Top Items:
Washington Post:
Alito Likely To Become A Justice — Liberals See Slim Chance Of Blocking Confirmation — Samuel A. Alito Jr., an appellate judge who could shift the Supreme Court significantly to the right, appeared headed for the high court yesterday after completing three days of interrogation without a serious misstep.
Discussion:
RedState, Blogs for Bush, Viking Pundit, Below The Beltway, Wonkette, Manufacturers Blog, Hugh Hewitt, Confirm Them and Carol Platt Liebau
RELATED ITEMS:
Adam Liptak / New York Times:
Few Glimmers of How Conservative Judge Alito Is — WASHINGTON, Jan. 12 - In over 18 hours responding to some 700 questions at his Supreme Court confirmation hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr. mostly described a methodical and incremental approach to the law rooted in no particular theory.
Michelle Malkin:
A WOMAN THE DEMS DON'T WANT TO HEAR — This is U.S. Appeals Court Judge Maryanne Trump Barry, a Clinton appointee who gave a glowing endorsement of her colleague, Sam Alito, earlier today, along with six other judges from the appeals court who appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee to support Alito.
Discussion:
PoliPundit.com, Confirm Them, Generation Why?, The Anchoress, Ace of Spades HQ and Bench Memos …
Charles Lane / Washington Post:
A Right Cautious Nominee — Measured Replies Paint Picture With a Conservative Tint — Samuel A. Alito Jr. did everything he could do to avoid saying how he would rule on the big issues that might come before the Supreme Court if, as now seems likely, he is confirmed by the Senate and succeeds Sandra Day O'Connor.
New York Times:
Pro-Choice Senators and Judge Alito — There are many reasons to be concerned about the nomination of Judge Samuel Alito Jr. for the Supreme Court, but for a small group of moderate Republicans who strongly identify themselves as supporters of abortion rights, there is a special problem …
TigerHawk:Alito roundup: Ted Kennedy tramples on freedom of speech and association
Discussion:
The Strata-Sphere, Captain's Quarters, Betsy's Page, Decision '08, Pajamas Media and Power Line
Clark Hoyt / Knight Ridder:Knight Ridder's Alito story: Factual and fair
Discussion:
The Moderate Voice
Michael Barbaro / New York Times:
Maryland Sets a Health Cost for Wal-Mart — ANNAPOLIS, Md., Jan. 12 - The Maryland legislature passed a law Thursday that would require Wal-Mart Stores to increase spending on employee health insurance, a measure that is expected to be a model for other states.
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John Wagner / Washington Post:
Md. Senate Overrides Veto on 'Wal-Mart Bill' — Maryland lawmakers bucked the will of the state's Republican governor and the nation's largest retailer yesterday, voting to become the first state to effectively require that Wal-Mart spend more on employee health care.
William Tate / The American Thinker:
The controversy following revelations that U.S. intelligence agencies have monitored suspected terrorist related communications since 9/11 reflects a severe case of selective amnesia by the New York Times and other media opponents of President Bush. They certainly didn't show the same outrage …
Discussion:
Dr. Sanity, Dean's World, The Anchoress, In the Bullpen, THE ASTUTE BLOGGER, PoliPundit.com and NewsBusters.org
ABCNEWS:
Surge in Sale of Disposable Cell Phones May Have Terror Link — Phones Can Be Difficult or Impossible to Track; Large Quantities Purchased in California, Texas — Jan. 12, 2006 — Federal agents have launched an investigation into a surge in the purchase of large quantities of disposable cell phones …
RELATED ITEM:
Jonathan Weisman / Washington Post:
Deficit Could Top $400 Billion — Driven by the cost of hurricane relief, the federal budget deficit is expected to balloon back above $400 billion for the fiscal year that ends in September, reversing the improvements of 2005, a White House official told reporters yesterday.
Discussion:
AMERICAblog, Wonkette, Donklephant, Calculated Risk, Thoughts of an Average Woman and Eschaton
New York Times:
Europeans Want U.N. to Act on Iran's Nuclear Program — BERLIN, Jan. 12 - The leading nations of Europe joined with the United States today to declare an end, for now, to negotiations with Iran over dismantling its suspected nuclear weapons program and to demand that Iran be referred …
RELATED ITEM:
Brian C. Anderson / City Journal:
The Plot to Shush Rush and O'Reilly — Talk radio, cable news, and the blogosphere freed U.S. political discourse. The Left wants to rein it in again. — The rise of alternative media—political talk radio in the eighties, cable news in the nineties, and the blogosphere in the new millennium …
James Wolcott:
NOXIOUS FUMES — In a feeble attempt to draw attention to itself before it sinks into the briny deep under the dead weight of its founders Charles Johnson and Roger L. Simon and its undistinguished blogroll, Pajamas Media showcases an attack on me by Michael Fumento, and seldom has a writer been more aptly named.
Discussion:
Rook's Rant
Macollvie Jean-Francois / Sun-Sentinel:
Young men with bats kill homeless man, injure 2 others in downtown, beachside Lauderdale — FORT LAUDERDALE - Young men armed with baseball bats or sticks attacked three homeless men, killing one and hospitalizing the two others early Thursday morning in the city's downtown and beachside areas, police said.
Charles Krauthammer / Washington Post:
'Munich,' the Travesty — If Steven Spielberg had made a fictional movie about the psychological disintegration of a revenge assassin, that would have been fine. Instead, he decided to call this fiction "Munich" and root it in a historical event: the 1972 massacre by Palestinian terrorists of 11 Israeli athletes at the Olympic Games.
