Top Items:
Linda Greenhouse / New York Times:
For New Court, Abortion Case Takes Old Path — WASHINGTON, Nov. 30 - Well before the argument in a New Hampshire abortion case was over, the question that had drawn the crowds to the Supreme Court on a crisp Wednesday morning had an answer. No, abortion law was not about to undergo …
Discussion:
Althouse
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Fred Barbash / Washington Post:
Memo: Alito Urged Government to Challenge Roe v. Wade — Supreme Court nominee Samuel A. Alito Jr. was an architect of the Reagan administration's failed 1985 attempt to have the high court consider overruling Roe v. Wade, according to a memo from the period released today.
New York Times:
U.S. Is Said to Pay to Plant Articles in Iraq Papers — WASHINGTON, Nov. 30 - Titled "The Sands Are Blowing Toward a Democratic Iraq," an article written this week for publication in the Iraqi press was scornful of outsiders' pessimism about the country's future.
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Elisabeth Bumiller / New York Times:
Gaining Control in Iraq, and Regaining Support at Home — WASHINGTON, Nov. 30 - The political calculation behind President Bush's speech in Annapolis on Wednesday is that Washington, not Baghdad, is the battlefront that will decide the ultimate outcome of the war in Iraq …
Discussion:
The Next Hurrah
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Peter Baker / Washington Post:
An Offering of Detail But No New Substance — Thirty-two months after U.S. forces invaded Iraq, President Bush's advisers concluded that his message of "stay the course" has been translated by a weary American public as "stay forever." And so yesterday the president tried to reassure …
New York Times:
Plan: We Win — We've seen it before: an embattled president so swathed in his inner circle that he completely loses touch with the public and wanders around among small knots of people who agree with him. There was Lyndon Johnson in the 1960's, Richard Nixon in the 1970's, and George H. W. Bush in the 1990's.
Discussion:
QandO, Middle Earth Journal, AMERICAN FUTURE, Brilliant at Breakfast, Dohiyi Mir, The Sideshow, Rising Hegemon, Wampum and Daily Pundit
William Beutler / Hotline On Call:
Greatly Exaggerated — In the WSJ's subscriber-only "Political Diary" yesterday afternoon, John Fund reported that Senate Min. Leader Harry Reid had told Reno's NBC affiliate: "I heard that Osama bin Laden died in the [recent Pakistan] earthquake, and if that's the case …
Sarah Kershaw / New York Times:
Hooked on the Web: Help Is on the Way — THE waiting room for Hilarie Cash's practice has the look and feel of many a therapist's office, with soothing classical music, paintings of gentle swans and colorful flowers and on the bookshelves stacks of brochures on how to get help.
Discussion:
Classical Values
Anthony Browne / Times of London:
Western white woman a suicide bomber — MIREILLE, who was born in Belgium to a white, middle-class Christian family, blew herself to pieces last month in a suicide attack against American troops near Baghdad. — In one of the most extraordinary tales of Islamic radicalisation …
Ian Sample / Guardian:
Alarm over dramatic weakening of Gulf Stream — · Slowing of current by a third in 12 years could bring more extreme weather — · Temperatures in Britain likely to drop by one degree in next decade — The powerful ocean current that bathes Britain and northern Europe …
Brit Hume / Fox News:
Need Fewer Troops? — Now some fresh pickings from the Political Grapevine: — Massachusetts Senator John Kerry came out firing in his response to the president's plan for victory in Iraq, saying that the presence of U.S. troops, "presents food for the insurgency. And you need to reduce that presence."
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Dave Johnson / Seeing the Forest:
Challenge - Prove That Voting Machines Accurately Record Votes — I've said it before and I'll say it again. Suppose you could get every bug out of every program that runs every company's electronic voting machines. Suppose you can make sure that there is no way a technician has installed new chips the day before the election.
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Vicki Allen / Reuters:
House minority leader backs quick Iraq pullout — WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. House of Representatives Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday backed a call by Democratic Rep. John Murtha (news, bio, voting record) to quickly start the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq …
Washington Post:
Terrorist Cells Find Foothold in Balkans — SARAJEVO, Bosnia — The raid netted explosives, rifles, other arms and a videotape pledging vengeance for the "brothers" killed fighting Americans in Afghanistan and Iraq. Police found the cache in an apartment occupied by an underground group …
Discussion:
Captain's Quarters
CNN:
Poll: Most doubt plan for Iraq victory — (CNN) — As President Bush launched a new effort Wednesday to gain public support for the Iraq war, a new poll found most Americans do not believe he has a plan that will achieve victory. — But the CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll released Wednesday night …
Discussion:
Informed Comment
Wall Street Journal:
Untangling Tax Reform — President Bush has made reforming the oft-maligned U.S. tax code a priority of his second term, but can he please all its many critics? — The president's tax reform panel recently presented two broad plans for change. The first proposal floats the idea …