Top Items:
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 …
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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.
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 …
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Kevin Drum / The Washington Monthly:
MORE ON THE NSA PROGRAM....James Risen and Eric Lichtblau provide some additional technical information about the NSA's domestic spying operation today: … This is interesting stuff, and it sounds like pretty useful stuff to me, too. This program and this technology might very well be important elements in the fight against al-Qaeda.
Discussion:
The Left Coaster, The Poor Man, AMERICAblog, Ezra Klein, Hullabaloo and The Carpetbagger Report
Tom Maguire / JustOneMinute:They're Not Going To Stop — The NY Times escalates its war …
Discussion:
Prairie Weather, firedoglake, Big Lizards, protein wisdom, The Strata-Sphere and Booman Tribune ~ Boo!
Thomas G. Donlan / online.barrons.com:
Unwarranted Executive Power — The pursuit of terrorism does not authorize the president to make up new laws — AS THE YEAR WAS DRAWING TO A CLOSE, we picked up our New York Times and learned that the Bush administration has been fighting terrorism by intercepting communications in America without warrants.
Discussion:
The Left Coaster
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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 …
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Bradley Graham / Washington Post:
Military Confirms Surge in Airstrikes — U.S. airstrikes in Iraq have surged this fall, jumping to nearly five times the average monthly rate earlier in the year, according to U.S. military figures. — Until the end of August, U.S. warplanes were conducting about 25 strikes a month.
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 …
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.
Jack Straw / Times of London:
Have a little faith in the 'C' word — I don't know where the idea about offending other faiths by using 'Christmas' came from, but it's mad — THE CHRISTMAS CARD I sent out as Blackburn's MP is a proper one. It was designed by Anna Souroullas (Year 3 of Holy Souls RC Primary School) …
Discussion:
One Hand Clapping
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 …
Washington Post:
U.S. Monitored Muslim Sites Across Nation for Radiation — Clandestine FBI and Energy Department teams have monitored private property in the United States for signs of radiation without warrants, U.S. officials said yesterday. — Officials said the monitoring, which intensified after the Sept. 11 …
Discussion:
Macsmind
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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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.
