Top Items:
Howard Kurtz / Washington Post:
Bush Presses Editors on Security — President Bush has been summoning newspaper editors lately in an effort to prevent publication of stories he considers damaging to national security. — The efforts have failed, but the rare White House sessions with the executive editors of The Washington Post …
Mohammed Hato / MSNBC:
Bombs, protests in Iraq as election mood sours — At least five Iraqis, U.S. soldier killed — Iraqis inspect the wreckage of two cars at the site of a mortar shell attack in Baghdad on Sunday. — NBC VIDEO … BAGHDAD, Iraq - At least five Iraqis and a U.S. soldier were killed …
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Sabrina Tavernise / New York Times:
Shiites Decline Sunni Bid for More Iraq Parliament Seats — Baghdad, IRAQ, Dec. 25 - Sunni Arab political leaders asked the main Shiite political block today to give them 10 Shiite seats in the new parliament in an early attempt to defuse tensions over the results of last week's election.
Discussion:
Informed Comment
New York Times:
Huge Rise Looms for Health Care in City's Budget — When the Metropolitan Transportation Authority proposed making new workers chip in more to its pension fund than current workers do, it was enough to send the union out on strike and bring the nation's largest mass-transit system to a halt for three days.
John Grisham / New York Times:
Silent Nights on the Gulf Coast — IN the harrowing days after Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, the shellshocked and homeless survivors strung up tents and tarps wherever they could find standing shelter, anything to hide from the sun. Now, four months later, many of the tents remain …
Discussion:
Rantingprofs
Boston Globe:
Mosque on hold — THE STORY on the lawsuit filed against us by the Islamic Society of Boston (''Praised by beacon, mosque project stalls amid rancor," Page A1, Dec. 18) did mention that the society's founder, Abdurahman Alamoudi, raised money for Al Qaeda and is in jail (in connection with a plot to assassinate a Saudi prince).
Adam Liptak / New York Times:
Courts Criticize Judges' Handling of Asylum Cases — Federal appeals court judges around the nation have repeatedly excoriated immigration judges this year for what they call a pattern of biased and incoherent decisions in asylum cases. — In one decision last month, Richard A. Posner …
Discussion:
TalkLeft
Michael Janofsky / New York Times:
Professors' Politics Draw Lawmakers Into the Fray — While attending a Pennsylvania Republican Party picnic, Jennie Mae Brown bumped into her state representative and started venting. — "How could this happen?" Ms. Brown asked Representative Gibson C. Armstrong two summers ago …
Mark Steyn / Chicago Sun Times:
Falling birth rates not just a problem in Europe — "But the angel said unto him, Fear not, Zacharias: for thy prayer is heard; and thy wife Elisabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John." — If, like increasing numbers of Europeans, you have "some problems …
Eric Lipton / New York Times:
On Gulf Coast, Big Difference Between Corps and Private Cleanups — PASCAGOULA, Miss. - There is an eerie stillness here on Edgewood Avenue. Toys, broken glass and random pieces of furniture are strewn across yards. Not a single person is in sight. The only movement …
Discussion:
Jay Currie
Mark Weinraub / Reuters:
Christmas Eve sales slower than predicted — CHICAGO (Reuters) - U.S. retailers faced slower-than-expected traffic in stores on the last shopping day before Christmas as extended hours and steep discounts failed to draw a big crowd of shoppers. — "I don't think the day is the kind …
David Axe / Defense Tech:
MERRY CHRISTMAS, IRAQ — At the Erbil Ministry of Culture's media hall, the Iraqi-Kurdistan Symphony Orchestra has just struck the final chord of the Kurdish national anthem, and the audience — Kurdish Christians and Muslims, Arabs and Turkomens, maybe even an Iraqi Jew or two …
BBC:
Queen highlights year's tragedies — The Queen has praised the "quite remarkable" humanitarian responses to natural disasters and terrorist acts in 2005 in her Christmas Day message. — She recalled events from the Asian tsunami to Hurricane Katrina and the 7 July London bombings and highlighted the efforts by people of all faiths.
Discussion:
The Right Coast
