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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John Bresnahan / The Politico:
Democrats adopt new campaign plan — Top House Democrats, sensing an opportunity to pick up additional seats in 2008, are warning some of their more vulnerable incumbents that the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee won't spend money in their districts unless Republican leaders do.
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.
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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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
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
The Atlantic Online:
The Future of Limited Government — I highly recommend William Voegeli's essay on conservatives and government-cutting. There's a lot to be said about it, but I'll confine myself to this passage: … In conservatism's defense, though, I think it's worth considering Tyler Cowen's hypothesis …
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
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:
NO QUARTER
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 …