Top Items:
White House:
Press Briefing by Scott McClellan — MR. MCCLELLAN: Good afternoon, everyone. I know there's a lot of interest in the purported bin Laden audiotape that aired on al-Jazeera earlier today. Let me just give you a couple of quick updates. The President was informed about the audiotape shortly …
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Crooks and Liars:
Chris Matthews compares Michael Moore to Osama — Chris Matthews compares Michael Moore to Osama Bin Laden — On Hardball today, Chris Matthews compared Michael Moore to Osama Bin Laden while discussing the newly released tape with Joe Biden. — Video-WMP Video-QT
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:
NewsBusters.org, The Counterterrorism Blog, Radio Blogger, RightWinged.com, Stop The ACLU, The Jawa Report v3.0 Beta, Captain's Quarters, Sadly, No!, Fox News, In the Bullpen, littlegreenfootballs.com, Right Wing Nut House, Betsy's Page, The Uncooperative Blogger, The Political Teen, The Political Pit Bull, Proud To Be Canadian .ca, Ed Driscoll.com and Sister Toldjah
New York Times:Full Text of the bin Laden Tape
Discussion:
AMERICAN DIGEST, Dr. Sanity, Attytood, In the Bullpen, Roger L. Simon, Fausta's Blog and Left I on the News
New York Times:
Legal Rationale by Justice Dept. on Spying Effort — WASHINGTON, Jan. 19 - The Bush administration offered its fullest defense to date Thursday of the National Security Agency's domestic eavesdropping program, saying that authorization from Congress to deter terrorist attacks …
Discussion:
The Left Coaster, The Heretik, Althouse, Air America Radio, Opinio Juris, rubber hose, Law Librarian Blog, Wonkette, Bark Bark Woof Woof and Dohiyi Mir
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Tom Maguire / JustOneMinute:The NSA Eavesdropping Briefings - Too Exclusive To Be Legal?
Discussion:
Captain's Quarters, tapscottscopydesk.blogspot.com, IntoxiNation-News … and Think Progress
Carol D. Leonnig / Washington Post:Administration Paper Defends Spy Program
Discussion:
New York Times, Unclaimed Territory, Confederate Yankee, The Heretik and The Democratic Daily Blog
Marty Lederman / Balkinization:What Can Be Done About the NSA Dispute?
Discussion:
The Volokh Conspiracy
Associated Press:
Iraq Shiites Win, but Must Form Coalition — BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) — An alliance of Shiite religious parties won the most seats in Iraq's new parliament but not enough to rule without coalition partners, the election commission said Friday. Sunni Arabs gained seats over previous balloting.
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Ellen Knickmeyer / Washington Post:
Iraq Election Results Show Sunni Gains — Shiite Religious Parties Will Have to Form Alliances With Others — BAGHDAD, Iraq, Jan. 20 — Shiite religious parties fell short of winning outright control of parliament in Iraq's Dec. 15 national elections, compelling them to seek alliances …
Discussion:
TAPPED
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 …
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New York Times:
Google Resists U.S. Subpoena of Search Data — SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 19 - The Justice Department has asked a federal judge to compel Google, the Internet search giant, to turn over records on millions of its users' search queries as part of the government's effort to uphold an online pornography law.
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Chicago Tribune:
The not-so-mad mind of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad — Victor Davis Hanson, a senior fellow and historian at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University: Tribune Media Services — `The skirmishes in the occupied land are part of a war of destiny. The outcome of hundreds of years of war will be defined in Palestinian land.
Discussion:
The Strata-Sphere
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Ross Liemer / dailyprincetonian.com:Sen. Clinton calls for sanctions against Iran
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GOP Bloggers
Washington Post:
Mike Malloy to CPAC: Get Lost! — For next month's Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), media director Andrea Saul sent 500 invitations to radio talk shows inviting them to broadcast from the Omni Shoreham Hotel. This is one of the big lovefests for those who want to hear …
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.
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.
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.
Arianna Huffington / The Huffington Post:
Dems Pick Kaine for State of Union Response; What the Hell Are They Thinking? — So the Democrats have chosen Virginia Governor Tim Kaine to deliver the party's response to President Bush's State of the Union speech. Chalk up another one for the What the Hell Are They Thinking? file.
Discussion:
Hullabaloo, Reuters, THE BRAD BLOG, The Carpetbagger Report, Swing State Project, PSoTD, Daily Kos and alternative hippopotamus
Cernig / NewsHog:
The Toughest Option Of All For Iran — Where are all the progressive bloggers and pundits who should be writing about Iran? Sure it's easy and fun to write about the Abramoff scandals or Snoopgate but neither of those are going to kill American citizens! Yet the progressive grassroots seem …
Associated Press:
Iran Moving Its Foreign Currency Reserves — Iran is moving its foreign currency reserves out of European banks as a pre-emptive measure against any possible U.N. sanctions over its nuclear program, the Central Bank Governor said Friday. — Ebrahim Sheibani told reporters that Iran …
Discussion:
small dead animals
Guardian:
New-look Hamas spends £100k on an image makeover — Spin doctor admits he has 'work cut out' with group known for suicide attacks — Chris McGreal in Ramallah — Hamas is paying a spin doctor $180,000 (£100,000) to persuade Europeans and Americans that it is not a group …
