Top Items:
Sarah Kershaw / New York Times:
Stanley Tookie Williams, Crips Gang Co-Founder, Is Executed — SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 13 - Stanley Tookie Wiliams, a condemned gangster whose execution drew more national and international attention than any here in decades, was executed by lethal injection and pronounced dead at 12:35 this morning at San Quentin State Prison.
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Vanessa Gera / Associated Press:
Europeans Outraged at Schwarzenegger — VIENNA, Austria - The execution of convicted killer Stanley Tookie Williams sparked outrage Tuesday throughout Europe, which has a deep aversion to capital punishment sustained by the painful memory of state-organized murder during the Nazi era.
Mark Kleiman / The Huffington Post:
Blogger Power and Cory Maye — Cory Maye — in case you haven't been following Radley Balko — is a black man with no criminal record condemned to death in Jefferson Davis County, Mississippi, for shooting a police officer who broke down his door in the middle of the night looking for a drug stash that wasn't there.
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Kirk Semple / New York Times:
Iraqi Ministry Denies Captives Were Abused — RAMADI, Iraq, Dec. 12 - The Iraqi Interior Ministry insisted Monday that none of the 625 prisoners discovered last week in an Iraqi detention center had been tortured or abused, despite assertions by American officials to the contrary.
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Marty Kaplan / The Huffington Post:
Journalism's Slo-Mo Suicide — Dan Froomkin's "White House Briefing" column, which appears on washingtonpost.com, is a sparkling daily anthology of the deceit, disingenuousness, evasiveness, hypocrisy and lack of accountability of the W administration. What Froomkin does is artfully compile links …
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Zogby:
Bush Job Approval at 38% After edging above 40%, it fades again — President Bush's job approval rating languishes under 40%, despite an upturn in the economy and a public relations onslaught defending the role of the U.S. military in rebuilding Iraq, a new telephone poll by Zogby International shows.
John Dickerson / Slate:
The Grinch Who Doctored Photos — The RNC's fraudulent new ad. — The RNC's new Web video "Retreat and Defeat" starts with a flat-screen TV playing clips from Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean, Sen. Barbara Boxer, and Sen. John Kerry. As they speak, a white flag waves over their faces while ominous music moans.
Discussion:
Blogs for Bush, Nitpicker, Running Scared, The Carpetbagger Report, The Fix, Wonkette and The Huffington Post
Associated Press:
Update 1: Prosecutor Issues Subpoenas in DeLay Case — A Texas prosecutor has issued subpoenas for bank records and other information of a defense contractor involved in the bribery case of a California congressman as part of the investigation of former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay.
Discussion:
War and Piece
Patrick Cockburn / Independent:
Iraq: 1,000 days of war — From Shock and Awe to a country torn between insurrection and democracy — It has been the strangest war. A thousand days ago, on 20 March 2003, the US and British armies started a campaign which ended a few weeks later with the overthrow of Saddam Hussein.
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Navid Iqbal / dailyrecord.com:
Newsweek's Fineman blasts Bob Woodward — Political reporter says famed journalist's mission has changed — DAILY RECORD — MADISON — Howard Fineman, Newsweek's chief political correspondent, said Monday night in the first program of a Drew University lecture series …
Discussion:
The Moderate Voice
Brad / THE BRAD BLOG:
EXCLUSIVE: SECURITIES FRAUD LITIGATION FILED AGAINST DIEBOLD, INC! — Eight Current and Former Executives Named as Co-Defendants, Including former CEO O'Dell and New CEO Swidarski — Class Action Suit Alleges Fraud, Insider Trading, Manipulation of Stock Prices, Concealment of Known Flaws …
Dana Milbank / Washington Post:
Arctic Oil Gets an Administration Gusher — Interior Secretary Gale Norton, campaigning to win oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, had the urgency of a saleswoman falling short of her monthly quota. — "ANWR would supply every drop of petroleum for Florida for 29 years …
ReddHedd / firedoglake:
...And the WaPo Confirms My Little Bird — The WaPo reported this morning, during the political chat online, that Jim VandeHei "misspoke" and meant to say Libby on last night's Hardball instead of Hadley. … I bet he did appreciate the opportunity to set the record straight.
Mary Flood / Houston Chronicle:
Ken Lay rails at prosecutorial 'wave of terror' — Ken Lay declared his innocence, demonized his accusers and asked ex-employee "truth sayers" to rally 'round him for his trial, in a luncheon speech today. — Just a month before his Jan. 17 federal trial on seven conspiracy and fraud charges …
Adam Nossiter / New York Times:
Residents Place an Ad to Plead With Congress — NEW ORLEANS, Dec. 12 - Members of Congress, soon returning home for the holidays, will get a stark message on Tuesday that tens of thousands of this city's people are still unable to do so. — A full-page advertisement …
Discussion:
Think Progress
Paul Mirengoff / Weekly Standard:
There They Go Again — THE DEMOCRATS' 2006 election strategy regarding the war in Iraq has begun to emerge. According to the Washington Post, key Democratic operatives and legislators "are slowly coalescing around a political plan [that] would involve setting a broad time frame for drawing …
Edward Epstein / San Francisco Chronicle:
Bush says 30,000 Iraqis dead in war He says 'terrorists, Saddamists will continue violence' — Washington — President Bush hailed this week's parliamentary elections in Iraq as a momentous turning point in the war against terrorism and in developing Middle East democracy, but warned Monday that insurgent attacks will not end.
