Top Items:
Digby / Hullabaloo:
Bipartisan BS — The media is working hard to make this into a bi-partisan scandal but that is simple bulls**t. Ed Henry on CNN, for instance, couldn't stop talking about Byron Dorgan being implicated in this scandal. I don't know if Dorgan's going to be swept up, but let's …
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Washington Post:
Case Bringing New Scrutiny To a System and a Profession — The biggest corruption scandal to infect Congress in a generation took down one of the best-connected lobbyists in Washington yesterday. The questions echoing around the capital were what other careers — and what other familiar ways of doing business — are endangered.
Michelle Malkin:THE "A-BOMB" DETONATES — Via Breitbart/AP: … Here's the summary of charges:
Discussion:
Gay Patriot, Captain's Quarters, Right Wing Nut House, Malkin(s)Watch, Debbie Schlussel, Obsidian Wings, The Blue State Conservatives, Macsmind, Flopping Aces, Big Lizards, Democrat Taylor Marsh …, Law Blog, Stop The ACLU, Wizbang, Mark A. Kilmer, Sister Toldjah, The Moderate Voice and ScrappleFace
Jason Leopold / rawstory.com:How they got caught …
Discussion:
TalkLeft, Democrat Taylor Marsh …, Wonkette, CNN, Proof Through the Night, The All Spin Zone and Crooks and Liars
Associated Press:
12 workers found alive in W. Va. coal mine — One body discovered earlier in day in separate location — TALLMANSVILLE, W.Va. - Twelve miners caught in an explosion in a coal mine were found alive late Tuesday, more than 41 hours after the blast, family members said.
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James Dao / New York Times:
12 Miners Are Found Alive, Family Members Say — SAGO, W.Va., Wednesday, Jan. 4 - Forty-one hours after an explosion trapped 13 men in a West Virginia coal mine here, family members and a state official said 12 of the miners had been found alive Tuesday night.
Discussion:
MyDD, volunteertv.com, Balloon Juice, Liberty Street, Confined Space and AMERICAN DIGEST
Ann Scott Tyson / Washington Post:
12 Found Alive in W.Va. Coal Mine — Body of 13th Miner Had Been Found In Adjacent Area — SAGO, W.Va., Jan. 3 — A dozen miners trapped 12,000 feet into a mountainside since early Monday were found alive Tuesday night just hours after rescuers found the body of a 13th man …
New York Times:
Agency First Acted on Its Own to Broaden Spying, Files Show — WASHINGTON, Jan. 3 - The National Security Agency acted on its own authority, without a formal directive from President Bush, to expand its domestic surveillance operations in the weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks, according to declassified documents released Tuesday.
Discussion:
Washington Post, Captain's Quarters, The Volokh Conspiracy, The Strata-Sphere, AMERICAblog and Democratic Veteran
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White House:
Press Briefing by Scott McClellan — MR. MCCLELLAN: Good afternoon everyone, and welcome back; Happy New Year. I want to begin with just an update on the situation in Upshur County, West Virginia, and the coal miners who have been trapped there. — The President continues to be kept informed about the situation.
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David E. Sanger / New York Times:
From Cabinet Rooms Past, a Gathering to Assess Iraq — WASHINGTON, Jan. 3 - It will be an unusual sight on Thursday in the Roosevelt Room of White House, and deliberately so: President Bush will engage in a consultation of sorts with a bipartisan collection of former secretaries of state and defense.
Jim VandeHei / Washington Post:
Bush Assails Democrats Over Patriot Act — Opponents Are Blocking Law's Full Renewal for Political Reasons, President Says — President Bush accused Democrats yesterday of blocking a full reauthorization of the USA Patriot Act for political reasons, as the White House stepped …
Guardian:
Secret services say Iran is trying to assemble a nuclear missile — Document seen by Guardian details web of front companies and middlemen — The Iranian government has been successfully scouring Europe for the sophisticated equipment needed to develop a nuclear bomb …
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Paul Hughes / Reuters:Iran announces further resumption of atomic work
Discussion:
All Things Beautiful
MSNBC:
'Hardball with Chris Matthews' for Dec. 16th — Read the transcript to the Friday show — Guests: Roger Cressey, Tom Brokaw, Anne Kornblut, Howard Fineman, Saxby Chambliss, Frank Lautenberg — CHRIS MATTHEWS, MSNBC ANCHOR: Tonight triumph and trouble on the day after the huge Iraq vote.
Discussion:
Daily Kos
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Rebecca MacKinnon / RConversation:
Microsoft takes down Chinese blogger — Microsoft's MSN Spaces continues to censor its Chinese language blogs, and has become more aggressive and thorough at censorship since I first checked out MSN's censorship system last summer. On New Years Eve, MSN Spaces took down the popular blog written by Zhao Jing, aka Michael Anti.
Discussion:
The Peking Duck, The Anchoress, La Shawn Barber's Corner, asiapundit, Classical Values and Boing Boing
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Martin Peretz / The New Republic:
Warning Shots — "The only thing that's going to solve this," Steven Spielberg told Time magazine, "is rational minds, a lot of sitting and talking until you're blue in the gills." This, I suppose, is what goes for heavy thinking in Hollywood. Imagine Dreamworks negotiating with Paramount …
Discussion:
Israel news and commentary …
Mark Steyn / Opinion Journal:
It's the Demography, Stupid — The real reason the West is in danger of extinction. — Most people reading this have strong stomachs, so let me lay it out as baldly as I can: Much of what we loosely call the Western world will not survive this century, and much of it will effectively disappear within …
