Top Items:
New York Times:
Iraq Panel to Recommend Pullback of Combat Troops — The bipartisan Iraq Study Group reached a consensus on Wednesday on a final report that will call for a gradual pullback of the 15 American combat brigades now in Iraq but stop short of setting a firm timetable for their withdrawal …
Discussion:
Captain's Quarters, The Moderate Voice, Washington Post, Hugh Hewitt's TownHall Blog, Hot Air, The Huffington Post, The RBC, Reason Magazine, Iowa Voice, Blinq, LiberalOasis, Think Progress, CBS News, The Carpetbagger Report, AMERICAN FUTURE, Political Animal, The Indepundit, About U.S. Politics, MyDD, The Agonist, Matthew Yglesias, First Read, The American Street, Discourse.net, The Democratic Daily, FP Passport, NewsHog, American Thinker, Hyscience, Shakespeare's Sister, Blue Crab Boulevard, Riehl World View, the talking dog, Decision '08, Bill's Bites, Israel Matzav, Wizbang, It Shines For All, On Deadline, Needlenose, The Reaction, Wonkette and News Hounds
RELATED:
Washington Post:
Bush: Calls for Troop Drawdowns Unrealistic — At Summit, President Stands by Iraqi Prime Minister, Discusses Speeding Up Security Handover — President Bush delivered a staunch endorsement of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki Thursday morning and dismissed calls for U.S. troop withdrawals …
Sheryl Gay Stolberg / New York Times:
Bush Proclaims Support for Iraqi Premier — President Bush today proclaimed Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki "the right guy for Iraq," and said the two had agreed to speed the turnover of security responsibility from American to Iraqi forces. But Mr. Bush dismissed a reported decision …
Washington Post:
Study Group to Call for Pullback — The Iraq Study Group, which wrapped up eight months of deliberations yesterday, has reached a consensus and will call for a major withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq, shifting the U.S. role from combat to support and advising, according to a source familiar with the deliberations.
Michelle Malkin:
Rumors and reporting in Iraq — ***scroll for updates...NYTimes blogger Tom Zeller Jr weighs in...plus: bloggers note the significance of the capture of Mazer Al-Jubouri, aka the Baghdad Sniper, and his group...*** — I've been following up with CENTCOM on the Associated Press/sketchy sources brouhaha.
Discussion:
Hot Air, Patterico's Pontifications, The Jawa Report, On Deadline, BLACKFIVE, Gateway Pundit, PrairiePundit and JunkYardBlog
RELATED:
Dr. Rusty Shackleford / The Jawa Report:
"Juba" the Baghdad Sniper Captured! — The Iraqi Ministry of the Interior announced that it has captured the Baghdad sniper known as Ali Nazar al Jubori. The name sounds eerily familiar. al Jubori....could this be the original Juba sniper? That is the claim being made.
George F. Will / Washington Post:
Already Too Busy for Civility — That was certainly swift. Washington has a way of quickly acculturating people, especially those who are most susceptible to derangement by the derivative dignity of office. But Jim Webb, Democratic senator-elect from Virginia, has become a pompous poseur …
RELATED:
Greg Sargent / tpmcafe.com:
George Will Distorts WaPo's Own Reporting To Smear Jim Webb — This has to be one of the rankest displays of journalistic dishonesty I've seen in some time on the part of any columnist, large or small. — In today's Washington Post column, George Will assails Dem Senator-elect Jim Webb …
Discussion:
Reason Magazine, Political Animal, Hot Air, JustOneMinute, KC Buzz Blog and DownWithTyranny!
Jonathan Weisman / Washington Post:
Democrats Reject Key 9/11 Panel Suggestion — Neither Party Has an Appetite for Overhauling Congressional Oversight of Intelligence — It was a solemn pledge, repeated by Democratic leaders and candidates over and over: If elected to the majority in Congress, Democrats would implement …
Daily Mail:
'Spy' radiation alert for 33,000 BA passengers — More than 33,000 British Airways passengers faced a radiation scare last night as three planes were grounded over fears that they have been contaminated by the toxin that killed Russian dissident Alexander Litvinenko.
RELATED:
Glenn Greenwald / Unclaimed Territory:
Rule of Law 101 and Neoconservatism — Last year, the Bush administration and the GOP-led Congress jointly created a 5-person, tootheless, subpoena-less "panel" to monitor how "civil liberties issues" are handled as part of the "war on terror." They handpicked five members and …
Discussion:
Right Wing Nut House, The Anonymous Liberal, Sadly, No!, Redstate, Blue Crab Boulevard and Blogs for Bush
Joseph D. McNamara / Wall Street Journal:
50 Shots — Around 4 a.m. on Saturday, Nov. 25, several New York City police officers in plain clothes fired an estimated 50 shots at a car, wounding two black men and killing a third, 23-year-old Sean Bell. Some police bullets penetrated nearby homes. Although an undercover officer …
BBC:
UN troops face child abuse claims — Children have been subjected to rape and prostitution by United Nations peacekeepers in Haiti and Liberia, a BBC investigation has found. — Girls have told of regular encounters with soldiers where sex is demanded in return for food or money.
The Daily Dish:
Spare Us, Hillary — She really shouldn't run. It would divide and polarize the country; she's dreadful on the stump; she has very high negatives; most Democrats only like her; almost no-one loves her; and do we really want 20 years of two families in the White House? Besides: what do you do with Bill?
Katharine Q. Seelye / New York Times:
Huffington Post Will Add Original Reporting to Its Blog — The Huffington Post, which started about 18 months ago as a political Web site for celebrity bloggers, is preparing to venture into original reporting, with plans to cover Congress and, already, the 2008 presidential campaign.
Discussion:
BuzzMachine
Frances Harrison / BBC:
Iran issues fatwa on Azeri writer — One of Iran's most senior clergymen has issued a fatwa on an Azeri writer said to have insulted the Prophet Muhammad. — The call on Muslims to murder Rafiq Tagi, who writes for Azerbaijan's Senet newspaper, echoes the Iranian fatwa against Indian writer Salman Rushdie.
Dr. Sanity:
A BEAUTIFULLY DARK PLACE — This piece in American Thinker by Selwyn Duke is a must read for anyone who cares about free speech (hat tip: Larwyn). In "How We Will Lose Freedom of Speech" Selwyn says: … Read the entire piece. — Meanwhile, the crooks and liars at the blog of the same name …
Linda Greenhouse / New York Times:
Justices' First Brush With Global Warming — A Supreme Court argument Wednesday on the Bush administration's refusal to regulate carbon dioxide in automobile emissions offered three intertwined plot lines to the audience that had come to watch the court's first encounter with the issue of global climate change.