Top Items:
Associated Press:
Bush: 'I'm the decision-maker' in Iraq troops — President challenges lawmakers to give 'surge' plan a chance to work — President Bush, right, meets with Defense chief Robert Gates, left, and Army Lt. General David Petraeus at the White House. — NBC VIDEO — Jan. 26: President Bush speaks to reporters on Friday.
Discussion:
Sister Toldjah, The Moderate Voice, The Political Pit Bull, The Democratic Daily and Liberal Values
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Dafna Linzer / Washington Post:
Troops Authorized to Kill Iranian Operatives in Iraq — Administration Strategy Stirs Concern Among Some Officials — The Bush administration has authorized the U.S. military to kill or capture Iranian operatives inside Iraq as part of an aggressive new strategy to weaken Tehran's influence across …
Discussion:
The Fourth Rail, Confederate Yankee, alphabet city, Blogs of War, The Road to Surfdom, Hot Air, TPMmuckraker, The Reaction, Bill Hobbs, Bradford Plumer, Larisa Alexandrovna's …, Blue Crab Boulevard, Solomonia, The Agonist, toohotfortnr, Yourish.com, War and Piece, Macsmind, State of the Day, Political Animal, Gun Toting Liberal ™, First Draft, Dean's World, The Caucus, Jules Crittenden and On Deadline
Stella Dawson / Reuters:
DAVOS-U.S. invasion was "idiot decision"-Iraq vice president — Source: Reuters — The U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 was an "idiot decision" and Iraqi troops now need to secure Baghdad to ensure the country's future, Vice-President Adel Abdul Mahdi said on Thursday.
Think Progress:
President Bush: 'I'm The Decision-Maker' — In remarks to reporters this morning, President Bush said he would ignore Congress' opposition to his escalation plan, saying, "I'm the decision-maker." Watch it: — UPDATE: Flashback to 4/18/06: "I'm the decider, and I decide what is best."
William Branigin / Washington Post:
Bush: 'I'm the Decision-Maker' on Iraq
Bush: 'I'm the Decision-Maker' on Iraq
Discussion:
The Carpetbagger Report
Shailagh Murray / Washington Post:
Hagel Ponders White House Run As War Criticism Raises His Profile — His Republican colleagues regard him warily. The White House barely speaks to him. He is reviled by his party's conservative base. — Looks as though Sen. Chuck Hagel is on a roll. — Both parties have their Iraq war contrarians.
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John Hawkins / Right Wing News:
Right-Of-Center Bloggers Select The Most & Least Desired 2008 Republican Nominee (First Half Of 2007 Edition) — Right Wing News emailed more than 230 right-of-center bloggers and asked them to send us a ranked list 1-5 of the candidates that they would most like to take the Republican nomination …
Neil A. Lewis / New York Times:
Ex-Cheney Aide Contradicts Libby — A former spokeswoman for Vice President Dick Cheney gave testimony in the trial of I. Lewis Libby Jr. on Thursday that directly contradicted Mr. Libby's version of events during a crucial period that is at the center of the perjury case against him.
Discussion:
Swampland, Firedoglake, Booman Tribune, Outside The Beltway, PoliBlog (TM) and JustOneMinute
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Michael J. Totten:
Tough Times Ahead for Nasrallah — When Hugh Hewitt interviewed me three weeks ago we discussed the possibility of Hezbollah seizing the road to the airport, a threat that appeared, at the time, to be empty. Here is what he and I said then: … But Hezbollah went further, after all.
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Adam Liptak / New York Times:
Secrecy Is at Issue in Suits Opposing Spy Program — The Bush administration has employed extraordinary secrecy in defending the National Security Agency's highly classified domestic surveillance program from civil lawsuits. Plaintiffs and judges' clerks cannot see its secret filings.
Discussion:
Washington Post, Booman Tribune, The Impolitic, Andrew Sullivan, Reason Magazine, Stop The ACLU and The Heretik
Gerard Baker / Times of London:
The vaulting ambition of America's Lady Macbeth — Hillary Clinton's shameless political reconstructive surgery — You can measure the scale of an American president's troubles by the number of skutniks he deploys during his State of the Union address. — Every year during …
John Bresnahan / The Politico:
Feingold Pushes Plan to Cut Off War Funds — Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., has scheduled a hearing next Tuesday in his Judiciary Committee subcommittee to explore whether Congress has the authority to cut off funding for the U.S. military campaign in Iraq. The move comes as Congress prepares …
Aaron Klein / WorldNetDaily:
Jimmy Carter: Too many Jews on Holocaust council — Former president also rejected Christian historian because name sounded 'too Jewish' — TEL AVIV - Former President Jimmy Carter once complained there were "too many Jews" on the government's Holocaust Memorial Council, Monroe Freedman …
Discussion:
Kesher Talk, The Moderate Voice, PoliPundit.com, shotinthedark.info/wp, Hot Air and Tammy Bruce
Charles Krauthammer / Washington Post:
Energy Independence? — A Serious Plan Requires Taxes, ANWR and Nukes — Is there anything more depressing than yet another promise of energy independence in yet another State of the Union address? By my count, 24 of the 34 State of the Union addresses since the oil embargo of 1973 have proposed solutions to our energy problem.
Andrew Klavan / Los Angeles Times:
Is Hollywood too timid for the war on terror? — Thanks to political correctness, you don't see much about the greatest conflict of our time on the big screen. — I RECENTLY attended "FBI 101," a G-man seminar for Hollywood writers. I do this kind of thing a lot: law enforcement seminars …
Jules Crittenden:
Al Qaeda-Cowed Nation Persecutes U.S. Soldiers — A Spanish court last week issued a "search and capture" warrant against three soldiers involved in the Hotel Palestine incident, in which Spanish cameraman Jose Cuoso and Reuters's Taras Protsyuk were killed.
Discussion:
Power Line
Henryk M. Broder / Spiegel Online:
"Hurray! We're Capitulating!" — The prevailing feeling among Muslims is that they are being abused by the West. What should we do about it? We might as well surrender. After all, we're already on our way. … Ten years ago, in the spring of 1996, the world still seemed more or less okay.
Glenn Greenwald / Unclaimed Territory:
The Meaning of Marty Peretz — (updated below - updated again) — I've written once before, several months ago, about the unbelievably overt anti-Arab/anti-Muslim bigotry that spews forth regularly from The New Republic Editor Marty Peretz, typically at his blog, Spine.