Top Items:
Washington Post:
The Real Iraq We Knew — Today marks five years since the authorization of military force in Iraq, setting Operation Iraqi Freedom in motion. Five years on, the Iraq war is as undermanned and under-resourced as it was from the start. And, five years on, Iraq is in shambles.
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Jules Crittenden:
12 Captains — With an alarmingly poor grasp of political and military realities in Iraq and the United States weigh in with the following at the Washington Post: … It would be far quicker, cheaper and less politically traumatic to simple expand the military, and offer financial incentives to boost enlistment.
Discussion:
RADAMISTO
Confederate Yankee:
Thanks For the History Lesson — I value the writers' service and their opinions as soldiers who have served in Iraq, but wouldn't this editorial have meant more if the Washington Post had managed to find soldiers to write it who had actually been in in Iraq in the last year?
Looseheadprop / Firedoglake:
Breaking News: Hillary Pledges to End War "Immediately" Upon Taking Office — Every year I go to a fundraiser luncheon sponsored by group called Eleanor Roosevelt's Legacy Committee. It's a group that raises money, recruits and trains Democratic women candidates and give campaign grants to those running in New York.
Barooosk / Talking Radio:
Randi Rhodes is the Victim of a Violent Attack — Updated on October 16 at 8:50 AM PDT. Update set in bold face italics — Randi Rhodes was mugged on Sunday night on 39th Street and Park Ave, nearby her Manhattan apartment, while she was walking her dog Simon.
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Think Progress, Little Green Footballs, The Moderate Voice, Brilliant at Breakfast, Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler, Gawker, Wizbang, NewsBusters.org, BitsBlog, Shakespeare's Sister, Macsmind, The Van Der Galiën Gazette, At-Largely, Riehl World View, Taylor Marsh, State of the Day, Greatscat!, The Sideshow, CANNONFIRE, skippy the bush kangaroo and VodkaPundit
Greg Sargent / Horses Mouth:
McConnell Aide Acknowledges That He Tried To Spread Bogus Smear Of Graeme Frost — Check this out: An aide to GOP leader Mitch McConnell has acknowledged in an interview with Kentucky's Courier-Journal that he actively sought to alert reporters to the wingnut smearing of 12-year-old SCHIP posterkid Graeme Frost:
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James R. Carroll / Courier-Journal:
McConnell aide shared blog tips — WASHINGTON — Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's spokesman acknowledged yesterday that he alerted reporters last week to questions bloggers raised about the financial circumstances of a 12-year-old boy Democrats had used to urge passage of an expanded children's health insurance program.
Los Angeles Times:
Retirement season hits GOP hard — PACKING UP: Rep. Ray LaHood, shown in 2005, is to retire next year. "I don't like being in the minority," he said. "It's not that much fun, and the prospects for the future don't look that good." — In 2008, Republicans look certain to be defending …
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Washington Monthly, Richmond Times-Dispatch, The Reaction, Bark Bark Woof Woof and Left in the West
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Cal Thomas / Real Clear Politics:
Global Warming: Conservatives' Opportunity — This is a two-part column. Part one is what you might expect from a politically conservative person who believes "global warming" is a secular religion and that Al Gore deserved the Nobel Peace Prize as much as Yasser Arafat …
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Ellen Nakashima / Washington Post:
Verizon Says It Turned Over Data Without Court Orders — Firm's Letter to Lawmakers Details Government Requests — Verizon Communications, the nation's second-largest telecom company, told congressional investigators that it has provided customers' telephone records to federal authorities …
Discussion:
Firedoglake, Shakespeare's Sister, AMERICAblog, The Carpetbagger Report, The Heretik, Comments from Left Field, Agitprop, Connecting.the.Dots, Kiko's House, Unqualified Offerings, cab drollery, Rook's Rant, Prairie Weather, Salon, Cato-at-liberty, Macsmind, Balloon Juice, TalkLeft and The Next Hurrah
Nick Pisa / Daily Mail:
Is this Pope John Paul II waving from beyond the grave? Vatican TV director says yes — This fiery figure is being hailed as Pope John Paul II making an appearance beyond the grave. — The image, said by believers to show the Holy Father with his right hand raised in blessing …
Thomas Sowell / Real Clear Politics:
Sabotage in Wartime — With all the problems facing this country, both in Iraq and at home, why is Congress spending time trying to pass a resolution condemning the massacre of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire nearly a century ago? — Make no mistake about it, that massacre of hundreds of thousands …
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New York Sun, Power Line, BitsBlog, Gateway Pundit, Dr. Sanity, PrairiePundit, TigerHawk and Middle Earth Journal
Washington Post / The Trail:
Giuliani Spends Big Bucks for Posh Hotels — Rudy Giuliani prefers posh hotels, water views and chartered planes. (Getty Images) — Rudy Giuliani likes to travel in style. — That's what can be deduced by looking through Giuliani's campaign spending report, which shows the former …
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TalkLeft
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Des Moines Register:
Iowa Poll: Caucusgoers greet candidates in person — In a new poll, 25 percent of Iowans expecting to be part of January's party meetings report such an encounter. — If the rest of the world needed evidence that the presidential candidates are personally auditioning for Iowans, not just waging media campaigns, here it is:
Guardian:
The making of the Muslim left — Muslim leftism is the only way to ensure that Islam's individualist revolution doesn't take an even darker turn than it already has. — I went to a government school in the American south where I had constant interaction with religious supremacists.
blogs.wsj.com:
Bob Jones Dean Endorses ... Romney! — Michael M. Phillips reports on the presidential race. — A top official at Bob Jones University, the Evangelical Christian school with a history of anti-Mormon rhetoric, plans to throw his weight behind Mormon presidential hopeful Mitt Romney.