Top Items:
Jeff Stein / CQ.com:
Democrats' New Intelligence Chairman Needs a Crash Course on al Qaeda — Forty years ago, Sgt. Silvestre Reyes was a helicopter crew chief flying dangerous combat missions in South Vietnam from the top of a soaring rocky outcrop near the sea called Marble Mountain.
Discussion:
Captain's Quarters, Ezra Klein, Wake up America, Obsidian Wings, Political Animal, TPMmuckraker and Matthew Yglesias
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Washington Post:
Iraq Strategy Review Focusing on Three Main Options — As pressure mounts for a change of course in Iraq, the Bush administration is groping for a viable new strategy for the president to unveil by Christmas, with deliberations now focused on three main options to redefine the U.S. military …
Real Cities:
Democrats frustrated by Bush's reaction to Iraq report — WASHINGTON - Top Democrats in Congress left a White House meeting with President Bush on Friday frustrated over what they perceived as his reluctance to embrace major recommendations from the bipartisan Iraq Study Group.
Discussion:
Riehl World View, Obsidian Wings, Political Animal, Matthew Yglesias, Booman Tribune and The News Blog
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New York Times:
Romney's Gay Rights Stance Draws Ire — Gov. Mitt Romney, the Massachusetts Republican who has built a presidential campaign on a broad appeal for conservative support, is drawing sharply increased criticism from conservative activists for his advocacy of gay rights in a 1994 letter.
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Rhonda Schwartz Reports / The Blotter:
Democratic Leadership Knew About Foley E-mails — Rhonda Schwartz Reports: — The House Ethics Committee Report includes new information that top Democrats were also aware in 2005 of Mark Foley's inappropriate e-mails to congressional pages at about the same time as outgoing Speaker Dennis Hastert's office was informed.
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Edward Wong / New York Times:
Iraqis Near Deal on Distribution of Oil Revenues by Population — Iraqi officials are near agreement on a national oil law that would give the central government the power to distribute current and future oil revenues to the provinces or regions, based on their population, Iraqi and American officials say.
Charles Babington / Washington Post:
Senators to Gather in Closed Meeting — Reid Plan Defended as Effort to 'Establish a Dialogue,' but Some See a Bad Precedent — Senate Democrats, who campaigned on a pledge of more openness in government, will kick off the 110th Congress with a closed meeting of all 100 senators in the Capitol.
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John / Inside Europe:
Semi-random notes while listening to Jelly Roll Morton and making excuses for not having posted for a couple of days: — Actually, I've been busy with a translation and so have had little desire to do any more typing. One thing running this blog taught me how to do is touch-type, and I'm actually pretty fast now.
RELATED:
epw.senate.gov:
Majority Fact of the Day — SENATOR INHOFE ANNOUNCES PUBLIC RELEASE OF "SKEPTIC'S GUIDE TO DEBUNKING GLOBAL WARMING" — Contact: Marc Morano (Marc_Morano@epw.senate.gov ), Matt Dempsey (Matthew_Dempsey@epw.senate.gov ) — Washington D.C. - Senator James Inhofe (R-Okla.) …
Kirk Semple / New York Times:
Iraqis Line Up to Put Hussein in the Noose — One of the most coveted jobs in Iraq does not yet exist: the executioner for Saddam Hussein. The death sentence against Mr. Hussein is still under review by an appeals court, but hundreds of people have already started lobbying the prime minister's office for the position.
Glenn Greenwald / Unclaimed Territory:
Neoconservatives — exposed, scorned, but still in control — The one positive aspect of the Baker-Hamilton report is that the reactions it is provoking — both positive and viciously negative — have shed as bright a light as one could hope for on our current predicament.
Eleanor Clift / Newsweek:
How George W. Bush has ruined the family franchise. — On the eve of a report that repudiates his son's leadership, former president George H.W. Bush broke down crying when he recalled how his other son, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, lost an election a dozen years ago and then came back to serve two successful terms.
Discussion:
Big Brass Blog
Ann Althouse / Althouse:
What I think is really going on in the war on trans fat. … I simply do not believe that the so-called health side is really composed of people who are solicitous about everyone else's health. I can't prove it, but my intuition is that all the strength on the "health" …
Discussion:
liberal catnip
Joseph Kahn / New York Times:
China, Shy Giant, Shows Signs of Shedding Its False Modesty — China's Communist Party has a new agenda: it is encouraging people to discuss what it means to be a major world power and has largely stopped denying that China intends to become one soon. — In the past several weeks China …
Stephanie Simon / Los Angeles Times:
'Restoration' after the fall — Fellow evangelicals seek to help the Rev. Ted Haggard address the behaviors that snared him in a scandal. — COLORADO SPRINGS, COLO. — The Rev. Ted Haggard this week formally begins his long journey toward recovery from a drugs-and-gay-sex scandal that forced …
Discussion:
Alabama Liberation Front, The Carpetbagger Report, Pandagon, State of the Day and On Deadline