Top Items:
Newsday:
Hillary's hardball — In MLK day speech, Sen. Clinton slams the Bush team, saying GOP Congress is 'run like a plantation' — Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton sparked a Martin Luther King Day political firestorm yesterday by describing the GOP-controlled Congress as a "plantation" …
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Arianna Huffington / The Huffington Post:
A Sneak Peek at "Al vs. Hillary" — Have you seen the coming attraction trailer for "Democratic Presidential Nomination '08: Al vs. Hillary" yet? It just opened yesterday, in the dueling speeches by Al Gore and Hillary Clinton. — And you can already see the two different approaches.
Discussion:
The Left Coaster, Talking Points Memo, TalkLeft, Comments From Left Field and In the Bullpen
Associated Press:
GOP anger flares after Sen. Clinton slams party — N.Y. lawmaker compared GOP-run House to a 'plantation' … NEW YORK - A day after Hillary Clinton blasted the Bush administration and compared the Republican-controlled House of Representatives to a plantation, Republicans said Tuesday that the New York senator was out of line.
Jim Abrams / Associated Press:
House GOP Leaders Unveil New Ethics Plan — WASHINGTON — House Speaker Dennis Hastert urged new restrictions on gifts from lobbyists Tuesday, responding to a scandal that already has claimed two Republican leaders and raised GOP fears about this year's elections.
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Carl Hulse / New York Times:
2 Parties Rush to Offer Curbs for Lobbying — WASHINGTON, Jan. 17 - House Republican leaders laid out a proposal on Tuesday to rewrite House rules governing lobbying as they moved to contain the political damage from an election-year scandal over undue influence and access afforded to lobbyists.
Larry Margasak / bonnercountydailybee.com:House Republicans Unveil New Ethics Plan
Discussion:
Sirotablog
MSNBC:
Abductors threaten to kill American journalist — Kidnappers say U.S. must release Iraqi women prisoners within 72 hours … MSNBC TV — CAIRO, Egypt - An Arab television channel aired a silent 20-second videotape Tuesday night of an abducted American journalist and said an accompanying message gave …
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Christopher Hitchens / The Huffington Post:
What Reason Do We Have to Trust the State to Know Best? — Although I am named in this suit in my own behalf, I am motivated to join it by concerns well beyond my own. I have been frankly appalled by the discrepant and contradictory positions taken by the Administration in this matter.
Discussion:
ACLU, Decision '08, Sisyphus Shrugged, BrothersJudd Blog, Begging to Differ, The Poor Man Institute and Booman Tribune
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ACLU:
Prominent Journalists, Nonprofit Groups, Terrorism Experts and Community Advocates Join First Lawsuit to Challenge New NSA Spying Program — NEW YORK - Saying that the Bush administration's illegal spying on Americans must end, the American Civil Liberties Union today filed a first-of-its-kind lawsuit …
rawstory.com:
Gore responds to White House 'hypocrisy' comments — RAW STORY — In response to White House comments that Gore exhibited "hypocrisy" in calling for a Special Prosecutor, saying that the Clinton administration had wiretapped some Americans, Gore will make this statement shortly.
Linda Greenhouse / New York Times:
Supreme Court Removes Obstacle to Assisted-Suicide Laws — WASHINGTON, Jan. 17 - The Supreme Court removed an obstacle today to state efforts to authorize physician-assisted suicide, ruling 6 to 3 that John Ashcroft, the former attorney general, acted without legal authority in 2001 when he threw …
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BBC:
US mayor regrets 'God comments' — New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin has apologised for comments suggesting that the savage hurricanes of 2005 were divine retribution for the war in Iraq. — Speaking on Monday, Mr Nagin said God must be "mad at America... for being in Iraq under false pretences".
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Rebecca Traister / Salon:
My lunch with an antifeminist pundit — My lunch interview with Kate O'Beirne, Washington editor of National Review and author of the new antifeminist book "Women Who Make the World Worse," was on a Friday. I had stayed up Thursday night reading the 200-page galley copy of the book and taken copious notes.
Tom Maguire / JustOneMinute:
Connecting The Dots - Booooring... The NY Times delivers the latest on the NSA warrantless eavesdropping program - it generated far too many dead-end leads to be useful to the FBI. … "Virtually all" were useless? Uh Huh. And since, to pick an odd example, most New York City cops …
Charles Krauthammer / Washington Post:
The Iran Charade, Part II — "It was what made this E.U. Three approach so successful. They [Britain, France and Germany] stood together and they had one uniform position." — German Chancellor — Angela Merkel, Jan. 13 — Makes you want to weep.
Washington Post:
Md. Overrides Minimum Wage Veto — The Maryland General Assembly today voted to raise the state's minimum wage by $1 an hour, brushing aside concerns by Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. (R) that the move would hurt small businesses. — The Democratic-led Senate voted 30-17 to override Ehrlich's veto …
