Top Items:
CNN:
Senate committee approves Gates nomination … WASHINGTON (CNN) — The Senate Armed Services Committee unanimously approved President Bush's defense secretary nomination Tuesday and sent it to the full Senate for approval, the committee's outgoing chairman said.
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David Stout / New York Times:
At Hearing, Gates Says U.S. Not Winning War in Iraq — President Bush's nominee to be Secretary of Defense said today that the United States is not winning the war in Iraq, and that an American failure there could help to ignite "a regional conflagration" in the Middle East.
Discussion:
Hot Air, Captain's Quarters, The Carpetbagger Report, Confederate Yankee, The Moderate Voice, Defense Tech, Power Line, jules crittenden, The Heretik, The Reaction, No More Mister Nice Blog, The Democratic Daily, Wonkette, Nitpicker, Blue Crab Boulevard, Outside The Beltway, Middle Earth Journal, liberal catnip and Wake up America
Yitzhak Benhorin / Ynetnews:
Gates does not rule out nuclear attack on Israel — US defense secretary-designate, testifying at his Senate Foreign Relations Committee confirmation hearing, says he cannot guarantee that if Iran possesses nuclear weapons it will not use them to put Ahmadinejad's threats into action and wipe Israel off map.
Newsweek:
'We Can't Afford to Leave' — As the debate over Iraq intensifies, leading Democrat Silvestre Reyes is calling for the deployment of more U.S. troops. — Dec. 5. 2006 - In a surprise twist in the debate over Iraq, Rep. Silvestre Reyes, the soon-to-be chairman of the House Intelligence Committee …
Discussion:
Captain's Quarters, Hot Air, Scott Rosenberg's Wordyard, Political Animal, Marc Cooper, Flopping Aces, Hullabaloo, Don Surber and The Reaction
Associated Press:
Praising son Jeb, former President Bush breaks down — TALLAHASSEE, Florida (AP) — Former President George H.W. Bush broke down in tears as he cited his son, Gov. Jeb Bush, as an example of leadership. — Bush was addressing lawmakers, his son's top administrators, and state workers gathered …
Kevin Aylward / The 2006 Weblog Awards:
The 2006 Weblog Awards Finalists Announced — Below are the finalists in The 2006 Weblog Awards, presented in both category and alphabetical order. Finalist badges are available now and voting is scheduled to begin Thursday. — Cateogory Listing of The 2006 Weblog Awards Finalists: — Best Blog
WBIR.com:
Flatulence, not turbulence forces plane landing in Nashville — Flatulence brought 99 passengers on an American Airlines flight to an unscheduled visit to Nashville early Monday morning. — American Flight 1053, from Washington Reagan National Airport and bound for Dallas/Fort Worth …
Guardian:
Russia will not extradite Litvinenko suspects — Staff and agencies — The Russian prosecutor general today said the country would not extradite suspects in the Alexander Litvinenko case to Britain. — Yuri Chaika also insisted that polonium 210, the radioactive element with which the former spy …
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Dahlia Lithwick / Slate:
Affirmative Inaction — ANTHONY KENNEDY IS SORT OF HORRIFIED BY VOLUNTARY SCHOOL DESEGREGATION. — Listen to the MP3 audio version of this story here, or sign up for Slate's free daily podcast on iTunes. — The two cases heard at the Supreme Court today, Parents Involved …
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James Taranto / Opinion Journal:
Best of the Web — How 'Integration' Became Discrimination
Best of the Web — How 'Integration' Became Discrimination
Discussion:
Power Line
Michelle Malkin:
Questioning a NYTimes reporter; challenging CBS News & ASNE — The Associated Press controversy over its six burning Sunnis story is not just about AP. It's a burning credibility crisis that stretches from Pallywood to the Fauxtography scandal and beyond.
Ed At Aft / NCLB:
Build It Up — "[We have] leaks and even the occasional icicle from my computer lab ceiling, asbestos coming up off the floor, the exterior walls are crumbling. We feel forgotten ...." —a Minnesota technology coordinator — "Our school has been built on a former landfill. …
Lyndsey Layton / Washington Post:
Culture Shock on Capitol Hill: House to Work 5 Days a Week — Forget the minimum wage. Or outsourcing jobs overseas. The labor issue most on the minds of members of Congress yesterday was their own: They will have to work five days a week starting in January. — The horror.
Washington Post:
Mary Cheney and Partner Are About to Be Moms — Mary Cheney, the vice president's openly gay daughter, is pregnant. She and her partner of 15 years, Heather Poe, are "ecstatic" about the baby, due in late spring, said a source close to the couple. — It's a baby boom for grandparents Dick …
Kos / Daily Kos:
2008: If Obama runs, he wins — Standard caveats aside (it's early, we don't have a set field, blah blah blah), it's hard to see how Barack Obama loses the nomination barring scandal or the mother-of-all gaffes. — I've been working up a few scenarios given the primary calendar …
Discussion:
Right Wing News, Booman Tribune, The Moderate Voice, The Carpetbagger Report, unfutz, Matthew Yglesias and Decision '08
Dr. Rusty Shackleford / The Jawa Report:
American Among Terror Plotters in Egypt — *Bumped* because I don't think this is getting enough press. An American. Arrested in Egypt. Part of an international cell of jihadis. For, at the very least, encouraging people to go to Iraq and fight Americans. That. Is. TREASON.
Kevin Drum / Political Animal:
SOLVING THE WORLD'S PROBLEMS....I've been waiting impatiently for Instapundit's promised "symposium" on Iraq, an ambitious attempt to see if the blogosphere can come up with better ideas than all those tired mainstream analysts. As it turns out, response was so overwhelming that we'll be getting multiple installments.
Discussion:
The Peking Duck