Top Items:
Siobhan Morrissey / Time:
Eyewitness: "I Never Heard the Word 'Bomb'" — A passenger on Flight 924 gives his account of the shooting and says Rigoberto Alpizar never claimed to have a bomb — At least one passenger aboard American Airlines Flight 924 maintains the federal air marshals were a little too quick …
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CNN:
Marshals', witnesses' accounts differ on jet bomb threat claim — Man suffered from bipolar disorder, relative says … MIAMI, Florida (CNN) — As investigators try to piece together the final moments before two air marshals shot and killed an American Airlines passenger, questions are arising about whether he made a bomb threat.
Discussion:
Washington Post, The Washington Monthly, Balloon Juice, Macsmind and New England Republican
Paul Hughes / Reuters:
Iran's president questions Holocaust — TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Thursday expressed doubt that the Holocaust occurred and suggested Israel be moved to Europe. — His comments, reported by Iran's official IRNA news agency from a news conference he gave …
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Dr. Rusty Shackleford / The Jawa Report v3.0 Beta:
Terrorists Announce Murder of American Hostage Ronald Schulz — Reports have begun circulating that Ronald Schulz has been murdered. The website used by The Islamic Army in Iraq, though, has not carried this message. Instead, it was posted at an Islamic bulletin board.
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Bill Nienhuis / PunditGuy:
It Was 25 Years Ago Today — In a lot of ways, it seems like it was just yesterday. — I was 14 years old on December 8, 1980. Riding in a car with my sister's friend, we heard the news on the radio. "Black Water" by the Doobie Brothers was playing on Seattle's KISW-FM when it suddenly stopped …
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Suzanne C. Ryan / Boston Globe:
At 87, Wallace still tells it like it is — Mike Wallace and his hard-hitting brand of journalism have been synonymous with ''60 Minutes" since CBS introduced the program in 1968. Now 87 years old, Wallace, who has interviewed everyone from Malcolm X to Johnny Carson, has written his second memoir.
Shelley K. Wong / Associated Press:
Heckling causes Coulter to cut UConn speech short — STORRS, Conn. — Conservative columnist Ann Coulter gave up trying to finish a speech at the University of Connecticut on Wednesday night when boos and jeers from the audience became overwhelming. — Coulter cut off the talk after 15 minutes …
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Peter Savodnik / The Hill:
NRSC plans multi-state attack tying Democrats to Abramoff — The National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) is planning a public-relations offensive tying leading Democrats to lobbyist Jack Abramoff in an effort to neutralize accusations that Republicans have been embroiled in a "culture of corruption."
Josh Gerstein / New York Sun:
How the CIA Blew Its Prisons Cover — WASHINGTON - While Secretary of State Rice fends off questioning in Europe over CIA-run air flights of prisoners in the war on terror, some analysts outside the CIA are asking how the flights were exposed so easily. — The CIA's legendary capacity for stealth …
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NY Daily News:
Rummy exit rumored; Lieberman eyed for job — WASHINGTON - White House officials are telling associates they expect Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to quit early next year, once a new government is formed in Iraq, sources said yesterday. — Rumsfeld's deputy, Gordon England …
John B. Judis / The New Republic:
Chair Lift — Howard Dean is being vilified again—not only by Republicans in the White House and Congress, but by his fellow Democrats as well. And once again it's for making a critical comment about the administration's conduct of the Iraq war. In an interview Monday with a San Antonio radio station …
Ken Silverstein / Los Angeles Times:
Pentagon Memo on Torture-Motivated Transfer Cited — A court filing describes a classified proposal to send a detainee away for information extraction. — WASHINGTON — Although Bush administration officials have denied that they transfer terrorism suspects to countries where they are likely to be abused …
Burt Prelutsky / Townhall.com:
The Jewish Grinch who stole Christmas — I never thought I'd live to see the day that Christmas would become a dirty word. You think it hasn't? Then why is it that people are being prevented from saying it in polite society for fear that it will offend?
Jesse J. Holland / Associated Press:
House, Senate Reach Deal on Patriot Act — WASHINGTON - House and Senate negotiators reached an agreement Thursday to extend the USA Patriot Act, the government's premier anti-terrorism law, before it expires at the end of the month. But a Democratic senator threatened a filibuster to block the compromise.
Atrios / Eschaton:
Occasional Reminder — Whenever I write one of these posts people always assume something has annoyed me or that I'm whining or being ungrateful or something. I'm not doing any of these things. I just think it's a useful service to provide now and then.
Deborah Kolben / New York Sun:
First-Graders Made To Clean A Bathroom — A charter school run by the United Federation of Teachers hired a new consultant this week after the principal raised the ire of parents by allegedly ordering a group of first-graders to clean up human waste in the bathroom.
Colum Lynch / Washington Post:
U.N. Official Faults U.S. Detentions — Terrorism Fight Hurts Torture Ban, Human Rights Chief Says — UNITED NATIONS, Dec. 7 — The U.S.-led fight against terrorism is eroding the time-honored international prohibition of torture and other forms of cruel or degrading treatment of prisoners …
