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Forgive and Forget? — Last Sunday President-elect Barack Obama was asked whether he would seek an investigation of possible crimes by the Bush administration. “I don't believe that anybody is above the law,” he responded, but “we need to look forward as opposed to looking backwards.”
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Why We Have to Look Back — This week, I released …
Discussion:
Democracy in America


The real reason Bill Clinton pardoned Marc Rich — Eric Holder is sworn in at his confirmation hearing Thursday before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill. — From beginning to end, the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Eric Holder's nomination as attorney general observed …
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Terrorists killed my dad — Atty. Gen.-nominee Eric Holder helped pardon terrorists linked to my father's murder in 1975. — In 1975, when I had just turned 9, my father was killed by terrorists. — He was supposed to be home early on that Jan. 24 for a family celebration of my birthday …

Waterboarding Is Torture, Holder Tells Senators
Discussion:
CBS News, New York Times, The Hill, Los Angeles Times, Spin Cycle, The BLT, Wall Street Journal and ImmigrationProf Blog

Obama Pledges Reform of Social Security, Medicare Programs — President-Elect Says He'll Reshape Social Security, Medicare Programs — President-elect Barack Obama pledged yesterday to shape a new Social Security and Medicare “bargain” with the American people, saying …
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No Delay On Card Check, So Far — Is the administration going to slow-walk the Employee Free Choice Act, or card check? President-Elect Obama told the Washington Post yesterday that “while he favored the legislation, said there may be other ways to achieve the same goal without angering businesses.
Discussion:
Matthew Yglesias

Senate Releases Second Portion of Bailout Fund
Discussion:
MSNBC, The Washington Independent, Taegan Goddard's …, The Politico, LiberalOasis and The Big Picture

“Iranian Unit” Destroyed, Hamas was Suprised — (IsraelNN.com) The so-called “Iranian Unit” of Hamas has been destroyed, according to Gaza sources cited Thursday by the Haaretz daily. The sources said most of the unit's 100 members were killed in fighting in the Zeytun neighborhood of Gaza City.
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Hudson River hero is ex-Air Force fighter pilot — NEW YORK (AP) — The pilot who guided a crippled US Airways jetliner safely into the Hudson River — saving all 155 people aboard — became an instant hero Thursday, with accolades from the mayor and governor and a fan club online.
Discussion:
Michelle Malkin, Fausta's Blog, The Smoking Gun, Associated Press, No More Mister Nice Blog, AmSpecBlog, The Impolitic, MSNBC and Gothamist
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Praise Heaped on Veteran Airman for Pulling Off Rare Feat — The pilots of US Airways Flight 1549 achieved one of the rarest and most technically challenging feats in commercial aviation: landing on water without fatalities. — Although commercial jetliners are equipped with life vests …
Discussion:
San Francisco Chronicle, neo-neocon, MoJoBlog, Silicon Alley Insider and The Other McCain

Plane Crew Is Credited for Nimble Reaction
Discussion:
NY Daily News, USA Today, neo-neocon, New York Post, Silicon Alley Insider, Gothamist, Gateway Pundit, City Room and The Moderate Voice

The secret dinner with Obama you haven't heard about — At a quiet dinner meeting late last week in Washington's Ronald Reagan Building, President-elect Obama reached out to outside foreign-policy experts, trying to resist the presidential bubble that is rapidly closing around him.
Discussion:
Ben Smith's Blogs, Washington Post, The Washington Independent, Kevin Drum, War and Piece and USA Today
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4 days to Inauguration — The president-elect's secret foreign-policy dinner —The Neighborhood Inaugural Ball goes interactive — President Bush: ‘May God bless this house and our next president’ — Memorable “new contact info” e-mails - Jim Wilkinson meets Hilary Rosen - Mike DuHaime to Mercury Public Affairs

The Wiretap Vindication — FISA sets the record straight. — Ever since the Bush Administration's warrantless wiretapping program was exposed in 2005, critics have denounced it as illegal and unconstitutional. Those allegations rested solely on the fact that the Administration …
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Pragmatist-in-Chief — PRESIDENT-ELECT Barack Obama came to The Post editorial board yesterday with two messages sketchy on details yet reassuring in approach: a commitment to fiscal discipline, and a determination not to be bound by liberal, or indeed any, orthodoxy.

King: Obama ‘bizarre’ to use ‘Hussein’ — Apologize? Not so much. — But Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa), who last March predicted Al Qaida would be “dancing in the streets” if Barack Obama were elected president, now concedes that the dynamic has merely “shifted” on the terrorist front.

DON'T BELIEVE YOUR LYING EYES.... Presidents don't have to give televised farewell addresses at the end of their term. Indeed, George H. W. Bush didn't bother, preferring to let his record speak for itself. The son would have been wise to follow his father's example.
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Sink not running for Senate — Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink is expected to announce today that she's not running for the U.S. Senate, opening the field to a crop of lesser-known contenders. — Sink, the only statewide officeholder on the Democratic shortlist, was seen …
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Suspend Your Disbelief — How to enjoy an inauguration fully. — Washington — Flying in, we take the route over the Lincoln Memorial, the Jefferson, the Tidal Basin: the signs and symbols of the great republic. And you've seen it all a thousand times but you can't stop looking, and you can't help it, your eyes well.
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America's Best High Schools — A state-by-state look at the best-performing high schools in the U.S. Does your child already go to one? — Watch the Video... Kimberly Lynch, a redhead with freckles, had a keen interest in sunblock. So much so that she spent the past year developing …

Did Cheney nod off during Bush's farewell address? » — Last night during PBS's coverage of President Bush's farewell address to the nation, for a brief moment, the camera panned to Vice President Cheney, who appeared to momentarily doze off. But it seems that he quickly caught himself and then sat upright in his chair.
Discussion:
Examiner

Coleman can keep office until Feb. 4, senators say — WASHINGTON - Democratic and Republican leaders agreed Thursday to reopen Norm Coleman's U.S. Senate offices until Feb. 4 to archive and transfer case files on constituent services. — The agreement, approved unanimously by the Senate …


American painter Andrew Wyeth dies at 91 — PHILADELPHIA - Artist Andrew Wyeth, who portrayed the hidden melancholy of the people and landscapes of Pennsylvania's Brandywine Valley and coastal Maine in works such as “Christina's World,” died early Friday. He was 91.

Commentary: Bush saved 10 million lives — Editor's note: Bill Frist, a physician, is former Republican majority leader of the U.S. Senate and a professor of medicine and business at Vanderbilt University. — (CNN) — A legacy of President George W. Bush will be that he saved 10 million lives around the world.


Some Ask if Bailout Is Unconstitutional — While much of the debate over the $700 billion federal bailout plan has focused on whether the money is being spent wisely or well, concerns are growing among many conservatives about its constitutionality. — Some conservatives have argued …

A Republican Strategy For Stimulus — The GOP should abandon Bush tax policies altogether. — Republicans in Congress are clearly groping for a strategy to deal with the economic crisis and, as yet, have no real alternative to Barack Obama's plan. So far, they're are all over the map …
Discussion:
Kevin Drum