Top Items:
David E. Sanger / New York Times:
Iraq Study Group Weighs Overture to Iran and Syria — A draft report on strategies for Iraq, which will be debated here by a bipartisan commission beginning Monday, urges an aggressive regional diplomatic initiative that includes direct talks with Iran and Syria but sets no timetables …
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The Big Trunk / Power Line:
LET'S TALK IT OVER IN MUNICH — David Sanger reports in today's New York Times that the Baker-Hamilton panel's draft report on Iraq "urges an aggressive regional diplomatic initiative that includes direct talks with Iran and Syria but sets no timetables for a military withdrawal …
Discussion:
Weekly Standard
Louise Roug / Los Angeles Times:
Angry Shiites hurl stones at Maliki's motorcade — BAGHDAD — Angry Shiite Muslims pelted Prime Minister Nouri Maliki's motorcade with stones today after the Iraqi leader pleaded for national reconciliation at a memorial in Sadr City held for victims of a large-scale bombing attack last week.
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Sudarsan Raghavan / Washington Post:
A Day When Mahdi Army Showed Its Other Side — Militia Seen as Heroic In Aiding Bomb Victims — In the chaos, Ayad al-Fartoosi thrived. — Against a backdrop of death and panic in Sadr City last Thursday, he strode confidently through streets littered with burning cars and charred bodies.
Joan Vennochi / Boston Globe:
Romney's dance to the right — IT'S LIKE turning a ballerina into a right-leaning elephant. — For more than a decade, Mitt Romney has been dancing around some hot-button social issues. Now, he is running hard to the right to position himself for the 2008 presidential contest.
Discussion:
AMERICAblog
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Mike Allen / Time:
Can a Mormon be President? — Why Mitt Romney will have to explain a faith that remains mysterious to many — A mormon church official and a public relations executive shuttled recently from the Fox News Washington bureau to the Washington Post to the online political digest the Hotline.
Allahpundit / Hot Air:
Video: Rangel says men join the army only if they can't have "a decent career" — Hence his support for the draft. If even our volunteers are there involuntarily, why shouldn't everyone be? … This won't get as much attention as what Lurch said (or was understood to have said) a few weeks ago.
Discussion:
Redstate, The Jawa Report, Sister Toldjah, Hugh Hewitt's TownHall Blog, Stop The ACLU, BLACKFIVE, Blogs for Bush, A Blog For All, The Peking Duck, Blue Crab Boulevard, BizzyBlog, Out on a limb at Mike Lief.com, Riehl World View, Wizbang, Macsmind, USS Neverdock and The Dread Pundit Bluto
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Captain Ed / Captain's Quarters:
We Gotta Draft 'Em Because They're So Dumb
We Gotta Draft 'Em Because They're So Dumb
Discussion:
Flopping Aces
Times of London:
Obama lifted by hand of God — Rising black star of Democrats connects with evangelicals — IN THE latest sign that the "God gap" between Republicans and Democrats is narrowing, one of America's biggest evangelical churches will this week welcome Senator Barack Obama …
Discussion:
TalkLeft
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Neil Johnson / TBO.com:
Hurricane Predictions Off Track As Tranquil Season Wafts Away — More from this channel: — This feature requires the Macromedia Flash Plugin. Please visit http://www.macromedia.com/go/ getflashplayer to download this plugin. — It was not the hurricane season we expected, thank you.
Discussion:
Tim Blair
Howard Kurtz / Washington Post:
At the Inquirer, Shrink Globally, Slash Locally? — Brian Tierney, a onetime critic of the Philadelphia Inquirer who wound up buying the paper, is determined to take his new property in a different direction. — "We don't need a Jerusalem bureau," he says. "What we need are more people in the South Jersey bureau."
Mary Lynn Smith / Minneapolis Star Tribune:
'Makings of bomb' found in airport car — A worker discovered the device in the trunk of a returned rental car. It didn't contain explosives but the FBI is investigating. — A bomb-like device was found in a rental car Sunday morning at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport …
Robert Weller / Associated Press:
Woman faces fines for wreath peace sign — DENVER - A homeowners association in southwestern Colorado has threatened to fine a resident $25 a day until she removes a Christmas wreath with a peace sign that some say is an anti- Iraq war protest or a symbol of Satan.
Jonathan Chait / Los Angeles Times:
Bring back Saddam Hussein — Restoring the dictator to power may give Iraqis the jolt of authority they need. Have a better solution? — THE DEBATE about Iraq has moved past the question of whether it was a mistake (everybody knows it was) to the more depressing question of whether it is possible to avert total disaster.
Fiona MacRae / Daily Mail:
UK scientists invent male 'pill' that can be taken hours before sex — British scientists have developed a revolutionary pill that men could take as a one-off contraceptive just before a date. — The tablet would prevent a man from being able to impregnate a woman, but within a few hours his fertility would return to normal.
Discussion:
Don Surber