Top Items:
Jeffrey H. Birnbaum / Washington Post:
Loophole in Lobbying Bill Leaves Wiggle Room — Lawmakers are about to bombard the American public with proposals that would crack down on lobbyists. Several prominent plans, including one outlined yesterday by House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.), would specifically ban meals and privately paid travel for lawmakers.
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Eric Lichtblau / New York Times:
2002 Memo Doubted Uranium Sale Claim — WASHINGTON, Jan. 17 - A high-level intelligence assessment by the Bush administration concluded in early 2002 that the sale of uranium from Niger to Iraq was "unlikely" because of a host of economic, diplomatic and logistical obstacles …
Discussion:
JustOneMinute, Power Line, The Next Hurrah, TAPPED, Rantingprofs, First Draft, Mia Culpa and Needlenose
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Ceci Connolly / Washington Post:
HHS Works to Fix Drug Plan Woes — Widespread Difficulties With New Medicare Benefit Reported — President Bush's top health advisers will fan out across the country this week to quell rising discontent with a new Medicare prescription drug benefit that has tens of thousands of elderly …
Discussion:
firedoglake, The Carpetbagger Report, Crooks and Liars, Eschaton, Think Progress and The Sideshow
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Jonathan Cohn / The New Republic:
PART D, AS IN DEBACLE: — So just how badly is President Bush's Medicare prescription drug program, known as "Part D," going? On Tuesday morning, I landed in Nashville, Tennessee, to find this bold headline atop the Tennessean front page: "PHARMACISTS DECRY MEDICARE CHAOS."
Deb Riechmann / Associated Press:
First Lady Assails Sen. Clinton for Remark — Laura Bush criticized Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton on Wednesday for suggesting that the Republican-controlled House is run like a plantation where dissenting voices are ignored. — "It think it's ridiculous _ it's a ridiculous comment," …
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Associated Press:
Supreme Court Steers Clear of First Abortion Case in 5 Years — WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court ruled unanimously Wednesday that a lower court was wrong to strike down New Hampshire abortion restrictions, steering clear of a major ruling on whether such laws place an undue burden on women.
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James Webb / New York Times:
Purple Heartbreakers — IT should come as no surprise that an arch-conservative Web site is questioning whether Representative John Murtha, the Pennsylvania Democrat who has been critical of the war in Iraq, deserved the combat awards he received in Vietnam.
U.S. Newswire:
Leading Conservatives Call for Extensive Hearings on NSA Surveillance; Checks on Invasive Federal Powers Essential — Contact: Laura Brinker, 202-715-1540, for Patriots to Restore Checks and Balances, laura.brinker@dittus.com — WASHINGTON, Jan. 17 /U.S. Newswire …
Simon Jenkins / Guardian:
The west has picked a fight with Iran that it cannot win — Washington's kneejerk belligerence ignores Tehran's influence and the need for subtle engagement — Never pick a fight you know you cannot win. Or so I was told. Pick an argument if you must, but not a fight.
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Washington Post:
U.S. Journalist Shown as Hostage — Kidnappers in Iraq Threaten to Kill Her, Demanding Female Prisoners Be Freed — BAGHDAD, Jan. 17 — The captors of an American journalist kidnapped in Baghdad 10 days ago threatened to kill her in three days unless authorities freed all female prisoners in Iraq …
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Nedra Pickler / Associated Press:
Update 15: White House Lobs Accusations at Gore — Former Vice President Al Gore and the White House traded accusations over national security Tuesday in a dispute that also pulled in President Bush's other presidential election rival, John Kerry. — At issue was Bush's secret domestic …
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Los Angeles Times:
UCLA Alumni Group Is Tracking 'Radical' Faculty — A fledgling alumni group headed by a former campus Republican leader is offering students payments of up to $100 per class to provide information on instructors who are "abusive, one-sided or off-topic" in advocating political ideologies.
Discussion:
Balloon Juice, The American Thinker, Feministe, This Modern World and Just a Bump in the Beltway
Associated Press:
Death row elder needed 2 injections — Last words: 'Hoka hey, it's a good day to die' — SAN QUENTIN, California (AP) — In the end, California's oldest condemned inmate did not seem quite as feeble as his attorneys made him out to be in their efforts to save his life.
Discussion:
IMAO
Thomas Ferraro / Reuters:
Senate Democrat backs Alito for US Supreme Court — WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Ben Nelson of Nebraska, a moderate voice in the U.S. Congress, on Tuesday became the first Senate Democrat to announce his support for conservative Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito, who is expected to be confirmed later …
The WitList:
Tom DeLay Denies All Charges (As Told by Dr. Suess) — That Abramoff! — That Abramoff! — I do not like that Abramoff! — "Would you like to play some golf?" — I do not want to play some golf. — I do not want to, Abramoff. — "We could fly you there for free.
Dahlia Lithwick / Slate:
Swing Time — Anthony Kennedy—the new Sandra Day O'Connor. — Lost in last week's cacophony about the critical role of Sandra Day O'Connor as sole and exclusive swing voter on the U.S. Supreme Court was any sign of respect for the other sole and exclusive swing voter on the U.S. Supreme Court: Anthony M. Kennedy.
The Hill:
Larry David 'Curbs' talk of Cantor connection to show — In a profile of ascendant Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.) in the Jewish Forward newspaper last week, the paper reprised part of a story it broke three years ago on the saga of a sandwich named after Cantor at Stacks, the short-lived kosher deli owned by Jack Abramoff.
Discussion:
The Carpetbagger Report
