Top Items:
Richard A. Oppel Jr / New York Times:
Iraq Vote Shows Sunnis Are Few in New Military — BAGHDAD, Iraq, Dec. 26 - An analysis of preliminary voting results released Monday from the Dec. 15 parliamentary election suggests that in contrast to the remarkable surge in Sunni Arab participation in the political process …
Discussion:
Informed Comment
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Shankar Vedantam / Washington Post:
A Political Debate On Stress Disorder — The spiraling cost of post-traumatic stress disorder among war veterans has triggered a politically charged debate and ignited fears that the government is trying to limit expensive benefits for emotionally scarred troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.
Deborah Howell / Washington Post:
The Whole Story on Military Recruiting? — Numbers aren't just facts. They can be interpreted in many ways, even if they come from the same or similar sources. — Ann Scott Tyson, a respected military reporter just back from Iraq, wrote in a front-page story Nov. 4 that …
Robert Steinback / Miami Herald:
Fear destroys what bin Laden could not — One wonders if Osama bin Laden didn't win after all. He ruined the America that existed on 9/11. But he had help. — If, back in 2001, anyone had told me that four years after bin Laden's attack our president would admit that he broke U.S. law …
New York Times:
The Right Stuff — As director of the Congressional Budget Office, Douglas Holtz-Eakin has been Congress's top economist, handpicked by the Republican leadership. Recently, he had some advice for lawmakers - mostly Republicans - who insist that more tax cuts will foster economic growth …
Thomas Sowell / Townhall.com:
Cheap politicians — I don't make a million dollars a year but I think every member of Congress should be paid at least that much. It's not because those turkeys in Washington deserve it. It's because we deserve a lot better people than we have in Congress.
Discussion:
Vox Popoli
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E. J. Dionne Jr / Washington Post:
When the Cutting Is Corrupted — With indicted superlobbyist Jack Abramoff reportedly ready to cooperate with prosecutors and his partner, Michael Scanlon, already singing, 2006 is expected to be the year of congressional scandals. — Lord knows, a housecleaning in the Capitol is definitely in order.
The Big Trunk / Power Line:
WHAT KUTTNER COULD LEARN FROM LINCOLN — On Saturday in "Thinking about the Great Liberator" I wrote a little on Lincoln's exercise of the commander-in-chief's war powers during the Civil War. Wielding Lincoln as his club, left-winger Robert Kuttner coincidentally attacked President Bush …
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James Q. Wilson / Opinion Journal:
Faith in Theory — Why "intelligent design" simply isn't science. — When a federal judge in Pennsylvania struck down the efforts of a local school board to teach "intelligent design," he rightly criticized the wholly unscientific nature of that enterprise.
Michael Yon / Online Magazine:
Montage Or Mirage — The election photo-montage I posted last week has a certain propagandistic feel to it. It has all the usual suspects: the waving flag, the iconic soundtrack (Fanfare for the Common Man, hardly on the Iraqi Top 40) and the sequence of photos selected to tell a story ALL IN BOLD CAPITALS.
Evelyn Nieves / Washington Post:
S.D. Makes Abortion Rare Through Laws And Stigma — Out-of-State Doctors Come Weekly to 1 Clinic — SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — The waiting room at the Planned Parenthood clinic was packed by the time the doctor arrived — an hour late because of weather delays in Minneapolis.
Richard Bernstein / New York Times:
Hometown Snubs Schwarzenegger Over Death Penalty — The stadium in Graz, Austria, now has a generic name (top). Its old name was taken down as a protest over the California governor's decision to allow the execution of an inmate. — BERLIN, Dec. 26 - For years the quaint Austrian town …
Discussion:
Big Lizards
Eugene Robinson / Washington Post:
Power That Bush Can't Just Take — Since the holiday season is a time of generosity and goodwill toward all — even those who torture the Constitution and hoodwink the nation into ill-advised wars — let's do a little thought experiment. — Let's assume that George W. Bush's claim …
Discussion:
Bark Bark Woof Woof
Jere Longman / New York Times:
With Coastline in Ruins, Cajuns Face Prospect of Uprooted Towns — GRAND CHENIER, La. - Cameron Parish, where generations of Cajuns have hunted ducks and pulled up redfish, lost about 400 people to Hurricane Audrey in 1957. Last fall, when Hurricane Rita destroyed thousands of structures …
Rick Klein / Boston Globe:
Democrats to woo voters on wage issue — Frozen minimum pay seen as spur — WASHINGTON — New Year's Day will bring the ninth straight year in which the federal minimum wage has remained frozen at $5.15 an hour, marking the second-longest period that the nation has had a stagnant minimum wage since …
