Top Items:
speaker.gov:
Congressional Leaders Call on President to Reject Flawed Iraq Troop Surge — Washington, DC—Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Speaker Nancy Pelosi today sent the following letter to President Bush urging him to reject his reported plan to escalate the war in Iraq by increasing troop levels …
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President George W. Bush / Huffington Post:
DEM LETTER TO BUSH: "WE STRONGLY ENCOURAGE YOU TO REJECT ANY PLANS THAT CALL FOR OUR GETTING OUR TROOPS ANY DEEPER INTO IRAQ".... Dear Mr. President: — The start of the new Congress brings us opportunities to work together on the critical issues confronting our country.
Dana Milbank / Washington Post:
Reid Takes Center Stage, but He's Hardly the Star of the Show — Harry Reid is often called the man from Searchlight, Nevada. Nobody has ever called him the man from Spotlight. — The soft-spoken Democrat became the most powerful figure in the United States Senate yesterday.
Bill Brubaker / Washington Post:Democrats Urge Bush Not to Increase Troops in Iraq
Discussion:
Daily Kos
New York Times:
Bush to Name a New General to Oversee Iraq — President Bush has decided to name Lt. Gen. David H. Petraeus as the top American military commander in Iraq, part of a broad revamping of the military team that will carry out the administration's new Iraq strategy, administration officials said Thursday.
Discussion:
Firedoglake, Think Progress, pacom.mil, ABCNEWS, Associated Press, No More Mister Nice Blog, Early Warning, Dick Polman's American Debate, The Carpetbagger Report, American Footprints, toohotfortnr, Washington Post, PoliPundit.com, TigerHawk, THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS, BLACKFIVE, Matthew Yglesias, Outside The Beltway, The Heretik, TAPPED, The Democratic Daily, Middle Earth Journal, Gun Toting Liberal ™, War and Piece, The News Blog, The Raw Story, Prairie Weather, PrairiePundit, On Deadline, Rising Hegemon and Decision '08
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Juan / Informed Comment:
The Adults take Charge — The Reality Based Community Strikes Back in Iraq — The professionals take charge. Bush is bringing in Ryan Crocker, a distinguished career foreign service officer, as the new US ambassador to Iraq. And Gen. David Petraeus will replace Gen. Casey as top ground commander in Iraq.
Discussion:
Defense Tech, No More Mister Nice Blog, TAPPED, Liberty Street, State of the Day, Political Animal and Outside The Beltway
United States Central Command:
Jihadist Website: Al-Zawahiri Urges Somalis, Muslims To Fight Ethiopian Forces — A jihadist website is observed on 5 January to post several links to 5-minute and 30-second audio message by Al-Qa'ida's second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahiri entitled "Rise up and Support Your Brothers in Somalia."
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Howie / The Jawa Report:
Zawahiri Whines, Begs For Help in Somalia — Zawahiri, ashamed of the terrible cowardice of the ICU fighters, begs and pleads for them to stand and fight. as-Sahab has again used a still image of Zawahiri. I wonder why ;) — Click the pic for Video(no subtitles) — Partial Transcript Via Centcom:
Alexis Debat Reports / The Blotter:American Passports Found on Bodies of Al Qaeda Fighters in Somalia
Discussion:
The Jawa Report
Bryan / Hot Air:
Barney Frank accuses Bush of genocide "ethnic cleansing" Major Update — There's no other way around it: When you accuse someone of perpetrating "ethnic cleansing" in any way, shape or form, you are accusing them of genocide. — Genocide. Let that word work its way around your mind for an moment.
Judd / Think Progress:
Lott: I May Oppose Troop Escalation — Yesterday on MSNBC, Trent Lott (R-MS), the second ranking Republican in the Senate, said that he may oppose troop escalation in Iraq. Watch it: — Lott's comments are particularly significant because, as the Minority Whip, he's responsible for bringing …
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Bill Ardolino / Examiner:
Grit and guts for Navy corpsmen in a Fallujah police station — WASHINGTON - Editor's note: Blogger Bill Ardolino is embedded with a U.S. Marine unit in Iraq. He's there to find out the truth about the U.S. war effort on the ground in Iraq. Unlike the vast majority of mainstream media journalists …
Discussion:
Patterico's Pontifications
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Nico / Think Progress:
CBS: Military Tells Bush It Has Only 9,000 Troops Available For 'Surge' — A State Department official leaked word this week that President Bush is considering sending "no more than 15,000 to 20,000 U.S. troops" to Iraq. "Instead of a surge, it is a bump," the official said.
Michael J. Totten:
"It's Like a Phish Concert for Terrorists" — BEIRUT - While Hezbollah occupied the Beirut city center in an attempt to bring down the government, I teamed up with my American friend Noah Pollak, who works as assistant editor at Azure Magazine in Jerusalem, and took a trip to Hezbollah's stronghold in South Lebanon.
Andrew Roth / Club for Growth:
The New House Appropriation 'Cardinals' — The Democrats have selected their new "cardinals" for the House Appropriations Committee. The cardinals are the earmark-happy chairmen of the 12 subcommittees, which includes the chairman of the overall committee (David Obey).
Glenn Kessler / Washington Post:
White House Postponing Loss of Iraq, Biden Says — Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said yesterday that he believes top officials in the Bush administration have privately concluded they have lost Iraq and are simply trying to postpone disaster …
Discussion:
Political Animal, NewsMax.com, Matthew Yglesias, Think Progress, rubber hose, Dr. Sanity, Blogs for Bush and Needlenose
Thomas Harding / Telegraph:
Navy to cut its fleet by half — Royal Navy commanders were in uproar yesterday after it was revealed that almost half of the Fleet's 44 warships are to be mothballed as part of a Ministry of Defence cost-cutting measure. — Senior officers have said the plans will turn Britain's once-proud Navy …
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