Top Items:
Benjamin Wallace-Wells / Washington Monthly:
Kos Call — For America's number one liberal blogger — politics is like sports: It's all about winning. — I hate Washington," says Markos Moulitsas Zuniga. Many people, of course, say that they hate Washington. Jay Leno says so. So do Rush Limbaugh and Monica Lewinsky.
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Mark / Decision '08:
The Wonderful World of Kos — Lots of buzz (just check out Memeorandum) over this Washington Monthly profile of our ol' buddy Markos Moulitsas Zuniga. Some highlights and lowlights: … Psbbbbtt! Patently false; 3.7 million visitors a week is not really 3.7 million visitors …
Atrios / Eschaton:
Wonk Off — Garance and Kevin, responding tolWaMo profile of Markos discuss the lack of blogospheric wonkery. — I've said this before, but there's just little point in detail-oriented grand policy proposals when Bush and Republicans are in office. Just about everything their side offers …
Garance Franke-Ruta / TAPPED:WHAT'S THE STORY WITH MARKOS? If you're at all like me you've …
Discussion:
Daily Kos
Kevin Drum / The Washington Monthly:KOS CALL....In the latest issue of the Washington Monthly …
Discussion:
Shakespeare's Sister
Barton Gellman / Washington Post:
Daschle: Congress Denied Bush War Powers in U.S. — The Bush administration requested, and Congress rejected, war-making authority "in the United States" in negotiations over the joint resolution passed days after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, according to an opinion article …
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Charles Krauthammer / Washington Post:Impeachment Nonsense — 2005 was already the year of the demagogue …
Discussion:
Brad DeLong's Semi …
New York Times:
House Approves 5-Week Extension of Patriot Act — WASHINGTON, Dec. 22 - The House of Representatives approved a five-week extension of the USA Patriot Act this afternoon and sent it to the Senate for final approval this evening in a late flurry of action to prevent the broad antiterrorism law from expiring on Dec. 31.
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Washington Post:
House Passes One-Month Extension of Patriot Act — The House of Representatives agreed to extend a controversial domestic surveillance law this afternoon, but it limited the extension to a little over one month and rejected a carefully brokered compromise from the Senate that had given the law a six-month reprieve.
Aram Roston / MSNBC:
Chalabi's defeat puts U.S. friends in quandary — Should his backers go with his view that it was a fraudulent election? — Atef Hassan / Reuters file — Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister Ahmed Chalabi talks to his aides during a break while campaigning for Iraq's parliamentary elections in the city of Basra on Dec. 13.
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Edward Cody / Washington Post:
China Vows Peaceful Use Of Its Power — White Paper Tries to Ease Fears of Growing Strength — BEIJING, Dec. 22 — The Chinese government, responding to doubts in the United States and neighboring Asian countries, made what it called a "solemn promise" Thursday that its growing power will never become a threat to other nations.
Discussion:
The Peking Duck
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Laura / War and Piece:
Where Are the Arrests? — Perhaps I'm a little slow, but there's something else that doesn't make sense about spygate. Since October 2001, Bush has authorized 30 times - every 45 days - warrantless NSA domestic surveillance of what I have heard estimated of approximately 1,000 US persons a year.
Ben Macintyre / Times of London:
Mullahs versus the bloggers — The explosive growth of youthful, irreverent online diaries has alarmed Iran's hardline Government — THE MUSIC OF Eric Clapton was banned in Iran this week. Broadcasters were ordered to cease playing "decadent" western songs and stick to "fine Iranian music".
Discussion:
USS Neverdock
Think Progress:
VIDEO: Fox Affiliate Airs Ode to White Supremacist Site — Fox affiliate "FOX Carolina" last month ran a one-sided fluff piece exploring StormFront.org, an online hub for white supremacists. — The Anti-Defamation League describes StormFront as a "veritable supermarket of online hate …
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Newsweek:
Where's the Outrage? — Bush's defense of his phone-spying program has disturbing echoes of arguments once used by South Africa's apartheid regime. Why Americans should examine the parallels. — Obed Zilwa / AP — Former South African president P. W. Botha believed his country was under 'total onslaught' from its enemies
Discussion:
AMERICAN FUTURE
Edward M. Kennedy / Boston Globe:
On wiretapping, Bush isn't listening to the Constitution — THE PRESIDENT is not above the law; he is not King George. Yet, with sorrow, we are now learning that in this great land we have an administration that has refused to follow well-crafted, longstanding procedures that require …
Lawrence Kudlow / Human Events:
2005 Man of the Year: Rep. Mike Pence — If the Republican majority in the Senate and House can somehow stave off a newly energized Democratic assault in the mid-term elections next November and preserve their governing status, they may well have Indiana congressman Mike Pence to thank.
Discussion:
A Chequer-Board of Nights …
Rachel Sylvester / Telegraph:
Letwin: We will redistribute wealth — The Tories should support the redistribution of wealth and try to narrow the gap between rich and poor, Oliver Letwin, the party's new policy chief, says today. — In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, he says: "Of course, inequality matters.
National Review:
The Blow-Up — In a telling moment at a United Nations press conference Wednesday, Secretary-General Kofi Annan lost his temper — hurling insults at a widely respected senior member of the U.N. press corps. Beyond the who-what-when-where-how of this episode, the big question is: Why?
