Top Items:
ABCNEWS:
EXCLUSIVE: Photos of the Northwest Airlines Bomb — Accused Bomber Abdulmutallab's Underwear, Explosive Packet and Detonator — A singed pair of underwear with a packet of powder sewn into the crotch, seen in government photos obtained exclusively by ABC News, is all that remains …
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ABCNEWS:
Two al Qaeda Leaders Behind Northwest Flight 253 Terror Plot Were Released by U.S. — Former Guantanamo Prisoners Believed Behind Northwest Airlines Bomb Plot; Sent to Saudi Arabia in 2007 — Two of the four leaders allegedly behind the al Qaeda plot to blow up a Northwest Airlines passenger jet …
Discussion:
Outside The Beltway, Althouse, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Liberal Values, Megan McArdle, Yemen Observer, CBS News, Weekly Standard, Little Green Footballs, At-Largely, Informed Comment, ThreatsWatch, Political Punch, Flopping Aces, TalkLeft, Hot Air, Say It Ain't So Already, PERRspectives, Weasel Zippers, Fausta's Blog, Stop The ACLU, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, DISSENTING JUSTICE, THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS, Jihad Watch, The Washington Independent, Daily Kos, BlogHer, Riehl World View and AMERICAblog News
Alaska Dispatch:
Palin daughter sues for custody — The custody battle between Levi Johnston and Bristol Palin became public last week when two Superior Court judges issued orders unsealing the court record and denying the use of pseudonyms to protect the feuding parents' identities.
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Associated Press:
Sarah Palin's daughter seeks full custody of baby — ANCHORAGE (AP) — A judge's ruling has revealed a heated legal custody battle between Sarah Palin's daughter and the father of her grandson. — Bristol Palin's request to keep the proceedings closed was denied last week by a Superior Court judge.
Bob Herbert / New York Times:
A Less Than Honest Policy — There is a middle-class tax time bomb ticking in the Senate's version of President Obama's effort to reform health care. — The bill that passed the Senate with such fanfare on Christmas Eve would impose a confiscatory 40 percent excise tax on so-called Cadillac health plans …
Discussion:
Salon, Commentary, Shakesville, QandO, YID With LID, Corrente, TalkLeft, Daily Kos, Outside The Beltway and Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion
Margaret Talev / McClatchy Washington Bureau:
Who's running the TSA? No one, thanks to Sen. Jim DeMint — WASHINGTON — An attempt to blow up a trans-Atlantic flight from Amsterdam to Detroit on Christmas Day would be all-consuming for the administrator of the Transportation Security Administration — if there were one.
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The Politico:
GOP seizes on terror issue
GOP seizes on terror issue
Discussion:
Commentary, The Reaction, The Caucus, BBC, Hot Air, msnbc.com, AMERICAblog News, The Hill and Hit & Run
Margaret Talev / Washington Post:
Republican senator DeMint holds up nomination for TSA chief
Republican senator DeMint holds up nomination for TSA chief
Discussion:
Think Progress
Virginia / Dynamist Blog:
The Collapse of Professional Journalism, Cont'd — The latest “ethics” scandal buzzing through the journalism blogs provides another reminder that the culture and norms of the traditional journalism guild are ill-suited to the new “FREE” era. But first, a bit of personal context.
Nick Anderson / Washington Post:
Education Secretary Arne Duncan's legacy as Chicago schools chief questioned — CHICAGO — Soon after Arne Duncan left his job as schools chief here to become one of the most powerful U.S. education secretaries ever, his former students sat for federal achievement tests.
Washington Post:
In online posts apparently by Detroit suspect, religious ideals collide — The 23-year-old Nigerian man accused of the attempted Christmas Day bombing of an American airliner apparently turned to the Internet for counseling and companionship, writing in an online forum that he was “lonely” and had “never found a true Muslim friend.”
The Grand Rapids / MLive.com:
Complete text of U.S. Rep. Pete Hoekstra's fundraising letter sent in aftermath of attempted Detroit terrorist attack … Dear Friend: — We don't have much time, so I will get right to the point. — In the midst of enjoying Christmas with my family, we were quickly reminded that there is still …
Jim Hoft / Gateway Pundit:
Krauthammer Rips Obama's “Flaccid, Meaningless” Words On Iranian Freedom Protests (Video) — “This is a moment in history, and he's missing it.” — On Special Report tonight Charles Krauthammer ripped President Obama for his “flaccid, meaningless” words on the Iranian freedom protests.
Projo 7 to 7 News Blog:
Chafee to make it official: He is running for governor — PROVIDENCE, RI. — Former U.S. Senator Lincoln Chafee will make it official on Monday, Jan. 4, that he is running for governor. — A statement issued by his campaign on Monday said: “Over the last 25 years, while serving …
David D. Kirkpatrick / New York Times:
At State Level, Health Lobby Fights Change — WASHINGTON — Like about a dozen other states, Florida is debating a proposed amendment to its state constitution that would try to block, at least symbolically, much of the proposed federal health care overhaul on the grounds that it tramples individual liberty.
Mark Steyn / The Corner on National Review Online:
Allegedly Allergic — By: Mark Steyn — Jonah, your allegedly alleged reader's observation on “clinical legalism” is just right. Putting aside the stuff that was just plain wrong (this guy's an “isolated extremist” - oh, yeah?), the President's remarks had a horrible desiccated complacency.
Gabriel Schoenfeld / Los Angeles Times:
Politics and the no-fly list — The agencies that maintain watch lists have come under withering criticism that rights are being abused, which may have led to the under-inclusion of potential terrorists. — The case of the alleged Christmas bomber, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, is being called a massive intelligence failure.
Hillary Chabot / Boston Herald:
GOP lets Scott Brown fend for himself — Local Republicans outraged committee not giving more in Senate battle — GOP U.S. Senate candidate Scott Brown has been all but abandoned by the same national Republican committees that pumped hundreds of thousands in campaign cash …
John Pomfret / Washington Post:
U.S. concerned about new Japanese premier Hatoyama — While most of the federal government was shut down by a snowstorm last week, there was one person in particular whom Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton called in through the cold: Japanese Ambassador Ichiro Fujisaki.
Discussion:
The Page
Jim Hoft / Gateway Pundit:
First Family to America: Everyone Must Sacrifice, Everyone Must Have Some Skin in the Game... We'll Be In Hawaii — Back in January, before he signed his failed $787 billion stimulus bill into law, Barack Obama told America that everyone must sacrifice for the greater good. Everyone must have “some skin in the game.”
Myglesias / Matthew Yglesias:
The Repealers — Steve Benen had a good rundown yesterday of the pressure conservative activists are putting on politicians to say they'll “repeal” health care reform. This strikes me as very unlikely to happen. To see why, you have to ask what “repeal” would mean.
The Smoking Gun:
TMZ Falls For JFK Photo Hoax — Photo that “could have changed history” actually from a Playboy shoot — In a colossal screw-up, the gossip web site TMZ.com today published a photo purporting to show John F. Kennedy frolicking on a yacht with a harem of naked women—except …
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TMZ.com:
Man in Photo is Not JFK
Man in Photo is Not JFK
Discussion:
Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, American Power, Runnin' Scared, La Figa, Politics Daily, Gawker and ArtsBeat