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5:20 PM ET, November 1, 2007

Top Items:

President Bush Discusses Global War on Terror — Washington, D.C. — In Focus: Defense — In Focus: National Security — THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. Ed, thanks. Thanks for the kind introduction. I'm looking forward to working with you for the next 14 months …

Discussion: Think Progress, Redstate, National Review, First Draft and Gateway Pundit

Terence Hunt / Associated Press:

Sen. Kennedy turns against AG nominee — WASHINGTON - President Bush, seeking Thursday to salvage the embattled nomination of Michael Mukasey as attorney general, defended the former judge's refusal to say whether he considers waterboarding as illegal torture. But the nomination suffered another setback in the Senate.

Discussion: michellemalkin.com, Macsmind, The Corner, The Carpetbagger Report and The Democratic Daily

White House:
President Bush Previews War on Terror Speech

Discussion: The Next Hurrah, D-Day, LeftWord and First Draft

Andrew Sullivan / The Atlantic Online:
The Democrats and Mukasey — The NYT argues today …

Discussion: The Democratic Daily, The Newshoggers and Chris Dodd National Blog

Paul Kiel / TPMmuckraker:
Today's Must Read

Discussion: New York Times, Salon, Seeing the Forest and The Mahablog

Mark Silva / The Swamp:
Bush: Mukasey not 'read into' terrorist interrogation

Discussion: The Politico

Leonard Doyle / The Independent:
Waterboarding is torture - I did it myself, says US advisor

Discussion: Scholars and Rogues

Sam Youngman / The Hill:

Campaign call reveals Clinton debate concern — Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's (D-N.Y.) top advisers, doing damage control after the candidate's debate performance Tuesday, told supporters on a conference call Wednesday that the campaign needed more money to fight back.

Greg Sargent / Horses Mouth:

There's A History Here: Russert Blindsided Hillary With Question About Bill's Affair Back In 2000; Hillary Camp Seethed — Since the Dem debate a few days ago a lot of people have understandably been taking shots at Tim Russert for his often small-minded "gotcha" questions and his constant references to Bill Clinton.

Discussion: Eunomia, The Atlantic Online and Angry Bear

Ed Morrissey / Captain's Quarters:
But They're Unaffiliated, Of Course — Media Matters insists …

Discussion: Media Matters for America

Jonah Goldberg / The Corner: But Media Matters Doesn't Shill For Hillary

Fred Barnes / Weekly Standard:
Clinton's Double Standard

Discussion: The Corner, The Influence Peddler, The Atlantic Online and The Fix

Kenneth P. Vogel / The Politico:

S.C. Dems reject Colbert candidacy — Stephen Colbert's satirical run for the presidency has run into its first roadblock - his bid to be on the ballot in the South Carolina Democratic presidential primary was rejected on Thursday. — The party's executive council voted 14 to 3 …

Discussion: The Raw Story, Hot Air, The BRAD BLOG, Open Left and D-Day

CNN Political Ticker:

South Carolina Democrats say no to Colbert — COLUMBIA, South Carolina (CNN) — The South Carolina Democratic Party voted Thursday to keep comedian Stephen Colbert's name off the Democratic Primary ballot, according to Executive Director Joe Werner. — This essentially means …

Kevin Aylward / The 2007 Weblog Awards:

Finalists Announced — Here is a complete list of the finalists for The 2007 Weblog Awards. Finalists badges (hosted by Imageshack) will be available Thursday. Voting is scheduled to begin Thursday evening (late), but at this point we can't pinpoint the exact time polls will open.

