Top Items:
Jonathan Weisman / Washington Post:
Bush to Give Up $6,000 In Abramoff Contributions — Republican Party officials said yesterday that President Bush will give up $6,000 in campaign contributions connected to disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff, joining an expansive list of politicians who have shed more than half a million dollars in tainted campaign cash.
Discussion:
Samizdata.net, AMERICAblog, Balloon Juice, Wonkette, Bull Moose, Roger Ailes, NewsBusters.org and BrothersJudd Blog
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Peggy Noonan / Opinion Journal:The Steamroller — The road to big government reaches a dead end at Jack Abramoff.
Chris Cillizza / The Fix:Abramoff Scandal's Many Tentacles
Discussion:
Attytood, Talking Points Memo, Norwegianity, 'Just World News … and White Collar Crime Prof Blog
Daniel Pipes / danielpipes.org:
[After Sharon:] Israeli Politics Will Revert to Its Past — Israel's prime minister, Ariel Sharon, has suffered a massive brain hemorrhage; at the very least, his long political career appears to be over. What does that mean for Israeli politics and for Arab-Israeli relations?
Discussion:
Front Page Magazine, irishpennants.com, Kesher Talk, Israel news and commentary … and BrothersJudd Blog
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Omri / Mere Rhetoric:MR Political Roundup - 2006-01-04
Discussion:
Israel Insider, Vodkapundit, Yourish.com, Haaretz, Kesher Talk, THE BELGRAVIA DISPATCH and Winds of Change.NET
Steven Erlanger / New York Times:Sharon in Critical Condition After Suffering 'Extensive' Stroke
Discussion:
Israel news and commentary …
Bill Gertz / Washington Times:
NSA whistleblower asks to testify — A former National Security Agency official wants to tell Congress about electronic intelligence programs that he asserts were carried out illegally by the NSA and the Defense Intelligence Agency. — Russ Tice, a whistleblower who was dismissed from the NSA last year …
Discussion:
The American Thinker, JustOneMinute, Power Line, Cold Fury, Macsmind, Right Wing Nut House, The Mahablog, Booman Tribune, The Strata-Sphere, Elephants in Academia, Defense Tech, Big Lizards, IntoxiNation-News …, The Heretik, Shakespeare's Sister, The Washington Monthly, The American Mind and The Indepundit
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Scott Shane / New York Times:
Key Democrat Says Spying Violated Law — WASHINGTON, Jan. 4 - The top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee said on Wednesday that the limited Congressional briefings the Bush administration has provided on a National Security Agency eavesdropping program violated the law.
Glenn Greenwald / Hullabaloo:
Attacking Bush's only weapon: Fear — Among those who now recognize that the Bush Administration has not just deliberately and repeatedly broken the law, but is literally claiming that George Bush has the "wartime" power to continue to break the law, there is a growing impatience to move to the next step …
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White House:
Remarks by the Vice President on Iraq and the War on Terror — Washington, D.C. — THE VICE PRESIDENT: Well, thank you all very much. (Applause.) Thank you. Well, thank you very much and thank you for the warm welcome. It's great to be back at Heritage.
Thomas B. Edsall / Washington Post:
Bush Appointments Avert Senate Battles — President Bush yesterday made a raft of controversial recess appointments, including Julie L. Myers to head the Immigration and Customs Enforcement bureau at the Department of Homeland Security, in a maneuver circumventing the need for approval by the Senate.
Discussion:
firedoglake, MaxSpeak, Middle Earth Journal, ECHIDNE OF THE SNAKES and Tennessee Guerilla Women
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Mike Kalil / Las Vegas Review-Journal:
Reid says Chertoff should resign — Senator echoes sheriff after city falls off list — U.S. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid called for the resignation of Homeland Security Department Secretary Michael Chertoff on Wednesday, one day after the government dropped Las Vegas from a list …
New York Times:
The Sago Mine Disaster — In the long history of coal mine tragedies in Appalachia, few have borne the compound misery suffered in Sago, W.Va., where a dozen families were plunged from exultation to furious grief by a false report that their loved ones had survived a deadly mine explosion on Monday.
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Andrea Mitchell / MSNBC:
Reporter defends release of NSA spy program — James Risen says his sources are 'patriots,' CIA calls them 'unreliable' — New York Times reporter James Risen first broke the story two weeks ago that the National Security Agency began spying on domestic communications soon after 9/11.
Discussion:
JustOneMinute, AMERICAblog, Attytood, The Hotline's Blogometer, SpeakSpeak News and skippy the bush kangaroo
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David D. Kirkpatrick / New York Times:
Liberal Groups to Release Ads Attacking Court Pick — WASHINGTON, Jan. 4 - The battle over the Supreme Court nomination of Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr. turned personal Wednesday with the announcement of new commercials that sharply escalated liberal attacks on him, moving beyond his legal views …
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Jennifer Loven / Associated Press:
Bush Listens to Suggestions on Iraq — WASHINGTON - President Bush promised to "take to heart" suggestions on Iraq he heard Thursday from former secretaries of defense and state who have disagreed — sometimes sharply in the past but apparently only mildly in person — with his approach there.
David G. Savage / Los Angeles Times:
Court Clears Way for Criminal Trial in Padilla Case — WASHINGTON — In a small victory for the Bush administration, the Supreme Court cleared the way Wednesday for erstwhile "enemy combatant" Jose Padilla to be released from a military brig and moved to a jail in Miami where he faces a criminal trial.
RELATED ITEM:
Jerry Markon / Washington Post:Justices Order Padilla Terror Case Moved to Civilian Court
Discussion:
The Heretik
Kristen Mack / Houston Chronicle:
Former Rep. Stockman joins field eyeing DeLay — Elected in 1994 as a Republican, he will now run as an independent — Former U.S. Rep. Steve Stockman, who served a single term in Congress after being elected in the Republican sweep of 1994, now wants a shot at Republican Rep. Tom DeLay.
Discussion:
The Carpetbagger Report, Off the Kuff, Balloon Juice, THE DAILY DELAY and The Stakeholder
Adam Nossiter / New York Times:
A Big Government Fix-It Plan for New Orleans — BATON ROUGE, La. - Into the void of the post-Katrina policy landscape, littered with half-ruined proposals, crumbling prescriptions and washed-out initiatives, an obscure and very conservative congressman has stepped in with the ultimate big government solution.
Dana Milbank / Washington Post:
When a Firebrand Burns His Bridges — The fiery phrases and righteous anger were straight out of 1994. But this time, Newt Gingrich was turning his famous indignation on fellow Republicans: — "Cronies behaving as cronies!" — "Indifference to right and wrong!" — "A system of corruption!"
Robin Burk / Winds of Change.NET:
THE FRENCH TRAIN RAMPAGE YOU HAVEN'T HEARD ABOUT — H/t to No Pasaran for calling attention to a news story from New Year's Eve that the French authorities .... underplayed. — What story is that? Only that a pack of about 30 'youths' - specifically, young men apparently from the banlieus …
