Top Items:
Peter Beaumont / Observer:
Abuse worse than under Saddam, says Iraqi leader — · Allawi in damning indictment of new regime — · Bush prepares way for US troop pull-out — Human rights abuses in Iraq are now as bad as they were under Saddam Hussein and are even in danger of eclipsing his record …
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Ellen Knickmeyer / Washington Post:
Shiite Urges U.S. to Give Iraqis Leeway In Rebel Fight — Americans Have Blocked Tougher Tactics, Cleric Says — BAGHDAD — The leader of Iraq's most powerful political party has called on the United States to let Iraqi fighters take a more aggressive role against insurgents …
Discussion:
Rantingprofs
Edward Wong / New York Times:
Shiite Cleric Increases His Power in Iraq — BAGHDAD, Iraq, Nov. 26 - Men loyal to Moktada al-Sadr piled out of their cars at a plantation near Baghdad on a recent morning, bristling with Kalashnikov rifles and eager to exact vengeance on the Sunni Arab fighters who had butchered one of their Shiite militia brothers.
Walter Pincus / Washington Post:
Pentagon Expanding Its Domestic Surveillance Activity — Fears of Post-9/11 Terrorism Spur Proposals for New Powers — The Defense Department has expanded its programs aimed at gathering and analyzing intelligence within the United States, creating new agencies, adding personnel …
Discussion:
Obsidian Wings, Captain's Quarters, Seeing the Forest, Liberty Street and Best of the Blogs
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David D. Kirkpatrick / New York Times:
From Alito's Past, a Window on Conservatives at Princeton — WASHINGTON, Nov. 26 - In the fall of 1985, Concerned Alumni of Princeton was entering a crisis. — The group's members at the time included Samuel A. Alito Jr., now President Bush's nominee to the Supreme Court …
Con Coughlin / Telegraph:
Teheran 'secretly trains' Chechens to fight in Russia — Iran is secretly training Chechen rebels in sophisticated terror techniques to enable them to carry out more effective attacks against Russian forces, the Sunday Telegraph can reveal. — Teams of Chechen fighters are being trained …
Hube / The COLOSSUS OF RHODEY:
COSTA RICANS DEMONSTRATE FOR FREE TRADE — Readers of my old blog "Hube's Cube" as well as newer readers may know of my ties to the "Switzerland of the Americas," Costa Rica. The English-language Tico Times reports on pro-CAFTA (Central American Free Trade Agreement) demonstrations in the capital of San José three days ago.
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Bruce Kesler / Democracy Project:
Thankgiving for Midge Decter: Thanks Mom — Unbeknownst to Midge Decter, until last year, although having children of her own to raise, she has been my spiritual mother since I was 20. Midge Decter's writings, on the nexus of culture and politics, the guide of the values we have at home …
Discussion:
Unclaimed Territory
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T. Christian Miller / Los Angeles Times:
A Journey That Ended in Anguish — Col. Ted Westhusing, a military ethicist who volunteered to go to Iraq, was upset by what he saw. His apparent suicide raises questions. — "War is the hardest place to make moral judgments." — Col. Ted Westhusing, Journal of Military Ethics
Sarah Baxter / Times of London:
Bruce Willis comes out fighting for Iraq's forgotten GI heroes — ANGERED by negative portrayals of the conflict in Iraq, Bruce Willis, the Hollywood star, is to make a pro-war film in which American soldiers will be depicted as brave fighters for freedom and democracy.
Discussion:
Betsy's Page
New York Times:
Look Who's Talking About Making a Comeback in the Senate — WASHINGTON, Nov. 26 - Trent Lott is talking again - and again and again and again. — It has been three years since White House officials and some Senate Republicans orchestrated Mr. Lott's ouster as Senate majority leader amid an uproar over racially insensitive remarks.
Discussion:
Sisyphus Shrugged
Jazz / Middle Earth Journal:
There is a timetable (Part III) — I would like to follow-up on Ron's post earlier this morning regarding the apparently unstoppable movement towards pulling out of Iraq, what is driving it, and what its effects are likely to be. We're now hearing, from Condi Rice among others …
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Angus McDowall / Independent:
Iran's President digs in as leadership crisis deepens — A power struggle of titanic proportions has broken out between Iran's newly elected President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the country's parliament. — Now the President's domestic political agenda is in danger of collapse …
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.
Associated Press:
Powerball Winner Found Dead in Her Geodesic Dome — NEWPORT, Ky. — A woman who won a $65.4 million Powerball jackpot with her husband five years ago was found dead at her home overlooking the Ohio River, where she had apparently been for days before anyone found her, police said.
Chris Smith / New York Magazine:
What's a Spitzer Democrat? — Eliot Spitzer's attacks on Wall Street give him populist appeal—but is he a Cuomo-style progressive? Not by a long shot. — The votes are in, the expected has been confirmed, and the small yellow-walled ballroom off the Waldorf-Astoria lobby is crammed …
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Steve Bainbridge / ProfessorBainbridge.com:Puffing Spitzer — From New York magazine comes this absurd claim:
Discussion:
PointofLaw.com
