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5:30 PM ET, December 31, 2008

memeorandum

 Top Items: 
Alan M. Dershowitz / Christian Science Monitor:
Israel, Hamas, and moral idiocy  —  Much of the world's response is a false moral equivalence that simply encourages the terrorists.  —  Israel's decision to take military action against Hamas rocket attacks targeting its civilian population has been long in coming.
RELATED:
William Sieghart / Times of London:
We must adjust our distorted image of Hamas  —  Gaza is a secular society where people listen to pop music, watch TV and many women walk the streets unveiled  —  Last week I was in Gaza.  While I was there I met a group of 20 or so police officers who were undergoing a course in conflict management.
Megan McArdle:
The problem with Israel-Palestine blogging  —  Everyone engaged in it is interested in proving that one side is righter than the other.  Since no action in the region has occurred without plausible provocation for 4,000 years or so, this requires constantly shifting the metrics by which you measure whichever side you happen to favor.
Discussion: Israel Matzav and Random Thoughts
Adam Horowitz / The Huffington Post:   Jews are Soul-Searching About Madoff — What About Gaza?
Roni Sofer / Ynetnews:
Gaza: Hamas gunmen hide in hospitals
Discussion: Yourish.com and Seraphic Secret
Deb Riechmann / Associated Press:
White House: Cease-fire depends on Hamas
Ta-Nehisi Coates:
Bobby Rush on CNN  —  Here's Rush arguing for the importance of a black senator.  To which I respond—Nigga, please!!  —  I don't know if I've shifted politically or what.  But after watching a black man named Barack Obama—who couldn't get into the Democratic convention eight years ago …
Discussion: Ben Smith's Blogs and MoJoBlog
RELATED:
Chicago Sun Times:
Another bad choice by ethically bankrupt gov  —  The people of Illinois didn't need another reason to throw Gov. Blagojevich out of office.  —  They had plenty already.  —  But on Tuesday, the governor gave the state one more excellent reason, this time by going back on his word and appointing …
Chicago Breaking News:
Bobby Rush warns Democratic senators
Evan Perez / Wall Street Journal:
Gonzales Defends Role in Antiterror Policies  —  WASHINGTON — Alberto Gonzales, who has kept a low profile since resigning as attorney general nearly 16 months ago, said he is writing a book to set the record straight about his controversial tenure as a senior official in the Bush administration.
RELATED:
Jonathan Stein / MoJoBlog:
Alberto Gonzales Is Going to Write an Awfully Short Tell-All
Discussion: Wall Street Journal
Barak Ravid / Haaretz:
Arab youths open fire on Israelis working at mall in Denmark  —  A group of Arab youths opened fire Wednesday evening on a number of Israelis working at a mall in the Danish city of Odenza, some 200 kilometers north of Copenhagen.  —  The Israelis, who were operating a stall in the shopping center, were lightly wounded in their legs.
Discussion: Mere Rhetoric and Hot Air
RELATED:
Hana Levi Julian / Arutz Sheva:   PA Arab Terrorists Attack Israelis in Denmark, Two Wounded
Carl / Israel Matzav:
Breaking: Terror in Copenhagen
Discussion: Atlas Shrugs
Peter Nicholas / Los Angeles Times:
Obama plans to campaign for economic stimulus package  —  His administration ‘wants the American people involved’ in talks — but Republican lawmakers say they're still waiting to be consulted themselves.  —  Reporting from Washington — President-elect Barack Obama is preparing to lead …
Discussion: TIME.com and The Swamp
RELATED:
Seth Borenstein / Associated Press:
NASA chief's wife to Obama: Don't fire my husband  —  WASHINGTON - Late on Christmas Eve, one last wish was sent, by e-mail: Please let NASA Administrator Michael Griffin keep his job.  It was from his wife.  —  Rebecca Griffin, who works in marketing, sent her message with the subject line “Campaign for Mike” to friends and family.
Stephanie Clifford / New York Times:
Village Voice Lays Off Nat Hentoff and 2 Others  —  The troubled Village Voice laid off three employees Tuesday, including Nat Hentoff, the prominent columnist who has worked for the paper since 1958, contributing opinionated columns about jazz, civil liberties and politics.
Sam Youngman / The Hill:
Obama dismisses Bush Pentagon appointees  —  Despite keeping Defense Secretary Robert Gates in the Pentagon, President-elect Obama's transition team informed 90 Bush appointees their services will not be needed after Inauguration Day.  —  Scott Gration, a senior official on Obama's transition team …
Glenn Greenwald / Salon:
Torture prosecutions finally begin in the U.S.  —  (updated below - Update II)  —  While fiercely loyal establishment spokespeople such as The Washington Post's Ruth Marcus continue to insist that prosecutions are only appropriate for common criminals ("someone breaking into your house") …
Ben Smith / Ben Smith's Blogs:
No end in sight  —  More evidence?  A weak case?  Behind-the-scenes negotiations?  —  Anyway, it goes on:
Joe / Power Line:
HAMAS H.Q. BOMBED; POWER LINE, TOO  —  Talk about disproportionate response.  Just an hour or so after Power Line posted a series of videos from the Israeli Defense Forces—videos that, as Scott discovered, YouTube had pulled—we experienced a Denial-of-Service attack from a cabal …
Discussion: JTA, TBogg and PoliGazette
James Joyner / Outside The Beltway:
Katharine Webb Joyner  —  My wife Kimberly woke me a little before 2 yesterday morning to inform me that her water had broken and that it was time to drive her to the hospital.  After 12 hours of trying naturally, another 14 of trying with the aid of an inducing drug, and two hours of hard labor …
Nikita Stewart / Washington Post:
Atheists Sue to Get Prayer, God Out of Obama's Swearing-In  —  A group of atheists, led by a California man known for challenging the use of the words “under God” in recitals of the Pledge of Allegiance at public schools, filed a lawsuit yesterday to bar prayer and references to God at the swearing-in of President-elect Barack Obama.
 
