memeorandum: NASA Says It Will Set Up Polar Moon Camp (Seth Borenstein/Associated Press)

U.S. Envoy Khalilzad to Leave Iraq, Officials Say (Update1) — Dec. 4 (Bloomberg) — Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, plans to leave his post and will be replaced by Ryan Crocker, the current ambassador to Pakistan, according to two officials familiar with the matter.

Discussion: Captain's Quarters, Hot Air and The Political Pit Bull

Justin Webb / BBC:

UN envoy a victim of Bush weakness — President Bush's UN ambassador is resigning his post because he cannot get Senate backing to stay in the job. — If Mr Bush's Republican Party had kept control of the Senate in last month's elections, they might have been able to get John Bolton confirmed.

Discussion: NewsBusters.org

Ian Williams / The Nation:
John Bolton's Greatest Hits

Discussion: Hullabaloo and protein wisdom

Steve Clemons / The Washington Note:
Taking Stock: John Bolton's Resignation

Discussion: IPS Inter Press Service, TAPPED, The BRAD BLOG and The Reaction

Sheryl Gay Stolberg / New York Times:

Bush Meets With Rival of Iraqi Leader — President Bush met today with one of the most powerful Shiite leaders in Iraq — a political rival of Prime Minister Nouri Kamal al-Maliki — and urged him to "reject the extremists that are trying to stop the advance of this young democracy."

Discussion: toohotfortnr, LiberalOasis, Matthew Yglesias and War and Piece

Michael Barone / Real Clear Politics:
Bush Sticks to His Guns

Discussion: Power Line, neo-neocon and PrairiePundit

Deb Riechmann / Associated Press:
Bush says Iraq progress too slow

Discussion: The Belmont Club

Seth Borenstein / Associated Press:

NASA Says It Will Set Up Polar Moon Camp — NASA announced Monday it will establish an international base camp on one of the moon's poles, permanently staffing it by 2024, four years after astronauts return to the moon. — It is a sweeping departure from the Apollo moon missions of the 1960s …

Discussion: The Volokh Conspiracy and Daily Pundit

Marc Kaufman / Washington Post:

NASA Plans Lunar Outpost — Permanent Base at Moon's South Pole Envisioned by 2024 — NASA unveiled plans yesterday to set up a small and ultimately self-sustaining settlement of astronauts at the south pole of the moon sometime around 2020 — the first step in an ambitious plan to resume manned exploration of the solar system.

Discussion: Swords Crossed

George Russell / Fox News:

NORTH KOREA SUSPECTED OF COLLECTING MILLIONS IN REINSURANCE FRAUD — NEW YORK — The cash-strapped regime of North Korea, which has a worldwide reputation for its criminal dealings in weapons sales, drugs and near-perfect counterfeit U.S. $100 bills, may have found a new illicit source …

Discussion: Blue Crab Boulevard and PrairiePundit

Patrick Healy / New York Times:

Obama Meets Party Donors in New York — Senator Barack Obama treaded onto Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton's home turf last night to meet with prominent Democratic donors and feel out those who might prefer the sound of President Obama to President Clinton (as in Hillary, not Bill).

Discussion: The News Blog and Riehl World View

Telegraph:

Growing tension with Russia over spy death — The Government moved yesterday to head off criticism that it was giving in to pressure from Moscow over the apparent murder of Alexander Litvinenko. — Tension between the two countries seemed certain to escalate as up to nine Scotland Yard detectives prepared …

Discussion: Firedoglake, Associated Press and The Spy Who Billed Me

John Schwartz / New York Times:

After a Rush, Pace of Levee Work Downshifts — NEW ORLEANS — For months, the Army Corps of Engineers raced through the city, frantically patching broken levees and building floodgates to prepare for a hurricane season, now ended, that produced no hurricanes here.

Discussion: MyDD, DonkeyRising, Facing South, Your Right Hand Thief and Think Progress

Gateway Pundit:

Hezbollah Again Attacks Sunnis In Beirut- Shops & Cars Destroyed! — ** New Clashes Erupt In Beirut! Hezbollah displays the coffin of its martyr, Ahmed Ali Mahmoud, in the center of its "tent city" near the government buidings in downtown Beirut. — Mahmoud was killed in clashes between Hezbollah …

Discussion: Lebanon Daily Star, From Beirut to the Beltway and A Blog For All

Taylor Marsh on Politics Now:

Locked Out in Las Vegas — updated below— I want you to meet Chris Moore. Universal Health Services has locked out SEIU nurses at Desert Spring and Valley Hospitals in Las Vegas. He is one of those nurses. I began reporting on this story this morning. — Today I had a chat with Chris on my radio show.

Discussion: MyDD, Firedoglake and Sirotablog

Blue Texan / Instaputz:

Putz on Iraq: a timeline. — Since Putz has so generously offered to hold a symposium on what to do about the Great Victory in Iraq disaster, we thought this brief timeline would be useful for the participants. — 9/11/01 — Suggests attacks on WTC give Bush license to nuke Baghdad. — 6/4/02

Vanity Fair:

Trapped in the Closet — Mark Foley's ambition to be a politician became the family dream. He was always in a hurry. His doting parents had no problem with his dropping out of Palm Beach Junior College at age 20; they helped him open a diner in downtown Lake Worth and turn it into the platform for his grandiose goals.

Discussion: Firedoglake, CANNONFIRE, TPMmuckraker and Wonkette

Greg Tinti / The Political Pit Bull:

Video: Comedy Central Plans Cartoon Mocking Bush Administration — Oy. … Honestly, I don't have a problem with political satire, even when it mocks the Bush administration or Republicans (SNL's skit on Rice's confirmation is one of my favorites), but I do have one requirement: it has to be funny.

Discussion: Suitably Flip and Blue Crab Boulevard

Allahpundit / Hot Air:

Rumors: Al-Sadr dead, Abu Deraa dead, Saddam dead spared? — The Al-Sadr rumor is paper thin. It showed up on a Sunni message board, then got picked up at Free Republic, now it's here. Why? Because news today has been so slow, Fox had to resort to this: — So never mind about al-Sadr.

Discussion: siteinstitute.org, The Jawa Report and Riehl World View

William Mulgrew / theeveningbulletin.com:

McCain Talks Possible Presidential Bid, More In Philadelphia Visit — Philadelphia - U.S. Sen. John McCain would very much like to be the next president of the United States, but will reach a final decision with his "reluctant" family after Christmas, he said on Saturday in an interview …

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Matthew Yglesias and Daily Pundit