Top Items:
Mark Hosenball / Newsweek Blogs:
Exclusive: Obama Got Pre-Christmas Intelligence Briefing About Terror Threats to ‘Homeland’ — President Obama received a high-level briefing only three days before Christmas about possible holiday-period terrorist threats against the U.S., NEWSWEEK has learned.
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Newsweek Blogs:
White House Adviser Briefed in October on Underwear Bomb Technique — White House counterterrorism adviser John Brennan was briefed in October on an assassination attempt by Al Qaeda that investigators now believe used the same underwear bombing technique as the Nigerian suspect who tried …
New York Times:
Why Didn't They See It? — It will take some time before all the facts about the Christmas Day terrorism plot are known and analyzed. One thing is already clear: The government has to urgently improve its ability to use the reams of intelligence it receives every day on suspected terrorists and plots.
Discussion:
Prairie Weather
Erick Erickson / Erick's blog:
Could this actually be the greatest and potentially the deadliest of Obama's screw ups so far? — I missed the implications of this up front and I bet you all did too, but I am hearing from members of the American intelligence community and some on the outside closely connected to those on the inside …
Mike Allen / The Politico:
Flashback: GOP blamed Clinton for 9/11 - Obama got regularly scheduled Dec. 22 briefing on holiday threats, but there was no warning of an attack — Tebow: ‘redemption instead of perfection’ — Mayor Bloomberg yesterday, in his third inaugural address: “We have adopted bold education reforms …
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Wall Street Journal:
Why the Health-Care Bills Are Unconstitutional — If the government can mandate the purchase of insurance, it can do anything. — Printer — Friendly — President Obama's health-care bill is now moving toward final passage. The policy issues may be coming to an end …
Discussion:
neo-neocon
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BBC:
Charges for cartoonist ‘attacker’ — The 28-year-old Somali was carried into court on a stretcher — A Somali man has been charged with trying to kill a Danish artist whose drawing of the Prophet Mohammed sparked riots around the world. — The suspect, who was shot …
Discussion:
Riehl World View
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Alan Colmes' Liberaland:
Limbaugh: “Based On What Happened To Me I Don't Think There's One Thing Wrong With The American Health Care System” — First, let's be clear that I'm personally happy that Rush Limbaugh is in good condition and came through his scare beautifully. Let's also be clear: Limbaugh is touting …
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Peter S. Goodman / New York Times:
U.S. Loan Effort Is Seen as Adding to Housing Woes — The Obama administration's $75 billion program to protect homeowners from foreclosure has been widely pronounced a disappointment, and some economists and real estate experts now contend it has done more harm than good.
Hiroko Tabuchi / New York Times:
For Some in Japan, Home Is a Tiny Plastic Bunk — TOKYO — For Atsushi Nakanishi, jobless since Christmas, home is a cubicle barely bigger than a coffin — one of dozens of berths stacked two units high in one of central Tokyo's decrepit “capsule” hotels. — “It's just a place to crawl …
Scott / Power Line:
The Cornhusker Concussive — One of the disgusting features of the Senate's Obamacare bill is the payoffs extracted from taxpayers and directed to the states of senators wielding key votes. The payoffs culminated in the “Cornhusker Kickback” procured by Nebraska Senator Ben Nelson for Nebraska …
Discussion:
JustOneMinute
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Patterico's Pontifications:
Charles Johnson Denounces the “Right-Wing Racism” of a Picture Forwarded by . . . a Democrat — Charles Johnson denounces the “right-wing racism” of the photo. — Just one problem: the worker is a registered Democrat: … Reacting to the news of the woman's party affiliation, Johnson says in comments:
Wall Street Journal:
Peak Oil Refuses to Rise to the Occasion — You don't have to be a global-warming alarmist to wonder just when the world's oil reserves are finally going to dry up and drive the price of oil through the roof, thereby ushering in a glorious age of energy created by hamsters on exercise wheels or some other renewable source.
Discussion:
Hit & Run
Associated Press:
Iran FM: West has 1 month, or we'll make our own nuclear fuel — Article's topics: Iran, Iranian Nuclear Threat, Manouchehr Mottaki, United Nations — Iran warned on Saturday the West has until the end of the month to accept Teheran's counterproposal to a UN-drafted plan on a nuclear exchange …
Neil Irwin / Washington Post:
Aughts were a lost decade for U.S. economy, workers — For most of the past 70 years, the U.S. economy has grown at a steady clip, generating perpetually higher incomes and wealth for American households. But since 2000, the story is starkly different. — The past decade was the worst …
Michael Alison Chandler / Washington Post:
Former Post ombudsman Deborah Howell dies — Former Washington Post ombudsman Deborah Howell, one of the first women to lead a major U.S. newspaper, died in an accident involving an automobile in New Zealand on Saturday, according to her family. She was 68.
Brendan Miniter / Wall Street Journal:
Back to GOP Basics — Virginia's governor-elect Bob McDonnell on his plans for spending cuts, offshore drilling and charter schools. — Printer — Friendly — Richmond, Va. — 'I'm sorry," Bob McDonnell says, shaking my hand. It's a recent rainy morning in Virginia's capital …