memeorandum: Rose Parade Features 'Star Wars' Tribute (Peter Prengaman/Associated Press)

9:50 PM ET, January 1, 2007

Top Items:

Hard Choices Over Video of Execution — Confronted with a second, unofficial and more graphic video account of the moments leading up to the execution of Saddam Hussein, and the hanging itself, executives at television news organizations made a series of what one executive …

Discussion: Sister Toldjah

Little Green Footballs:
Welcome to 2007: Fact-Checking the New York Times

Discussion: Riehl World View

Sabrina Tavernise / New York Times:
For Sunnis, Dictator's Degrading End Signals Ominous Dawn for the New Iraq

Discussion: Informed Comment, Prairie Weather, Middle Earth Journal and Rook's Rant

Jeff Goldstein / protein wisdom: Meet the new dross; same as the old dross

Nasteex Dahir Farah / Associated Press:

Somali troops capture Islamic stronghold — KISMAYO, Somalia - Somali government troops backed by Ethiopian tanks and fighter jets captured the last major stronghold of a militant Islamic movement Monday, while hundreds of Islamic fighters — many of them Arabs and South Asians — fled the town.

Discussion: Secular Blasphemy, Power Line, Sister Toldjah, Associated Press and Minneapolis Star Tribune

Sahra Abdi / Reuters:
Somali Islamists flee stronghold

Discussion: Gun Toting Liberal ™, The Moderate Voice and A Blog For All

Captain Ed / Captain's Quarters: Islamists Bug Out Of Somalia

Jeffrey Gettleman / New York Times: Islamists Abandon Final Stronghold in Somalia

Nasteex Dahir Farah / Associated Press:
Islamists quit last bastion in Somalia

Discussion: Hot Air and PrairiePundit

Matt Stoller / MyDD:

Universal Health Care Run by Psychotics — I'm glad there's widespread liberal discussion about the health care system and the need to fix it. Paul Krugman made a forceful argument about it today in his Op-Ed, but it's really the same argument that heroic blogger nyceve makes on a regular basis …

Discussion: Brilliant at Breakfast, This Modern World, CorrenteWire and Matthew Yglesias

Jane Hamsher / Firedoglake:

Generation of Thugs — In response to Paul Krugman's op-ed piece in the NYT on our busted health care system, Matt Stoller has a compelling post entitled "Universal Health Care Run By Psychotics," which I would retitle "Universal Health Care Run by Hoodlums."

Discussion: ECHIDNE OF THE SNAKES

Herb Keinon / Jerusalem Post:

'Israel-Palestinian conflict key to Mideast problems' — Ban Ki-Moon, the new secretary-general of the United Nations, said on Monday that the Israeli-Palestinian issue was at the core of solving all the problems in the Middle East. — In an interview with the South Korean Hankyoreh newspaper …

Discussion: Power Line, Atlas Shrugs and Clarity & Resolve

Binyamin Netanyahu / Jerusalem Post:

Iran can still be stopped — It is possible to prevent the political and security landslide. Iran can still be stopped. — The government of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is rapidly leading Israel to a political and security downfall while Iran is racing towards achieving a nuclear weapons capability.

Jane Hamsher / Firedoglake:

Good Portents for 2007 — I just wanted to point out something that gave me a lot of hope today. Sue mentioned it in the comments — over at the WaPo, in response to Joe Lieberman's Op-Ed calling for a "troop surge," there are 37 pages of negative comments.

Discussion: Eschaton

Jill / Brilliant at Breakfast:

The Brilliant 20 of 2006 — I'm a bit perturbed that the only woman on this list is behind the scenes of a nascent radio network. It isn't that there weren't accomplished women out there, but when I had to narrow down the list to those people whom I thought really accomplished something this year.

Multi-National Force:

SIX TERRORISTS KILLED DURING BAGHDAD RAID — MULTI-NATIONAL FORCE-IRAQ — COMBINED PRESS INFORMATION CENTER — BAGHDAD, Iraq — 703.270.0320 / 0299 — Release A070101a — SIX TERRORISTS KILLED DURING BAGHDAD RAID — BAGHDAD, Iraq - Coalition Forces killed six terrorists …

Curt / Flopping Aces:

The AP Changing It's Ways? — Here we go again with the AP. Coalition forces had a firefight today in Baghdad in which they killed six of the enemy. During the fight two buildings caught fire: … But the AP, using a "anonymous" police source now (cough), print how the police say it was a airstrike:

Discussion: Power Line and A Blog For All

Peter Prengaman / Associated Press:

Rose Parade Features 'Star Wars' Tribute — Nature's grandeur was on full display at the 118th Rose Parade on Monday, featuring a bounty of floral creations that included a fire- breathing dragon protecting a castle, hummingbirds hovering over blossoms and a frog trying to lap up some water.

Discussion: Gateway Pundit and Blue Crab Boulevard

Andrew C. Revkin / New York Times:

Middle Stance Emerges in Debate Over Climate — Amid the shouting lately about whether global warming is a human-caused catastrophe or a hoax, some usually staid climate scientists in the usually invisible middle are speaking up. — The discourse over the issue has been feverish since Hurricane Katrina.

Discussion: Thomas P.M. Barnett and Blue Crab Boulevard

Linda Greenhouse / New York Times:

Chief Justice Advocates Higher Pay for Judiciary — WASHINGTON, Dec. 31 — Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. made judicial pay the sole topic of his second annual report, issued on Sunday, declaring that the failure by Congress to raise federal judges' salaries in recent years has become a …

Discussion: MyDD and Angry Bear

David Derbyshire / Telegraph:

Labelling cheese as junk food 'unfair' — New advertising rules that will officially label cheese as "junk food" were condemned yesterday by the dairy industry as unfair, misleading and counter-productive. — Under regulations coming into force this month, broadcasters will be banned …

Discussion: Blue Crab Boulevard and The Corner

Dana Canedy / New York Times:

From Father to Son, Last Words to Live By — He drew pictures of himself with angel wings. He left a set of his dog tags on a nightstand in my Manhattan apartment. He bought a tiny blue sweat suit for our baby to wear home from the hospital. — Then he began to write what would become …

Discussion: Crooks and Liars and Sister Toldjah

Glenn Greenwald / Unclaimed Territory:

Iraqis learn the art of legal "workarounds" — (updated below) — This depressing New York Times article by John Burns and Marc Santora details the frantic, reckless manner in which Saddam Hussein was shoved into the noose in clear violation of Iraqi law. We can't even get a hanging right.