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Mark Steyn / Chicago Sun Times:
Needing to wake up, West just closes its eyes — In five years' time, how many Jews will be living in France? Two years ago, a 23-year-old Paris disc jockey called Sebastien Selam was heading off to work from his parents' apartment when he was jumped in the parking garage by his Muslim neighbor Adel.
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Charles Babington / Washington Post:
Specter Proposes NSA Surveillance Rules — Measure Would Make Administration Seek FISA Court's Permission to Eavesdrop — The federal government would have to obtain permission from a secret court to continue a controversial form of surveillance, which the National Security Agency …
Discussion:
Prometheus 6
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Glenn Greenwald / Unclaimed Territory:
Specter proposes a new law — something called "FISA" — (updated below) — This article from today's Washington Post is nothing short of surreal: … It is, of course, so disorientingly bizarre to hear about a proposed law requiring FISA warrants for eavesdropping because we already have a law in place which does exactly that.
Discussion:
firedoglake
Marty Lederman / Balkinization:
Mother of Mercy, Is This the End of FISA?! * — *Hat tip: Edward G. Robinson. — The Washington Post reports today about legislation drafted by Senator Specter to respond to the NSA/FISA imbroglio. The Post makes it sound as if Senator Specter would be clamping down on the Administration:
Judd / Think Progress:
Kristol: "We Have Not Had A Serious Three-Year Effort To Fight A War In Iraq" — This morning on Fox News Sunday, Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol, one the staunches defenders of the administration's policy in Iraq, said the war in Iraq was not a "serious effort." — Transcript:
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Independent:
Iraq's death squads: On the brink of civil war — Most of the corpses in Baghdad's mortuary show signs of torture and execution. And the Interior Ministry is being blamed. By Andrew Buncombe and Patrick Cockburn — Hundreds of Iraqis are being tortured to death or summarily executed every month …
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Scotsman:
US leader crashed by trying to 'pedal, wave and speak at same time' — MURDO MACLEOD — HE MAY be the most powerful man in the world, but proof has emerged that President George Bush cannot ride a bike, wave and speak at the same time. — Scotland on Sunday has obtained remarkable details …
Times of London:
Cavegirls were first blondes to have fun — THE modern gentleman may prefer blondes. But new research has found that it was cavemen who were the first to be lured by flaxen locks. — According to the study, north European women evolved blonde hair and blue eyes at the end of the Ice Age …
Scott Lemieux / Lawyers, Guns and Money:
South Dakota: Aftermath Round-Up —In comments to this post, commenter Joe uncovers a remarkable fact about the SD ban on abortion: "In passing the bill, the Senate amended it to make it even more pro-life, adding a sentence to state that the due process clause of South Dakota's constitution …
Kevin Drum / The Washington Monthly:
HEROISM....Over at The Corner, Warren Bell calls for Hollywood to make more movies about "the heroism of American troops in Afghanistan and Iraq." In particular, he'd like to see someone make a movie about the death of football star Pat Tillman, who left his lucrative civilian career to join …
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Washington Post:
A Gospel of Intolerance — It's no secret that the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion are engaged in a bitter internal struggle over the role of gay and lesbian people within the church. But despite this struggle, the leaders of our global communion of 77 million members …
Discussion:
Andrew Sullivan
TalkLeft:
NSA Goes Shopping at Silicon Valley for Data Mining Tools — Whatever the outcome of Bush's warrantless NSA surveillance program, it seems clear that government surveillance of our communications and even our social networks is only going to increase. The New York Times reports on recent …
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CBS News:
Montana's Coal Cowboy — (CBS) The governor of Montana says he can turn the billions of tons of coal under his state into enough diesel fuel to greatly reduce America's dependence on foreign oil. — And there's an added benefit, says Gov. Brian Schweitzer: the United States will be sticking it to the …
New York Times:
A Judicial Green Light for Torture — The administration's tendency to dodge accountability for lawless actions by resorting to secrecy and claims of national security is on sharp display in the case of a Syrian-born Canadian, Maher Arar, who spent months under torture because of United States action.
Thomas E. Ricks / Washington Post:
In the Battle for Baghdad, U.S. Turns War on Insurgents — PATROL BASE SWAMP, Iraq — Here, in a half-ruined house bristling with dull black machine guns and surrounded by green sandbags, shin-deep mudholes, and shadowy palm groves, lies the leading edge of the U.S. war in Iraq.
Paul Burkhardt / Associated Press:
Bolton Blasts 'Sex and Corruption' at U.N. — NEW YORK - The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations said Saturday that the world body is hobbled "by bad management, by sex and corruption" and a lack of confidence in its ability to carry out missions. — John Bolton also criticized the U.N.'s budget …
Ian Buruma / Guardian:
Extremism: the loser's revenge — Can sexual inadequacy or deprivation turn angry young men into killers? — Does masturbation lead to suicide bombing? One would think not. There is no more direct link to suicide bombing than there is to blindness or schizophrenia.
