Top Items:
R. Jeffrey Smith / Washington Post:
The DeLay-Abramoff Money Trail — Nonprofit Group Linked to Lawmaker Was Funded Mostly by Clients of Lobbyist — The U.S. Family Network, a public advocacy group that operated in the 1990s with close ties to Rep. Tom DeLay and claimed to be a nationwide grass-roots organization …
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo, IntoxiNation-News …, Norwegianity, Prairie Weather, Democrat Taylor Marsh …, Balloon Juice, The Carpetbagger Report, MyDD, The All Spin Zone, Seeing the Forest, The Washington Monthly, Easter Lemming Liberal News, skippy the bush kangaroo, Daily Kos, Best of Both Worlds, Prometheus 6 and AMERICAblog
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Scott Shane / New York Times:
Criminal Inquiry Opens Into Spying Leak — WASHINGTON, Dec. 30 - The Justice Department said on Friday that it had opened a criminal investigation into the disclosure of classified information about a secret National Security Agency program under which President Bush authorized eavesdropping …
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Pajamas Media:
U.S. Justice Department opens probe into leak of Bush's domestic spying — Categories: politics / crime, law and justice / United States / government / law enforcement / crime / man-made disaster / terrorist attack / anti-terror / disaster and accident / law and the judiciary (system of justice) …
Discussion:
The Counterterrorism Blog
Anne E. Kornblut / New York Times:
Lobbyist Is Given Deadline to Take Deal or Go to Trial — WASHINGTON, Dec. 30 - The indicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff must decide by Tuesday whether he will accept a plea or stand trial on fraud charges in a Florida case, a judge in Federal District Court told Mr. Abramoff's lawyers and prosecutors in a court hearing on Friday.
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Toni Locy / Associated Press:
Lobbyist, Prosecutors Said Close to Deal — WASHINGTON - Federal prosecutors and lawyers for Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff consulted briefly Friday with a federal judge in Miami as they put the finishing touches on a plea deal that could be announced as early as Tuesday, according to sources familiar with the negotiations.
James Taranto / Opinion Journal:
Latter-day President? — A Mitt Romney candidacy would test the religious right. — BOSTON—Mitt Romney insists he has hardly thought about running for president: "That's a decision you make way down the road." With the 2008 election 1,039 days away, that's fair enough. But I'm guessing he'll run.
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Washington Post:
Chalabi Named Iraq Oil Minister — Fuel Crisis Spurs Mandatory Leave For Incumbent — BAGHDAD, Dec. 30 — As a fuel crisis deepened in Iraq, the government replaced its oil minister with controversial Deputy Prime Minister Ahmed Chalabi, whose poor performance in the Dec. 15 elections …
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USA Today:
College football fumbles minority hiring — Equal opportunity? For black coaches, those words ring hollow. — On this New Year's Day, an occasion traditionally reserved for a college bowl smorgasbord, the sidelines of nationally televised football games will be positively teeming with successful …
Discussion:
Discriminations
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Charlotte Westerhaus / USA Today: We're working on it — But NCAA can't improve diversity hiring without its members' help.
Adam Liptak / New York Times:
So, Guy Walks Up to the Bar, and Scalia Says... Justice Antonin Scalia's wit is widely admired, and now it has been quantified. He is, a new study concludes, 19 times as funny as Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. — Transcripts of oral arguments at the United States Supreme Court have long featured …
Anick Jesdanun / Associated Press:
White House Says Web Site Counts Visitors — NEW YORK - The White House said Friday its Web tracking technology is consistent with federal rules because it only counts the number of visitors anonymously and doesn't record personal information. — The White House's site uses what's known as a Web bug …
service.spiegel.de:
Is Washington Planning a Military Strike? — It's hardly news that US President George Bush refuses to rule out possible military action against Iran if Tehran continues to pursue its controversial nuclear ambitions. But in Germany, speculation is mounting that Washington is preparing …
Petra Pasternak / LAW.com:
Judge Delivers Order to FedEx: Pay Misclassified Drivers — In a decision expected to spur wage-and-hour suits in the courier industry, a judge earlier this month ordered FedEx to pay $5.3 million to a group of drivers he found had been improperly classified as independent contractors.
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New York Times:
U.S. Women Accuse a Coach of Harassment — SALT LAKE CITY, Dec. 30 - Some members of the United States women's skeleton team, including the 2002 Olympic gold medalist Tristan Gale, have accused Coach Tim Nardiello of a pattern of sexual harassment dating to 2002.
New York Times:
Conspiring Against the Voters — President Bush has announced four nominees for the Federal Election Commission, moving to keep the policing of campaign abuses firmly in the hands of party wheel horses. The timing of the announcement - the president waited until the Senate had gone home …
Dan / Riehl World View:
2005: The Year In Military Heroism — Between seeing this post of Sondrak's on Medal of Honor Winner Sgt. 1st Class Paul Smith and all the brouhaha over various nonsensical year end lists, I decided to do a tribute post to America's War Heroes of 2005. In my view, they cannot get and certainly …
Associated Press:
Report: Trump Weighs Run for N.Y. Governor — ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) - Donald Trump is considering running for governor, a leading Republican said Friday. — Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno on Thursday suggested that a big-name candidate could be flirting with entering the 2006 contest.
Jim Yardley / New York Times:
In Worker's Death, View of China's Harsh Justice — YUJIAGOU, China - From the prison cell where he contemplated an executioner's bullet, a migrant worker named Wang Binyu gave an anguished account of his wasted life. Unexpectedly, it rippled across China like a primal scream.
Discussion:
The Peking Duck
Thespis Journal:
Thespis Journal Awards Blogs of the Year — It is time for us, the staff writers at Thespis Journal, to honor the top blogs to be found around the internet and in the blogosphere. Each of these bloggers have inspired us to do better work, and to continue to write and express those ideas …
Discussion:
Dr. Sanity
Ann Coulter / Yahoo! News:
KWANZAA: A HOLIDAY FROM THE FBI — President Bush's 2005 Kwanzaa message began with the patently absurd statement: "African-Americans and people around the world reflect on African heritage during Kwanzaa." — I believe more African-Americans spent this season reflecting on the birth …
