memeorandum: 6 IMAMS KICKED OFF PLANE GAVE CREW SEVERAL REASONS TO BE SUSPICIOUS (Cassie Carothers/Fox News)

4:03 AM ET, December 4, 2006

Top Items:

Chavez wins re-election by wide margin — CARACAS, Venezuela - President Hugo Chavez won re-election by a wide margin Sunday, giving the firebrand leftist six more years to redistribute Venezuela's vast oil wealth to the poor and press his campaign to counter U.S. influence in Latin America and beyond.

Discussion: Blue Crab Boulevard

A.M. Mora y Leon / Publius Pundit:

VENEZUELA VOTES -PHOTOS — Voting around Caracas on Sunday. These photos were taken by a pool of 38 citizen journalists who documented the electoral process. Their fascinating slideshow can be found at this Flickr site, here. Hat tip: Venezuela Today — Venezuelans went to the polls today …

Discussion: Venezuela News And Views, Babalu Blog, Wake up America and Blue Crab Boulevard

Gateway Pundit:

Venezuelans Vote on Chavez & 6 More Years of Marxist Idiocy — Update: VENEZUELA CHOOSES MARXISM! — More Below — Venezuelans go to the polls today to choose Marxism and more Hugo Chavez... Or, to turn back to freedom and capitalism with Opposition candidate Manuel Rosales.

Discussion: Liberty Street and Scared Monkeys

Associated Press: Election officials: Chavez wins by wide margin

Houston Chronicle:
Telemundo: Venezuela Halts Transmission

Discussion: Sister Toldjah and The American Pundit

Patrick Moser / Agence France Presse: Chavez headed to reelection in Venezuela voting: government exit polls

BBC:
Chavez wins Venezuela re-election

Discussion: The Reaction

CNN:

Nine U.S. troops killed in Iraq … BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) — Nine U.S. troops died in Iraq during the weekend, including five killed by roadside bombs, the U.S. military reported Sunday. — Two soldiers were killed and two wounded Sunday when a roadside bomb exploded near their vehicle in northern Iraq …

Discussion: Informed Comment, The Reaction, The Agonist and Liberty Street

Wall Street Journal:

Why Military Calls to Raise Iraq Effort Grow — Rumsfeld Exit Revives Push to Boost Troops, — Money in One Last Effort to Stabilize Baghdad — WASHINGTON — As demands mount to pull U.S. troops out of Iraq, a growing number of senior military officials are arguing that the only way to salvage …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Riehl World View and TalkLeft

Steven R. Weisman / New York Times:

Aide Says Bush Plans Changes in Approach to Iraq — President Bush plans "significant changes" in his approach to Iraq after he reviews options drafted by an outside panel of experts and suggestions from others in the administration and Congress, Stephen J. Hadley, the national security adviser, said today.

Discussion: Sister Toldjah

Deborah Sontag / New York Times:

Videotape Offers a Window Into a Terror Suspect's Isolation — One spring day during his three and a half years as an enemy combatant, Jose Padilla experienced a break from the monotony of his solitary confinement in a bare cell in the brig at the Naval Weapons Station in Charleston, S.C.

Discussion: Hullabaloo, TalkLeft and jules crittenden

Michael Isikoff / Newsweek:

On Tape: An 'Enemy' Interrogation — Stressed: Lawyers allege that Padilla is too 'traumatized' to help his defense — Lawyers for "enemy combatant" Jose Padilla claim he is so disoriented from three years of isolation and aggressive interrogations that he is now mentally ill. In new court filings …

Paul Richter / Los Angeles Times:

Mideast allies near a state of panic — U.S. leaders' visits to the region reap only warnings and worry. — WASHINGTON — President Bush and his top advisors fanned out across the troubled Middle East over the last week to showcase their diplomatic initiatives to restore strained relationships …

Ben Feller / Associated Press:
Bush aide: 'We have not failed in Iraq'

Discussion: No More Mister Nice Blog

MSNBC:
MTP Transcript for Dec. 3

Discussion: LiberalOasis, Flopping Aces and Daily Kos

Tom Zeller Jr / New York Times:

Separating Hyperbole From Horror in Iraq — Over the course of last week, an Associated Press article — one subsequently challenged by the military — in which six Sunni worshipers were reportedly doused in kerosene and burned alive by Shiite attackers, became the worst kind of totem.

Discussion: The Jawa Report, The Democratic Daily, Flopping Aces, Patterico's Pontifications and jules crittenden

Jules Crittenden / Boston Herald:
Say no to AP's shoddy work

Discussion: Flopping Aces, Don Surber, small dead animals, Austin Bay Blog, Wake up America, Clayton Cramer's BLOG and Atlas Shrugs

Zeina Karam / Associated Press:

Sectarian clashes in West Beirut kill 1 — BEIRUT, Lebanon - Violent clashes broke out Sunday between Shiite and Sunni Muslims in the capital, leaving one man dead from gunshot wounds at a time when tensions throughout Lebanon threaten the country's fragile sectarian and political balance.

Discussion: Gateway Pundit, Right Wing Nut House, Riehl World View and A Blog For All

Abu Kais / From Beirut to the Beltway:

Syria and Hizbullah to intensify offensive — The Hizbullah supporter that was shot dead on Sunday may or may not have been shot by the Sunni residents of Qasqas. The area is infested with pro-Assad Ahbash Islamists, and I would not put it past one of them or some Syrian intelligence operative …

Discussion: Washington Post, Michael J. Totten, Right Wing Nut House, The Lebanese Bloggers and Hot Air

Observer:

See exclusive new pictures of Alexander Litvinenko — Mark Townsend, Jamie Doward, Tom Parfitt in Moscow and Barbara McMahon in Rome — Alexander Litvinenko with a Scottish bonnet, Chechen swords and KGB gauntlets. Photograph: Copyright Guardian News and Media. All rights reserved.

Discussion: Daily Express, Independent, The Strata-Sphere, Crooked Timber and The Political Pit Bull

Allahpundit / Hot Air:
Spymania: Suspicions swirl around ... everyone

Discussion: Agence France Presse

TigerHawk:

Ethics in journalism: Taking the Columbia J-School challenge — It seems that one or more students at the Columbia University School of Journalism cheated on the final exam of a course in ethics. Glenn Reynolds wrote that "you can't make this stuff up... Sadly, you don't have to."

Discussion: New York Times and Daily Pundit

Marc Fisher / Washington Post:

'Rest easy, sleep well my brothers. Know the line has held, your job is done.' — E very year for more than a decade, at the height of the season, Morrill Worcester would pack up a truckload of his Christmas wreaths and head down from Maine to Arlington National Cemetery.

Discussion: Blue Crab Boulevard, Redstate, Sister Toldjah and BLACKFIVE

Guardian:

Drug pirates leave death in their wake — The trade in fake medicines is booming but China is finally starting to get tough — Jonathan Watts in Beijing — No one will ever know how many Chinese men - and women - were sexually satisfied after taking the American Number One, Male Exclusive …

Stephen Labaton / New York Times:

As Trucking Rules Are Eased, a Debate on Safety Intensifies — As Dorris Edwards slowed for traffic near Kingdom City, Mo., on her way home from a Thanksgiving trip in 2004, an 18-wheeler slammed into her Jeep Cherokee. — The truck crushed the sport-utility vehicle and shoved it down an embankment off Interstate 70.

Discussion: The New Editor and Daily Kos