Top Items:
Bloomberg:
Abramoff May Plead Guilty This Week, Snaring Lawmakers in Probe — Jan. 3 (Bloomberg) — Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who is under criminal investigation, may agree this week to cooperate with federal officials in a move that former prosecutors say would put U.S. lawmakers in legal jeopardy.
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Michael Hedges / Houston Chronicle:
Abramoff plea bargain announcement expected — Deal may give prosecutors a view into possible favors — WASHINGTON - A plea agreement between prominent lobbyist Jack Abramoff and federal prosecutors is expected this week, bringing a wide-ranging corruption probe to the doors of Congress …
R.G. Ratcliffe / Houston Chronicle:
Strayhorn enters governor's race as independent — AUSTIN — Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn ended speculation today by announcing she will run for governor against Gov. Rick Perry as an independent. — "It's time to shake Austin up," Strayhorn, who is now serving as a Republican officeholder …
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Franklin Foer / The New Republic:
OY, THE MSB: — Last month, I wrote a column against the Mainstream Blogosphere. I argued that the MSB has made a grave mistake in relentlessly attacking the credibility of the New York Times and Washington Post. For decades, conservatives have been trying to shred these institutions.
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Paul E. Schroeder / Washington Post:
A Life, Wasted — Let's Stop This War Before More Heroes Are Killed — Early on Aug. 3, 2005, we heard that 14 Marines had been killed in Haditha, Iraq. Our son, Lance Cpl. Edward "Augie" Schroeder II, was stationed there. At 10:45 a.m. two Marines showed up at our door.
Michael J. Totten / Opinion Journal:
Lebanon the Model — Iraq isn't the Arab world's first democracy. — BEIRUT, Lebanon—Of all the rationales for demolishing Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq, the most compelling was the Middle East's desperate need for at least one free Arab democracy to act as a model and an inspiration …
Peter Lattman / Law Blog:
Article III Groupie Expected to Become Wonkette — Here's the latest buzz: Queen of the blogosphere Ana Marie Cox is said to be handing over the reins at her spicy political blog Wonkette. David Lat, the federal prosecutor who revealed himself to the New Yorker magazine in November …
Associated Press:
New Book Reveals Secret War Operations — WASHINGTON - A new book on the government's secret anti-terrorism operations describes how the CIA recruited an Iraqi-American anesthesiologist in 2002 to obtain information from her brother, who was a figure in Saddam Hussein's nuclear program.
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Margot Dudkevitch / Jerusalem Post:
2,990 attacks during 2005 'truce' — As Islamic Jihad, the Popular Resistance Committees and Fatah's Al-Aksa Martyrs Brigades announced an end to their self-declared truce of January 2005, under which they pledged to refrain from attacking Israeli targets, an annual summary of terror activities …
Discussion:
discarded lies
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Editor and Publisher:
'Military Times' Poll Finds Fading Support for President, War — NEW YORK While President Bush remains more popular within the military than outside it, support for him, and for the war in Iraq, "has slipped significantly in the last year among members of the military's professional core," …
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Thomas Sowell / Townhall.com:
Serious or suicidal? — When you are boating on the Niagara River, there are signs marking the point at which you must go ashore or else you will be sucked over the falls. With Iran moving toward the development of nuclear weapons, we are getting dangerously close to that fatal point of no return on the world stage.
Griff Witte / Washington Post:
U.S. Cedes Duties in Rebuilding Afghanistan — KABUL, Afghanistan — Four years into a mammoth reconstruction effort here that has been largely led, funded and secured by Americans, the United States is showing a growing willingness to cede those jobs to others.
Eric Lipton / New York Times:
New Rules Set for Giving Out Antiterror Aid — Facing cuts in antiterrorism financing, the Department of Homeland Security plans to announce today that it will evaluate new requests for money from an $800 million aid program for cities based less on politics and more on assessments …
Discussion:
Catch
Atrios / Eschaton:
2005 was the year that the president of the United States declared proudly that he had broken the law repeatedly and with full intention, that he had the power to do so whenever he wanted to, and that he would continue to do so whenever he determined it to be desirable.
Discussion:
Wampum, Decision '08, The Liberal Avenger, AMERICAN FUTURE, THE NEWS BLOG and CathiefromCanada
Washington Post:
Independence To End Flights On Thursday — Financially Troubled Flyi Can't Find Buyer, Decides to Cease Operations — Flyi Inc., parent of Dulles-based low-fare airline Independence Air, said yesterday it will discontinue flights after Thursday evening because it cannot find a buyer for its financially troubled operation.
Discussion:
Hugh Hewitt
Digby / Hullabaloo:
Contextualizing — Jane discusses this article in today's NY Times about how blogging is affecting journalism and she makes this important point: … There was a guy who did this kind of journalism long before technology made it possible for many of us to carry on the tradition.
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