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 …
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Washington Post:
Chalabi Lacks Votes Needed to Win Spot in Iraqi Assembly — BAGHDAD, Dec. 26 — Unexpectedly low support from overseas voters has left Ahmed Chalabi — the returned Iraqi exile once backed by the United States to lead Iraq — facing a shutout from power in this month's vote for the country's …
Jane Hamsher / firedoglake:
Wingnut Welfare — One of the big stories of 2005 has to be the extent to which the media turns out to have been bought and paid for, bullied and manipulated by an elaborate right wing money machine. Each new week brings some shocking revelation about how the White House kept its illegal activities …
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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.
Discussion:
Rantingprofs, DIRELAND, the talking dog, Debsweb, Mia Culpa, Donklephant and Politics in the Zeros
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 …
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.
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 …
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.
Jim VandeHei / Washington Post:
White House Press Room To Be Closed For Makeover — The White House spokesman will spin on a new stage next summer. — With the administration moving ahead with plans to renovate the dirty and decaying press room off the West Wing of the White House, spokesman Scott McClellan …
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 …
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 …
Discussion:
The Washington Monthly, The Carpetbagger Report, Scrutiny Hooligans, Bad Attitudes and Daily Kos
James Bone / Opinion Journal:
Where Is the Car? — Why Kofi Annan said I'm not a "serious journalist." — UNITED NATIONS—Kofi Annan, U.N. secretary-general and Nobel peace laureate, is normally the meekest of diplomats. He is so accommodating he once described Saddam Hussein as a man "I can do business with."
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.
Paul Martin / Washington Times:
Torture jails force ouster of Iraq chief — LONDON — Iraqi Interior Minister Bayan Jabr, whose ministry is accused of operating clandestine prisons where some detainees were tortured, will vacate his job shortly, security and political sources in Baghdad said yesterday.
