Top Items:
Newsweek:
Full Speed Ahead — After 9/11, Bush and Cheney pressed for more powerand got it. Now, predictably, the questions begin. Behind the NSA spying furor. — Jan. 9, 2006 issue - The talk at the White House in the days and weeks after 9/11 was all about suitcase nukes and germ warfare and surprise decapitation strikes.
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Associated Press:
Schumer Seeks Motive in U.S. Spy Probe — WASHINGTON - The investigation into leaks about a domestic spying program should determine whether the motivation was damaging security or revealing a potentially illegal activity, a Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee said Sunday.
Jane Hamsher / firedoglake:
Turning the Corner — I have no idea whether or not 2006 will be the year the power of the despots in this country will be checked, but if it happens it will be due to people like James Comey who after only three weeks on the job as the number two man in the Justice Department went …
Steve Benen / The Washington Monthly:
RESISTANCE AT JUSTICE ON WARRANTLESS SEARCHES....After the Bush administration's warrantless-search program came to light, one of the early talking points used to defend the program's legality emphasized Justice Department support. As Condoleezza Rice explained on Meet the Press, the initiative …
Discussion:
Oliver Willis
New York Times:
Justice Deputy Resisted Parts of Spy Program — WASHINGTON, Dec. 31 - The top deputy to then-Attorney General John Ashcroft refused two years ago to approve important parts of the secret program that allows domestic eavesdropping without warrants, prompting two leading White House aides …
Walter Pincus / Washington Post:
NSA Gave Other U.S. Agencies Information From Surveillance — Fruit of Eavesdropping Was Processed and Cross-Checked With Databases — Information captured by the National Security Agency's secret eavesdropping on communications between the United States and overseas has been passed …
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Glenn Reynolds / Instapundit.com:
THE NEW YORK TIMES' PUBLIC EDITOR, Byron Calame, criticizes the Times' handling of the NSA story. Jeff Jarvis calls Calame's column "almost tough," and points to this post by Jay Rosen. — The Times' behavior on this story, and the Plame story, has undermined the unwritten …
Cory Doctorow / Boing Boing:
Coldplay's new CD has rules: No MP3s, no DVD players, no car stereos — Coldplay's new CD comes with an insert that discloses all the rules enforced by the DRM they included on the disc. Of course, these rules are only visible after you've paid for the CD and brought it home …
Discussion:
Ezra Klein, Shakespeare's Sister, Norwegianity, skippy the bush kangaroo and Unqualified Offerings
Deb Riechmann / Associated Press:
Bush Defends Domestic Spying Program — SAN ANTONIO - President Bush on Sunday strongly defended his domestic spying program, saying it's a limited initiative that tracks only incoming calls to the United States. — "It's seems logical to me that if we know there's a phone number associated …
Digby / Hullabaloo:
Clearing The Ranchette — This is the wierdest damned article I've read in ages. I knew that Junior did the brush clearing thing, but I assumed that he did it for photo-op purposes. It turns out that he's actually obsessed with it. — He's obsessed with brush clearing.
Discussion:
Amygdala, Jesus' General, Liberty Street, The Sundries Shack, Norwegianity and Middle Earth Journal
Julian E. Barnes / US News:
Cracking An Insurgent Cell — Finding—and breaking—the ruthless killers of Iraq is not a pretty business. An exclusive inside look at how it's done — OSUL, IRAQ—It is 1:30 p.m. on Saturday, December 10, five days before Iraq's national elections. A red four-door sedan carrying …
Discussion:
The Corner on National …
Jason Straziuso / Associated Press:
13 Car Bombs Wound 20 People Across Iraq — BAGHDAD, Iraq - Insurgents exploded 13 car bombs across Iraq on Sunday, including eight in Baghdad within a three-hour span, but the New Year's Day onslaught killed no one and injured only 20 people, police said. — A Sudanese official, meanwhile …
Daniel Altman / New York Times:
A Bit of Doodling About a Tax-Cut Danger — EARLY last month, without much fanfare, the Congressional Budget Office released a paper called "Analyzing the Economic and Budgetary Effects of a 10 Percent Cut in Income Tax Rates." At a modest seven pages, it didn't elicit the same sort …
