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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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 …
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?
Discussion:
The Mahablog, Donklephant, The Corner on National …, AMERICAblog, TAPPED and TheAgitator.com
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.
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.
Jonathan Allen / The Hill:
Civil liberties don't matter much 'after you're dead,' Cornyn says on spy case — Senators launched new salvos in the battle over national security and civil liberties yesterday as recent revelations of domestic spying continued to color the chamber's stalemate on an extension of the anti-terrorism law known as the Patriot Act.
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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 …
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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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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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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.
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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 …
Discussion:
Washington Post, Balkinization, Michelle Malkin, Captain's Quarters, Balloon Juice, IntoxiNation-News …, The Moderate Voice, The Carpetbagger Report, WTF Is It Now??, No More Mister Nice Blog, Say Anything, Shakespeare's Sister, BlondeSense, The All Spin Zone, Debbie Schlussel and scout prime
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 …
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Evan Coyne Maloney / >bt: Brain Terminal:Strike Shuts Down NYC Subways & Buses
Discussion:
Suitably Flip, RAGGED THOTS, Alarming News, A Blog For All, Gothamist, Michelle Malkin and GOP and the City
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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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, Eschaton, mediabistro, The Washington Monthly, Daily Kos, Shakespeare's Sister, Roger Ailes and This Modern World
John McIntyre / The RCP Blog:
Jonathan Alter & The Ghost of Nixon — Jonathan Alter provides a classic liberal misreading of the political dynamics at play in the leaked story on the NSA's covert spy program. Alter reports that President Bush called in both the publisher and the executive editor of the New York Times on December 6 in a …
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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.
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 …
