Top Items:
Michael Barone / US News:
Polls for the Republican Nomination — Pollster.com has an interesting summary of the poll standings for the Republican nomination in 2008. It makes the point, largely overlooked by political writers of all stripes, that Rudy Giuliani has been leading John McCain in the large majority of polls, albeit usually by narrow margins.
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KCCI-TV:
KCCI Poll Shows Vilsack 3rd Among Democratic Hopefuls — DES MOINES, Iowa — The Tom Vilsack campaign said it will get out the message that he is the best nominee for the party. But an exclusive new poll by KCCI-TV shows he has some work to do in his own state.
Sue Lindsey / Associated Press:
Lawmaker Stands Firm on Quran Criticism — ROCKY MOUNT, Va. (AP) - A congressman said Thursday that he will not retract a letter warning that unless immigration is tightened, "many more Muslims will be elected" and use the Quran to take the oath of office. — Republican Rep. Virgil Goode …
Discussion:
Daily Kos
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Rick Hasen / Election Law:
COURT ADOPTS "SEE NO EVIL" APPROACH IN CAMPAIGN FINANCE CASE; MAJOR CHANGES COULD BE ON THE HORIZON — Following up on this post, the 2-1 decision of the federal district court issued today in Wisconsin Right to Life v. FEC, if upheld by the Supreme Court, could bring us back to the days …
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Carol D. Leonnig / Washington Post:
Issue Advocacy Ads May Run During an Election, Three-Judge Court Rules
Issue Advocacy Ads May Run During an Election, Three-Judge Court Rules
Kate Phillips / New York Times: Court Overturns Limits on Political Ads, Part of the Campaign Finance Law
New York Times:
Redacted Version of Original Op-Ed — The Iraq Study Group has added its voice to a burgeoning chorus of commentators, politicians, and former officials calling for a limited, tactical dialogue with Iran regarding Iraq. The Bush administration has indicated a conditional willingness to pursue …
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New York Times:
What We Wanted to Tell You About Iran — HERE is the redacted version of a draft Op-Ed article we wrote for The Times, as blacked out by the Central Intelligence Agency's Publication Review Board after the White House intervened in the normal prepublication review process and demanded substantial deletions.
Richard B. Schmitt / Los Angeles Times:
Lawmaker's files sought by grand jury — The subpoena in the corruption probe went out before Rep. Curt Weldon lost his seat. It's unclear if he reported it. — WASHINGTON — A federal grand jury has subpoenaed congressional records from Rep. Curt Weldon (R-Pa.) as part …
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Wall Street Journal:
Media-Sourcing Debate on Deck at Capitol — Congress Is Likely to Revisit — Calls for Federal Shield Law — As Baseball Case Culminates — WASHINGTON — The Bush administration is increasingly at odds with some Republicans over its efforts to make journalists reveal confidential sources.
Discussion:
CBS News
snowe.senate.gov:
SNOWE, LANDRIEU CREATE BIPARTISAN, CONSENSUS-BUILDING GROUP IN SENATE — Senators Want to Build on Success of "Gang of 14" — Washington D.C. - U.S. Senators Olympia J. Snowe (R-Maine) and Mary Landrieu (D-Louisiana) announced today that they want to build on the success of the "Gang of 14 …
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New York Times:
Marines Charge 4 With Murder of Iraq Civilians — By PAUL von ZIELBAUER and CAROLYN MARSHALL — Four marines were charged yesterday with murder in the killings of two dozen Iraqi civilians, including at least 10 women and children, in the village of Haditha last year, military officials said at Camp Pendleton, Calif.
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Edmund L. Andrews / New York Times:
Study Suggests Incentives on Oil Barely Help U.S. — The United States offers some of the most lucrative incentives in the world to companies that drill for oil in publicly owned coastal waters, but a newly released study suggests that the government is getting very little for its money.
Murray Waas / The Huffington Post:
The Wag Time Pet Spa Conspiracy... And a Cancer Survivor's Right to Respect — As an investigative reporter and independent journalist, I have pursued a career course of independence so as to not be beholden to anyone. A grandiose notion, perhaps, and I will perhaps leave it to others to judge my work against the ideal.
Discussion:
Firedoglake, The Moderate Voice, at-Largely, Ezra Klein, circumlocutor, TalkLeft and The DCeiver
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John Amato / Crooks and Liars:
The (attempted) Swift boating of Murray Waas
The (attempted) Swift boating of Murray Waas
Discussion:
circumlocutor
Washington Wire:
Administration Leans on Persian Gulf Allies to Help Iraq — U.S. military officials and diplomats want Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and other Gulf states to recognize Maliki government, send ambassadors to Baghdad and forgive more than $40 billion in Iraqi debt.
New York Times:
PATH Tunnels Seen as Fragile in Bomb Attack — An analysis done for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey says that the PATH train tunnels under the Hudson River are more vulnerable to a bomb attack than previously thought, and that a relatively small amount of high explosives …
Spiegel Online:
Hamsters Return to Nature in Eastern Germany — Germany, warned five years ago by the European Union to revive its field hamster population, has brought a French pair of the rodents to get busy in a hamster-decmiated eastern state. — This week, officials cleared the final bureaucratic hurdles …
Adam Nagourney / New York Times:
Eyeing '08, Democrats Nurse Freshmen at Risk — When newly elected Democratic members of Congress showed up here last month, they were taken on the traditional round of orientation, civic-minded lessons on how Congress works, tours of the Capitol and receptions with their new colleagues and leaders.
Washington Post:
Report Says TSA Violated Privacy Law — Passengers Weren't Told That Brokers Provided Data to Screening Program in '04 — Secure Flight, the U.S. government's stalled program to screen domestic air passengers against terrorism watch lists, violated federal law during a crucial test phase …
Rachel Ehrenfeld / Washington Times:
Carter's Arab financiers — To understand what feeds former president Jimmy Carter's anti-Israeli frenzy, look at his early links to Arab business. — Between 1976-1977, the Carter family peanut business received a bailout in the form of a $4.6 million, "poorly managed" …
ABCNEWS:
Update: Path to Freedom for Tyrone Brown — The Court Grants Tyrone Brown a Christmas Gift — A recent "20/20" story about a Texas man who has been imprisoned for the past 16 years because he violated his parole by using marijuana outraged an overwhelming number of viewers, who have sent daily e-mails of support to Tyrone Brown.