memeorandum: Here's the post where I take on Ron Bailey of Reason Magazine. (Ann Althouse/Althouse)

6:55 PM ET, December 29, 2006

Top Items:

Official: Saddam to be executed tonight — BAGHDAD, Iraq - The official witnesses to Saddam Hussein's impending execution gathered Friday in Baghdad's fortified Green Zone in final preparation for his hanging, as state television broadcast footage of his regime's atrocities.

Discussion: Brilliant at Breakfast, Ezra Klein, Shakespeare's Sister, Blue Crab Boulevard and Clarity & Resolve

Washington Post:

A Death Sentence Affirmed — Saddam Hussein's trial was imperfect. But a perfect trial would have yielded the same result. — WITH TUESDAY'S decision by an Iraqi appeals body to affirm the death sentence of Saddam Hussein, the execution of the former tyrant could take place within weeks.

Discussion: Matthew Yglesias, Liberty Street and TalkLeft

New York Times:

The Rush to Hang Saddam Hussein — The important question was never really about whether Saddam Hussein was guilty of crimes against humanity. The public record is bulging with the lengthy litany of his vile and unforgivable atrocities: genocidal assaults against the Kurds …

Discussion: Associated Press, Balloon Juice, It Shines For All, Atlas Shrugs, Riehl World View, The Democratic Daily, Townhall.com Blog's …, Scared Monkeys, PoliBlog (TM), NewsBusters.org, Murdoc Online, The Impolitic, A Blog For All, Outside The Beltway, Secular Blasphemy, Middle Earth Journal, Sweetness & Light and Sister Toldjah

Matt Apuzzo / Associated Press:

Saddam Asks U.S. to Block Execution — Lawyers for Saddam Hussein on Friday made a last-minute appeal to an American court to avert execution in Iraq, asking a judge to block his transfer from U.S. custody to the hands of Iraqi officials. — Hussein's lawyers filed documents Friday afternoon asking …

Discussion: Captain's Quarters and Winds of Change.NET

Steve Bainbridge / Professor Bainbridge's Journal:

Hanging Saddam — The NYT opines: … That's certainly true, but hanging Saddam is still the right thing to do. — I agree with - or, to put it more precisely, I give religious assent to - Pope John Paul II's teaching in Evangelium vitae that society:

Discussion: The Moderate Voice

River / Baghdad Burning:

End of Another Year... You know your country is in trouble when: — The UN has to open a special branch just to keep track of the chaos and bloodshed, UNAMI. — Abovementioned branch cannot be run from your country. — The politicians who worked to put your country in this sorry state …

Discussion: NO QUARTER, Informed Comment and Needlenose

Marc Santora / New York Times:
Iraq Prepares to Execute Hussein

Discussion: Firedoglake and Attytood

Captain Ed / Captain's Quarters:
Three Years Later, A 'Rush'

Discussion: It Shines For All, bRight & Early, Political Satire Fake News and PrairiePundit

CNN:
Lawyer told to pick up Hussein's personal effects

Discussion: Washington Post, Big Brass Blog, Bark Bark Woof Woof, The Reaction, Blogs of War, Wake up America, Polimom Says and AMERICAblog

Terry McCarthy / ABCNEWS:
Saddam to Be Turned Over to Iraqis Today, Official Says

Discussion: Captain's Quarters and In the Bullpen

Mohammed / IRAQ THE MODEL:

Year 2007 will definitely be without Saddam walking on the ground.... It's very imminent now and might become a fact at any minute. — The situation in Baghdad is tense now and US and Iraqi forces are heavily deployed on the streets. — We're hearing and reading more confirmations …

Discussion: The Strata-Sphere and Wizbang

Bill / INDCJournal:

Kay la Nansa - Kuwait's "Not to Forget Museum" — Yesterday I had the opportunity to visit Kuwait's "Not to Forget Museum," a small complex devoted to archiving the history of the Invasion of Kuwait, Operation Desert Storm and the atrocities by and ultimate fate of Saddam Hussein and his regime.

