Top Items:
Charles Krauthammer / Washington Post:
In Baker's Blunder, A Chance For Bush — As a result of the Iraq Study Group, President Bush has been given one last chance to alter course on Iraq. This did not, however, come about the way James Baker intended. It came about because the long-anticipated report turned out to be, as is widely agreed, a farce.
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Washington Post:
Rice Rejects Overture To Iran And Syria — Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice yesterday rejected a bipartisan panel's recommendation that the United States seek the help of Syria and Iran in Iraq, saying the "compensation" required by any deal might be too high.
Kate Zernike / New York Times:
Ill Senator Is Called Responsive; Capital Is Riveted — Senator Tim Johnson, Democrat of South Dakota, was said to be in critical condition but "responsive" Thursday after an operation to stop bleeding in his brain, and Democrats declared that his condition would not imperil the narrow majority …
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Al Kamen / Washington Post:
In the 83rd Congress, a Senate in Constant Turmoil — Sen. Tim Johnson's sudden illness has consumed the political class the past two days. Everyone is talking about what happens if the South Dakota Democrat leaves the Senate and is replaced by a Republican to create a 50-50 split.
Spencer Ackerman / American Prospect:
Final Fantasy — Fred Kagan's disastrous plan for "victory" in Iraq. — There's a line from one of Johnny Cash's final songs that adequately sums up the new Iraq strategy proposal released yesterday by Fred Kagan of the American Enterprise Institute. Go tell that long tongue liar …
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Frederick W. Kagan / American Enterprise Institute:
Choosing Victory — A Plan for Success in Iraq
Choosing Victory — A Plan for Success in Iraq
Discussion:
CJR Daily
Karen DeYoung / Washington Post:
Castro Near Death, U.S. Intelligence Chief Says — Cuban President Fidel Castro is very ill and close to death, Director of National Intelligence John D. Negroponte said yesterday. — "Everything we see indicates it will not be much longer . . . months, not years," Negroponte told a meeting of Washington Post editors and reporters.
Discussion:
Scared Monkeys, The Moderate Voice, PoliBlog (TM), Rising Hegemon and Blue Crab Boulevard
Independent:
Diplomat's suppressed document lays bare the lies behind Iraq war — The Government's case for going to war in Iraq has been torn apart by the publication of previously suppressed evidence that Tony Blair lied over Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction.
Discussion:
Firedoglake, David Corn, NewsHog, Shakespeare's Sister, The Carpetbagger Report, AMERICAblog, Macsmind, Booman Tribune and The Impolitic
Carpetbagger / The Carpetbagger Report:
Odumbo? — Regardless of Barack Obama's merits as a presidential candidate, I can't help but notice that the right really wants to attack him, but hasn't quite figured out how. — There's ample room for criticism of Obama and his likely presidential ambitions — his inexperience is obviously …
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Christy Hardin Smith / Firedoglake:
Today's Rationale? — Nine days until Christmas...and Mommy just got dragged away in handcuffs for a bunch of show arrests. Nice. — The shifting rationale for the ICE raids on the Swift Meatpacking plants is making me very peeved. What began as a "raid on illegal immigrants" …
Commentary:
Getting Serious About Iran: A Military Option — By Arthur Herman From issue: November 2006 — As the impasse over Iran's nuclear-weapons program grows inexorably into a crisis, a kind of consensus has taken root in the minds of America's foreign-policy elite.
Discussion:
Hot Air, Hugh Hewitt's TownHall Blog, BLACKFIVE, All Things Beautiful, jules crittenden, Sister Toldjah and The Corner
Alicia Colon / New York Sun:
The Mendacity Of the Liberal Press — The first time I heard the word "mendacity" was in the film "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof." I loved the way Burl Ives's character spits out the word as something vile and unacceptable. — Unfortunately, we live in a society where untruthfulness …
Discussion:
Nitpicker
Federal Reserve:
The Chinese Economy: Progress and Challenges — The emergence of China as a global economic power is one of the most important developments of recent decades. For the past twenty years, the Chinese economy has achieved a growth rate averaging nearly 10 percent per year, resulting in a quintupling of output per person.
Reuters:
Smart children "more likely to become vegetarians" — LONDON (Reuters) - Children with high IQs are more likely to be vegetarians when they grow up, according to research reported on Friday. — A British study of more them 8,000 men and women aged 30 whose IQs had been measured when they were 10 …
Discussion:
Ezra Klein
Raf Casert / Associated Press:
Belgium splits up? TV hoax is decried — BRUSSELS — Suddenly and shockingly, Belgium came to an end. — State television broke into regular programming late Wednesday with an urgent bulletin: The Dutch-speaking half of the country had declared independence and the king and queen had fled.