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AP: TERRORIST=DISSIDENT — Via the always eagle-eyed Little Green Footballs, check out the caption on the Associated Press photo of Osama bin Laden running today at Yahoo.com: — Got that? Osama isn't a mass-murdering terrorist mastermind. He's just a poor, exiled dissident who disagrees with civilization.
Discussion:
NewsBusters.org, The Counterterrorism Blog, Radio Blogger, RightWinged.com, Stop The ACLU, Cold Fury, The Jawa Report v3.0 Beta, Captain's Quarters, Sadly, No!, Fox News, littlegreenfootballs.com, In the Bullpen, Right Wing Nut House, Proud To Be Canadian .ca, Betsy's Page, The Uncooperative Blogger, The Political Pit Bull and Ed Driscoll.com
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Chris Matthews compares Michael Moore to Osama
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Confederate Yankee, The Mahablog, Shakespeare's Sister, blogenlust, The Strata-Sphere, Right Wing Nut House, Gateway Pundit, The Green Knight, The Huffington Post, AMERICAblog, The Political Pit Bull, Seeing the Forest, The Left Coaster, Hullabaloo, IMAO, BlondeSense, Daily Kos, The Political Teen and Macsmind

Full Text of the bin Laden Tape
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AMERICAN DIGEST, Dr. Sanity, Attytood, In the Bullpen, Roger L. Simon, Fausta's Blog and Left I on the News

Legal Rationale by Justice Dept. on Spying Effort — WASHINGTON, Jan. 19 - The Bush administration offered its fullest defense to date Thursday of the National Security Agency's domestic eavesdropping program, saying that authorization from Congress to deter terrorist attacks …
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The Left Coaster, The Heretik, Althouse, Air America Radio, Opinio Juris, rubber hose, Law Librarian Blog, Wonkette and Bark Bark Woof Woof
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The NSA Eavesdropping Briefings - Too Exclusive To Be Legal?
Discussion:
Captain's Quarters, tapscottscopydesk.blogspot.com, IntoxiNation-News … and Think Progress

Iraq Shiites Win, but Must Form Coalition — BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) — An alliance of Shiite religious parties won the most seats in Iraq's new parliament but not enough to rule without coalition partners, the election commission said Friday. Sunni Arabs gained seats over previous balloting.
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Iraq Election Results Show Sunni Gains — Shiite Religious Parties Will Have to Form Alliances With Others — BAGHDAD, Iraq, Jan. 20 — Shiite religious parties fell short of winning outright control of parliament in Iraq's Dec. 15 national elections, compelling them to seek alliances …

Google Resists U.S. Subpoena of Search Data — SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 19 - The Justice Department has asked a federal judge to compel Google, the Internet search giant, to turn over records on millions of its users' search queries as part of the government's effort to uphold an online pornography law.
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Minority Leader Reid Apologizes to GOP — WASHINGTON — Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid on Thursday apologized to 33 Republican senators singled out for ethics criticism in a report from his office titled "Republican Abuse of Power." — "The document released by my office yesterday went …
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Reid Apologizes for News Release on GOP — Senate Minority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) apologized to 33 Republican senators yesterday for a hard-hitting news release that accused them of ethical and legislative lapses, in an awkward about-face that tripped up Democrats' effort to keep …

Paper Decides to Close Blog, Citing Vitriol — The Washington Post shut one of its blogs yesterday, saying it had drawn too many personal attacks, profanity and hate mail directed at the paper's ombudsman. — The closing was the second by a major newspaper in recent months.
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The not-so-mad mind of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad — Victor Davis Hanson, a senior fellow and historian at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University: Tribune Media Services — `The skirmishes in the occupied land are part of a war of destiny. The outcome of hundreds of years of war will be defined in Palestinian land.
Discussion:
The Strata-Sphere
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Sen. Clinton calls for sanctions against Iran
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GOP Bloggers

Bombing Pakistan: Was the attack justified? — Remember that CIA bombing of a remote Pakistani village last week? The one that killed 18 Pakistanis, but not Ayman al-Zawahiri? Well, it looks like at least one really bad guy was among the dead: … Before I learned of this news I was critical of the bombing.

Still Morning in America — Reaganomics, 25 years later. — Twenty-five years ago today, Ronald Reagan was inaugurated as the 40th President of the United States promising less intrusive government, lower tax rates and victory over communism. On that same day, the American hostages in Iran were freed after 444 days of captivity.
Discussion:
ACSBlog, PointofLaw.com, RIGHTWINGSPARKLE, BizzyBlog.com, Blogs for Bush and GOP Bloggers

Into the West Bank Abyss: From Student to Suicide Bomber — NABLUS, West Bank, Jan. 19 - A local photographer was the first to tell a shocked Samer Antar that his youngest brother, Sami, was dead. His mother's wails soon followed, rising in pitch to fill the dark staircase, as relatives …

Mike Malloy to CPAC: Get Lost! — For next month's Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), media director Andrea Saul sent 500 invitations to radio talk shows inviting them to broadcast from the Omni Shoreham Hotel. This is one of the big lovefests for those who want to hear …

What if we promise not to show the records to Karl Rove? — If you don't regularly anonymize your Google cookie and purge your personalized search history, now might be a good time to start (then again, in this day and age, why bother?). The Department of Justice on Wednesday asked …

Expose 'radical' UCLA teacher, get $100 — LOS ANGELES, California (Reuters) — An alumni group dedicated to "exposing the most radical professors" at the University of California at Los Angeles is offering to pay students $100 to record classroom lectures of suspect faculty.

Restive GOP Activists May Stage Revolt — Conservatives threaten to withhold support of Schwarzenegger's reelection bid if he doesn't fire a key aide who is a Democrat. — SACRAMENTO — Republican activists disenchanted with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Thursday that they will try …

Congressman Roy Blunt's conference call with the bloggers today, and taking their questions. — Well, a couple of questions anyway... 01-19bluntconferencecall.mp3 — RB: Thank all of you for calling in. It's good to have a few minutes to talk to you this afternoon.
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qando.net, ProfessorBainbridge.com, Captain's Quarters, Suitably Flip, GOP Bloggers, OTB, QandO, RedState, PoliBlog, The Political Teen and PoliPundit.com