Top Items:
Jim Brady / Washington Post:
Ask Post.com — On Thursday, washingtonpost.com turned off the reader comments feature on post.blog , a blog dedicated to sharing news by and about The Post and washingtonpost.com. The move came after several comments containing personal attacks, profanity and hate speech were posted …
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Associated Press:
Paper Shutters Blog After Ombudsman Post — The Washington Post shut down one of its blogs Thursday after the newspaper's ombudsman raised the ire of readers by writing that lobbyist Jack Abramoff gave money to the Democrats as well as to Republicans. — At the center of a congressional …
Jay Rosen / PressThink:
Transparency at the Post: Q & A with Jim Brady of Washingtonpost.com — "I don't think there are many reporters who oppose thoughtful criticism of their work. What they oppose is being called vulgar names and assigned all sorts of evil motives by people who don't know them.
Katharine Q. Seelye / New York Times:
Paper Decides to Close Blog, Citing Vitriol — The Washington Post shut one of its blogs yesterday, saying it had drawn too many personal attacks, profanity and hate mail directed at the paper's ombudsman. — The closing was the second by a major newspaper in recent months.
Discussion:
Outside The Beltway, Eschaton, mediabistro, AMERICAblog, Scott Rosenberg's Links …, TAPPED, Vox Popoli, Roger Ailes and Donklephant
Jane Hamsher / firedoglake:
Blame the Barbarians — The push is on to take the heat off the Post and their kneepads journalism in the Jack Abramoff matter by placing the blame on their unruly readers. — Jim VandeHei, this morning: … Get it? No distinction between legitimate criticism over the Post's refusal …
Michelle Malkin:
AP: TERRORIST=DISSIDENT — Via the always eagle-eyed Little Green Footballs, check out the caption on the Associated Press photo of Osama bin Laden running today at Yahoo.com: — Got that? Osama isn't a mass-murdering terrorist mastermind. He's just a poor, exiled dissident who disagrees with civilization.
Discussion:
The Mahablog, James Wolcott, The Next Hurrah, Radio Blogger, NewsBusters.org, Power Line, AMERICAblog, Sadly, No!, Right Wing Nut House, Ezra Klein, The Hotline's Blogometer, Secular Blasphemy, Crooks and Liars, Roger L. Simon, The Counterterrorism Blog, The Moderate Voice, protein wisdom, IMAO, RightWinged.com, Macsmind and Betsy's Page
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Tom Maguire / JustOneMinute:
The Osama Tape (With Matthews And Moore) — Osama bin Laden has apparently released a new tape, estimated to have been made in December: … A truce? Because he is winning and wants to let us catch our breath? [Gregory Djerejian reflects at length]. — In related news …
Fred Kaplan / Slate:
How Do You Solve a Problem Like Ahmadinejad? — Reader, do you have a solution to the Iranian nukes dilemma? — What to do about Iran? The mullahs seem intent on acquiring a nuclear arsenal. Everything they've been doing lately—enriching uranium, spinning centrifuges …
Discussion:
ArmsControlWonk, NewsHog, Defense Tech, Centerfield, Marginal Revolution and New York Times
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Opinion Journal:
Still Morning in America — Reaganomics, 25 years later. — Twenty-five years ago today, Ronald Reagan was inaugurated as the 40th President of the United States promising less intrusive government, lower tax rates and victory over communism. On that same day, the American hostages in Iran were freed after 444 days of captivity.
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Dglover / Beltway Blogroll:
The Rise Of Blogs — When President Bush campaigned for re-election in 2004, he vowed to "save Social Security." Bush touted the notion of voluntary personal retirement accounts in his 2005 State of the Union address, promoted the idea just after the speech, and then …
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Reuters:
Expose 'radical' UCLA teacher, get $100 — LOS ANGELES, California (Reuters) — An alumni group dedicated to "exposing the most radical professors" at the University of California at Los Angeles is offering to pay students $100 to record classroom lectures of suspect faculty.
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R.G. Ratcliffe / Houston Chronicle:
Subpoenas seek DeLay links to San Diego firm — Earle wants defense company record of $15,000 sent to TRMPAC — AUSTIN - Travis County prosecutors attempted to dig deeper Thursday into links between California defense contractors involved in the bribery of a former congressman …
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Laylan Copelin / Austin American-Statesman:Subpoenas seek records from defense contractor
Discussion:
Demagogue
Abdon M. Pallasch / Chicago Sun Times:
Durbin to vote against Alito, says filibuster possible — U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) announced Thursday he will vote against Judge Sam Alito for the U.S. Supreme Court. And he said so many other senators intensely oppose Alito that they may have enough votes to sustain a filibuster against the conservative jurist.
Associated Press:
Minority Leader Reid Apologizes to GOP — WASHINGTON — Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid on Thursday apologized to 33 Republican senators singled out for ethics criticism in a report from his office titled "Republican Abuse of Power." — "The document released by my office yesterday went …
Discussion:
OTB, Big Brass Blog, This Modern World, California Conservative, Talking Points Memo and GOP Bloggers
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Brian Witte / Associated Press:
Md. court rules against same-sex marriage ban … A Baltimore Circuit Court judge today struck down Maryland's 33-year-old law against same-sex marriage, ruling in favor of 19 gay men and women who contended the prohibition violated the state's equal rights amendments.
Discussion:
Obsidian Wings
Steven Erlanger / New York Times:
Into the West Bank Abyss: From Student to Suicide Bomber — NABLUS, West Bank, Jan. 19 - A local photographer was the first to tell a shocked Samer Antar that his youngest brother, Sami, was dead. His mother's wails soon followed, rising in pitch to fill the dark staircase, as relatives …
A.M. Mora y Leon / Publius Pundit:
CODE PINK PHOTOSHOPS IRANIAN FREEDOM BABES AS IRAQ ANTIWAR ACTIVISTS — Unbelievable. Code Pink, an anti-American, anti-Iraqi-freedom, anti-Iranian-democracy full-Sandalista nuisance group, has taken to photoshopping photographs of Iranian freedom babes brave enough to protest …
Discussion:
RightWinged.com
Tom Maguire / JustOneMinute:
The NSA Eavesdropping Briefings - Too Exclusive To Be Legal? — Scott Shane of the Times returns to an issue raised by Congressfolk Jane Harman, as reported on January 5 - did President Bush comply with the requirements of the National Security Act of 1947 when he restricted the briefings …
