Top Items:
Liz Austin / Associated Press:
Texas Court Won't Dismiss DeLay Charges — AUSTIN, Texas - The state's highest criminal court on Monday denied Rep. Tom DeLay's request that the money laundering charges against him be dismissed or sent back to a lower court for an immediate trial. — The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals denied …
Discussion:
The Carpetbagger Report, PoliBlog, The Moderate Voice, IntoxiNation-News … and Talking Points Memo
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Time:
Never a Texas Two-Step — When legal and ethical questions began spinning around House majority leader Tom DeLay last year, President George W. Bush was publicly supportive. Privately, though, he questioned his fellow Texan's mojo. Bush had scored 10 points higher than DeLay …
Carl Hulse / New York Times:Two Major Contenders in Race to Lead House Republicans
Discussion:
TAPPED, The Fix, The Stakeholder, The Carpetbagger Report, Suburban Guerrilla, Wonkette and THE DAILY DELAY
National Review:
Alito and the Ted Kennedy "Study" — The Democratic senator bases his charges on a very wobbly foundation — In his opening statement at the Samuel Alito confirmation hearings Monday afternoon, Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Edward Kennedy cited an academic study which he said showed that average Americans …
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Ken I. Kersch / Opinion Journal:'Mainstream' Bias — What Sam Alito and Louis Brandeis have in common.
Discussion:
sisu
Guardian:
US troops seize award-winning Iraqi journalist — American troops in Baghdad yesterday blasted their way into the home of an Iraqi journalist working for the Guardian and Channel 4, firing bullets into the bedroom where he was sleeping with his wife and children.
Discussion:
Confederate Yankee, Body and Soul, Rook's Rant, Factesque, The Mahablog, Thoughts of an Average Woman, Modulator and Booman Tribune
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Juan / Informed Comment:
The Guerrillas who Came in from the Cold — Al-Hayat [Ar.]: Sources close to the guerrilla groups in Iraq told the pan-Arab, Saudi-backed London daily, al-Hayat that new disputes have exploded between it and the organization "al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia" led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi …
Declan McCullagh / CNET News.com:
Perspective: Create an e-annoyance, go to jail — Annoying someone via the Internet is now a federal crime. — It's no joke. Last Thursday, President Bush signed into law a prohibition on posting annoying Web messages or sending annoying e-mail messages without disclosing your true identity.
Discussion:
TAPPED, Vodkapundit, IntoxiNation-News …, The Jawa Report v3.0 Beta, Daily Kos, Ace of Spades HQ, Shakespeare's Sister, Blinq, SayUncle, TalkLeft, The Poor Man Institute, SpeakSpeak News, SIVACRACY.NET, Concurring Opinions, Majikthise, Running Scared, Why Are We Back In Iraq?, Loaded Mouth, rubber hose, PhotoDude.com and No Capital
Associated Press:
Sen. Kennedy to Publish Children's Book — Meet the latest children's author, Sen. Ted Kennedy, and his Portuguese Water Dog, Splash, his co-protagonist in "My Senator and Me: A Dogs-Eye View of Washington, D.C." — Scholastic Inc. will release the book in May.
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National Review:
One Moment in Time — There's an old Chinese theory according to which the best way to understand historical events is not to reconstruct the sequence of "causes" by which the events were "produced," but rather to look at the unique characteristics of the moment in which the events occurred.
Thomas B. Edsall / Washington Post:
Christian Right Mobilizes For Judge — PHILADELPHIA, Jan. 8 — Republicans and leaders of the religious right gathered in a black church here Sunday night to build support for Supreme Court nominee Samuel A. Alito Jr. as part of their effort to block gay marriage, end abortion and restore religious expression in the public square.
Discussion:
philly, New York Times, The Carpetbagger Report, www.AndrewSullivan.com and The All Spin Zone
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Kevin Drum / The Washington Monthly:
DEMOCRATS AND THE NSA....Joe Klein thinks Democrats are heading off a cliff by making too big a deal out of the NSA's domestic spying program. Conservative James Joyner has a reasonable reaction: … This is a legitimately tough issue for Democrats, because I think James is right on both counts.
Discussion:
TAPPED, Betsy's Page, Hullabaloo, Bradford Plumer, Lawyers, Guns and Money and No Capital
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Joe Strupp / Editor and Publisher:
Abduction of American Reporter in Iraq Blacked Out By U.S. News Outlets — NEW YORK The abduction of a Christian Science Monitor reporter in Iraq on Saturday was not disclosed by major U.S. media outlets for nearly two days after the Monitor requested that the incident, and the reporter's name and affiliation, be withheld.
Mark Schmitt / tpmcafe.com:
Please, Don't Say "Lobbying Reform" — Democrats and Republicans are falling over each other to introduce "lobbying reform" bills — requiring lobbyists to disclose contacts with legislators, banning trips, etc. By the end of next week, we will have between two and four lobbying reform packages …
BBC:
US draws up space tourism rules — Space tourists must be screened to ensure they are not terrorists, according to proposed regulations from the US Federal Aviation Administration. — The draft report's suggestions aim to prevent a terrorist from destroying a spacecraft or using it as a weapon.
Discussion:
Wonkette
Matthew Yglesias / yglesias.tpmcafe.com:
Matt Yglesias Front Page — Carts, Horses, and Judges — The scant merits of his nomination aside, I think it's unlikely that we'll see a serious anti-Alito effort from Democrats on the Hill. The political judgment going into that strategy may be mistaken (I tend to find the case …
Herald Sun:
Camilla's protector paid out — A BLACK police bodyguard who protected the Duchess of Cornwall has won $70,000 compensation after suing Scotland Yard for "over-promoting" him because of political correctness. — Sgt Leslie Turner — the first black personal protection officer to guard the royal family …
Discussion:
The Corner on National …
Tom Abate / San Francisco Chronicle:
Americans saving less than nothing — Spending could outstrip income in 2005, which hasn't happened since the Depression — When the Commerce Department recently tallied up consumer finances for November, it found that Americans shelled out more money than they took in.
Spengler / Asia Times:
When even the pope has to whisper — Islam is the unexploded bomb of global politics. US foreign policy - the only foreign policy there is, for the United States is the only superpower - proceeds from the hope that a modern and democratic Islam will emerge from the ruins of Saddam Hussein's Iraq.
