Top Items:
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?
Charles Lane / Washington Post:
White House Elaborates on Authority for Eavesdropping — Facing mounting criticism over use of the National Security Agency to listen to phone calls of suspected al Qaeda contacts in the United States without court approval, the Bush administration went public yesterday with its most detailed legal defense yet of the program.
National Review:
Clinton Claimed Authority to Order No-Warrant Searches — In a little-remembered debate from 1994, the Clinton administration argued that the president has "inherent authority" to order physical searches — including break-ins at the homes of U.S. citizens — for foreign intelligence purposes without …
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.
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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.
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 …
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Michelle Malkin:
NSA AND THE LAW: WHAT THE TIMES DIDN'T PRINT — There's a wealth of new information and debate in the blogosphere on the NSA special collections program, including non-Bush-bashing independent legal opinions that the NYTimes, unsurprisingly, had no time and space to see fit to print …
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Opinion Journal:Thank You for Wiretapping — Why the Founders made presidents dominant …
Discussion:
Carol Platt Liebau
Kevin Drum / The Washington Monthly:WHAT IS THE NSA UP TO?....So what's the nature of the secret NSA bugging program?
Discussion:
TAPPED, The Democratic Party, TalkLeft, Begging to Differ, The Left Coaster, Total Information Awareness, Blogs for Bush, Talking Points Memo, PoliticalSports, Daily Kos, Ezra Klein, Middle Earth Journal, The Carpetbagger Report, whatever already!, Billmon, Jesse Berney dot com, Eschaton, Hullabaloo and Mathew Gross
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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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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Spencer S. Hsu / Washington Post:FBI Papers Show Terror Inquiries Into PETA; Other Groups Tracked
Discussion:
The Moderate Voice, Comments From Left Field, The Corner on National …, Mia Culpa and Running Scared
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.
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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 …
Discussion:
Brendan Nyhan, Attytood, mediabistro, Eschaton, The Washington Monthly, Daily Kos, Shakespeare's Sister and Roger Ailes
sldn.org:
Pentagon Labels Gay Kiss-In a 'Credible Threat' — WASHINGTON, DC - According to recent press reports, Pentagon officials have been spying on what they call "suspicious" meetings by civilian groups, including student groups opposed to the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" ban on lesbian, gay and bisexual military personnel.
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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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Hullabaloo:
Stocking Stuffer Request — While everybody has their credit cards out buying a "secret Santa" moustache mug for their most hated colleague at the office, I wonder if some of you might want to throw a little cash my way while you're at it? For reasons I haven't figured out, this blog is doing miserably at selling blog-ads.
Discussion:
TBogg
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.
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Louis Sahagun / Los Angeles Times:
A Public Goodbye for Williams — About 2,000 people turn out to view the body of the killer and writer executed last week despite a high-profile campaign to save his life. — For many of the mourners filing past the casket Monday, the gray-bearded gentleman in the tailored gray suit …
