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 Moderate Voice, protein wisdom, Power Line, Big Lizards, Prairie Weather, Right Wing Nut House, The Heretik, This Modern World, The Poor Man, IntoxiNation-News …, Balloon Juice, The Strata-Sphere, King of Zembla, Defense Tech, The Left Coaster, Factesque, Decision '08, ECHIDNE OF THE SNAKES, Daily Kos, PBD, Mia Culpa, Bark Bark Woof Woof, Democrat Taylor Marsh …, Prometheus 6, The Next Hurrah, PoliticalSports, Needlenose and Alternate Brain
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Kevin Drum / The Washington Monthly:MORE ON THE NSA PROGRAM....James Risen and Eric Lichtblau provide …
Discussion:
The Left Coaster
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.
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 …
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Ellen Knickmeyer / Washington Post:
U.S. Airstrikes Take Toll on Civilians — Eyewitnesses Cite Scores Killed in Marine Offensive in Western Iraq — RAMADI, Iraq — U.S. Marine airstrikes targeting insurgents sheltering in Iraqi residential neighborhoods are killing civilians as well as guerrillas along the Euphrates River …
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.
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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Patrick Quinn / Associated Press:Iraq Sunni, Shiite Groups Threaten Boycott
Discussion:
Publius Pundit
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.
Discussion:
The Officers' Club
David Ignatius / Washington Post:
Slogging and Blogging Through Iraq — A Marine blogger who calls himself Captain B is describing the scruffy four-foot Christmas tree at his base in Anbar province, west of Baghdad: "Lacking ornaments for the most part, we used bullets, cigars, Marlboro packs and other things we like and hung them on the tree.
Discussion:
Milblogging.com
Wall Street Journal:
A Holiday in Wartime — Writing from his position in Iraq, Capt. Noah Hanners says he and his troops will have no choice on Christmas Day but to carry out the normal yet dangerous tasks of an army at war. Still, Capt. Hanners is thinking about marking the holiday in his own quiet way …
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 …
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
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."
James Taranto / Opinion Journal:
Best of the Web — Cease-Fire's Greetings — While we weren't looking, apparently they resolved the "war over Christmas." Christmas will be this Sunday, and Monday, Dec. 26, will be a "holiday." Fine by us—we'll see you Tuesday. — Better Read Than Ted
Discussion:
Betsy's Page, The American Thinker, Coyote Blog, The Democratic Daily Blog, Running Scared and The Daily Brief
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Jeff Goldstein / protein wisdom:About that U Mass Dartmouth student "targeted" by Homeland Security for reading Mao
Discussion:
Right Wing Nut House
BBC:
Killing of Iraq Kurds 'genocide' — A court in The Hague has ruled that the killing of thousands of Kurds in Iraq in the 1980s was an act of genocide. — The ruling came in the case of Dutch trader Frans van Anraat, who was given a 15-year sentence for selling chemicals to Saddam Hussein's regime.
Ritholtz / The Big Picture:
Barron's: Investigate a possible impeachable offense — I normally steer clear of politics (except when it relates to science and technology). — But I had to sit up and take notice this morning, when I saw the normally conservative-leaning financial weekly Barron's calls for an investigation …
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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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