memeorandum: In Bush's Last Year, Modest Domestic Aims (Sheryl Gay Stolberg/New York Times)

7:40 AM ET, November 24, 2007

Top Items:

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 …

Discussion: From Beirut to the Beltway, Right Wing Nut House and The Belmont Club

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.

Discussion: Washington Post and abu muqawama

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.

Discussion: The Van Der Galiën Gazette, Redstate and Publius Pundit

Anthony Shadid / Washington Post:
From Hopeful To Helpless At a Protest In Lebanon

Discussion: ThreatsWatch and Atlas Shrugs

The Logan Daily News:

Leland Conner — LOGAN - Leland Lavon Conner, 77, of Logan, passed away Friday, Nov. 16, 2007, as a result of an auto accident in Fairfield County. — He was born May 9, 1930, in Hocking County, son of the late Foster E. and Ida Cullison Conner. Leland was married to Doris Keller Conner, who survives.

Discussion: The Moderate Voice

Andrew Bolt:

Election '07 - The results come in. (7.45pm: Labor wins) — Election '07 - The results come in — 5.55pm: Sky News tells us enough to know it's over. Its exit poll says Labor is getting 53 per cent of the vote. — 6.07pm: Laurie Oakes says Liberal campaigners concede Howard is in real trouble in Bennelong.

Discussion: Tim Blair, The Belmont Club and Silent Running

Sheryl Gay Stolberg / New York Times:

In Bush's Last Year, Modest Domestic Aims — As President Bush looks toward his final year in office, with Democrats controlling Congress and his major domestic initiatives dead on Capitol Hill, he is shifting his agenda to what aides call "kitchen table issues" — small ideas …

Discussion: The Reaction

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:

Discussion: michellemalkin.com

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.

Discussion: Prairie Weather and The Heretik

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

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 …

Discussion: Gateway Pundit, New York Times and Hot Air

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

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.

Discussion: Publius Endures and The Volokh Conspiracy

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.

Discussion: JCPA Jerusalem Center …, Gateway Pundit and Atlas Shrugs

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.