Top Items:
Carl Hulse / New York Times:
House Shelves Alaska Drilling in Budget Fight — WASHINGTON, Nov. 9 - House Republican leaders were forced to jettison a plan for oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska on Wednesday night to save a sweeping spending bill, a concession that came one day after the party suffered significant election loses.
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Associated Press:
House GOP makes concession on Arctic drilling — Leaders drop hotly debated ANWR drilling plan from omnibus budget bill — WASHINGTON - House leaders late Wednesday abandoned an attempt to push through a hotly contested plan to open an Alaskan wildlife refuge to oil drilling …
Jonathan Weisman / Washington Post:
GOP to Strike Arctic Drilling From House Bill — House GOP leaders agreed last night to strip plans to permit oil drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and in the offshore continental shelf from a $54 billion budget-cutting measure, probably securing the votes to pass the bill today.
Yoav Stern / Haaretz:
Israelis evacuated from Amman hotel hours before bombings — A number of Israelis staying on Wednesday at the Radisson hotel were evacuated before the bombing by Jordanian security forces, apparently due to a specific security alert. They were escorted back to Israel by security personnel.
Discussion:
Captain's Quarters, Yourish.com, Needlenose, normblog, Booman Tribune ~ Boo! and This Blog Is Full Of Crap
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Jamal Halaby / Associated Press:
At Least One American Among Dead in Jordan — AMMAN, Jordan - At least one American was among the 56 people killed by suicide bombers in attacks on three U.S.-based hotels Wednesday night, a U.S. Embassy official said Thursday. At least two other Americans were wounded. The victims were not identified.
Dan Froomkin / Washington Post:
An Important Indictment — The flailing Bush presidency continues to spin off new compelling story lines almost daily; yesterday it was torture, today it's Bush as electoral albatross. It's almost inevitable that the media will let some fall by the wayside.
Discussion:
The Moderate Voice, The Carpetbagger Report, The Mahablog, First Draft, Pam's House Blend and Brendan Nyhan
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Philip Shenon / New York Times:
Lobbyist Sought $9 Million to Set Bush Meeting — WASHINGTON, Nov. 9 - The lobbyist Jack Abramoff asked for $9 million in 2003 from the president of a West African nation to arrange a meeting with President Bush and directed his fees to a Maryland company now under federal scrutiny, according to newly disclosed documents.
Walter Pincus / Washington Post:
Intelligence Probe Takes Shape — Senators Discuss Inquiry Into Administration Statements About Iraq — The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence yesterday worked out a tentative arrangement for pursuing its inquiry into how the Bush administration publicly portrayed the intelligence …
Jonathan Weisman / Washington Post:
Senator Seeks to Defer Probe of CIA Prison Leak — The chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence told Senate leaders yesterday that Congress should hold off on a probe of the disclosure of classified information on secret prisons to The Washington Post until the Justice Department completes its own inquiry.
Discussion:
The Hill, Unclaimed Territory, The Carpetbagger Report, Los Angeles Times and War and Piece
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Robert Novak / Chicago Sun Times:
Dem's win in Va. gov race gives GOP a scare — House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert and the House Republican campaign chairman, Rep. Tom Reynolds, were given a sobering warning last week by senior GOP political operatives. They were told that on Tuesday, Nov. 8, the Democrats were sure to win the governorship of Virginia.
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Rob Stein / Washington Post:
Down Syndrome Now Detectable In 1st Trimester — Earlier Diagnosis Allows More Time for Decisions — A first-trimester screening test can reliably identify fetuses likely to be born with Down syndrome, providing expectant women with that information much earlier in a pregnancy than current testing allows …
Weekly Standard:
The Party of Sam's Club — THE PRESIDENCY OF GEORGE W. Bush has three years yet to run, but this season of scandal and disillusionment is an opportune moment for conservatives to start thinking seriously about the post-Bush era—and particularly how to fashion a domestic policy from the wreckage …
Discussion:
Marginal Revolution, Donklephant, Bull Moose, The Washington Monthly and danieldrezner.com
Lynne Duke / Washington Post:
The Reporter's Last Take — In an Era of Anonymous Sources, Judy Miller Is a Cautionary Tale of the Times — NEW YORK Judy Miller's fumbling with the tape recorder. It's not even her tape recorder. — "This is off the record," she's saying, her voice high and nasal.
Daily Kos:
US Army Admits Use of White Phosphorus as Weapon — (From the diaries. Let's see them deny this s**t now — kos) — That's right. Not from Al Jazheera, or Al Arabiya, but the US f**king Army, in their very own publication, from the (WARNING: pdf file) March edition of Field Artillery Magazine …
Discussion:
Lean Left, Right-Wing of the Gods, Discourse.net, MSNBC, Democracy Now, AMERICAblog, Through the Looking Glass, Pam's House Blend and QandO
New York Times:
Democrats Press Court Designee Over Mutual Fund Case — WASHINGTON, Nov. 9 - Laying the groundwork for a possible strategy of attacking Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr., Senate Democrats are ratcheting up their questions about the judge's failure to disqualify himself from a case involving Vanguard …
Discussion:
Sisyphus Shrugged