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, TAPPED, The Hotline's Blogometer, TalkLeft, Hugh Hewitt, PoliBlog, Amygdala, Macsmind, The Left Coaster, The Democratic Daily Blog, Think Progress, 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
Katherine Shrader / Associated Press:White House Gives Details on Surveillance
Discussion:
Sister Toldjah
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:
Ezra Klein, The Blogging of the President, 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 …
James Glanz / New York Times:
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
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James Glanz / New York Times:Report Says Number of Attacks by Insurgents in Iraq Increases
Discussion:
american footprints
Andrew Osborn / Independent:
Russia aghast as red tape causes vodka shortage — Stocks of vodka, Russia's national tipple, are running dangerously low because of a Soviet-style bureaucratic blunder that has brought production to a halt. — Hardly a bottle of the grain-based spirit has been made since the beginning of the year …
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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
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.
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 …
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.
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.
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.
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:
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.
Elisabeth Bumiller / New York Times:
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
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 …
Celeste Calvitto / Rapid City Journal:
Measure promoting intellectual diversity approved by House — PIERRE — The South Dakota House of Representatives on Wednesday approved a measure that sponsors say is intended to promote a balance of ideas on college campuses. — HB1222, passed by a vote of 42-26, asks the Board of Regents …
Bernard-Henri Levy / Opinion Journal:
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.
