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Jesse J. Holland / Associated Press:
Senate Passes Patriot Act Extension — WASHINGTON - The Senate on Wednesday passed a six-month extension of the terror-fighting USA Patriot Act as a last resort after Democrats and a small group of GOP senators blocked President Bush and Republican congressional leaders' attempt to make most of the anti-terrorism law permanent.
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Washington Post:
Senate Votes to Extend Patriot Act for 6 Months — A much-debated domestic surveillance law won a reprieve last night when senators agreed to continue it for six months to allow House and Senate negotiators to resume efforts next year to rewrite it for the longer term.
Discussion:
The Carpetbagger Report, ScrappleFace, Hit and Run, Democrat Taylor Marsh …, Stop The ACLU and Don Surber
Washington Post:
Judges on Surveillance Court To Be Briefed on Spy Program — The presiding judge of a secret court that oversees government surveillance in espionage and terrorism cases is arranging a classified briefing for her fellow judges to address their concerns about the legality …
Discussion:
Shakespeare's Sister, Michelle Malkin, War and Piece, Balkinization, Hugh Hewitt, Power Line, Obsidian Wings, IntoxiNation-News …, The American Thinker, Amygdala, Confederate Yankee, The Strata-Sphere, Macsmind, Balloon Juice, The Carpetbagger Report, Think Progress, The Left Coaster, The Volokh Conspiracy, Wonkette, The Washington Monthly and Rising Hegemon
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Scott Shane / New York Times:
News of Surveillance Is Awkward for Agency — Testifying before a Senate committee last April, Gen. Michael V. Hayden, then head of the National Security Agency, emphasized how scrupulously the agency was protecting Americans from its electronic snooping. — "We are, I would offer …
Juliet Eilperin / Washington Post:
And the Saga on Arctic Oil Drilling Continues — Lawmakers have feuded over drilling in Alaska's wilderness for a quarter-century, ever since Congress in 1980 passed a law saying only it could determine whether drilling was permissible in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
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Susan Milligan / Boston Globe:Party support in Senate erodes around Frist
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Captain's Quarters
New York Times:
No Timetable Is Announced on Resumption of Service — After meeting with both sides through the night, state mediators have devised a preliminary framework for a settlement of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority contract dispute that would allow strikers to return to work later today …
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Scott Shields / MyDD:New Yorkers Support the Transit Strike
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Tom Watson, Confined Space, THE NEWS BLOG, Crooks and Liars, Politics in the Zeros and Instapundit.com
Anne E. Kornblut / New York Times:
Lobbyist Nears Terms on Plea Deal — WASHINGTON, Dec. 21 - Jack Abramoff, the Republican lobbyist under indictment for fraud in South Florida, is expected to complete a plea agreement in the Miami criminal case, setting the stage for him to become a crucial witness in a broad federal corruption …
Discussion:
Bull Moose, firedoglake, Talking Points Memo, TAPPED, AMERICAblog, yelladog and The Left Coaster
Glenn Kessler / Washington Post:
File the Bin Laden Phone Leak Under 'Urban Myths' — President Bush asserted this week that the news media published a U.S. government leak in 1998 about Osama bin Laden's use of a satellite phone, alerting the al Qaeda leader to government monitoring and prompting him to abandon the device.
Discussion:
firedoglake, Ezra Klein, Comments From Left Field, IntoxiNation-News …, Amygdala, The Left Coaster, PoliBlog, Poynter Online and TAPPED
Howard Fineman / MSNBC:
Spying, the Constitution - and the 'I-word' — 2006 will offer up Nixon-era nastiness and a chorus of calls to impeach Bush — WASHINGTON - — Howard Fineman — In the first weeks and months after 9/11, I am told by a very good source, there was a lot of wishing out loud …
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Neil A. Lewis / New York Times:
Court Refuses U.S. Bid to Shift Terror Suspect — WASHINGTON, Dec. 21 - A federal appeals court delivered a sharp rebuke to the Bush administration Wednesday, refusing to allow the transfer of Jose Padilla from military custody to civilian law enforcement authorities to face terrorism charges.
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John Madden / ESPN:
Dungy's son, 18, found dead in Tampa suburb — James Dungy, the 18-year-old son of Indianapolis Colts coach Tony Dungy, was found dead at 1:30 a.m. ET Thursday in his apartment in Lutz, Fla., a suburb of Tampa, Debbie Carter, a spokesperson for the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office, confirmed Thursday.
Jim Dwyer / New York Times:
New York Police Covertly Join In at Protest Rallies — Undercover New York City police officers have conducted covert surveillance in the last 16 months of people protesting the Iraq war, bicycle riders taking part in mass rallies and even mourners at a street vigil for a cyclist killed in an accident, a series of videotapes show.
Steve Connor / Independent:
Britain will be first country to monitor every car journey — From 2006 Britain will be the first country where every journey by every car will be monitored — Britain is to become the first country in the world where the movements of all vehicles on the roads are recorded.
Discussion:
The Washington Monthly, Dispatches from the …, The World Wide Rant, Amygdala, Crooked Timber, Samizdata.net and TalkLeft
Charles Hurt / Washington Times:
'Warrantless' searches not unprecedented — Previous administrations, as well as the court that oversees national security cases, agreed with President Bush's position that a president legally may authorize searches without warrants in pursuit of foreign intelligence.
Washington Post:
Department's Mission Was Undermined From Start — The Department of Homeland Security was only a month old, and already it had an image problem. — It was April 2003, and Susan Neely, a close aide to DHS Secretary Tom Ridge, decided the gargantuan new conglomeration of 22 federal agencies …
Mark Leibovich / Washington Post:
Unanswer Man — Scott McClellan Is the President's Spokesman, Which Doesn't Leave Him Much to Say — On the Thursday morning after his reelection in November 2004, President Bush bounded unexpectedly into the Roosevelt Room of the White House, where about 15 members of his communications team were celebrating.
Reuters:
Annan assails reporter in rare show of anger — UNITED NATIONS, Dec 21 (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan lost his diplomatic cool with a reporter on Wednesday, calling him an "overgrown schoolboy" in a show of anger at questions over his part in the Iraq oil-for-food scandal.
Jim Hoagland / Washington Post:
Boosting Democracy, On Purpose or Not — Democracy in Iraq owes much to the determined efforts of President Bush in 2005. So do democracy and constitutional order in the United States, if in a different way. — Iraq's three successful elections galvanized Bush into showing leadership and …
