memeorandum: Bush: I'm Sending More Troops To Iraq No Matter What Congress Does (Judd/Think Progress)

Allahpundit / Hot Air:

Video: UPI's Pentagon reporter says media is ignoring consequences of withdrawal — You've read the Instapost, now watch the video. Takeaway: "[I]f as a reporter you do ask the national security question, all of a sudden you're carrying Bush's water." — Exit question: Is Bush about to repeat …

Discussion: jules crittenden, Don Surber, Ace of Spades HQ and Blue Crab Boulevard

Glenn Reynolds / Instapundit.com:

THE FOLKS AT CNN'S "RELIABLE SOURCES" just emailed me this excerpt from today's show transcript with UPI reporter Pamela Hess: … Better that the story should be missed, and the country screwed, than that a reporter might look unacceptably friendly to Bush! — UPDATE: Read this, too.

Discussion: Democracy Project, Jay Reding.com, The Political Pit Bull, Ed Driscoll.com and Media Lies

Philip Sherwell / Telegraph:
US diluting Iraq surge, general says

Discussion: The Moderate Voice

Edward N. Luttwak / Opinion Journal:

Two Alliances — President Bush has managed to divide and conquer the Middle East. — It was the hugely ambitious project of the Bush administration to transform the entire Middle East by remaking Iraq into an irresistible model of prosperous democracy. Having failed in that worthy purpose …

Discussion: AMERICAN FUTURE

Jonathan Chait / Los Angeles Times:

We can't surrender to the doves — Anti-war liberals turned out to be right about Iraq, but they shouldn't necessarily be regarded as foreign policy sages. — I DON'T WANT to accuse American doves of rooting for the United States to lose in Iraq because I know they love their country and understand the dire consequences of defeat.

Discussion: toohotfortnr and Economist's View

Allahpundit / Hot Air: Sunday op-ed: "We can't surrender to the doves"

Steve Clemons / The Washington Note: A Glimpse at America's Brewing Nightmare with Iran

Drudge Report:

IS FOX SET TO BLOW THE NUKES ON '24'? — As Washington continues to raise concerns about terror threats on The Homeland — a recent CIA report outlined a scenerio of possible "series of explosions using 'low charge' nuclear weapons" — Hollywood and FOX-TV are set to up the ante with the new season of 24!

Discussion: Wizbang and Basil's Blog

John Amato / Crooks and Liars:

Chuck Hagel Smacks Lieberman: Questions his competency — Chuck Hagel plastered Holy Joe on Meet the Press this morning and it's about time somebody called him on his garbage. Lieberman got on his soapbox and tried to tell us that Bush's implementation of the McCain Doctrine is our only hope …

Discussion: The Carpetbagger Report and Liberal Values

Ctblogger / ConnecticutBLOG: Chuck Hagel bitchslaps Lieberman over scare comments

CBS News:

WHAT DO YOU THINK? — (CBS/AP) Sen. Barack Obama is almost ready to make an announcement about his potential presidential campaign, he said Sunday on Face The Nation. — "I will have something to say about that fairly soon," Obama told Bob Schieffer. "Obviously, there's been a lot of talk.

Discussion: Oliver Willis

Times of London:
Obama's charm lost on America's black activists

Discussion: Redstate, Scared Monkeys, Althouse, The American Street and Associated Press

Miss Laura / Daily Kos:
Will Obama Announce This Week?

Discussion: unfutz and MyDD

Helene Cooper / New York Times:

The Best We Can Hope For — NOBODY will quibble with President Bush's line Wednesday night that in Iraq, "Victory will not look like the ones our fathers and grandfathers achieved; there will be no surrender ceremony on the deck of a battleship." — Of course, that calls to mind …

Discussion: The Huffington Post, The Democratic Daily and Booman Tribune

Gregory / The Belgravia Dispatch:

"SURGE" MATH — Fred Kagan, writing on 12/04/06: … Fred Kagan (w/ Keane) writing on 12/27/06: … Just around 3 weeks between the two articles, and Kagan goes from 80,000 (or 50,000*, see below) to 30,000 as to what's needed to secure Baghdad (as Frank Rich quips in today's NYT, "whatever")!

Discussion: MyDD, Larisa Alexandrovna's … and Talking Points Memo

Michael Isikoff / Newsweek:

Terror: 'We're Going to Get Hit' — Intel director john Negroponte gave Congress a sobering assessment last week of the continued threats from groups like Al Qaeda and Hizbullah. But even gloomier comments came from Henry Crumpton, the outgoing State Department terror coordinator.

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Donklephant, DownWithTyranny!, The Impolitic, Talking Points Memo, Larisa Alexandrovna's … and Liberal Values

Omar / IRAQ THE MODEL:

What? Already running away!? — Insurgents and terrorists are already abandoning some of their positions in Baghdad and moving to Diyala, al-Sabah said: … Actually the people in Diyala have every reason to worry about such migration of terror cells because in fact even without reading …

Discussion: Dr. Melissa Clouthier, Media Lies and jules crittenden

Mark Kleiman / The RBC:

Nice work, if you can get it — Jacob Hacker's Health Care for America plan, as summarized by Ezra KIein: … Yes, that includes prescription drugs. And the price is right: … I'm (1) enthusiastic and (2) skeptical. It sounds great; in fact, it sounds too good to be true.

Discussion: Winds of Change.NET and The Agonist

Editor and Publisher:

Cheney on Fox News: Criticism of War Plan Undercuts Troops — And Iran, Watch Out — NEW YORK Appearing on Fox News this morning, VicePresident Dick Cheney said that attempts to stem President Bush's new Iraq plan, announced this week, were undercutting U.S. troops in Iraq.

Discussion: Crooks and Liars and The Democratic Daily

Rick Moran / Right Wing Nut House:

DESCENT INTO HELL — This article originally appears in The American Thinker — "Abandon all hope, ye who enter here!" — (Inscription above the Gates of Hell from Dante's Inferno) — Tonight, 16 million TV viewers will make themselves as comfortable as possible on the edge …

Discussion: ThoughtsOnline and Captain's Quarters

Richard Baehr / Real Clear Politics:

Why Europe Abandoned Israel — Why is Israel viewed so differently in Europe than in the United States? To argue as the title of this article does, that Europe has abandoned Israel, is to suggest that it was once in its corner. And in fact, this is true.

Newsdesk / The Swamp:

Obama, McCain square off on war — Sen. John McCain, the Arizona Republican who supports President Bush's new deployment of U.S. troops in Iraq, and Sen. Barack Obama, the Illinois Democrat who is calling for a phased withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq, faced the first of a likely long series …

Discussion: Dr. Melissa Clouthier

New York Times:
Bush Plan for Iraq Swells '08 Intrigue

Discussion: Hotline On Call and Swampland