Top Items:
Cernig / The Newshoggers:
"New Broom" To Head Chiefs Of Staff — Pace is out as Chief of Staff, in an unexpected move. … Mullen is obviously intended to repair bridges with America's European defense partners so damaged by Rummie's "Old Europe" policies. In his bio, his experience in working with NATO and European officers is the big stand-out point.
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MSNBC:
Top Joint Chiefs of Staff leaders being replaced — Citing war and Congress, Gates to change chairman and vice chairman — The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Marine Gen. Peter Pace, is being replaced after six years as chairman and vice chairman of the top military command. — MSNBC video
Discussion:
Michelle Malkin
CNN:
Pace to be replaced as Joint Chiefs chairman … WASHINGTON (CNN) — Anticipation of a "contentious" confirmation process on Capitol Hill prompted the decision to replace Gen. Peter Pace as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff when his term ends in September, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Friday.
Dan Balz / Washington Post:
A Failure of Leadership in a Flawed Political Culture — The collapse of comprehensive immigration revision in the Senate last night represents a political defeat for President Bush, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), the bill's most prominent sponsors.
Discussion:
New York Times, The Atlantic Online, The Hill, The Politico, Washington Times, The Caucus, Hot Air, Comments From Left Field, Stubborn Facts, The Strata-Sphere, Taylor Marsh, Betsy's Page, Blue Crab Boulevard, Steve Sailer, Power Line, Townhall.com, Donklephant, MSNBC and DownWithTyranny!
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CNN Political Ticker:
White House: Bush wants immigration bill back — WASHINGTON (CNN) — President Bush considers it premature to declare the immigration reform bill dead in the Senate, White House adviser Dan Bartlett said Friday. — A motion to cut off debate on the measure failed Thursday night, stopping the proposal from coming up for a vote.
Matthew Mosk / Washington Post:
Defections to Fred Thompson Pose a Major Threat to McCain — John Dowd represented Sen. John McCain in his darkest hour, the "Keating Five" scandal. He supported McCain the first time he ran for president in 2000 and signed up to be a major fundraiser for him in this year's presidential race.
Discussion:
Captain's Quarters, Redstate, Michael P.F. van der Galiën, Riehl World View, No More Mister Nice Blog, TIME, MSNBC, Connecting.the.Dots, Feministe, Thomas P.M. Barnett, The Carpetbagger Report, DownWithTyranny!, CNN Political Ticker, Needlenose, Wonkette, Townhall.com, On Deadline and The Politico
Paul Krugman / New York Times:
[TS] Op-Ed Columnist: Lies, Sighs and Politics — If early campaign reporting is any guide, the bad media habits that helped install the worst president ever in the White House haven't changed a bit.
ACSBlog:
Leading Conservative Activist Seeks Punitive Damages — Judge Robert Bork, one of the fathers of the modern judicial conservative movement whose nomination to the Supreme Court was rejected by the Senate, is seeking $1,000,000 in compensatory damages, plus punitive damages, after he slipped and fell at the Yale Club of New York City.
Discussion:
Overlawyered, The Moderate Voice, Booman Tribune, Think Progress and The Volokh Conspiracy
Jill Gardiner / New York Sun:
Peace Corps Is Edwards Terror Plan — Senator Edwards is outlining a new national security strategy that hinges on the creation of a 10,000-person civilian peace corps to stem the tide of terrorism in weak and unstable countries. — Mr. Edwards's plan, which he presented in Manhattan yesterday …
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Will Wilkinson / The Fly Bottle:
Happiness and the Ideological Mediation of Adaptation — The truly delicious bits of this new NBER working paper by Di Tella, Haisken-De New, and MacCulloch on adaptation to income and status is the stuff on political leanings: … That is (in case you're confused), folks on the left get used to money …
Discussion:
National Review
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Times-Picayune:
Jefferson pleads innocent to charges — ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Rep. William Jefferson, D-New Orleans, entered an innocent plea Friday to federal charges of soliciting hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes connected to business deals in Africa. — A jury trial was set for Jan. 16.
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Charles Krauthammer / Washington Post:
Two Years of Humble Pie — In Britain, Canada and other civilized places, national elections are often called, run and concluded within six weeks. In America, election campaigns go on forever. It used to be one year, now it's two. No one planned this, but like other evolutionary artifacts …
Discussion:
PoliBlog (TM), Carry on America, Michael P.F. van der Galiën, QandO, Soccer Dad, Blue Crab Boulevard and Central Sanity
Jonathan M. Gitlin / Ars Technica:
Ars takes a field trip: the Creation Museum — A museum like no other — Here at Ars Technica we've written about the US creationist movement and its attack on science quite regularly. From attempts to alter the way science is taught in different states across the US to statements …
Muckraked:
Turning the Page: The Real Che? — He's the ultimate symbol of radical chic but was Che Guevara really a homophobic, racist square who personally ordered the jailing and executions of innocent men, women and children? — That's according to Humberto Fontova, the author of …
Mvdg / Michael P.F. van der Galiën:
CIA Interrogates and Abuses Children in the War on Terror — Children have become victims of the war on terror, according to Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and four other human rights organizations. They describe, among other examples, the fate of Yusuf al-Khalid and Abed al-Khalid …
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Stephen Benjamin / New York Times:
Don't Ask, Don't Translate — IMAGINE for a moment an American soldier deep in the Iraqi desert. His unit is about to head out when he receives a cable detailing an insurgent ambush right in his convoy's path. With this information, he and his soldiers are now prepared for the danger that lies ahead.
Discussion:
Iowa Independent, Pam's House Blend, Midtopia, AMERICAblog, Reason Magazine and Lawyers, Guns and Money
David Weigel / Reason Magazine:
"His Personality Cult is All Personality and No Cult." — I pick on John Edwards a lot, possibly too much, and have (luckily) been asked to explain why. OK, here's why: There's no reason for him to run and several reasons for him not to run. Edwards entered politics as a Clintonite Southern psuedo-populist.