill last Friday …
New York Times:
Agency First Acted on Its Own to Broaden Spying, Files Show  —  WASHINGTON, Jan. 3 - The National Security Agency acted on its own authority, without a formal directive from President Bush, to expand its domestic surveillance operations in the weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks, according to declassified documents released Tuesday.
RELATED ITEM:
Dafna Linzer / Washington Post:   Secret Surveillance May Have Occurred Before Authorization
Washington Post:
Wonkette's Sex Change  —  Wonkette is dead — long live Wonkette.  —  Ana Marie Cox, the writer who made Washington politics irresistibly naughty, is giving up her job as a full-time, pajama-clad blogger to become a full-time, pajama-clad author.  Cox, who just signed a contract for her second book …
White House:
President Discusses War on Terror Following Pentagon Briefing  —  THE PRESIDENT: Today our nation mourns those who lost their lives in the mining accident in West Virginia.  We send our prayers and heartfelt condolences to the loved ones whose hearts are broken.  We ask that the good Lord comfort them in their time of need.
Discussion: Blogs for Bush

About This Page:

This is a snapshot of memeorandum at 2:20 PM ET, January 4, 2006.

View another snapshot:

About memeorandum:

The Web is humming with discussions on politics and current affairs.  memeorandum is page A1 for these conversations.  Auto-updated every 5 minutes, it uncovers the most relevant items from thousands of news sites and weblogs.

Site News:

See blog.memeorandum.com for all site news.

Subscribe:

Add memeorandum to:
XML

More Items:

The American Thinker:
NYT's Management draws criticism on Wall Street
Kate Coe / chronicle.com:
The Academic Path to Hollywood
Del Quentin Wilber / Washington Post:
Robbed at Gunpoint, Barry Harbors 'No Animosities'
Discussion: The Sundries Shack
Investor's Business Daily:
ISSUES &  —  INSIGHTS  —  More Clinton Sleaze?
BBC:
Bolivia 'to join Chavez' fight'
Josh Meyer / Los Angeles Times:
CIA Gave Iran Bomb Plans, Book Says
Steven Pearlstein / Washington Post:
With Rosy Predictions, Pundits Missing 2006's Warning Signs
Wall Street Journal:
Poll Shows Americans Are Divided On Support for Alito Confirmation

Earlier Picks:

Peter Carlson / Washington Post:
Quote Cuisine  —  Everybody wants some of Marshall Wittmann's wisdom.
Discussion: Bull Moose
Jason Straziuso / Associated Press:
Suicide Bomber Kills 32 at Iraq Funeral
Discussion: The Peking Duck
Kate Connolly / Telegraph:
Did the Cubans assassinate Kennedy?
Discussion: Daimnation!
Matt Stoller / MyDD:
Republicans Running Into a Buzzsaw with Recruitment
CNN:
Poll: Half believe Congress is dirty
Washington Post:
U.S. Raid Kills Family North of Baghdad
MSNBC:
'Hardball with Chris Matthews' for Dec. 16th
David E. Sanger / New York Times:
From Cabinet Rooms Past, a Gathering to Assess Iraq
 
© 2006 Memeorandum