Top Items:
MSNBC:
Top al-Qaida officer reportedly killed — Group's operational leader Rabia killed by missile in Pakistan, officials say — By By Robert Windrem and Carol Grisanti — ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - The operational commander of al-Qaida, possibly the No. 3 official in the terrorist organization …
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Brian S. Wesbury / Opinion Journal:
Pouting Pundits of Pessimism — Every bit of good economic news gives them reason for despair. — During a quarter century of analyzing and forecasting the economy, I have never seen anything like this. No matter what happens, no matter what data are released, no matter which way markets move …
Washington Post:
Military Says It Paid Iraq Papers for News — Possible 'Improprieties' to Be Investigated — The U.S. military command in Baghdad acknowledged for the first time yesterday that it has paid Iraqi newspapers to carry positive news about U.S. efforts in Iraq, but officials characterized …
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Captain Ed / Captain's Quarters:Just Doing Business The Iraqi Way (Updated And Bump)
Discussion:
The Heretik
Tom Maguire / JustOneMinute:
Sometimes Nothing Is A Real Cool Hand — Sometimes the cover-up is worse than the crime, especially when the underlying crime is not really there. Put another way, Lewis Libby is an idiot (but we knew that). — Special Counsel Fitzgerald has made a filing in response to a motion to unseal …
Discussion:
The Next Hurrah
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Charles Babington / Washington Post:
Alito Distances Himself From 1985 Memos — Senator Says Nominee Drew a Line Between Expressed Views and Potential Rulings — Supreme Court nominee Samuel A. Alito Jr. yesterday tried to tamp down criticisms of several past statements — including his assertion that the Constitution does …
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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.
Los Angeles Times:
FBI Is Taking Another Look at Forged Prewar Intelligence — WASHINGTON — WASHINGTON — The FBI has reopened an inquiry into one of the most intriguing aspects of the pre-Iraq war intelligence fiasco: how the Bush administration came to rely on forged documents linking Iraq to nuclear weapons materials …
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Larisa Alexandrovna / rawstory.com:Senate Intelligence Committee stalling pre-war intelligence report
Ellen Goodman / Washington Post:
A Vatican Retreat on Homosexuality — BOSTON — Somewhere along the way the dividing line over gay issues picked up and moved. It's no longer between red and blue states, or left and right wings, but between nature and nurture. Or, to be more precise, between those who believe …
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Jonathan Weisman / Washington Post:
Muted Support for GOP Change Grows — Amid Scandals, Some Republicans Push to Permanently Replace DeLay as Leader — Widening corruption scandals in Washington are heightening Republican sentiments for a GOP leadership shake-up early next year that would permanently replace former majority …
Mickey Kaus / Slate:
Hillary's Chimerical 'Recalibration' — ABC's Note admires the smokescreen. — Pssst! Bolivia is about to elect a president who wants to decriminalize coca production. Won't that throw the War on Drugs into a more than mild state of disarray? Just asking. ... 2:08 A.M.
Major John / Miserable Donuts:
An Army Broken? — With all the eagerness of a dog returning to something it has vomited up, the conventional media has latched onto Rep. Murtha's rambling discourse about the Army being "broken" and "has done all they can." — Unmitigated crap. And I don't say this out of defensiveness …
Discussion:
Rantingprofs
Associated Press:
Congress to look into 'deeply flawed' BCS system — HOUSTON — Calling the Bowl Championship Series "deeply flawed," the chairman of a congressional committee has called a hearing on the controversial system used to determine college football's national champion.
Washington Post:
10 Marines Killed in Fallujah Blast — BAGHDAD, Dec. 3 — Insurgents ambushed a joint patrol of U.S. and Iraqi forces north of Baghdad Saturday morning, killing 11 Iraqi soldiers a day after the U.S. military reported the deaths of 10 Marines in a bomb attack on their foot patrol outside Fallujah.
Cathy Young / The Y Files:
O'Reilly on the Christmas warpath — The "save Christmas" hysteria this year seems to be worse than ever (though that's what I thought last year, too). I mean, okay, some of the ACLU-type handwringing over creches on public grounds gets ridiculous, but John Gibson carrying on about "the plot to ban the sacred Christian holiday"?
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Richard Reeves / Yahoo! News:
IS GEORGE BUSH THE WORST PRESIDENT — EVER? — PARIS — President John F. Kennedy was considered a historian because of his book "Profiles in Courage," so he received periodic requests to rate the presidents, those lists that usually begin "1. Lincoln, 2. Washington ..."
Discussion:
The Heretik
Spencer S. Hsu / Washington Post:
FEMA Pulls Out of Lower Ninth — Agency Calls for Troops, Reporting Threats of Violence — The Federal Emergency Management Agency pulled all its workers out of New Orleans's Lower Ninth Ward yesterday after threats of violence and planned to request additional police or National Guard support, a FEMA spokeswoman said.
ThreatsWatch.Org:
The Ramadi Debacle — The media bites on al-Qaeda propaganda; Coalition forces execute another offensive in Ramadi. — By Bill Roggio — The reported "mini-Tet offensive" in Ramadi has turned out to be less than accurate. In fact, it has been anything but.
