Top Items:
New York Times:
Inquiry on Clinton Official Ends With Accusations of Cover-Up — WASHINGTON, Jan. 18 - After the longest independent counsel investigation in history, the prosecutor in the case of former Housing Secretary Henry G. Cisneros is finally closing his operation with a scathing report accusing …
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James Gordon Meek / NY Daily News:
Prober blasts Bill — Cites coverup on Cisneros — WASHINGTON - A special prosecutor's long-delayed report charges that a coverup at senior levels of the Clinton administration killed a tax fraud case against ex-cabinet member Henry Cisneros, the Daily News has learned.
Dan Eggen / Washington Post:
Congressional Agency Questions Legality of Wiretaps — The Bush administration appears to have violated the National Security Act by limiting its briefings about a warrantless domestic eavesdropping program to congressional leaders, according to a memo from Congress's research arm released yesterday.
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Scott Shane / New York Times:
Report Questions Legality of Briefings on Surveillance — WASHINGTON, Jan. 18 - A legal analysis by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service concludes that the Bush administration's limited briefings for Congress on the National Security Agency's domestic eavesdropping without warrants are "inconsistent with the law."
David S. Broder / Washington Post:
Gore's Challenge — Former vice president Al Gore has turned himself into a one-man grand jury, ready to indict the Bush administration for any number of crimes against the Constitution. Whether you agree with Gore's conclusions or not, the speech that the 2000 Democratic nominee …
Discussion:
The Blogging of the President, The Moderate Voice, RAGGED THOTS, Eschaton and Suburban Guerrilla
New York Times:
U.S. Raid Killed Qaeda Leaders, Pakistanis Say — PESHAWAR, Pakistan, Jan. 18 - Two senior members of Al Qaeda and the son-in-law of its No. 2 leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri, were among those killed in the American airstrikes in remote northeastern Pakistan last week, two Pakistani officials said here on Wednesday.
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Associated Press:
Democratic Senator Endorses Alito — (AP) Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito has the confirmation vote of at least one Senate Democrat but several other Democrats said Wednesday they had lingering questions about the nominee and will vote against him. — Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont. …
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David D. Kirkpatrick / New York Times:Democrats Urge Strategic 'No' Votes on Alito
Discussion:
TalkLeft
Louis Charbonneau / Reuters:
Iran scorns EU trio's draft nuclear resolution — BERLIN (Reuters) - EU powers began circulating a draft resolution on Wednesday for a February 2 meeting of the U.N. nuclear watchdog asking it to report Iran to the Security Council, but Russia was seeking moves that stopped short of a formal referral.
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Howard Mintz / Mercury News:
Feds after Google data — RECORDS SOUGHT IN U.S. QUEST TO REVIVE PORN LAW — The Bush administration on Wednesday asked a federal judge to order Google to turn over a broad range of material from its closely guarded databases. — The move is part of a government effort to revive …
Elisabeth Rosenthal / New York Times:
When Bad People Are Punished, Men Smile (but Women Don't) — ROME, Jan. 18 - In "Don Juan" Lord Byron wrote, "Sweet is revenge - especially to women." But a study released Wednesday, bolstered by magnetic resonance imaging, suggests that men may be the more natural avengers.
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Washington Post:
Diplomats Will Be Shifted to Hot Spots — Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said yesterday that she will shift hundreds of Foreign Service positions from Europe and Washington to difficult assignments in the Middle East, Asia and elsewhere as part of a broad restructuring of the diplomatic corps …
Jonathan Weisman / Washington Post:
Democrats Unveil Lobbying Curbs — As Party Escalates Reform Push, GOP Calls Scandal Bipartisan — Congressional Democrats yesterday laid out a plan to change what they called a GOP "culture of corruption" in Washington, even as Republicans pointed to ethics lapses on their antagonists' side of the aisle.
Discussion:
New York Times, QandO, AMERICAblog, Booman Tribune, Air America Radio, The Democratic Daily Blog, Best of the Blogs and Oliver Willis
White House:
Press Briefing by Scott McClellan — MR. MCCLELLAN: Good afternoon, everyone. I have one announcement to begin with. The President will host Polish President Kaczynski at the White House on February 9th. President Kaczynski is making his first visit to the White House since he assumed the presidency of Poland on December 23rd.
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New York Times:
In 'Design' vs. Darwinism, Darwin Wins Point in Rome — ROME, Jan. 18 - The official Vatican newspaper published an article this week labeling as "correct" the recent decision by a judge in Pennsylvania that intelligent design should not be taught as a scientific alternative to evolution.
Associated Press:
Obama Backs Clinton's Criticism of GOP — WASHINGTON — Sen. Barack Obama and other black Democrats are defending Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's description of the House of Representatives as a "plantation." First lady Laura Bush says Clinton's remark was "ridiculous."
Discussion:
The Glittering Eye, JunkYardBlog, The Corner on National …, Shot In The Dark and PunditGuy
BBC:
Iraq detainees to be freed early — Iraq's ministry of justice has told the BBC that six of the eight women being held by coalition forces in Iraq are to be released early. — The six will be freed because there is insufficient evidence to charge them, a justice ministry spokesman said.
Discussion:
Poynter Online, TalkLeft, Mia Culpa, Rantings of a Sandmonkey, The Jawa Report v3.0 Beta and Boing Boing
