Top Items:
Anne E. Kornblut / New York Times:
G.O.P. Lobbyist to Plead Guilty in Deal With Prosecutors — WASHINGTON, Jan. 3 - Jack Abramoff will plead guilty to three felony counts in Washington on Wednesday as part of a settlement with federal prosecutors, ending an intense, months-long negotiation over whether the Republican lobbyist …
Discussion:
Captain's Quarters, Dispatches from the …, Balloon Juice, The American Mind, Obsidian Wings, David Corn, Booman Tribune, Bark Bark Woof Woof, Boston Globe, Houtopia, Democrat Taylor Marsh …, The Heretik, Brilliant at Breakfast, Stop The ACLU, The Carpetbagger Report, Politics in the Zeros, NewsBusters.org, TAPPED, The Green Knight, Hotline On Call and The Lippard Blog
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Jason Leopold / rawstory.com:
How they got caught: After lobbyist broke off engagement, ex-fiancee told of illicit dealings to FBI — Michael Scanlon found himself at the center of one of the biggest political scandals in Washington history as a result of cheating and lying—but not the type involving the numerous clients …
ReddHedd / firedoglake:Abramoff Plea Deal Reached
Discussion:
PSoTD, The Truth Laid Bear, Eschaton, Off the Kuff, Bark Bark Woof Woof, Norwegianity and Fired Up! America
Washington Post:Abramoff Expected to Plead Guilty to 3 Felony Charges
Discussion:
TalkLeft, CNN, The Stakeholder, The Sideshow, Democratic Veteran, The Political Teen, Preemptive Karma, Left in the West and Angry Bear
Allen G. Breed / Associated Press:
Families Say 12 W.Va. Miners Found Alive — 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. — Bells at a church where relatives had been gathering rang out as family members ran out screaming in jubilation.
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Scott Shields / MyDD:How Bush Failed the Sago 13
Discussion:
Associated Press, New York Times, volunteertv.com, Balloon Juice, QandO, Liberty Street, AMERICAN DIGEST, Cold Fury, Confined Space and Ace of Spades HQ
Tom Maguire / JustOneMinute:
A Question For James Risen — James Risen, NY Times reporter and book author, has hit the talk show circuit to promote State of War: The Secret History of the C.I.A. and the Bush Administration . Mr. Risen and his book have been all over the news, of course, since it was Messrs.
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Thomas Joscelyn / thomasjoscelyn.blogspot.com:About Your Sources, Mr. Risen — James Risen's appearance …
Discussion:
JunkYardBlog, THE ASTUTE BLOGGER, NewsBusters.org, The Corner on National … and Power Line
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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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:
The Volokh Conspiracy, The Strata-Sphere, Captain's Quarters, AMERICAblog and Democratic Veteran
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 …
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.
Steven E. Landsburg / Slate:
Do the Poor Deserve Life Support? — A woman who couldn't pay her bills is unplugged from her ventilator and dies. Is this wrong? — Tirhas Habtegiris, a 27-year-old terminal cancer patient at Baylor Regional Medical Center in Plano, Texas, was removed from her ventilator last month because she couldn't pay her medical bills.
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 Anchoress, The Peking Duck, La Shawn Barber's Corner, battlepanda.blogspot.com, asiapundit and Boing Boing
Opinion Journal:
Teachers' Pets — The NEA gave $65 million in its members' dues to left-liberal groups last year. — If we told you that an organization gave away more than $65 million last year to Jesse Jackson's Rainbow PUSH Coalition, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, Amnesty International …
Joel Stein / Los Angeles Times:
How to apologize to a feminist — He wasn't very clever. He wasn't very nice. And he's been trying to make it up to a certain red-haired columnist ever since. — MAUREEN DOWD doesn't like me. This is not unusual. But unlike a lot of people, the New York Times columnist has a good reason.
Jane Hamsher / firedoglake:
GOP EXCLUSIVE!!! — The airwaves are full of the obedient and the credulous this morning trying to tar the Democrats with Jack Abramoff's filthy lucre, so let's set the record straight for those too busy sucking down hairspray fumes to pay full attention. As Media Matters noted …
Jake Tapper / ABCNEWS:
Barbie Accused of Being Part of the Transgender Movement — WASHINGTON, D.C., Jan. 3, 2006 — The Concerned Women for America were ... well, concerned. Outraged, even. Was Barbie becoming part of the transgender movement? — On Dec. 30, 2005, CWA, a leading Christian conservative group …
