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Gateway Pundit:
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 …
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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.
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.
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.
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 …
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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.
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 …
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.
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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:
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.
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.
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.
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 …
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