Top Items:
New York Times:
Judge Alito Proves a Powerful Match for Senate Questioners — WASHINGTON, Jan. 10 - If Senate Democrats had set out to portray Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr. as extreme on issues ranging from abortion to government surveillance of citizens, they ran up against an elusive target on Tuesday …
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William Branigin / Washington Post:
Alito Seeks to Distance Himself From Previous Abortion Statements — Nominee Faces Senators in Second Day of Hearing — Supreme Court nominee Samuel A. Alito Jr., facing tough questioning on the second day of his Senate confirmation hearings, distanced himself today from a statement …
Discussion:
The Left Coaster, The Sundries Shack, Oliver Willis, The Democratic Daily Blog, Hotline On Call, Daily Kos and ScrappleFace
Charles Lane / Washington Post:
Alito Replies Don't Rock Status Quo — On his first day of questioning from senators, Supreme Court nominee Samuel A. Alito Jr. tried to send a reassuring message: The country may be at war, but Americans' personal privacy and civil liberties will be safe with me.
David Stout / New York Times:Presidential Power Has Limits, Alito Tells Senators
Discussion:
NewsBusters.org
Kevin Drum / The Washington Monthly:FIGHTING ALITO....Over at Crooks and Liars, Glenn Greenwald says:
Jonathan Turley / USA Today:Troubling times, a troubling nominee
Discussion:
The Moderate Voice, The Heretik, The Reaction, Power Line, New York Times, Bench Memos … and How Appealing
Brian Ross / ABCNEWS:
NSA Whistleblower Alleges Illegal Spying — Former Employee Admits to Being a New York Times Source — Jan 10, 2006 — Russell Tice, a longtime insider at the National Security Agency, is now a whistleblower the agency would like to keep quiet. — For 20 years, Tice worked in the shadows …
Discussion:
NewsBusters.org, Macsmind, The Strata-Sphere, BLACKFIVE, Media Blog on National …, Martin's Musings and The Political Teen
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Dan Eggen / Washington Post:
Probe Set In NSA Bugging — The National Security Agency's inspector general has opened an investigation into eavesdropping without warrants in the United States by the agency authorized by President Bush after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, according to a letter released late yesterday.
David E. Sanger / New York Times:
Bush Issues Stark Warning to Democrats on Iraq Debate — WASHINGTON, Jan. 10 - President Bush issued an unusually stark warning to Democrats today about how to conduct the debate on Iraq as midterm elections approach, declaring that Americans know the difference "between honest critics" …
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White House:
President Addresses Veterans of Foreign Wars on the War on Terror — Washington, D.C. — Fact Sheet: Progress and the Work Ahead in Iraq — National Strategy for Victory in Iraq — In Focus: Renewal in Iraq — In Focus: National Security — In Focus: Veterans
National Review:
The Abramoff Scandal (R., Beltway) — Republicans are looking for "their" John McCain. The popular Arizona maverick is already a Republican, of course. But the GOP needs a McCain in the "Keating Five" sense. Back in 1990, Senate Democrats roped McCain into the scandal over savings …
Discussion:
Hullabaloo, baldilocks, Daily Kos, Democracy Project, Transterrestrial Musings, THE DAILY DELAY and Sans-culotte.org
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Captain Ed / Captain's Quarters:
Alito 1, Schumer -35 — I wish I had an automatic transcript device. Judge Alito just blew Chuck Schumer out of the water on abortion. After holding up his Robert ByrdTM mini-Constitution, Schumer demanded several times whether he still believes as he wrote in his 1985 memo …
Francis Harris / Telegraph:
Syria 'tried to fuel holy war in Iraq against US and Britain' — President Bashar al-Assad of Syria secretly incited Iraq's top Shia leader to declare holy war against US and British forces, according to Washington's former administrator in the country. — In his new book, My Year in Iraq …
New York Times:
I.R.S. Limited Tax Refunds of Poor, Congress Is Told — Tax refunds sought by hundreds of thousands of poor Americans have been frozen and their returns labeled fraudulent, blocking refunds for years to come, the Internal Revenue Service's taxpayer advocate told Congress today.
Jason Leopold / truthout.org:
Fitzgerald Maintains Focus on Rove — Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald is said to have spent the past month preparing evidence he will present to a grand jury alleging that White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove knowingly made false statements to FBI and Justice Department investigators …
Washington Post:
Differing Views on Terrorism — Americans Divided on Eavesdropping Program, Poll Finds — Americans overwhelmingly support aggressive government pursuit of terrorist threats, even if it may infringe on personal privacy, but they divide sharply along partisan lines over the legitimacy …
Fred Kaplan / Slate:
GI Schmo — How low can Army recruiters go? — Three months ago, I wrote that the war in Iraq was wrecking the U.S. Army, and since then the evidence has only mounted, steeply. Faced with repeated failures to meet its recruitment targets, the Army has had to lower its standards dramatically.
