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, Balloon Juice, Dispatches from the …, The American Mind, The Political Teen, Obsidian Wings, David Corn, Booman Tribune, Boston Globe, Bark Bark Woof Woof, Democrat Taylor Marsh …, Houtopia, Brilliant at Breakfast, The Heretik, Stop The ACLU, The Carpetbagger Report, Politics in the Zeros, NewsBusters.org, TAPPED, The Green Knight, Hotline On Call, The Lippard Blog and The All Spin Zone
RELATED ITEMS:
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 …
CNN:
Lobbyist admits kickbacks, influence peddling — Abramoff agrees to cooperate in corruption probe — WASHINGTON (CNN) — Former high-powered lobbyist Jack Abramoff pleaded guilty Tuesday to conspiracy, fraud and tax evasion charges, agreeing to cooperate in a federal corruption probe in Washington.
ReddHedd / firedoglake:Abramoff Plea Deal Reached
Discussion:
PSoTD, The Truth Laid Bear, Eschaton, Booman Tribune, Off the Kuff, Bark Bark Woof Woof, Norwegianity, Fired Up! America and Daily Kos
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 and Left in the West
Michelle Malkin:THE "A-BOMB" DETONATES — Via Breitbart/AP: … Here's the summary of charges:
Discussion:
Right Wing Nut House, Malkin(s)Watch, Macsmind, Flopping Aces, A Blog For All, Balloon Juice, Law Blog, Jay Reding.com, Sister Toldjah and Roger Ailes
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.
RELATED ITEMS:
Thomas Joscelyn / thomasjoscelyn.blogspot.com:About Your Sources, Mr. Risen — James Risen's appearance …
Discussion:
JunkYardBlog, NewsBusters.org, THE ASTUTE BLOGGER, The Corner on National … and Power Line
Scott Shields / MyDD:
How Bush Failed the Sago 13 — I haven't seen much discussion of it in the blogosphere, but there are 13 coal miners trapped under 260 feet of dirt right now in West Virginia. It's worthy of discussion here because, once upon a time, these guys were the bread and butter of the Democratic Party …
Discussion:
Associated Press, New York Times, volunteertv.com, Balloon Juice, QandO, Liberty Street, AMERICAN DIGEST, Cold Fury and Ace of Spades HQ
RELATED ITEMS:
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 …
RELATED ITEM:
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 …
Discussion:
ECHIDNE OF THE SNAKES
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.
Discussion:
The Carpetbagger Report, The Heretik, Confined Space, Think Progress, First Draft and Stop The ACLU
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.
The Big Trunk / Power Line:
TIMESSPEAK: SPECIALISTS AT WORK — In 1984 George Orwell portrays the importance of language in controlling thought. The totalitarian regime depicted in the novel had developed its own language — Newspeak — to meet the ideological needs of Oceania. In the novel's appendix on the language, Orwell explains:
RELATED ITEM:
Reliapundit / THE ASTUTE BLOGGER:FLASH: THE ASTUTE BLOGGER SCOOPS POWERLINE AGAIN …
Discussion:
Atlas Shrugs
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.
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 …
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, La Shawn Barber's Corner, battlepanda.blogspot.com, asiapundit and Boing Boing
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 …
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 …
