Top Items:
New York Times:
Spy Agency Mined Vast Data Trove, Officials Report — WASHINGTON, Dec. 23 - The National Security Agency has traced and analyzed large volumes of telephone and Internet communications flowing into and out of the United States as part of the eavesdropping program that President Bush approved …
Discussion:
The Washington Monthly, Power Line, IntoxiNation-News …, Balloon Juice, Prairie Weather, Right Wing Nut House, The Poor Man, Defense Tech, Daily Kos, King of Zembla, PBD, Mia Culpa, The Strata-Sphere, Bark Bark Woof Woof, Democrat Taylor Marsh …, Prometheus 6, PoliticalSports, Needlenose, The Left Coaster and Alternate Brain
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Washington Post:
Alito Urged Wiretap Immunity — Supreme Court nominee Samuel A. Alito Jr. once argued that the nation's top law enforcement official deserves blanket protection from lawsuits when acting in the name of national security, even when those actions involve the illegal wiretapping of American citizens, documents released yesterday show.
Discussion:
The Sideshow
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New York Times:
Alito's Zeal for Presidential Power — With the Bush administration claiming sweeping and often legally baseless authority to detain and spy on people, judges play a crucial role in underscoring the limits of presidential power. When the Senate begins hearings next month on Judge Samuel Alito …
New York Times:
Alito Memo in '84 Favored Immunity for Top Officials — The attorney general should be immune from lawsuits for ordering wiretaps of Americans without permission from a court, Samuel A. Alito Jr., President Bush's Supreme Court nominee, wrote in a memorandum in 1984 as a government lawyer in the Reagan administration.
Reuters:
Mosques monitored for radiation: report — WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. officials have secretly monitored radiation levels at Muslim sites, including mosques and private homes, since September 11, 2001 as part of a top secret program searching for nuclear bombs, U.S. News and World Report said on Friday.
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Jim Robbins / The Corner on National Review Online:MORE WARRANT-LESS WORK — Generally speaking, can law enforcement …
Discussion:
Liberty Street, Daily Kos, Centerfield, THE ASTUTE BLOGGER, Macsmind and The Volokh Conspiracy
Steven Greenhouse / New York Times:
Transit Strike Reflects Nationwide Pension Woes — Fast-rising pension costs for government employees - the issue that helped set off this week's transit strike in New York City - are a problem confronting cities, counties and states nationwide, causing many budgetary experts to predict …
Discussion:
Greg's Opinion
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MSNBC:
Slacker Friday — A new Think Again column: 'Humility' is Front Page News, here. — The strike is over, leaving at least 123 reasons to be glad you live here, or wish you did, beginning with this one. 74.3 percent of New Yorkers voted against Bush. In Manhattan, the number was 81.7 percent.
Charlie Savage / Boston Globe:
Wiretaps said to sift all overseas contacts — Vast US effort seen on eavesdropping — WASHINGTON — The National Security Agency, in carrying out President Bush's order to intercept the international phone calls and e-mails of Americans suspected of links to Al Qaeda …
Discussion:
Daily Kos
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Charlie Savage / Seattle Post-Intelligencer:Spy net may pull in all U.S. calls overseas
Discussion:
The All Spin Zone
Reuters:
Saddam denounces White House 'liars' — BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Saddam Hussein denounced American leaders as liars at a turbulent court hearing on Thursday and his once feared intelligence chief abused prosecutors before threatening to walk out. — The former Iraqi president, on trial for his life …
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James Gordon Meek / NY Daily News:
Al Qaeda fiend targeted Bush — WASHINGTON - Before he was captured last spring, Osama Bin Laden's top operational commander was solely focused on killing President Bush and Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharaff, the Daily News has learned. — The capture last May of Al Qaeda's No. 3 leader …
Peggy Noonan / Opinion Journal:
One Cheer for the MSM — The media may be biased, but even they support the troops. — We all criticize the mainstream media, regularly and with reason. More and more and day by day the MSM is showing us that its response to the popularity of conservative media and the rise …
Discussion:
Power Line, One Hand Clapping, Winds of Change.NET, World O'Crap and tapscottscopydesk.blogspot.com
Janice Turner / Times of London:
Why real men don't need kiwi fruit — THERE IS AN ADVERTISING campaign for L'Oréal that puzzled me at first. Next to a picture of a late-20s Paul Newmanish guy, the caption reads: "You think you look the business? She thinks you look overworked."
volokh.com:
Abstract … Klein & Stern find that 79% of those surveyed self-report as Democratic and 9% self-report as Republican. Moreover, Klein & Stern find that party self-identification turns out to be correlated with views on a range of political issues, such as attitudes toward gun control …
Jamie Wilson / Guardian:
Stars turn backs on America's troops in Iraq — · Danger and anti-war stance keep celebrities away — · Shows now depend on Christian hip-hop groups — During world war two American troops away from home for Christmas were entertained by Marlene Dietrich, Bing Crosby and the Marx Brothers.
Kristen Mack / Houston Chronicle:
Sanchez looks to make run for county treasurer seat — Former City Councilman and twice-defeated mayoral candidate Orlando Sanchez wants to wage a comeback — as Harris County treasurer. — If he goes through with it, he will have to take on incumbent Jack Cato in the Republican primary in March.
Robert Mayer / Publius Pundit:
35 IRAQI PARTIES UNITE TO CONTEST ELECTION; LIST OF VIOLATIONS; PROTESTS BEGIN — The Sunni lists, along with ex-PM Iyad Allawi's multi-confessional secular list and others, have joined together to contest the results of the December 15 election in order, at the least, to have the results reviewed and their complaints addressed.
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Kevin Drum / The Washington Monthly:
MEME OF FOURS....Via Roy, here's another silly but (as usual) oddly compelling internet list meme: — Four jobs you've had in your life: Radio Shack manager, technical writer, product manager, VP of marketing. — Four movies you could watch over and over: Star Wars, Office Space, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, The Wizard of Oz.
Discussion:
Yellow Dog Blog
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The Big Trunk / Power Line:
THE TWILIGHT ZONE, PART 3 — Don't miss John's invaluable analysis of the legal issues raised by the NSA program: "On the legality of the NSA electronic intercept program." In my view, the legality of the NSA program described by the president and the New York Times is overdetermined …
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