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Secret Court's Judges Were Warned About NSA Spy Data — Program May Have Led Improperly to Warrants — Twice in the past four years, a top Justice Department lawyer warned the presiding judge of a secret surveillance court that information overheard in President Bush's eavesdropping program …
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firedoglake, TAPPED, PoliBlog, Amygdala, Macsmind, Hugh Hewitt, The Left Coaster, The Democratic Daily Blog, Democrat Taylor Marsh …, Think Progress, Stygius, The Volokh Conspiracy, The American Street, The Washington Monthly, AMERICAblog, Just a Bump in the Beltway, Democratic Veteran and Bark Bark Woof Woof
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White House Agrees to Brief Congress on NSA Surveillance — Responding to congressional pressure from both parties, the White House agreed yesterday to give lawmakers more information about its domestic surveillance program, although the briefings remain highly classified and limited in scope.
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Captain's Quarters, Big Lizards, The Heretik, The Moderate Voice, the talking dog, Stop The ACLU, PoliBlog and Reuters

White House Gives Details on Surveillance
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Sister Toldjah

At Mecca Meeting, Cartoon Outrage Crystallized — BEIRUT, Lebanon, Feb. 8 — As leaders of the world's 57 Muslim nations gathered for a summit meeting in Mecca in December, issues like religious extremism dominated the official agenda. But much of the talk in the hallways was of a wholly different issue …
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100,000 Muslims to vent anger in London at cartoon protest — A mass demonstration of 100,000 Muslims will take place in London next weekend as anger continues over publication of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed. — The Muslim Action Committee, an umbrella group which claims to represent …

Tough U.S. Steps in Hunger Strike at Camp in Cuba — United States military authorities have taken tougher measures to force-feed detainees engaged in hunger strikes at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, after concluding that some were determined to commit suicide to protest their indefinite confinement, military officials have said.

Ex-FEMA chief: I may tell all about Katrina — Michael Brown asks White House if they want him to stay quiet — WASHINGTON (AP) — Former disaster agency chief Michael Brown is indicating he is ready to reveal his correspondence with President Bush and other officials during Hurricane Katrina unless …
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Toast of the TV in Russian Eyes: It's Solzhenitsyn — MOSCOW, Feb. 8 — A grandfatherly figure, his bearded face wrinkled into a smile, peers down from billboards around town. — It is surprise enough that the man is Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn, the once-exiled writer, Nobel Prize winner and, of late, octogenarian scold.
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Applications to Law Schools Are Declining — Has law school lost its appeal? — Last year, for the first time since the 1997-98 admission cycle, the number of applicants to law school declined, by 4.6 percent, and so far this year, the number has declined by 9.5 percent.

Summary of Findings — Public concern over Iran's nuclear program has risen dramatically in the past few months. Today, 27% of Americans cite Iran as the country that represents the greatest danger to the United States. In October, just 9% pointed to Iran as the biggest danger to the U.S. …

Craigslist sued over housing ad bias — Online classified site's standards in question — A Chicago fair housing group has sued groundbreaking Web site Craigslist for allegedly publishing discriminatory advertisements, a case that could test the legal liabilities of online ad venues.

Greenfield: 'Do you really do this at a funeral?' — NEW YORK (CNN) — Four U.S. presidents — including President George W. Bush — were among the luminaries at Coretta Scott King's funeral Tuesday. Among some speakers' accolades and tributes to the civil rights icon were criticisms …

Lawyers: Many Gitmo Detainees Not Accused — More than half of the terror suspects being held at Guantanamo Bay have not been accused of committing hostile acts against the United States or its allies, two of the detainees' lawyers said in a report released Tuesday.

The Nation's Dual Political Dynasties Are Growing Closer Than Arm's Length — WASHINGTON, Feb. 8 — When the Bushes and Clintons held hands before 15,000 mourners at Coretta Scott King's funeral on Tuesday, it looked like a prayerful moment in the life of the nation.
Discussion:
BrothersJudd Blog

JOE SHOULD GO— NED LAMONT'S FIRST FUND-RAISER — I just got back from meeting Ned Lamont. I went because I dislike everything about Lieberman and have since I first heard about him as a sleazy, right wing local pol in Connecticut, long before he became part of a national or international nightmare.

Iraq Utilities Are Falling Short of Prewar Performance — WASHINGTON, Feb. 8 — Virtually every measure of the performance of Iraq's oil, electricity, water and sewerage sectors has fallen below preinvasion values even though $16 billion of American taxpayer money has already been disbursed …
Discussion:
Andrew Sullivan

Moral Atomic Bomb — In the midst of a planetary intifada, let us stand by the moderate Muslims. — One can find these cartoons mediocre. — One can perceive in them, as I do, a certain similarity with the anti-Semitic and racist caricatures of the 1930s or '50s.

The growing role of bloggers — Imagine what the mood at President Bush's State of the Union address would have been if the big news before the speech was the Senate's confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Harriet Miers. — It's hard to believe that as recently as late October that was the White House's goal.

Earmarked Men — BACK on the F-Bar Ranch, when I was too young to load the chute, de-horn, vaccinate, hold a hot iron or otherwise make myself useful as my father and older brothers branded calves, I would spend my time collecting "earmarks" — V-shaped pieces of a calf's left ear detached with two swift strokes of a pocketknife.

Money shot — Twenty bloggers. Seventeen states. One question: If you had $100 to invest politically, where would it go? — True confessions: when I queried folks, I told them that I, like so many disenchanted progressives, had sworn off giving money to the Democratic National Party …