 
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 More Items: 
John Hawkins / Right Wing News:
Death To All Juice!  —  I'm not sure whether to be more appalled …
Discussion: Hot Air and QandO
Andrew E. Kramer / New York Times:
Gazprom Set to Halt Gas to Ukraine
Discussion: On Deadline
Larry Oakes / Minneapolis Star Tribune:
Election judge is dumbfounded her ballot was rejected
Discussion: TPM Election Central
Agence France Presse:
Iran shuts down leading reformist newspaper
Discussion: Daimnation! and Gateway Pundit
 Earlier Items: 
José M. Guardia / Barcepundit:
MORE ON Spain's property bust, in The Economist:
Discussion: The Moderate Voice and PoliGazette
Andy McCarthy / The Corner:
Re: The Sense of Proportion
Discussion: TigerHawk and Daled Amos
Myglesias / Matthew Yglesias:
Nobody Goes There Anymore, It's Too Crowded
Wall Street Journal:
Let Detroit Build Profitable Cars
Discussion: Lean Left and EconLog
Jeff Karoub / Associated Press:
Banned words list offers no ‘bailout’ to offenders
Discussion: JammieWearingFool
 

 
From Techmeme:

Alex Heath / The Verge:
Meta details Llama 3: 8B- and 70B-parameter models, a focus on reducing false refusals, and an upcoming model trained on 15T+ tokens that has 400B+ parameters

David Pierce / The Verge:
Google announces a new Platforms and Devices team overseeing Pixel, Android, Chrome, Photos, and more, to integrate AI across its products, led by Rick Osterloh

Ryan Morrison / Tom's Guide:
Microsoft researchers introduce VASA-1, an AI model that creates a realistic talking face video from a portrait photo and an audio file, in research preview

 
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