Top Items:
Jonathan S. Landay / Knight Ridder:
U.S. military pays Iraqis for positive news stories on war — WASHINGTON - U.S. Army officers have been secretly paying Iraqi journalists to produce upbeat newspaper, radio and television reports about American military operations and the conduct of the war in Iraq.
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New York Times:U.S. Is Said to Pay to Plant Articles in Iraq Papers
Discussion:
Washington Post, TAPPED, You Big Mouth, You!, Financial Times, Rantingprofs, Media Blog on National …, The Heretik, Think Progress, The Carpetbagger Report, The Bad Hair Blog, Talking Points Memo, www.AndrewSullivan.com, Billmon, Prairie Weather, News Blog, Bark Bark Woof Woof, ScrappleFace, ACSBlog, No More Mister Nice Blog, WTF Is It Now??, democracyarsenal.org and Blah3.com
Dalton Conley / New York Times:
A Man's Right to Choose — MANY liberals who oppose Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr.'s nomination to the Supreme Court focus on his (losing) position in Planned Parenthood v. Casey, a 1991 case about a Pennsylvania law that would have required women seeking abortions to notify their husbands.
Discussion:
Eschaton
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Garance Franke-Ruta / TAPPED:
EW. The women of Broadsheet have been having fun with some of the bizarre reactions to Maureen Dowd in the reader comments left on Amazon.com. One irate male reader, in particular, was emphatic about asserting that Dowd is past her "expiration date," repeating "WOMEN HAVE AN EXPIRATION DATE.
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John Derbyshire / The Corner on National Review Online:SHIP-SHAPE AND BRISTOL FASHION
Discussion:
Lawyers, Guns and Money
Trevor / The Will to Exist:
Pulling out early and other lunacy … I watched Bush speaking on television last night. It was my first day off since arriving in theater one month ago. — Please, America, listen to the man. — The moment anyone puts a timetable on coalition forces leaving, we've lost the war.
William Kristol / Weekly Standard:
Pelosi's Disastrous Miscalculation — Today, Nancy Pelosi endorsed withdrawal from Iraq. Her statement is a political opportunity for the GOP. — Until now, it seemed to me more likely than not that Democrats would win back the House in 2006: Bush's numbers are bad …
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Guardian:
Why did you want to bomb me, Mr Bush and Mr Blair? — Al-Jazeera's quest for answers has been met with silence from both the White House and Downing Street — Wadah Khanfar — I have lost count of the number of accusations levelled against al-Jazeera and the incidents of harassment …
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Rick Richman / Jewish Current Issues:
Bush and Churchill's Mid-War Speeches — George W. Bush's extraordinary "Strategy for Victory" speech yesterday was a direct response to the crisis of confidence created from a combination of adverse developments in the war, incessant political attacks from Democrats, and the nonstop criticism of a hostile mainstream media.
Balkinization:
Justice O'Connor to the rescue? — The oral arguments for Ayotte can be found here and here. The liberal justices gave both Ayotte and the Solicitor General a hard time; Chief Justice Roberts wanted to throw out the challenge and have doctors bring a brand new "pre-enforcement as-applied challenge" …
Discussion:
SCOTUSblog
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New York Times:
For Once, President and His Generals See the Same War — BAGHDAD, Iraq, Nov. 30 - For anyone who has spent time in the field with American officers here, President Bush's speech on Wednesday was a watershed: for the first time in the two years since the conflict here turned brutal …
David S. Broder / Washington Post:
A Pox on Both Parties — To understand why the level of public disillusionment with politics is so high in this country right now, it helps to go back a dozen years. — The Democrats took power in 1993 with a young and obviously talented Bill Clinton succeeding George H.W. Bush …
Tommy Witherspoon / wacotrib.com:
Will Bush heed his call to (jury) service? — Leading the free world during wartime and reporting for jury duty are both important public service responsibilities. — While most would agree that serving as president of the United States is more pressing than serving as foreman of a jury …
Peter H. Schuck / LAW.com:
Leftward Leaning — Two recent studies reveal what the insiders have known all along: Professors at top U.S. law schools are predominantly liberal. — The American Lawyer — Elite law schools cherish robust debate, iconoclasm, and arguing issues from all sides, right? Wrong.
David Lightman / courant.com:
Lieberman In Step With GOP On How To Run War — WASHINGTON — Joe Lieberman stood virtually alone among Democrats Wednesday, his unyielding support for the administration's conduct of the Iraq war drawing warm praise from President Bush but no support from his own party.
BBC:
Miller 'sorry' for WMD inaccuracies — Judith Miller, the US journalist at the heart of the CIA leak probe, has apologised to her readers because her stories about WMD and Iraq turned out to be wrong. — The US journalist, who spent 85 days in prison over the summer before agreeing …
Judd / Think Progress:
Embedded TIME Reporter: Bush Lied In Speech Yesterday About Iraqi Security Forces — Yesterday, President Bush claimed that Iraqi security forces "primarily led" the assault on the city of Tal Afar. Bush highlighted it as an "especially clear" sign of the progress Iraq security forces were making in Iraq.
Chris Tomlinson / Associated Press:
Bombings in Iraq Fall to Seven-Month Low — BAGHDAD, Iraq - The U.S. military said Thursday that suicide bombings fell in November to their lowest level in seven months after joint U.S.-Iraqi operations west of the capital. — In Ramadi, the U.S. military played down reports by residents …
Jim Suhr / Associated Press:
Walgreens places 4 pharmacists on leave — Contraceptive wasn't dispensed — ST. LOUIS — Walgreen Co. said it has put four Illinois pharmacists in the St. Louis area on unpaid leave for refusing to fill prescriptions for emergency contraception in violation of a state rule.
Craig Timberg / Washington Post:
South African Court Rules for Same-Sex Marriage — JOHANNESBURG Dec. 1 — South Africa's highest court ruled on Thursday that gays and lesbians have a right to marry, and it gave the national parliament one year to change the words "husband" and "wife" to "spouse" in its marital laws.
Discussion:
www.AndrewSullivan.com