Discussion: Townhall.com Blog's … and Babalu Blog

Allahpundit / Hot Air:
Saddam to hang today? Report: Saddam to be executed by 10 p.m. ET

Discussion: ABCNEWS, Associated Press, Michelle Malkin and Right Wing Nut House

Joseph Lieberman / Washington Post:

Why We Need More Troops in Iraq — I've just spent 10 days traveling in the Middle East and speaking to leaders there, all of which has made one thing clearer to me than ever: While we are naturally focused on Iraq, a larger war is emerging. On one side are extremists and terrorists led …

Les Neuhaus / Associated Press:

Thousands greet Somalia's PM in capital — MOGADISHU, Somalia - Somalia's prime minister entered the capital Friday, a day after an Islamic movement's fighters retreated ahead of his Ethiopian-backed troops, and was welcomed by thousands of cheering residents of the battle-scarred city.

Discussion: somalinet.com, The Fourth Rail and Blue Crab Boulevard

Edmund Sanders / Los Angeles Times:
Ethiopians are split over their foreign invasion

Discussion: Hot Air, New York Sun and Counterterrorism Blog

Hindrocket / Power Line:

SOME THOUGHTS ON MOONBATTERY — A few days ago, radio talk show host Scott Hennen posted an email he received from a soldier in Iraq who witnessed John Kerry's visit to the troops in Baghdad. This soldier offered his own observations to the effect that Kerry's welcome was less than warm …

Discussion: The Jawa Report, The Democratic Daily, TPMmuckraker, The Carpetbagger Report, Liberal Values, Hugh Hewitt's TownHall Blog, PrairiePundit and Daily Kos

Ben of Mesopotamia:
TPMmuckraker, The Left, and Me — Geez, people, lighten the **** up!

Discussion: The Democratic Daily and Confederate Yankee

Ann Althouse / Althouse:

Here's the post where I take on Ron Bailey of Reason Magazine. — Ron Bailey has put up a long attack on me on the Reason Magazine blog. It's his version of what happened at the Liberty Fund colloquium on Frank S. Meyer, which I've alluded to but avoided talking about in detail.

Discussion: Reason Magazine, Dynamist Blog, Gahrie's Grumbles and Groans, Daniel W. Drezner and The Corner

Radley Balko / Reason Magazine:
Ann Althouse responds to Ron Bailey here . — It is a bizarre response.

Discussion: Daily Pundit

BBC:

Housework cuts breast cancer risk — Women who exercise by doing the housework can reduce their risk of breast cancer, a study suggests. — The research on more than 200,000 women from nine European countries found doing household chores was far more cancer protective than playing sport.

Discussion: Norwegianity, Vox Popoli, Ace of Spades HQ and Preemptive Karma

Steve Benen / Political Animal:

BUCKING RUBINOMICS.... Last week, Paul Krugman offered the incoming Democratic majority some advice: do not place deficit reduction at the top of the priority list. — As Krugman explained, former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin helped convince the party in the 1990s that deficit reduction was key to fiscal and budgetary policy.

Discussion: The Carpetbagger Report, unfutz, Angry Bear and The Moderate Voice

CNN:

THE SITUATION ROOM — Saddam Hussein's Final Hours; James Brown's Life Celebrated at the Apollo — THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED. — ED HENRY, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Thanks, Christine. And to our viewers …

Discussion: TPMmuckraker, Crooks and Liars, The Moderate Voice, Political Animal, The Daily Whim and The Debate Link

Laura Maggi / New Orleans Times-Picayune:

7 N.O. cops indicted in killings on bridge — SHOOTING DEATHS CAME 6 DAYS AFTER KATRINA — Seven New Orleans police officers were indicted Thursday on an array of murder and attempted-murder charges stemming from a shooting on the Danziger Bridge six days after Hurricane Katrina …

Discussion: TalkLeft, Hot Air and Polimom Says

Jonathan Tasini / The Huffington Post:

Ford Prolonged Our Nightmare, Impeaching Bush Will Heal Our Nation — One of the most common themes we are now asked to accept, as part of the hagiography surrounding the death of Gerald Ford, is that Ford ended our "long national nightmare" by pardoning Richard Nixon over his crimes in …

Discussion: Shakespeare's Sister