Top Items:
Los Angeles Times:
U.S. Starts Laying Groundwork for Significant Troop Pullout From Iraq — WASHINGTON — Even as debate over the Iraq war continues to rage, signs are emerging of a convergence of opinion on how the Bush administration might begin to exit the conflict. — In a departure from previous statements …
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James Fallows / The Atlantic Online:
Why Iraq Has No Army — The Bush administration doesn't take the problem seriously—and it never has — W hen Saddam Hussein fell, the Iraqi people gained freedom. What they didn't get was public order. Looting began immediately, and by the time it abated, signs of an insurgency had appeared.
Joe Gandelman / The Moderate Voice:Bush Administration Reportedly Plans Major Iraq Withdrawals In 2006
Captain Ed / Captain's Quarters:
Biden, Democrats Ask The Wrong Question — Senator Joe Biden writes an op-ed for today's Washington Post that gets the entire war on terror fundamentally wrong — and demonstrates why the Democrats have entirely failed to provide any leadership on Iraq and the wider war.
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Joseph R. Biden Jr / Washington Post:
Time for An Iraq Timetable — The question most Americans want answered about Iraq is this: When will our troops come home? — We already know the likely answer. In 2006, they will begin to leave in large numbers. By the end of the year, we will have redeployed about 50,000.
Discussion:
Middle Earth Journal
Alexandra von Maltzan / All Things Beautiful:The Thanksgiving Gift From Al-Qaeda
Discussion:
The Heretik
Kate Zernike / New York Times:
Even Supporters Doubt President as Issues Pile Up — COLUMBUS, Ohio, Nov. 22 - Leesa Martin never considered President Bush a great leader, but she voted for him a year ago because she admired how he handled the terrorist attacks of 2001. — Then came the past summer …
Discussion:
Rantingprofs, The American Street, War and Piece, Bark Bark Woof Woof, NewsBusters.org, Prairie Weather and Dohiyi Mir
Associated Press:
Jailed Palestinian Leader Wins Primaries — RAMALLAH, West Bank - Jailed Palestinian uprising leader Marwan Barghouti and other younger activists swept Fatah primaries, signaling a change of generations that could make the corruption-tainted ruling party more attractive to voters …
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Charles Moore / Telegraph:How did we forget that Israel's story is the story of the West?
Discussion:
Power Line
Lance Mannion:
The true meaning of Christmas — They're finding out now that no Christmas is coming. /They're just waking up, I know just what they'll do. / Their mouths will hang open a minute or two,/then the Whos down in Whoville will all cry, "Boo Hoo.' — That's a sound, said the Grinch, that I simply must hear.
Discussion:
The Washington Monthly
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Daniel Cooney / Associated Press:
Troops Who Burned Taliban Face Discipline — KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - Four U.S. soldiers face disciplinary action for burning the bodies of two Taliban rebels — a videotaped incident that sparked outrage in Afghanistan — but they will not be prosecuted because they their actions were motivated …
Adam Liptak / New York Times:
In Terror Cases, Administration Sets Own Rules — When Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales announced last week that Jose Padilla would be transferred to the federal justice system from military detention, he said almost nothing about the standards the administration used in deciding whether …
Discussion:
Liberty Street
Charles Krauthammer / Weekly Standard:
The Truth about Torture — DURING THE LAST FEW WEEKS in Washington the pieties about torture have lain so thick in the air that it has been impossible to have a reasoned discussion. The McCain amendment that would ban "cruel, inhuman, or degrading" treatment of any prisoner by any agent …
Angela K. Brown / Associated Press:
Sheehan Back in Texas for War Protest — The mother of a fallen soldier who led a vigil against the war in Iraq outside President Bush's ranch returned to Texas, saying she is "heartbroken" that the troops are not home. — When Cindy Sheehan arrived at the Waco airport Thursday …
Andrew Jacobs / New York Times:
Just Try to Sleep Tight. The Bedbugs Are Back. — They're the scourge of hobo encampments and hot-sheet motels. To impressionable children everywhere, they're a snippet of nursery rhyme, an abstract foe lurking beneath the covers that emerges when mommy shuts the door at night.
Discussion:
neo-neocon
James Bone / Times of London:
Why the middle classes go scavenging in dustbins — THE Thanksgiving holiday is over and the frenzied Christmas shopping season has begun. This is bonanza time for the tribe of rummaging Americans known as "freegans". — The anti-capitalist freegans — the name combines "free" and …
Charles Burress / San Francisco Chronicle:
Governor agrees to Williams hearing Convicted killer gets closer to possible clemency — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has decided to hold a clemency hearing Dec. 8 for Stanley Tookie Williams, the condemned killer who has attracted a number of high-profile backers calling for his life to be spared.
Discussion:
Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler, Michelle Malkin, TalkLeft, Prometheus 6 and Sentencing Law and Policy
NY Daily News:
NBC leaves Matt & Katie to twist in wind — You've got to feel bad for Matt Lauer and Katie Couric. — Really badly. — In a matter of minutes Thursday morning, while they were in Herald Square hosting NBC's coverage of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, a balloon crashed in Times Square …
Will Knight / newscientist.com:
Holographic-memory discs may put DVDs to shame — A computer disc about the size of a DVD that can hold 60 times more data is set to go on sale in 2006. The disc stores information through the interference of light - a technique known as holographic memory.
