Top Items:
Damien Cave / New York Times:
Militant Group Is Out of Baghdad, U.S. Says — American forces have routed Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, the Iraqi militant network, from every neighborhood of Baghdad, a top American general said today, allowing American troops involved in the "surge" to depart as planned.
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Andy McCarthy / The Corner:
SSSSHHHHHHH ... Don't Tell Anyone: Al Qaeda Has Been Routed in Baghdad — The Newspaper of Record has the story today ... on page A-19. — ... And even there, the Times can't bring itself to say we won. The report is headlined, "Militant Group Is Out of Baghdad, U.S. Says."
Andrew Sullivan / The Atlantic Online:
The War And the Election — The decline in violence in Iraq has been reflected in a shift in public opinion since July. Charles Franklin looks at the data here. Jay Reding concludes: … Surely this gets well ahead of what we actually know. The causes of the current lull are …
Washington Post:
Cheney's Impeachment Literally Fell 'Off the Table' — Maybe now we know what House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) meant when she said impeachment was "off the table." — Lawmakers' voting cards on the issue were literally just that — off the table — during Tuesday's brouhaha …
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Anne Flaherty / Associated Press:
House readies another Iraq war vote — WASHINGTON - Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the House will vote as early as Friday on legislation that would spend $50 billion on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan but require that President Bush start bringing troops home. — The money is about a quarter of the $196 billion requested by Bush.
Spencer Ackerman / TPMmuckraker:
AT&T Whistleblower: Telecom Immunity Is A Cover-Up — Earlier today we flagged that Mark Klein, who uncovered a secret surveillance room run by the NSA while employed as a San Francisco-based technician for AT&T, is in Washington to lobby against granting retroactive legal immunity to telecommunications companies.
Discussion:
Flopping Aces, Prairie Weather, Brains and Eggs, The Carpetbagger Report and The American Street
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Ellen Nakashima / Washington Post:
A Story of Surveillance — Former Technician 'Turning In' AT&T Over NSA Program
A Story of Surveillance — Former Technician 'Turning In' AT&T Over NSA Program
Discussion:
Chris Dodd, PoliBlog (TM), The Gun Toting Liberal™, Corrente, LewRockwell.com Blog and New York Times
USA Today:
Poll: Clinton lags in quest for male voters — WASHINGTON — More than eight in 10 Republicans and more than half the married men in a new USA TODAY/Gallup Poll say they definitely wouldn't vote for Hillary Rodham Clinton for president. — The poll provides an early snapshot of who's ruling out Clinton …
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Hugh Hewitt / Townhall.com:
The Robertson Effect? — When Rudy Giuliani captured the endorsement of Christian Coalition founder and 700 Club host Pat Robertson Wednesday, many heads turned. Why did it happen? What does it mean? — Three explanations shot across e-mails and the airways: (1)Robertson can't bring himself …
Discussion:
The Atlantic Online
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Ray Fisman / Slate:
AND SOLVES THE MYSTERIES OF DATING. — When economists began broadly applying their theories of rational choice-making, love and marriage were among the first areas they colonized. Nobel Prize winner Gary Becker laid the foundations back in 1973 with his two-part article "A Theory of Marriage."
Discussion:
JustOneMinute
Stephanie Strom / New York Times:
Tax Proposal From Rangel Could Benefit His Donors — The chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee has proposed legislation that would effectively halt some current tax audits of people who get a tax break for living and operating a business in the United States Virgin Islands.
Discussion:
Captain's Quarters, Weekly Standard, TownHall Blog, Redstate, Blue Crab Boulevard and Washington Post
Ed Morrissey / Captain's Quarters:
Michael Yon's Iconic Coverage Of The Iraq War — Michael Yon has not yet won a Pulitzer for his news coverage, although he certainly deserves one for his free-lance journalism. He may qualify even more for his photojournalism, capturing a second iconic image of the war and now a hope for victory and peace.
Discussion:
NewsBusters.org, Political Machine, A Second Hand Conjecture, Babalu Blog, Solomonia and BitsBlog
Ed OKeefe / Political Radar:
Clinton's Tipping Point? — ABC News' Eloise Harper Reports: Rule number one when campaigning at a diner: always leave a good tip — and, apparently, make sure it gets properly 'disbursed'. — In early October, Sen. Hillary Clinton's 'Middle Class Express' made a pit stop at the Maid Rite diner in Marshalltown, Iowa.
CNN:
'Date rape' drug-tainted toys recalled — NEW YORK (CNN) — U.S. safety officials have recalled about 4.2 million Chinese-made Aqua Dots bead toys that contain a chemical that has caused some children to vomit and become comatose after swallowing them. — Scientists have found …
The Blotter:
Exclusive: FBI: Al Qaeda May Strike U.S. Shopping Malls in LA, Chicago — Richard Esposito and Vic Walter Report: — The FBI is warning that al Qaeda may be preparing a series of holiday attacks on U.S. shopping malls in Los Angeles and Chicago, according to an intelligence report distributed …
David Stout / New York Times:
In First Bush Veto Override, Senate Enacts Water Bill — The Senate voted overwhelmingly today for a popular $23 billion water projects measure affecting locales across the country, thereby handing President Bush his first defeat in a veto showdown with Congress.
Discussion:
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