Top Items:
Jesse J. Holland / Associated Press:
Republicans Clear the Way for Alito Vote — Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito enjoys sufficient bipartisan support to surmount any Senate filibuster attempt by minority Democrats, Senate leaders said Friday. — A final vote making the New Jersey jurist the nation's 110th Supreme Court justice …
Discussion:
New York Times, Reuters, Mark in Mexico, Left in the West, The Reaction, Pardon My English, PoliPundit.com and The Strata-Sphere
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James Taranto / Opinion Journal:
Best of the Web — Best of the Tube This Weekend — We'll be appearing this weekend on "The Journal Editorial Report," in its new, faster-paced Fox News Channel incarnation. Topics are the kerfuffle over the terrorist surveillance program and the Alito confirmation.
Bob Fertik / Democrats.com:
WE CAN STOP ALITO THIS WEEKEND — The last two days have been amazing. — Early Thursday afternoon, we broke the news that Senator John Kerry would lead a filibuster against Judge Sam Alito if he could get 41 Senators to sustain the filibuster. Three hours later, CNN confirmed our story.
Discussion:
Betsy's Page, AMERICAblog, THE BRAD BLOG, Outside The Beltway, The Heretik and Booman Tribune
John Kerry / dailykos.com:Filibuster Alito — Do I support a filibuster? The answer is yes.
Discussion:
CNN, Ezra Klein, The Democratic Daily Blog, The Carpetbagger Report, Decision '08, Democrat Taylor Marsh …, In the Bullpen, Newslinker, The Moderate Voice, Sister Toldjah, RedState, TalkLeft, Making Light, kennedy.senate.gov, The Left Coaster, INDC Journal, The Washington Monthly and The Idiotarian Savant
Greg Sargent / American Prospect:
Dems Don't Know Jack — A Prospect exclusive: A new analysis of Abramoff tribal money by a nonpartisan firm shows it's a Republican scandal. — A new and extensive analysis of campaign donations from all of Jack Abramoff's tribal clients, done by a nonpartisan research firm …
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blogometer.nationaljournal.com:
BLOGS VS. THE MSM: Howell's Moving Castle — Last p.m. we had the unique experience of attending an Nat'l Press Club luncheon and discussion hosted by Alex S. Jones, dir. of the Shorenstein Center at the Kennedy School of Gov't at Harvard. Also in attendance were bloggers representing Power Line …
Discussion:
Open Letter …
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Atrios / Eschaton:Fine — A thing which I only came to realize recently …
Discussion:
Crooks and Liars
Greg Miller / Financial Times:
57% Americans support military action in Iran — Los Angeles TimesWASHINGTON — Despite persistent disillusionment with the war in Iraq, a majority of Americans supports taking military action against Iran if that country continues to produce material that can be used to develop nuclear weapons …
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Charles J. Hanley / Associated Press:
Documents Show Army Seized Wives As Tactic — The U.S. Army in Iraq has at least twice seized and jailed the wives of suspected insurgents in hopes of "leveraging" their husbands into surrender, U.S. military documents show. — In one case, a secretive task force locked up the young mother …
Reuters:
Hamas, Fatah battle over election results — GAZA (Reuters) - Hamas and Fatah gunmen exchanged fire on Friday in political turmoil as the long-dominant Fatah faction was threatened with a violent backlash from within after its crushing election defeat by the Islamic militant group.
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Josh Gerstein / New York Sun:
Bush's Iran Plan Echoes Kerry, Baffles Friends — President Bush's endorsement of a plan to end the nuclear standoff with Iran by giving the Islamic republic nuclear fuel for civilian use under close monitoring has left some of his supporters baffled. — One cause for the chagrin is that the proposal …
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Carpetbagger / The Carpetbagger Report:Maybe that Kerry guy knew what he was talking about
Discussion:
The Reaction
U.S. Newswire:
THE NSA PROGRAM TO DETECT AND PREVENT TERRORIST ATTACKS MYTH V. REALITY — Myth: The NSA program is illegal. — Reality: The President's authority to authorize the terrorist surveillance program is firmly based both in his constitutional authority as Commander-in-Chief …
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Washington Post:
K Street's New Ways Spawn More Pork — As Barriers With Lawmakers Fall, 'Earmarks' Grow — An explosion of special interest funding engineered in part by lawmakers with close ties to lobbyists is drawing increased scrutiny as Congress moves to address concern about corruption that already …
Joshua Goodman / Associated Press:
Colombia Busts Ring Linked to al-Qaida — Colombia has dismantled a false passport ring with links to al-Qaida and Hamas militants, the acting attorney general said Thursday after authorities led dozens of simultaneous raids across five cities. — The gang allegedly supplied an unknown number …
Matt Stoller / MyDD:
NBC, Smears, Arianna, and TV Ethics — Arianna Huffington is getting slimed by the NBC PR department for her blogging on Tim Russert. The gist of her blogging is this. Aside from Russert's stonewalling on Plamegate, he routinely accepts massive speaking fees, which is an obvious conflict of interest.
Discussion:
The Huffington Post, Eschaton, The Moderate Voice, Democrat Taylor Marsh …, TalkLeft, mediabistro, Jesus' General, Daily Kos, Balloon Juice, News Blog and PSoTD
Chris McGann / Seattle Post-Intelligencer:
Gay rights bill passes in Legislature — Amid celebration, governor promises to sign law Tuesday — OLYMPIA — The Senate today voted 25-23 to approve a gay rights bill and ended the debate over legislation that emerged in Washington the same year singer Anita Bryant began her "Save Our Children" crusade against such protections.
Michelle Malkin:
MORE CHINA-GOOGLE PROTEST LOGOS — Lots of new entries for the China Google Protest Logo Album coming in. Here's the best of the second batch. — Posted at Discarded Lies: — Sent by reader Herman F.: — From Junkyard Blog's Bryan Preston: — Sent by reader Jorrit P.:
National Review:
The 2003 Tax Cut on Capital Gains Entirely Paid for Itself — On Thursday the Congressional Budget Office released its annual Budget and Economic Outlook, and buried in one of its nearly impenetrable tables of numbers is a remarkable story that has gone entirely unreported by the mainstream media …
David D. Kirkpatrick / New York Times:
Democrats in 2 Southern States Push Bills on Bible Study — WASHINGTON, Jan. 26 — Democrats in Georgia and Alabama, borrowing an idea usually advanced by conservative Republicans, are promoting Bible classes in the public schools. Their Republican opponents are in turn denouncing them as …
