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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:
Right Wing Nut House, firedoglake, Hullabaloo, Big Lizards, The Poor Man, The Moderate Voice, Balloon Juice, Power Line, Prairie Weather, Booman Tribune ~ Boo!, The Strata-Sphere, protein wisdom, The Left Coaster, IntoxiNation-News …, The Carpetbagger Report, Defense Tech, ECHIDNE OF THE SNAKES, This Modern World, The Heretik, Jihad Watch, King of Zembla, Daily Kos, PBD, Mia Culpa, Stop The ACLU, Factesque, Decision '08, Bark Bark Woof Woof, Democrat Taylor Marsh …, Prometheus 6, The Next Hurrah, Alternate Brain, PoliticalSports, Needlenose and Seattle Post-Intelligencer
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Michelle Malkin:
THE NEW YORK TIMES STRIKES AGAIN — Bush's "impeachable crimes"... Yes, the New York Times continues to show its disregard for our nation's security, publishing additional classified information about the NSA's much-hyped surveillance program. Now it's a report that the NSA program traced …
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
Tom Maguire / JustOneMinute:They're Not Going To Stop — The NY Times escalates its war …
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BrothersJudd Blog
Kevin Drum / The Washington Monthly:MORE ON THE NSA PROGRAM....James Risen and Eric Lichtblau provide …
Discussion:
The Left Coaster
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 …
Discussion:
Middle Earth Journal
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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
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.
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 …
Kevin Drum / The Washington Monthly:
PUBLIC EMPLOYEE UNIONS....This single paragraph from the New York Times does a pretty good job of encapsulating the mixed feeling a lot of people probably have about public employee unions: … An average salary of $55,000 a year? That's fine. Sure, it's pretty good money, but my guess is that most people are OK with it anyway.
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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.
Jonathan Saltzman / Boston Globe:
Student's tall tale revealed — Confesses fabricating US surveillance story — It rocketed across the Internet a week ago, a startling newspaper report that agents from the US Department of Homeland Security had visited a student at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth …
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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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 …
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.
Knight Ridder:
Iraqi court disqualifies prominent Sunni candidates — BAGHDAD, Iraq - An Iraqi court has ruled that some of the most prominent Sunni Muslims who were elected to parliament last week won't be allowed to serve because officials suspect that they were high-ranking members of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party.
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.
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
Henry / Crooked Timber:
Wonkery or Wankery? — Kevin Drum reads this Washington Monthly article on Kos, and says that we need more wonkishness in the leftwing blogosphere. Duncan Black disagrees. … I think this misses the point. Not only is a certain amount of wonkishness on the left a good thing in itself, but it can be an important political weapon.
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