Top Items:
Carol D. Leonnig / Washington Post:
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 …
Discussion:
firedoglake, Macsmind, TAPPED, The Hotline's Blogometer, TalkLeft, Hugh Hewitt, PoliBlog, Amygdala, The Left Coaster, Brilliant at Breakfast, Think Progress, Defense Tech, The Democratic Daily Blog, Democrat Taylor Marsh …, WTF Is It Now??, The Volokh Conspiracy, Stygius, The Washington Monthly, The American Street, AMERICAblog, Democratic Veteran, Just a Bump in the Beltway and Bark Bark Woof Woof
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Charles Babington / Washington Post:
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.
Discussion:
Captain's Quarters, Big Lizards, The Heretik, The Left Coaster, The Moderate Voice, the talking dog, Stop The ACLU, PoliBlog and Reuters
Michael Hirsh / Newsweek:
Wanted: Competent Big Brothers — As the Senate frets over whether the NSA has violated the outdated Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, no one is paying attention to the real issue: proficiency. — Feb. 8, 2006 - Sen. Joseph Biden was uncharacteristically succinct. "How will we know when this war is over?"
Hassan M. Fattah / New York Times:
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 …
Discussion:
Michelle Malkin, Ezra Klein, The Blogging of the President, The Belmont Club, Daimnation!, Althouse, Tim Worstall and PoliBlog
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Jamal Saidi / MSNBC:
Bush, Rice told to 'shut up' over cartoon issue — Hezbollah leader speaks to huge protest after Bush urged calm — Hezbollah supporters chant "death to America, death to Israel" during a religious rally in Beirut, Lebanon, Thursday that focused on the caricature controversy.
Discussion:
Israel news and commentary …
Associated Press:
Bush: Al Qaeda attack on West Coast thwarted — WASHINGTON (AP) — President Bush said the U.S.-led global war on terror has "weakened and fractured" al Qaeda and allied groups, outlining as proof new details about the multinational cooperation that foiled purported terrorist plans to fly …
Discussion:
Daily Kos
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Jonah Goldberg / Los Angeles Times:
One sorry mess of a party — AND FOR ANOTHER week, the Democrats managed to hold themselves hostage to, well, themselves. — Item 1: Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, the wunderkind of the Democratic Party who, we've been told, not only transcends race, partisanship and personal ambition …
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Freedom / Freedom for Egyptians:
Egyptian Newspaper Pictures that Published Cartoons 5 months ago — No Danish Treatment for an Egyptian Newspaper — I promised you in my previous post to bring you the images of the Egyptian newspaper, Al Fager (as pronounced in Egyptian Arabic) that published the Danish Cartoons five month ago on Oct 17, 2005.
DownWithTyranny!:
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.
Associated Press:
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 …
Tim Golden / New York Times:
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.
newsyemen.net:
Security apparatus arrest about 200 of the 23 escapees' relatives and families for investigation — Sana'a, NewsYemen — In the wake of the escape of 23 al-Qaeda prisoners from the prison of the Yemen Political Security Organization, security forces here launched a large-scale arrest campaign …
Discussion:
Armies of Liberation, The Jawa Report v3.0 Beta, Dean's World, Hyscience and The Fourth Rail
Jonathan D. Glater / New York Times:
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.
Mike Hughlett / Sun-Sentinel:
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.
benningtonbanner.com:
Freed and a Brattleboro Democrat sign up with Tarrant — BRATTLEBORO — A Brattleboro native is crossing party lines to lead Republican candidate Richard Tarrant's campaign for U.S. Senate. — Kate O'Connor, a Democrat from Brattleboro who headed former Gov. Howard Dean's presidential campaign in 2004 …
Garance Franke-Ruta / TAPPED:
INTELLECTUAL ARM CANDY. Ezra, riffing off an item on Judith Warner's Times Select blog about "assortative mating," notes on one of his other blogs that the Dowdian idea that men prefer to date their intellectual inferiors doesn't hold water in his circle of people in their early 20's:
David S. Broder / Washington Post:
Bucking Bush on Spying — No member of the Senate is more conservative than Sam Brownback of Kansas — a loyal Republican, an ardent opponent of abortion and, not coincidentally, a presidential hopeful for 2008. — As a member of the Judiciary Committee, he has supported President Bush on every one of his court appointments.
Pew Research Center:
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. …
Nancy Goldstein / rawstory.com:
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 …
Discussion:
Shakespeare's Sister
James Rainey / Los Angeles Times:
Lone Gun in War Reporting — Michael Yon's blog made him a hero among backers of the effort in Iraq. As his profile grew, so did debate on the quality of his work. — More than one U.S. senator endorsed him. So did retired Lt. Col. Oliver North and platoons of American fighting men and women.
Nick Britten / Telegraph:
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 …
