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 …
Discussion:
Macsmind, Outside The Beltway, Wake up America, The Carpetbagger Report, BobGeiger.com, Taylor Marsh and AMERICAblog
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Tom Curry / MSNBC:
McCain calls for substantial, sustained surge — Cites Lieberman's re-election as proof Americans don't want Iraq exit — WASHINGTON - The 2006 election has not changed Sen. John McCain's support for victory in Iraq one iota. — While some Democrats have interpreted their party's triumphs …
David Stout / New York Times:
Top Democrats Oppose More Troops in Iraq — As President Bush prepares to present his new strategy on Iraq to the American people, Democratic Congressional leaders said today they will fight any approach that calls for deploying more United States troops there.
President George W. Bush / Huffington Post:DEM LETTER TO BUSH: "WE STRONGLY ENCOURAGE YOU TO REJECT ANY PLANS …
Bryan / Hot Air:
The Lonely Senator, Update — Via InstaPundit, the intrepid reporter whose site insinuated that the photo of John Kerry sitting alone in a chow hall in Iraq was itself bogus, has now verified that the photo is real, but the absence of troops in it is misleading: … And he backs it up by talking to the reporters involved.
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Glenn Reynolds / Instapundit.com:
ARE TODAY'S ELECTRONIC GADGETS WORTH THE MONEY? USA Today says that some are and some aren't: … I'm going to be attending the Consumer Electronics Show myself, as part of the Popular Mechanics contingent — and yes, it was awfully nice of the PM folks to invite me along.
Discussion:
USA Today
Ann Althouse / Althouse:
In which I annoy you once again with the asssertion that I'm a moderate. — I took this test — recommended by Andrew Sullivan — and scored a 21 on a political scale that ran from 0 (100% liberal) to 40 (100% conservative). Sullivan scored 26, by the way. — UPDATE: Glenn Reynolds takes the test and, like me, gets a 21.
Eugene Volokh / The Volokh Conspiracy:
TRUST TEST: Andrew Sullivan, InstaPundit, and Ann Althouse link to this quiz that purports to measure where you stand on the liberal-conservative spectrum. I tend to agree with InstaPundit: "it was a pretty dumb test." — "Which do you trust more: The Pentagon or The U.S. Postal Service?," the test asks.
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.
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Oliver North / Human Events:
More Troops = More Targets — For months, advisers to President George W. Bush have been trying to convince the commander in chief that more U.S. troops in Iraq will improve prospects for victory. Senators John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), both recently returned from Iraq …
Hindrocket / Power Line:
SURGE LITE? — There has been considerable speculation that President Bush's new strategy for Iraq, to be announced in a televised speech next week, will feature a "surge" of additional troops on a temporary basis. This Associated Press story suggests that the increment will be far fewer …
Editor and Publisher:
AP's Iraqi Source Is Real: Now What Do Conservative Bloggers Say? — NEW YORK As reported elsewhere on this late this afternoon, Iraq's Interior Ministry acknowledged Thursday that an Iraqi police officer whose existence had been denied by the Iraqis and the U.S. military …
RELATED:
Reuters:
Cleric gunned down in Gaza after plea for calm — GAZA (Reuters) - Unidentified gunmen shot dead a Muslim cleric after he delivered a sermon in the Gaza Strip on Friday calling for an end to fierce factional fighting between Hamas and Fatah, hospital officials and local residents said.
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Alexis Debat Reports / The Blotter:
American Passports Found on Bodies of Al Qaeda Fighters in Somalia — Alexis Debat Reports: — A senior official in the Somali government's new Ministry of the Interior told ABC News government forces had recovered "dozens of foreign passports," including several American passports …
Pete Yost / Associated Press:
White House visitor records closed — WASHINGTON - The White House and the Secret Service quietly signed an agreement last spring in the midst of the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal declaring that records identifying visitors to the White House are not open to the public.
Discussion:
The Carpetbagger Report, The RBC, TPMmuckraker, Prairie Weather and Shakespeare's Sister
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.
Think Progress:
William J. Fallon: Wrong Man For The Job — At a time when the United States is engaged in protracted ground wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, one of the worst moves the Bush administration could make is to appoint someone with no background in land warfare to oversee these operations.
leahy.senate.gov:
Leahy Introduces Bills To Combat War Profiteering, Public Corruption — Signaling a renewed emphasis on combating corruption at home and abroad, incoming Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), introduced a package of bills Thursday targeting corrupt officials …
Hassan M. Fattah / New York Times:
Images of Hanging Make Hussein a Martyr to Many — In the week since Saddam Hussein was hanged in an execution steeped in sectarian overtones, his public image in the Arab world, formerly that of a convicted dictator, has undergone a resurgence of admiration and awe.
E. J. Dionne Jr / Washington Post:
Short-Circuiting the Surge — The shift in power heralded by the Democrats' assumption of control in the House and Senate yesterday could lead quickly to a direct confrontation with President Bush if he chooses, as many expect, to "surge" additional troops into Iraq.
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