Top Items:
Washington Post:
Sen. Johnson in Critical Condition After Surgery — Control of Chamber Could Be in Question if He Cannot Serve — Sen. Tim Johnson (D-S.D.) underwent emergency brain surgery overnight after falling ill at the Capitol and was in critical condition early this morning, introducing a note …
Discussion:
Hot Air, NewsBusters.org, The Radio Equalizer, On Deadline, CNN Political Ticker, JustOneMinute, WuzzaDem, Liberty Street, Scared Monkeys, The Carpetbagger Report, News Hounds, Blogs of War, Election Law, UrbanGrounds, No More Mister Nice Blog, Good Will Hinton, Virginia Virtucon, Roger L. Simon, The Democratic Daily, GOP Bloggers, The Political Pit Bull, Larisa Alexandrovna's …, Outside The Beltway, Townhall.com Blog's … and Blue Crab Boulevard
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Judd / Think Progress:
Fox News Speculates How Officials Could 'Declare' Sen. Johnson 'Incapacitated' — Sen. Tim Johnson (D-SD) is at George Washington University hospital, recovering from brain surgery. — Meanwhile, Fox News is speculating how the balance of power could shift in the Senate, even if Sen. Johnson survived.
CBS News:
Should Johnson be unable to continue to serve, it could halt the scheduled Democratic takeover of the Senate. Democrats won a 51-49 majority in the November election. — (CBS/AP) Democratic Sen. Tim Johnson of South Dakota was hospitalized and underwent surgery late Wednesday …
Discussion:
All Spin Zone, unfutz, The Carpetbagger Report, CNN Political Ticker, Talking Points Memo and The Agonist
Lyle Denniston / SCOTUSblog:
Hamdan's case dismissed, but new Act may be partly invalid — U.S. District Judge James Robertson, in a mixed ruling on constitutional and statutory law, ruled on Wednesday that Congress had not validly suspended the historic "writ of habeas corpus" in the new Military Commissions Act of 2006.
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Richard Esposito Reports / The Blotter:
Terror Fears as Blind Sheikh Faces 'Medical Emergency' — Richard Esposito Reports: — The imprisoned al Qaeda spiritual leader known as the "Blind Sheikh" suffered a "medical emergency" at the Springfield federal prison last week, and the FBI is warning his death could lead al Qaeda …
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Kelli Arena / CNN:
FBI: Jailed cleric's illness triggers al Qaeda attack fears … WASHINGTON (CNN) — The imprisoned blind cleric who inspired the 1993 World Trade Center bombing has been hospitalized, raising fears of new attacks if he dies in U.S. custody, the FBI said in a bulletin.
Discussion:
Shakespeare's Sister
Michelle Malkin:
Looking for Jamil Hussein: Accepting Eason Jordan's invitation — My new travel partner? — Eason Jordan reports on his new website, Iraqslogger, that his team is in Baghdad looking for Jamil Hussein. They have not found him yet—which is newsworthy in itself—and get this …
Discussion:
Flopping Aces, jules crittenden, Captain's Quarters, Confederate Yankee, Power Line, Riehl World View, CBS News, iowahawk, The Jawa Report, Redstate, INDCJournal, Don Surber, Democracy Project, Blue Crab Boulevard, Hot Air, The Horse's Mouth, Patterico's Pontifications, On Deadline, Winds of Change.NET, Townhall.com Blog's …, USS Neverdock, BLACKFIVE, Sister Toldjah and snapped shot
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Jonah Goldberg / Los Angeles Times:
Iraq needs a Pinochet — The general was no saint, but he's a better model to follow than Castro. — I THINK ALL intelligent, patriotic and informed people can agree: It would be great if the U.S. could find an Iraqi Augusto Pinochet. In fact, an Iraqi Pinochet would be even better than an Iraqi Castro.
