Top Items:
Peter Baker / Washington Post:
U.S. Not Winning War in Iraq, Bush Says for 1st Time — President Plans to Expand Army, Marine Corps to Cope With Strain of Multiple Deployments — President Bush acknowledged for the first time yesterday that the United States is not winning the war in Iraq and said he plans to expand …
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New York Times:
President Wants to Increase Size of Armed Forces — President Bush said Tuesday that the United States should expand the size of its armed forces, acknowledging that the military had been strained by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and would need to grow to cope with what he suggested would be a long battle against Islamic extremism.
Discussion:
The Moderate Voice, Unfogged, Don Surber, Matthew Yglesias, LiberalOasis, On Deadline and Washington Post
Katherine Baldwin / Reuters:
Blair to urge Middle East states to rein in Iran — DUBAI (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Tony Blair will call on Wednesday for Middle East states to rein in what he calls the threat from Iran and to help advance peacemaking between Israelis and Palestinians.
Discussion:
jules crittenden
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Joseph Rago / Opinion Journal:
The Blog Mob — "Written by fools to be read by imbeciles." — Blogs are very important these days. Even Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has one. The invention of the Web log, we are told, is as transformative as Gutenberg's press, and has shoved journalism into a reformation, perhaps a revolution.
Peter Spiegel / Los Angeles Times:
Top general in Mideast to retire — Abizaid opposed calls for more troops in Iraq. His departure could clear way for a more aggressive strategy. — WASHINGTON — Army Gen. John P. Abizaid, commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East, has submitted plans to retire and will leave his post in March …
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Thom Shanker / New York Times:
General Opposes Adding to U.S. Forces in Iraq, Emphasizing International Solutions for Region — As the new secretary of defense, Robert M. Gates, takes stock of the war in Iraq this week, he will find Gen. John P. Abizaid, the senior commander in the Middle East, resistant to increasing the American fighting force there.
New York Times:
Top Iraqi Shiite Cleric Is Inching Toward a Coalition — Iraq's most venerated Shiite cleric has tentatively approved an American-backed coalition of Shiite, Sunni Arab and Kurdish parties that aims to isolate extremists, particularly the powerful Shiite militia leader Moktada al-Sadr, Iraqi and Western officials say.
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Salamander Davoudi / Financial Times:
UK report says robots will have rights — The next time you beat your keyboard in frustration, think of a day where it may be able to sue you for assault. Within 50 years we might even find ourselves standing next to the next generation of vacuum cleaners in the voting booth.
Adam Zagorin / Time:
Syria in Bush's Crosshairs — Exclusive: A classified document suggests the Administration is considering a plan to fund political opposition to the Damascus government. Some critics say it would be an unwarranted covert action — The Bush Administration has been quietly nurturing individuals …
R. Jeffrey Smith / Washington Post:
Abramoff's Holiday Cheer — His 2001 Shopping List Included Lavish Gifts for Congressmen — These days he makes no more than 40 cents an hour for his labors at the federal prison camp at Cumberland, Md. But Christmas 2001 was a far more high-flying holiday for Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff …
Discussion:
TPMmuckraker
Anne Applebaum / Washington Post:
'Old Europe' Can Gloat, but Then What? — BERLIN — On the day James Baker's Iraq report was published, I gritted my teeth and waited for the well-earned, long-awaited, Franco-German "Old Europe" gloat to begin. I didn't wait long. "America Faces Up to the Iraq Disaster" read a headline in Der Spiegel.
Discussion:
Unqualified Offerings, Who Is IOZ?, Lawyers, Guns and Money, Blue Crab Boulevard and Grasping Reality …
David Johnston / New York Times:
Cheney to Be Defense Witness in C.I.A. Leak Case — Vice President Dick Cheney will be summoned as a defense witness in the perjury and obstruction of justice trial of his former chief of staff, I. Lewis Libby Jr., which is scheduled to begin next month, a defense lawyer said today.
Renae Merle / Washington Post:
Anthrax Vaccine Contract Voided, Thwarting Administration — Federal health officials yesterday scuttled the largest piece of the Bush administration's two-year program to counter bioterrorism, canceling an $877.5 million contract with VaxGen to develop an anthrax vaccine after the company missed a deadline to begin human testing.
Discussion:
Obsidian Wings
Matthew Yglesias:
Lowry Sells Out — National Review editor Rich Lowry must be drinking the Beltway kool-aid or angling for a gig on The New York Times op-ed page because here he is selling out to the traitors in the MSM: … Say it ain't so! And most of all what about the good news from Iraq?
Discussion:
Daily Kos
Joan Biskupic / USA Today:
Bush appointees signal court's new direction — Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Alito appear ready to steer bench to the right; affirmative action, abortion — WASHINGTON — They are President Bush's appointees to the Supreme Court, the products of the administration's efforts to make the court more conservative.
Discussion:
Daily Pundit
Kevin Drum / Political Animal:
OFF CENTER?....Last year, Jacob Hacker and Paul Pierson wrote an influential and widely-read book called Off Center. It argued that the Republican Party had moved dramatically to the right of the American public, something that would normally spell electoral doom, but was getting away …
Andrew Norfolk / Times of London:
Police killer suspect fled Britain in a veil — A man who was being hunted for the murder of a policewoman is understood to have escaped from Britain by disguising himself as a veiled Muslim woman. — Mustaf Jama, a prime suspect in the fatal shooting of PC Sharon Beshenivsky …
Discussion:
Debbie Schlussel
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