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Political Web, page A1 … for 1:35 PM ET, December 20, 2005
Current Politics Page     Also:   Tech

Top Items:

James Rainey / Los Angeles Times:
Critics Question Timing of Surveillance Story  —  The New York Times, which knew about the secret wiretaps for more than a year, published because of a reporter's new book, sources say.  —  The New York Times first debated publishing a story about secret eavesdropping on Americans as early as last fall …
RELATED ITEMS:
Noahmax / Defense Tech:
WIRETAP MYSTERY: SPOOKS REACT  —  A few current and former signals intelligence guys have been checking in since this NSA domestic spying story broke.  Their reactions range between midly creeped out and completely pissed off.  —  All of the sigint specialists emphasized repeatedly …
Joshua Roberts / Newsweek:
Bush's Snoopgate  —  The president was so desperate to kill …
John McIntyre / The RCP Blog:   Jonathan Alter & The Ghost of Nixon
Washington Post:
Vital Presidential Power  —  A U.S. president has just received word that American counterterrorist operatives have captured a senior al Qaeda operative in Pakistan.  Among his possessions are a couple of cell phones — phones that contain several American phone numbers.
RELATED ITEMS:
George F. Will / Washington Post:
Why Didn't He Ask Congress?  —  The president's authorization of domestic surveillance by the National Security Agency contravened a statute's clear language.  Assuming that urgent facts convinced him that he should proceed anyway and on his own, what argument convinced him that he lawfully could?
New York Times:
Administration Cites War Vote in Spying Case  —  WASHINGTON, Dec. 19 - President Bush and two of his most senior aides argued Monday that the highly classified program to spy on suspected members of terrorist groups in the United States grew out of the president's constitutional authority …
New York Times:
Judge Bars 'Intelligent Design' From Pa. Classes  —  HARRISBURG, Pa. — "Intelligent design" cannot be mentioned in biology classes in a Pennsylvania public school district, a federal judge said Tuesday, ruling in one of the biggest courtroom clashes on evolution since the 1925 Scopes trial.
RELATED ITEM:
Martha Raffaele / Associated Press:
Judge Rules Against Pa. Biology Curriculum  —  HARRISBURG, Pa. - "Intelligent design" cannot be mentioned in biology classes in a Pennsylvania public school district, a federal judge said Tuesday, ruling in one of the biggest courtroom clashes on evolution since the 1925 Scopes trial.
Discussion: IntoxiNation-News … and ACSBlog
Eric Lichtblau / New York Times:
F.B.I. Watched Activist Groups, New Files Show  —  WASHINGTON, Dec. 19 - Counterterrorism agents at the Federal Bureau of Investigation have conducted numerous surveillance and intelligence-gathering operations that involved, at least indirectly, groups active in causes as diverse as the environment …
RELATED ITEM:
Opinion Journal:
Thank You for Wiretapping  —  Why the Founders made presidents dominant on national security.  —  Wisconsin Democrat Russ Feingold wants to be President, and that's fair enough.  By all means go for it in 2008.  The same applies to Lindsey Graham, the South Carolina Republican who's always …
Discussion: Carol Platt Liebau
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Kevin Drum / The Washington Monthly:
WHAT IS THE NSA UP TO?....So what's the nature of the secret NSA bugging program?
Evan Coyne Maloney / >bt: Brain Terminal:
Strike Shuts Down NYC Subways & Buses  —  20 December 2005 @ 3:43AM >> For the first time since 1980, the New York City public transit system is completely shut down due to a strike.  Transit Workers Union head Roger Toussaint made the announcement shortly after 3:00AM local time.
RELATED ITEMS:
New York Times:
Millions Are Left to Make It to Work Any Way They Can  —  Workers walked to their offices in bitter cold, long lines formed for taxis and the police inspected cars at tunnels and bridges as transit workers started a strike this morning, shutting down New York City's subway and bus system …
Discussion: Restless Mania and Gothamist
Ted Frank / PointofLaw.com:   An opportunity for Spitzer  —  New York Attorney General …
Washington Post:
Senator Sounded Alarm in '03  —  Rockefeller Wrote Cheney to Voice Concerns on Spying  —  John D. Rockefeller IV, a wealthy man representing a poor state, had been the top Democrat on the Senate intelligence committee for six months when he sat down to a secret briefing on July 17, 2003.
RELATED ITEMS:
Bull Moose:
Big Brother W.?  —  The Moose doesn't think it's 1984.  —  The latest imbroglio over the revelation that the government eavesdropped into the international phone calls of U.S. citizens does not set the Moose's antlers on fire.  The Administration is going to have to offer a better explanation …
CNN:
Bush: Secret wiretaps won't stop  —  President accuses senators of 'playing politics with Patriot Act'  —  WASHINGTON (CNN) — President Bush defended using government wiretaps without court authorization to monitor terrorism suspects and urged the Senate to renew the USA Patriot Act during his year-end news conference Monday.
Discussion: Right Wing News
RELATED ITEM:
Scotsman:
Stalin's half-man, half-ape super-warriors  —  THE Soviet dictator Josef Stalin ordered the creation of Planet of the Apes-style warriors by crossing humans with apes, according to recently uncovered secret documents.  —  Moscow archives show that in the mid-1920s Russia's top animal breeding scientist …
Mark Blumenthal / Mystery Pollster:
NOT SUCH AN OUTLIER AFTER ALL? … Advantage, Mr. Todd.  A new national poll is out tonight from ABC News (summary, full results) and the Washington Post (article, full results), and it suggests that the Hotline poll may have been more of harbinger than a fluke after all.
RELATED ITEM:
Lydia Saad / Gallup:
Negative Attitudes on Iraq Prove Hard to Change
Discussion: ABCNEWS
Associated Press:
Iran bans Western music  —  Ruling takes country back to Khomeini days  —  TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has banned Western music from Iran's radio and TV stations, reviving one of the harshest cultural decrees from the early days of the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Discussion: Shakespeare's Sister and Althouse

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More Items:

Philip Blenkinsop / Reuters:
Confusion follows relief over freed German hostage
Louis Sahagun / Los Angeles Times:
A Public Goodbye for Williams
Tyler Cowen / Marginal Revolution:
Who benefits from fair trade?
Discussion: Crescat Sententia
Kristen Breitweiser / The Huffington Post:
The King's Red Herring
New York Times:
Governments Tremble at Google's Bird's-Eye View
Michael A. Fletcher / Washington Post:
President Takes the Offensive With Press
Discussion: Decision '08 and Daily Pundit
Mark Steyn / Telegraph:
Racism is bad - so is self-delusion
Discussion: Tim Blair
Victor Fouad / canadiancoalition.com:
Liberal strategy a dangerous mix of religion and politics

Earlier Picks:

New York Times:
The Fog of False Choices
Doug Struck / Washington Post:
Shiite Alliance Leads In Partial Iraq Count
Discussion: PoliBlog and The Liquid List
G. Jeffrey MacDonald / Christian Science Monitor:
Investors speak out on free speech
Discussion: The Peking Duck
Barbara Boxer / boxer.senate.gov:
Boxer Asks Presidential Scholars …
Shailagh Murray / Washington Post:
Stevens Holds Senate in Session
Howard Kurtz / Washington Post:
washingtonpost.com > Live Discussions
Discussion: Poynter Online and mediabistro
Greyhawk / Mudville Gazette:
"MIKE"  —  Via email:  —  Came across your blog this morning …
Opinion Journal:
Our Friends the Pakistanis  —  Support for the U.S. is surging …
 
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