memeorandum: Breaking News: The New York Times Thinks You're Stupid (Arianna Huffington/The Huffington Post)

12:10 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: Scared Monkeys

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

Houston Chronicle:
Telemundo: Venezuela Halts Transmission

Discussion: The American Pundit

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.

MSNBC:
MTP Transcript for Dec. 3

Discussion: Flopping Aces and Daily Kos

Allahpundit / Hot Air:
The Rumsfeld memo

Discussion: Reuters, Think Progress and Sister Toldjah

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

Discussion: No More Mister Nice Blog

Paul Richter / Los Angeles Times:
Mideast allies near a state of panic

Discussion: Middle Earth Journal

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: Right Wing Nut House, Gateway Pundit, The Lebanese Bloggers and Hot Air

Zeina Karam / Associated Press:
Sectarian clashes in West Beirut kill 1

Discussion: Riehl World View

John Heilprin / Associated Press:

Adviser: Clinton Actively Weighs '08 Bid — WASHINGTON (AP) - Democratic jockeying for the White House in 2008 intensified on Sunday with Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh taking the first official step toward a run and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton gauging support among fellow New York lawmakers.

Discussion: Macsmind and Sister Toldjah

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 …

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: Sister Toldjah, Blue Crab Boulevard, Redstate and BLACKFIVE

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: TalkLeft

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: Hot Air and Crooked Timber

Amanda / Think Progress:

Lieberman: Talking To Iran And Syria Is Like The 'Local Fire Dept Asking Arsonists To Help' — Today on CBS Face the Nation, Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) argued that direct talks with Syria and Iran won't work and compared it to "your local fire department asking a couple of arsonists to help put out the fire.

Discussion: Crooks and Liars, Angry Bear, The Reaction, Decision '08 and Gateway Pundit

Nico / Think Progress:

Lieberman Endorses Escalation In Iraq, Surprised Rumsfeld Didn't Suggest It In Memo — Today on CBS's Face the Nation, Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) said it was "surprising" that "the one thing [Donald Rumsfeld's memo] doesn't raise as a possibility is to increase the number of our troops."

Discussion: Eschaton, Nitpicker and Ezra Klein

Arianna Huffington / The Huffington Post:

Breaking News: The New York Times Thinks You're Stupid — I've got some earth-shattering news to report from The New York Times: Hillary Clinton is thinking of running for president. — Okay, take a breath, because that's not all. Apparently, according to the super-secret sources …

Discussion: The Caucus and TalkLeft

Christy Hardin Smith / Firedoglake:

FDL Book Salon: Wait! Don't Move To Canada! — I am so pleased that Bill Scher joins us for an FDL Book Salon on his book Wait! Don't Move to Canada: A Stay-and-Fight Strategy to Win Back America today. Bill is the Executive Editor at Liberal Oasis, and appears regularly on Air America …

Lambert / CorrenteWire:

Joe Biden's Trent Lott moment — Will this be Joe Biden's Trent Lott moment? — 26 days after Democrats win the mid-terms, Joe Biden exhorts the Republican party to "get back up." Then, Biden (D-Hair Club for Men) claims that, just because the country voted Democrats back into power …

Discussion: The Sideshow