Top Items:
Captain Ed / Captain's Quarters:
Canadian Election Live Blog — 6:30 - I'm off to a late start, thanks to a last-moment emergency at work. Now that I'm home, the First Mate has me fixed up with dinner and I'll be eating while blogging. (Excuse typos for a while, IOW.) We're still two hours ahead of poll closings in Canada, and I'm a bit behind on my e-mail.
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cbc.ca:
Harper wins Tory minority government — Conservative Leader Stephen Harper will become Canada's next prime minister, as Canadians have elected a Tory minority government and ended a 12-year reign of Liberal rule. — Nationwide, the Tories are currently leading or elected in 123 ridings …
John Tabin / americanprowler.com:Grit Removal — Today is Election Day in Canada …
Discussion:
Vodkapundit, austinbay.net, Captain's Quarters, Hugh Hewitt, andrewcoyne.com and Ed Driscoll.com
William Branigin / Washington Post:
Bush Defends Domestic Spying — Deputy National Intelligence Chief Says Program Allows Better Terrorist Tracking — President Bush and the nation's deputy national intelligence chief today defended the legality of a controversial domestic spying program, describing it as a vital tool …
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John O'Neil / New York Times:
Intelligence Deputy Defends Surveillance Program — Gen. Michael V. Hayden, who led the National Security Agency when it began a program of warrantless wiretaps, vigorously defended the program today, but acknowledged that it depends on a lower standard of evidence than required by courts.
Discussion:
TalkLeft, The Washington Monthly, The Carpetbagger Report, AMERICAN FUTURE, The Heretik and Washington Post
Associated Press:
Bush tells abortion foes, 'We will prevail' — 33 years after Roe v. Wade ruling, abortion debate continues — SAN FRANCISCO, California (AP) — President Bush told abortion opponents Monday that they are pursuing "a noble cause" and making a real difference in the campaign to recruit more Americans to stand on their side.
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MB Williams / Wampum:
The 2005 Koufax Awards: Most Deserving of Wider Recognition — This is the hardest of the nomination posts to compile, one reason I chose to do it early this year - hopefully you'll all feel sorry enough for me that you'll send much Pinot Noir and pad thai (well, maybe not together …
Jeffrey M. Jones / Gallup:
Special Report: Many States Shift Democratic During 2005 — Rhode Island, Delaware most Democratic; Utah, Wyoming most Republican — PRINCETON, NJ — An analysis of Gallup Poll data from 2005 shows that the Democratic Party made gains in party identification among the American public.
White House:
President Discusses Global War on Terror at Kansas State University — THE PRESIDENT: Thanks for the warm welcome. Thanks for inviting me here to give the Landon Lecture. For those students who are here, I want you to know I can remember what it was like to sit through lectures. (Laughter.)
Toni Locy / Associated Press:
Libby Wants to Use Classified Evidence — WASHINGTON - Lawyers for a former top aide to Vice President Dick Cheney on Monday made their first request to use classified evidence at his trial, launching a highly secretive court process that could bog down the case.
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Anthony Phillips / This Is London:
George sinks to new low — First he shocked TV viewers and his colleagues by pretending to be a cat and lapping milk from Rula Lenska's hand. — Now George Galloway is set to attract further derision after performing a dance routine on Celebrity Big Brother - in a tight-fitting, red leotard.
Discussion:
RightWinged.com, Kesher Talk, Norwegianity, WuzzaDem, Solomonia, Silent Running and Ed Driscoll.com
David Stout / New York Times:
Justices Ask Court to Reconsider Campaign Finance Case — WASHINGTON, Jan. 23 - The Supreme Court signaled a willingness today to revisit its landmark 2003 decision on the use of money in political campaigns, directing a lower court to reconsider a ruling against a Wisconsin anti-abortion group …
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Jennifer Loven / Associated Press:
Bush Calls Surveillance Legal, Necessary — MANHATTAN, Kansas - President Bush pushed back Monday at critics of his once-secret domestic spying effort, saying it should be termed a "terrorist surveillance program" and contending it has the backing of legal experts, key lawmakers and the Supreme Court.
James Glanz / New York Times:
Iraq Rebuilding Badly Hobbled, U.S. Report Finds — The first official history of the $25 billion American reconstruction effort in Iraq depicts a program hobbled from the outset by gross understaffing, a lack of technical expertise, bureaucratic infighting, secrecy and constantly increasing security costs …
NY Daily News:
'Factory' film on Warhol no work of art, says Reed — Sienna Miller, Hayden Christensen and Guy Pearce just started filming "Factory Girl," in which Miller plays Andy Warhol's drug-addled muse Edie Sedgwick. — But Lou Reed has already formed his opinion of director George Hickenlooper and his cast.
Abbas Raza / 3quarksdaily:
MONDAY MUSING: A MORAL DEGENERACY — One of the few vices I have always had an extreme aversion and almost allergic reaction to is gambling in all its multifarious incarnations. So much so, that I have never even learned to play a single card game, because they are all somehow indissolubly …
Sabrina Tavernise / New York Times:
Abduction of U.S. Reporter Underscores Risks in Iraq — BAGHDAD, Iraq, Jan. 22 - The tools of her trade were a notebook, pen, Islamic head covering and Arabic name to pass unnoticed through Iraqi streets. — Together with an interpreter and a driver, Jill Carroll, a 28-year-old American journalist …
Fox News:
U.N. Procurement Scandal: A 'Culture of Impunity' — UNITED NATIONS — How bad is the still expanding scandal in the United Nations' multi-billion-dollar procurement division? Based on a still-secret internal investigation, the answer is: for the U.N., it is just as bad as the gigantic Oil-for-Food debacle — or maybe worse.