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Kevin Drum / Political Animal:
The idea that evil is permissible as long as it is used to advance the greater good will always be with us. Without it, war, religion, and the nation-state would cease to exist. Most of the philosophy underpinning human civilization would likely cease to exist as well.
Examiner:
Jeralyn Merrit: Homeland Security's immigration raids ran amok — WASHINGTON - Tuesday's immmigration raids made me recoil in horror. — A thousand federal agents swooped down on six meat-packing plants across the country and detained more than 1,200 people.
Discussion:
TalkLeft
RELATED:
Des Moines Register:
Edwards leads in poll of likely caucusgoers — Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack is in fourth place; Sen. Hillary Clinton is second. — Washington, D.C. - John Edwards came out far ahead of the rest of the pack of possible Democratic presidential candidates in a poll of Iowa Democrats conducted …
Discussion:
The Huffington Post, The Carpetbagger Report, Taylor Marsh, MyDD, QandO, Daily Kos and Pajamas Media
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Judd / Think Progress:
Laura Bush Slams Media For Ignoring Good News In Iraq — On MSNBC this morning, Norah O'Donnell asked Laura Bush about a new poll that found "only 2 in 10 Americans approve of the job that the president is doing on Iraq." — Mrs. Bush placed the blame squarely on the media.
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John Harwood / Wall Street Journal:
War-Weary Public Wants Congress to Lead
War-Weary Public Wants Congress to Lead
Discussion:
Washington Post, Booman Tribune, The Carpetbagger Report, Mathew Gross and Political Animal
Sinan Salaheddin / Associated Press:
Police: Gunmen kidnap dozens in Baghdad — BAGHDAD, Iraq - Gunmen in military uniforms kidnapped dozens of people Thursday from a major commercial area in central Baghdad, the second mass abduction in the capital in a month. — The attackers drove up to the busy al-Sanak area …
Discussion:
AMERICAblog
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Salah Nasrawi / Associated Press:
Saudi Royal Family, Gov't Split on Iraq — AP Photo NY118 — CAIRO, Egypt (AP) - Saudi Arabia's royal family and government leaders are deeply divided over how to handle the growing crisis in Iraq and other looming Mideast problems like Iran, with some favoring strong aid to fellow Sunnis and others more cautious.
Discussion:
The Huffington Post
Andrew Sullivan / The Daily Dish:
Romney Recants — Everything he said in the 1990s is now to be dismissed. He was once for the Employment Non-Discrimination Act; now he's against it. He was once for domestic partnerships for gays; now he's against them. He was once for ending the ban on gays in the military; now he's for keeping it.
William Beutler / Blog P.I.:
Oppo Knocks? — Anybody who watched the Virginia Senate race this year knows that Senator-elect Jim Webb ran a savvy Internet campaign. He hired bloggers, leveraged YouTube, played bloggers and the press off each other and off soon-to-be former Sen. George Allen.
BBC:
Blogging 'set to peak next year' — The blogging phenomenon is set to peak in 2007, according to technology predictions by analysts Gartner. — The analysts said that during the middle of next year the number of blogs will level out at about 100 million.
Discussion:
FP Passport
democraticunderground.com:
A message from the DU admins: Please stop posting baseless conspiracy stuff about Senator Johnson. — Skinner ADMIN (1000+ posts) — A message from the DU admins: Please stop posting baseless conspiracy stuff about Senator Johnson. — I have instructed the mods to lock or delete …
Justin Logan / Cato-at-liberty:
Neocons Want a Mulligan on Iraq — And, it appears, President Bush may give it to them. The LA Times reports: … This strategy faces a few obstacles, though. First: … Indeed. This echoes this recent USA Today/Gallup poll which revealed that 57% of Americans want U.S. troops out of Iraq within one year.
Allahpundit / Hot Air:
Strib columnist: Flying imams stunt a ploy to get anti-profiling bill passed — Really? Piece this out for me: CAIR allegedly wants to engineer an incident it can sell to the public as evidence of discrimination and get the End Racial Profiling Act pushed through — and for the task …