memeorandum: Resurrecting the Star Chamber (Scott Horton/Harper's)

Fireworks in Lebanon... Pro-Syrian President Steps Down — Fireworks in Lebanon after the Pro-Syrian President steps down... Some 2000 Anti-Lebanese president and pro-government supporters, set fireworks dancing beating drums and shouting 'Lahoud out' as they gathered in a Sunni Muslim …

Discussion: From Beirut to the Beltway, The Belmont Club and Right Wing Nut House

Caroline Glick / Jerusalem Post:

Column One: American folly — The mood is dark in the IDF's General Staff ahead of next week's "peace" conference in Annapolis. As one senior officer directly involved in the negotiations with the Palestinians and the Americans said, "As bad as it might look from the outside, the truth is 10 times worse.

Discussion: JCPA Jerusalem Center …, Atlas Shrugs and Gateway Pundit

Clancy Chassay / Guardian:

Lebanese army handed power — Lebanon was again plunged into uncertainty yesterday after parliament failed in a fifth attempt to elect a president, and the former Syrian backed-president Emile Lahoud, whose term ended at midnight, passed control of the security services over to the army, declaring a state of emergency.

Discussion: Washington Post and abu muqawama

Sam F. Ghattas / Associated Press:

Political crisis deepens in Lebanon — BEIRUT, Lebanon - Lebanon's political tumult intensified as President Emile Lahoud said the country is in a "state of emergency" and handed security powers to the army before he left office late Friday without a successor. The rival, pro-Western Cabinet rejected the declaration.

Discussion: Redstate and Publius Pundit

Anthony Shadid / Washington Post:
From Hopeful To Helpless At a Protest In Lebanon

Discussion: ThreatsWatch, Atlas Shrugs and abu muqawama

Jonathan Martin / The Politico:

Thompson motivation hard to pinpoint — Fred Thompson prefers plain talk. So he might bridle at using a famous Winston Churchill quote to sum up his presidential campaign: "a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma." — But with fewer than 50 days to go until the Iowa caucuses …

Discussion: Reason Magazine, Hot Air, Weekly Standard, Wonkette and My Man Mitt.com

Martina Stewart / CNN Political Ticker:
Thompson bashes NYC, Giuliani on gun rights

Discussion: Political Radar and Hot Air

Howard Kurtz / Washington Post:
Muted Ad Messages in Vogue

Discussion: Althouse, Connecting.the.Dots, The Caucus and New York Times

Liz Sly / Chicago Tribune:

New boss turns the tables on Al Qaeda — Ex-Sunni insurgent becomes U.S. ally — The once-dreaded Al Qaeda in Iraq stronghold of Amariyah has a new boss, and he's not shy about telling the story of the shootout that turned him into a local legend and helped change the tenor of the Iraq war.

Discussion: The Belmont Club, Six Meat Buffet, Wake up America, Unfogged and JammieWearingFool

Reuters:

Iraqi school guard, wife beheaded as children watch — BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Three suspected al Qaeda militants, including two sisters, beheaded their uncle and his wife, forcing the couple's children to watch, Iraqi police said on Friday. — The militants considered that school guard Youssef al-Hayali …

Discussion: Gateway Pundit and New York Times

Christina Bellantoni / Washington Times:

Hillary criticized for press strategy — When Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton wants to get a message out, her presidential campaign handpicks news outlets. Or, in some cases, bypasses the media entirely. — The New York Democrat's third-quarter fundraising blowout was leaked to the Drudge Report.

Discussion: National Review and Threat Level

Jennifer Hunter / Chicago Sun Times:
Hillary bracing for possible letdown in Iowa

Discussion: RealClearPolitics, The Carpetbagger Report and Blue Crab Boulevard

Jonathan Constantine / OC Blog:

A Warm and Fuzzy Taliban? — I guess the Taliban isn't so bad after all, well..... that's what Islamic activist and journalist Yvonne Ridley implies as she recounts her experiences as captive. As I wrote in my submission to New University, Ridley painted a rosy picture of the regime:

Discussion: michellemalkin.com and Little Green Footballs

Scott Horton / Harper's:

Resurrecting the Star Chamber — When the Founding Fathers looked for a model that reflected the abuses they objected to—in short what they intended to forbid by their new Constitution and Bill of Rights—they turned to an English institution, the Court of Star Chamber.

Discussion: Prairie Weather and The Heretik

Greg Sargent / TPM Election Central:

Huckabee: I'm Against Illegal Immigration, But I'm Not A Lunatic About It — ABC News has posted a pretty compelling interview with Mike Huckabee about immigration. In it, Huckabee was asked about charges from rivals that he's soft on immigration because he supported the children …

Discussion: Liberal Values

JTA / Jerusalem Post:

Vanity Fair sued over neo-Nazi interview — An interview with one of Germany's most notorious neo-Nazis has landed Vanity Fair magazine in a heap of trouble. — Arno Lustiger, a Jewish historian and Holocaust survivor, has started proceedings to sue the magazine's German edition for publishing …

Discussion: Vox Popoli

Reuters:

French prosecutors throw out Rumsfeld torture case — PARIS (Reuters) - The Paris prosecutors' office has dismissed a suit against Donald Rumsfeld accusing the former U.S. defense secretary of torture, human rights groups who brought the case said on Friday.

Discussion: Wake up America and Macsmind

Daniel Solove / Concurring Opinions:

My Impressions of Rachel Paulose — I have been reading many media accounts of Rachel Paulose, the U.S. Attorney of Minnesota. As one who has been very critical of the Bush Administration and of how it has politicized the DOJ, I ordinarily would not be very sympathetic to Rachel.

Discussion: Publius Endures and The Volokh Conspiracy

Al Baker / New York Times:

City Homicides Still Dropping, to Under 500 — New York City is on track to have fewer than 500 homicides this year, by far the lowest number in a 12-month period since reliable Police Department statistics became available in 1963. — But within the city's official crime statistics …

Discussion: Gothamist, The Reaction, Talking Points Memo, The Atlantic Online, Don Surber, Daniel W. Drezner, JustOneMinute and Gawker

Michael Luo / New York Times:

For Romney & Company, Campaign Is All Business — Presidential campaigns, with their boiler-room pressure, news media scrutiny and organizational challenges, have always functioned as something of a dress rehearsal for the White House. How do the candidates make tough decisions?

Discussion: The Heretik

Ed Morrissey / Captain's Quarters:

Sarkozy's Triumph — New French President Nicolas Sarkozy has won an impressive and historic victory over the French unionists. After announcing his economic reforms, union activists tried to invoke 40 years of successive victories for French socialism by once again rushing to the barricades …

Discussion: Associated Press and The Van Der Galiën Gazette

Nicholas Wapshott / New York Sun:
Collapse of Rail, Subway Strike Is a First Success for Sarkozy

Discussion: Wake up America, Power Line, Redstate and At-Largely

Geraldine Baum / Los Angeles Times: France in no mood to say vive la revolution