Top Items:
Louis Charbonneau / Reuters:
Germany summons Iran envoy over Holocaust remarks — BERLIN, Dec 9 (Reuters) - The German Foreign Ministry said on Friday it had summoned Iran's ambassador to protest against suggestions by Iran's president that the Holocaust might not have happened and that Israel should be moved to Europe.
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Douglas Jehl / New York Times:
Qaeda-Iraq Link U.S. Cited Is Tied to Coercion Claim — WASHINGTON, Dec. 8 - The Bush administration based a crucial prewar assertion about ties between Iraq and Al Qaeda on detailed statements made by a prisoner while in Egyptian custody who later said he had fabricated them to escape harsh treatment …
Washington Post:
Time Reporter Testifies in Leak Case — Rove Lawyer Was Deposed Last Week by Special Prosecutor — A special prosecutor questioned Time magazine reporter Viveca Novak under oath yesterday about a conversation she had with the attorney for presidential adviser Karl Rove that has become part …
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Jonathan Weisman / Washington Post:
$56 Billion in Tax Cuts Passed by House, 234-197 — The House approved yesterday $56 billion in tax cuts that would keep alive the deep reductions in the tax rates on dividends and capital gains passed in 2003, but the measure is certain to be challenged by senators who have so far balked at the tax cuts for investors.
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Charles Krauthammer / Washington Post:
Man for a Glass Booth — Of all the mistakes that the Bush administration has committed in Iraq, none is as gratuitous and self-inflicted as the bungling of the trial of Saddam Hussein. — Although Hussein deserves to be shot like a dog — or, same thing, like the Ceausescus — we nonetheless decided to give him a trial.
Laurie Goodstein / New York Times:
When Christmas Falls on Sunday, Megachurches Take the Day Off — Some of the nation's most prominent megachurches have decided not to hold worship services on the Sunday that coincides with Christmas Day, a move that is generating controversy among evangelical Christians …
Discussion:
The Mahablog, PoliBlog, The Carpetbagger Report, The Anchoress, Althouse and History News Network
Online NewsHour:
Reducing troop levels — JIM LEHRER: Also, you told reporters this morning that, assuming the Dec. 15 elections in Iraq go well, that the U.S. can start drawing down forces. Tell me what you mean and give us some numbers on this. — DONALD RUMSFELD: I think what you meant to say, Jim …
Discussion:
QandO
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Will Dunham / Reuters:
CORRECTED - Rumsfeld says 'I have no plans to retire' — In WASHINGTON story headlined "Rumsfeld says 'I have no plans to retire'" ... please read in second paragraph ... New York Daily News ... instead of ... New York Post ... (correcting newspaper throughout) — A corrected story follows:
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David Barboza / New York Times:
Ogre to Slay? Outsource It to Chinese — FUZHOU, China - One of China's newest factories operates here in the basement of an old warehouse. Posters of World of Warcraft and Magic Land hang above a corps of young people glued to their computer screens, pounding away at their keyboards in the latest hustle for money.
Editor and Publisher:
'NY Times' Sunday Preview: Conservative Blogs Rock! — NEW YORK In an argument sure to be challenged in certain sectors of the blogosphere, a story in The New York Times magazine coming up this Sunday declares that conservative blogs continue to best liberal blogs in political and electoral influence.
Glenn Reynolds / Instapundit.com:
IF A COP BREAKS INTO YOUR HOUSE UNNANOUNCED, and you shoot him thinking he's a burglar, it's self-defense. But Radley Balko reports on a case of a wrong-house no-knock raid that has led to what sounds like a total miscarriage of justice: … In a way, this is the flipside of the Miami airport shooting.
Discussion:
Daily Pundit, Classical Values, Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler, Cold Fury, TheAgitator.com, Unfogged, GOP Bloggers and SayUncle
Washington Post:
U.S. Military Probing Video Of Road Violence — British Contractors Appear To Shoot at Iraqi Civilians — BAGHDAD, Dec. 8 — A silver Mercedes swings into the passing lane when a machine gun opens fire, sending the car smashing into a taxi, whose terrified occupants scatter.
Washington Post:
GOP Accepts Deal on Patriot Act — Hill to Vote Next Week on Extending Provisions for 4 Years — Republican negotiators accepted a White House-brokered deal yesterday that clears the way for Congress to vote next week on whether to renew the USA Patriot Act's most controversial provisions for four years, in slightly modified forms.
Discussion:
firedoglake
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Joel Mowbray / Washington Times:
Polling a pollster — When the national press devoured a new union-sponsored poll released last week by uber-pollster John Zogby claiming that a majority of Americans believe that "Wal-Mart is bad for America," not reported were serious ethical issues which call into question the integrity of the much-ballyhooed survey.
Minneapolis Star Tribune:
Bush visit stirring Twin Cities — The president swoops into Minneapolis today to raise money for the Senate campaign of U.S. Rep. Mark Kennedy. He'll receive both a warm welcome and heated criticism. — Quite a spectacle appears to be shaping up for President Bush's Twin Cities visit today.
Discussion:
Shot In The Dark
Washington Post:
Plea Deal Near With 2nd Abramoff Associate — Kidan Has Agreed to Cooperate in Probes — Federal prosecutors have all but finalized a plea agreement with a second business partner of former lobbyist Jack Abramoff in exchange for cooperation in the ongoing criminal investigations of Abramoff …
Discussion:
firedoglake, Talking Points Memo, Roger Ailes, Blanton's and Ashton's, The Stakeholder and Donklephant
Norman Podhoretz / Commentary:
The Panic Over Iraq — Like, I am sure, many other believers in what this country has been trying to do in the Middle East and particularly in Iraq, I have found my thoughts returning in the past year to something that Tom Paine, writing at an especially dark moment of the American Revolution, said about such times.
