Top Items:
Washington Post:
Iraq Panel Calls Conditions 'Grave and Deteriorating' — Conditions in Iraq are "grave and deteriorating," with the prospect that a "slide toward chaos" could topple the U.S.-backed government and trigger a regional war unless the United States changes course and seeks a broader diplomatic …
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Ed Henry / CNN:
Iraq Study Group: Pull most troops from combat by '08 … WASHINGTON (CNN) — The Iraq Study Group will urge President Bush to move most U.S. troops out of combat roles by early 2008, according to two sources who have seen the executive summary of the group's report.
Discussion:
Shakespeare's Sister, The American Street, On Deadline, QandO, The Reaction, Think Progress, Booman Tribune and Demagogue
Washington Post:
Panel To Urge Pressure On Iraq — Study Group to Present Its Report to Bush Today — The bipartisan Iraq Study Group plans to recommend to President Bush that he threaten to reduce economic and military support for Iraq's government if it fails to meet specific benchmarks intended …
David S. Broder / Washington Post:
A Study In Comity — Whatever the final impact of the Iraq Study Group report being issued today, for the 10 commission members this was an exhilarating experience, a demonstration of genuine bipartisanship that they hope will serve as an example to the broader political world.
Associated Press:
Excerpts of Iraq Study Group Report — Here are excerpts from portions of the Iraq Study Group report, which was being released Wednesday: — ''The situation in Iraq is grave and deteriorating. There is no path that can guarantee success, but the prospects can be improved.''
White House:
President Bush Receives Report from the Iraq Study Group — THE PRESIDENT: I just received the Iraq Study Group report, prepared by a distinguished panel of our fellow citizens. I want to thank James Baker and Lee Hamilton and the panel members for spending a lot of time on this really difficult issue.
Discussion:
Dick Polman's American Debate, AMERICAblog, Outside The Beltway, Don Surber and Brendan Nyhan
Allahpundit / Hot Air:
Iraq Study Group report released — It's available for download here. The press conference has just started — and is being carried live by all three networks. An anxious media wonders: will Baker be able to encapsulate the pessimism of the report in one killer pithy soundbite? [Update: Bingo.
Discussion:
Reuters, ABCNEWS, Suitably Flip, worldpublicopinion.org, Right Wing Nut House, Atlas Shrugs, Confederate Yankee and The American Mind
David Ignatius / Washington Post:
The Price of Iran's Help — DUBAI — On the eve of the Baker-Hamilton commission's report, a top Iranian official set a tough condition for his country's help in stabilizing Iraq, saying that Tehran isn't interested in such cooperation unless the Bush administration sets a timetable for withdrawing its troops.
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.
Discussion:
Sunlight Foundation blogs, Firedoglake, USA Today, Captain's Quarters, TPMCafe blogs, The Carpetbagger Report, DownWithTyranny!, The Moderate Voice, Gun Toting Liberal, The Corner, The Caucus, The Democratic Daily, TPMmuckraker, Joust The Facts, Shakespeare's Sister, Talking Points Memo, Air America Radio, FishBowlDC and Attytood
Debra Burlingame / Opinion Journal:
On a Wing and a Prayer — Grievance theater at Minneapolis International Airport. … Those are the words that started it all. Six bearded imams are said to have shouted them out while offering evening prayers as they and 141 other passengers waited at the gate for their flight out of Minneapolis International Airport.
Discussion:
NY Daily News, Washington Times, Power Line, Riehl World View, The Heretik, Hot Air, QandO, Captain's Quarters, Blue Crab Boulevard and Michelle Malkin
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The Big Trunk / Power Line:
ERRORS, OMISSIONS, INVENTIONS AND FALSEHOODS — A reader writes that he received the email message below sent by Professor Kenneth Stein of Emory University and the Carter Center. Professor Stein's expertise lies in the history of the Arab-Israeli conflict.
Discussion:
BLACKFIVE, Soccer Dad, BizzyBlog, Blogs for Bush, Dean's World, protein wisdom, The Corner, Althouse and PoliPundit.com
Chris Giles / Financial Times:
Richest 2% hold half the world's assets — Personal wealth is distributed so unevenly across the world that the richest two per cent of adults own more than 50 per cent of the world's assets while the poorest half hold only 1 per cent of wealth. — A survey released on Tuesday shows …
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David Brown / Times of London:
Richest tenth own 85% of world's assets
Richest tenth own 85% of world's assets
Discussion:
Shakespeare's Sister
Daily Mail:
Does water STILL flow on Mars? — Dramatic new photographs of Mars have revealed the possible existence of water on its surface. — The images - released for the first time on Wednesday by the US space agency NASA - were taken earlier this year in an attempt to unlock the secrets of the Red Planet.
Dan Froomkin / Washington Post:
Bush Denies Reaching Out to Dad — Even as Washington's punditocracy relishes the storyline of the elder-statesman father riding to the hapless son's rescue, President Bush insisted yesterday that he doesn't talk shop with his dad — and certainly doesn't ask for his advice.
Discussion:
The Mahablog, The Democratic Daily, The Huffington Post, NO QUARTER, Brad DeLong's Semi … and Daily Kos
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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 …
Discussion:
AMERICAblog, Andrew Sullivan, Attytood, Shakespeare's Sister, TalkLeft, Brendan Nyhan, Jesus' General and Wonkette
David Rogers / Wall Street Journal:
Some Republicans Take a Scorched-Hill Tack — Leaving Budget Decisions — To Democrats Could Disrupt — New Leadership's Agenda — WASHINGTON — Like a retreating army, Republicans are tearing up railroad track and planting legislative land mines to make it harder for Democrats …
Ken Ritter / Associated Press:
Hospital company agrees to let Las Vegas nurses return to work — LAS VEGAS (AP) - Nurses would return to work at two Las Vegas hospitals under an agreement brokered Tuesday by elected officials who said they wanted to avoid a prolonged strike. — "The labor strife is over, at least temporarily …
Manohla Dargis / New York Times:
The Trippy Dream Factory of David Lynch — There are, in the movies, few places creepier to spend time than in David Lynch's head. It is a head where the wild things grow, twisting and spreading like vines, like fingers, and taking us in their captive embrace.
Adam Liptak / New York Times:
Hawaii Schools' Racial Enrollment Upheld — The Kamehameha Schools in Hawaii, private schools with an endowment of more than $6 billion, are entitled to limit their enrollment to Native Hawaiian children, a federal appeals court panel in San Francisco ruled yesterday by a vote of 8 to 7.