Top Items:
William Branigin / Washington Post:
Bush Defends Domestic Spying — Deputy National Intelligence Chief Says Program Allows Better Terrorist Tracking — President Bush and the nation's deputy national intelligence chief today defended the legality of a controversial domestic spying program, describing it as a vital tool …
Discussion:
RightWinged.com, driftglass, The Democratic Daily Blog, Stop The ACLU, Wonkette and Democratic Veteran
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John O'Neil / New York Times:
Intelligence Deputy Defends Surveillance Program — Gen. Michael V. Hayden, who led the National Security Agency when it began a program of warrantless wiretaps, vigorously defended the program today, but acknowledged that it depends on a lower standard of evidence than required by courts.
Discussion:
TalkLeft, AMERICAN FUTURE, The Washington Monthly, The Carpetbagger Report and The Heretik
Jennifer Loven / Associated Press:
Bush Calls Surveillance Legal, Necessary — MANHATTAN, Kansas - President Bush pushed back Monday at critics of his once-secret domestic spying effort, saying it should be termed a "terrorist surveillance program" and contending it has the backing of legal experts, key lawmakers and the Supreme Court.
Washington Post:The President's End Run
Discussion:
The Mahablog, Power Line, The Glittering Eye, JustOneMinute, The Moderate Voice, The Heretik and Bad Attitudes
Rick Hasen / Election Law:
BREAKING SUPREME COURT ELECTION LAW NEWS: SUPREME COURT UNANIMOUSLY REVERSES WISCONSIN CAMPAIGN FINANCE CASE, DENIES CERT IN KEY JUDICIAL ELECTIONS CASE, AND SETS ARGUMENT TIMES IN REMAINING CAMPAIGN FINANCE CASES — WRTL: Lyle Denniston reports on SCOTUSBlog: "The Supreme Court ruled on Monday …
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David Stout / New York Times:Justices Ask Court to Reconsider Campaign Finance Case
Discussion:
ACSBlog
Anthony Phillips / This Is London:
George sinks to new low — First he shocked TV viewers and his colleagues by pretending to be a cat and lapping milk from Rula Lenska's hand. — Now George Galloway is set to attract further derision after performing a dance routine on Celebrity Big Brother - in a tight-fitting, red leotard.
Discussion:
RightWinged.com, Kesher Talk, Norwegianity, WuzzaDem, Solomonia, Ed Driscoll.com and Silent Running
MB Williams / Wampum:
The 2005 Koufax Awards: Most Deserving of Wider Recognition — This is the hardest of the nomination posts to compile, one reason I chose to do it early this year - hopefully you'll all feel sorry enough for me that you'll send much Pinot Noir and pad thai (well, maybe not together …
Toni Locy / Associated Press:
Libby Wants to Use Classified Evidence — WASHINGTON - Lawyers for a former top aide to Vice President Dick Cheney on Monday made their first request to use classified evidence at his trial, launching a highly secretive court process that could bog down the case.
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Michelle Malkin:
THE AMAZON.COM REVIEW CESSPOOL — Much has been made of the rabid Left's online swarm that shut down the Washington Post's blog comment section. The comments seemed comparatively tame to me. Maybe I'll copy off Chapter 6 of Unhinged and send it off to the WaPo ombudsman and her editors to help them feel better.
Time:
When George Met Jack — White House aides deny the President knew lobbyist Abramoff, but unpublished photos shown to TIME suggest there's more to the story — As details poured out about the illegal and unseemly activities of Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff, White House officials sought …
White House:
President Discusses Global War on Terror at Kansas State University — THE PRESIDENT: Thanks for the warm welcome. Thanks for inviting me here to give the Landon Lecture. For those students who are here, I want you to know I can remember what it was like to sit through lectures. (Laughter.)
Greg Myre / New York Times:
A Man Called Hitler Runs for a Seat He May Not Fill — JENIN, West Bank, Jan. 18 - The candidate's name is Jamal Abu Roub, but everyone here calls him Hitler because, well, that is the name he has answered to quite comfortably since he was a teenager. — Mr. Roub, 40, is a leader …
Abbas Raza / 3quarksdaily:
MONDAY MUSING: A MORAL DEGENERACY — One of the few vices I have always had an extreme aversion and almost allergic reaction to is gambling in all its multifarious incarnations. So much so, that I have never even learned to play a single card game, because they are all somehow indissolubly …
Sabrina Tavernise / New York Times:
Abduction of U.S. Reporter Underscores Risks in Iraq — BAGHDAD, Iraq, Jan. 22 - The tools of her trade were a notebook, pen, Islamic head covering and Arabic name to pass unnoticed through Iraqi streets. — Together with an interpreter and a driver, Jill Carroll, a 28-year-old American journalist …
Associated Press:
Bush Aide Says Abramoff Photos Coincidence — WASHINGTON — An adviser to President Bush said Monday that Bush's photographs in the company of disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff amount to a coincidence and shouldn't be interpreted any more seriously than that.
Digby / Hullabaloo:
Killing Me Softly — I'm feeling down right now. I know I shouldn't. The fact that Tom DeLay has stepped down is such a huge victory for humanity all by itself that I should be dancing a jig for the next six months. But, I'm down in the dumps, mostly because I am watching George W. Bush repeat …
Fox News:
U.N. Procurement Scandal: A 'Culture of Impunity' — UNITED NATIONS — How bad is the still expanding scandal in the United Nations' multi-billion-dollar procurement division? Based on a still-secret internal investigation, the answer is: for the U.N., it is just as bad as the gigantic Oil-for-Food debacle — or maybe worse.
Spengler / Asia Times:
Why the West will attack Iran — Why did French President Jacques Chirac last week threaten to use non-conventional - that is, nuclear - weapons against terrorist states? And why did Iran announce that it would shift foreign-exchange reserves out of European banks (although it has since retracted this warning)?
truthout.org:
Democrats: Get Up and Walk Out — MEMO — I have a wild and crazy idea. — George W. Bush's delivery of the State of the Union address will take place on Tuesday, January 31, a little more than a week from now. It is my strong belief that every single Democrat present in the House chamber …
Ann Althouse / Althouse:
Where are the real political opportunities and risks in the Alito vote? — The NYT has an editorial today headed "Judge Alito's Radical Views." The Times outlines the position — relied on by the Democrats at the hearings — that Alito takes an extreme view on various constitutional questions.
NY Daily News:
'Factory' film on Warhol no work of art, says Reed — Sienna Miller, Hayden Christensen and Guy Pearce just started filming "Factory Girl," in which Miller plays Andy Warhol's drug-addled muse Edie Sedgwick. — But Lou Reed has already formed his opinion of director George Hickenlooper and his cast.
