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 …
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Joshua Roberts / Newsweek:
Bush's Snoopgate — The president was so desperate to kill The New York Times' eavesdropping story, he summoned the paper's editor and publisher to the Oval Office. But it wasn't just out of concern about national security. — Bush says he had 'legal authority' to permit …
Discussion:
Right Wing Nut House, The Mahablog, Brendan Nyhan, The Carpetbagger Report, The Peking Duck, IntoxiNation-News …, WTF Is It Now??, The Washington Monthly, Macsmind, Let Freedom Ring, ECHIDNE OF THE SNAKES, Bark Bark Woof Woof, Prairie Weather, The Strata-Sphere, firedoglake, Donklephant, Shakespeare's Sister, Booman Tribune ~ Boo!, lgf, This Modern World, Happy Furry Puppy Story …, Taegan Goddard's …, Daily Kos, Hullabaloo and Running Scared
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.
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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:
The Fog of False Choices — After five years, we're used to President Bush throwing up false choices to defend his policies. Americans were told, after all, that there was a choice between invading Iraq and risking a terrorist nuclear attack. So it was not a surprise …
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 …
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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 …
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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.
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.
Discussion:
Alarming News, Suitably Flip, A Blog For All, GOP and the City, Gothamist, Michelle Malkin, The Anchoress and Urban Elephants
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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 …
Ted Frank / PointofLaw.com:An opportunity for Spitzer — New York Attorney General …
Discussion:
Overlawyered
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.
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.
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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 …
Hindrocket / Power Line:
A REALLY OBVIOUS POINT — I haven't had time yet to study the legal arguments surrounding the NSA intercepts of international communications; Hugh Hewitt, for one, has addressed some of the technical issues. But there are a couple of fundamental points that, while obvious, haven't been made often enough.
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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.
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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.
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 …
Discussion:
Unclaimed Territory, Scrutiny Hooligans, AMERICAblog, Amygdala, The Next Hurrah and Confederate Yankee
