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Liz Sidoti / Associated Press:
Democrats Force Closed Meeting on Iraq — WASHINGTON - Democrats forced the Republican-controlled Senate into an unusual closed session Tuesday, questioning intelligence that President Bush used in the run-up to the war in Iraq and accusing Republicans of ignoring the issue.
Discussion:
rawstory.com, AMERICAblog, The Moderate Voice, The Mahablog, Seeing the Forest, Taegan Goddard's …, Alamo Nation, Real Teen, This Blog Is Full Of Crap, The Poor Man Institute, TAPPED, NewsHog, Patridiot Watch, Confederate Yankee, TalkLeft, Burnt Orange Report, Ace of Spades HQ, And Rightly So!, PunditGuy, Donklephant, Think Progress and Secular Blasphemy
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William Branigin / Washington Post:
GOP Angered by Closed Senate Session — The U.S. Senate went into a rare closed session today after Democrats invoked a seldom used rule to back their demands for greater oversight by the Republican-controlled body, particularly on the Bush administration's use of intelligence in taking the country to war in Iraq.
John / AMERICAblog:
Holy s**t, put on CNN — UPDATE: Call Harry Reid's DC office and tell them their boss rocks. It's high time a Democrat showed some cojones. We need to support them when they do the right thing (and you know the Republicans are going to try to destroy Reid over this). — Reid's phone number:
Discussion:
The Moderate Voice
New York Times:
Democrats Force Senate Into Closed Session Over Iraq Data — WASHINGTON, Nov. 1 - Democrats invoked a rarely used rule today that sent the Senate into a two-hour closed session, infuriating Republicans but producing an agreement for a bipartisan look at whether the Republican leadership …
Steve Clemons:
RULE 21 CLOSED DOOR SENATE SESSION: Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid's Stock Moves Strongly Up — Senator Harry Reid, in a motion seconded by Senator Richard Durbin, just called for a very rare closed door executive session of the Senate. This motion is called "Rule 21" so that Senators can discuss "secret matters."
Dana Priest / Washington Post:
CIA Holds Terror Suspects in Secret Prisons — Debate Is Growing Within Agency About Legality and Morality of Overseas System Set Up After 9/11 — The CIA has been hiding and interrogating some of its most important al Qaeda captives at a Soviet-era compound in Eastern Europe …
Discussion:
www.AndrewSullivan.com, PrawfsBlawg, The Heretik, Balkinization, BillHobbs.com, Donklephant and AMERICAblog
Lindsay Beyerstein / Majikthise:
Strip Search Sammy—the law behind the label — Why is Judge Alito known in some circles as "Strip Search Sammy"? It all goes back to 2003 and Alito's dissenting opinion in a case called Doe v. Groody. (.pdf) — Here's a very brief, non-technical synopsis.
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Bloomberg:
Democrats Signal Hesitance to Use Filibuster Against Alito — Nov. 1 (Bloomberg) — Moderate U.S. Senate Democrats said they want to know more about Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito Jr.'s judicial philosophy and signaled reluctance to support a filibuster to block his confirmation.
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Right Wing News
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Los Angeles Times:
Filibuster Option Is in the Democrats' Arsenal — Senators say the 'Gang of 14,' a bipartisan group that helped avoid a showdown on judicial nominees in May, could decide Alito's fate. — WASHINGTON — Democrats began gearing up Monday for a high-stakes fight over federal appellate Judge Samuel …
Robert Salladay / Los Angeles Times:
Gov. Aims to Get Out Vote Selectively — With Schwarzenegger's initiatives lagging in polls, he hopes the state's Democratic majority and opponents in the GOP stay home. — SACRAMENTO — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger ordered next week's special election to take his agenda to "the people," …
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Fox News:
Judge Removed from DeLay Case — AUSTIN, Texas — A new judge will preside over the conspiracy case against former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, after a motion was granted Tuesday to remove the appointed judge because of his donations to Democrat causes.
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New York Times:
Detainee Policy Sharply Divides Bush Officials — WASHINGTON, Nov. 1 - The Bush administration is embroiled in a sharp internal debate over whether a new set of Defense Department standards for handling terror suspects should adopt language from the Geneva Conventions prohibiting "cruel," …
Lyle Denniston / SCOTUSblog:
Herbal tea case: a government loss? — A small religious band of about 140 adherents, locked in a high-stakes legal battle with federal drug enforcers, appeared on Tuesday to be nearing at least a partial victory in the Supreme Court. The government's no-exception, zero-tolerance approach …
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TalkLeft
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Associated Press:
13 Arrested In Paris Suburb Riots — (AP) Youths torched cars, set garbage bins alight and threw stones at police in a fifth night of rioting in a Paris suburb, and set two primary school classrooms on fire as rioting spread to two other suburban towns, police and an official said Tuesday.
John Amato / Crooks and Liars:
Trent Lott: Get Rid-O-Rove — Trent Lott: Get Rid-O-Rove — Trent was on Hardball today and said: — TRENT LOTT: Well, the question is, that you asked, is he good for American politics? Look, he has been very successful, very effective in the political arena.
Brian C. Anderson / City Journal:
Conservatives in Hollywood?! — It was hard to parody Hollywood's loony limousine liberalism this summer. "I'm coming out," trumpeted actress Jane Fonda about her plans for an anti-Iraq-war bus tour (thankfully later canceled). "I have not taken a stand on any war since Vietnam"—if …
Shakespeare's Sister:
What the hell is wrong with conservatives? — With all the bloviating we hear about moral values from conservatives on a regular basis, you'd think that maybe they'd make some vague attempt to actually live up to their rhetoric, but time after time, it's conservatives who prove to be the most corrupt …