Discussion: The Jawa Report, The Newshoggers, The Moderate Voice, Swords Crossed, JammieWearingFool, Balloon Juice, Captain's Quarters, Suitably Flip, Shakespeare's Sister, Wizbang and The Van Der Galiën Gazette

Robin Wright / Washington Post:

From the Desk of Donald Rumsfeld . . . In Sometimes-Brusque 'Snowflakes,' He Shared Worldview, Shaped Policy — In a series of internal musings and memos to his staff, then-Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld argued that Muslims avoid "physical labor" and wrote of the need to …

Discussion: Think Progress, Shakespeare's Sister, The Carpetbagger Report, Norwegianity, A Second Hand Conjecture, CBS News, TPMCafe blogs, The Plank, Cliff Schecter, American Footprints, Wonkette, The Heretik, Armchair Generalist, The Garlic and Connecting.the.Dots

Joel Stein / Time:

The Ron Paul Revolution — It sometimes seems as if someone is playing a cruel practical joke on Ron Paul. He goes to a college and delivers the same speech he's given for the past 30 years of his political career, the one espousing the Austrian school of economics.

Discussion: The Atlantic Online, Right Wing Nut House, American Thinker, ECHIDNE OF THE SNAKES, MoJoBlog, Wired News, Donklephant, Reason Magazine, The American Mind, Liberal Values and The Plank

Joel Stein / Time:

The Ron Paul Revolution — Paul's fans — and there were more than 100 of them in Leno's audience, many of whom had flown in from out of town — are entranced by a man who responds to surprising information with "Wowee" and a jaw-dropped smile not often seen apart from 5-year-old boys and Muppets.

Discussion: The Corner and LewRockwell.com Blog

Juan Cole:

Time to Close the US Embassy — I don't try to start an internet campaign very often, because the blogosphere has its own priorities and logic that are democratic and should not be forced. But here is a plea for everyone in the blogging world to help force congress to save our diplomats.

Discussion: The Carpetbagger Report, The Newshoggers, Shakespeare's Sister, Outside The Beltway, Agitprop, UrbanGrounds, D-Day, BBC and Associated Press

John R. Christy / mobile2.wsj.com:

My Nobel Moment — I've had a lot of fun recently with my tiny (and unofficial) slice of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize awarded to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). But, though I was one of thousands of IPCC participants, I don't think I will add "0.0001 Nobel Laureate" to my resume.

Discussion: Blue Crab Boulevard

Telegraph:

The most influential US conservatives: 21-40 — As the US prepares for what is arguably the most open presidential election since 1928, the last time there was no incumbent president or vice-president on the ballot, the Daily Telegraph's Washington correspondents compile a list of the 100 …

Discussion: Washington Monthly, The Carpetbagger Report, UrbanGrounds, The Corner and Reason Magazine

American Prospect:

What's the Air Force For? — A roundtable discussion of Robert Farley's proposal to abolish the Air Force. — Rob Farley discusses his case for abolishing the Air Force with David Axe of War is Boring, Jason Sigger of Armchair Generalist, John of OP-FOR, Noah Shachtman of Danger Room …

Discussion: War Is Boring and Danger Room

Michael Coleman / Albuquerque Journal:

INSIDE THE BELTWAY: A weblog from Inside the Washington D.C. Beltway About New Mexico Issues — by Michael Coleman, Journal Washington Bureau E-Mail him Web Feed — Home Inside the Beltway Breaking: Udall Reconsidering U.S. Senate Run — Breaking: Udall Reconsidering U.S. Senate Run

Discussion: Heath Haussamen …, MyDD, Daily Kos, Political Machine and Draft Tom Udall …

Irenep / Michael Yon:

Iraqi Islamic Party says, "Al Qaeda is Defeated." — O1 November 2007 — Iraqi Islamic Party: "Al Qaeda is Defeated" — "Al Qaeda in Iraq is defeated," according to Sheik Omar Jabouri, spokesman for the Iraqi Islamic Party and a member of the widespread and influential Jabouri Tribe.

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Hot Air, alphabet city, Wake up America, A Blog For All, Gateway Pundit, Patterico's Pontifications and BitsBlog

Reason.tv:

Medical Marijuana — "I think it's clear by now that the federal government needs to reclassify marijuana. People who need it should be able to get it - safely and easily," says The Price Is Right and Power of 10 host Drew Carey in a new Reason.tv video examining medical marijuana and the war on drugs.

Discussion: Reason Magazine