[Washington Monthly]
If the United States is a secular government, why are we voting in churches?

[The New York Times]
The federal government has agreed to pay $2 million to Oregon lawyer Brandon Mayfield, who was wrongly jailed in connection with the 2004 terrorist bombings in Madrid, and it issued a formal apology to him and his family.

[Newsvine]
A federal judge struck down President Bush's authority to designate groups as terrorists, saying his post-Sept. 11 executive order was unconstitutional and vague.

[News.com]
Supreme Court to examine "obviousness" of patents.

[UnionLeader.com]
Newt Gingrich wants to violate 1st Amendment to fight terrorists.

[BBC News]
The governments of 12 countries in South America have signed an agreement to allow their citizens to travel between them without passports.

[Reuters]
World survey says U.S. is most unfriendly country to visitors. Between 2000 and 2006, the number of overseas visitors, excluding those from Mexico and Canada, has declined by 17 percent.

[The Economist]
Happy Thanksgiving! The Economist rates the United States 17th among democracies, using an index based on five categories: free elections, civil liberties, functioning government, political participation and political culture.

[BBC News]
Police across England and Wales are to begin taking fingerprints while on patrol using mobile electronic devices.

[The New York Times]
Democrats begin to dither and backtrack on new ethics laws to control criminal Congress.

[Reuters]
Desperate Republicans bring back disgraced racist Trent Lott (R-MS) for leadership role.

[CBC News]
Will Nancy Pelosi be able to pass her tough new congressional ethics bill, the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act of 2006?

[Truthdig]
Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio), the potential next chair of the Government Reform Subcommittee on National Security, Emerging Threats, and International Relations, calls for congressional hearings into how and why America invaded Iraq, and demands accountability for those who led America into a war based on lies: We cannot heal America if we continue with policies that are based on lies. We’ll never be able to bring closure to this Iraq matter unless we tell the truth about what happened. So America needs a new approach of truth and reconciliation. This isn’t a Democratic or Republican matter. This is a matter that relates to the conscience of this country. This is a matter of the heart—the heart of democracy itself.

[Reuters]
Police in Britain have charged a woman on terrorism-related offences for possession of a computer hard drive loaded with operating manuals for guns, poisons, mines and munitions.

[Yahoo! News]
Our long national nightmare has just begun: As ugly secrets surface, Bushists will turn desperate. Democracy has failed their grand schemes; token resignations like Rumsfeld's come too little, too late. Only tyranny can save their skins. Will the beleaguered neocons led by Cheney and Bush, cornered like rats, unleash their brand-new police state on their political opponents? Or will they tough it out and suck up the fines and prison sentences to come? The next year or two could go either way.

[Yahoo! News]
The Democrats get the Senate, 51-49.

[Reuters]
Rumsfeld steps down. A sop to the mandate or the first of many heads to roll?

[Bloomberg.com]
The Democrats storm the House, come close—as in bring-in-the-lawyers close—in the Senate.

GO VOTE!

[Editor & Publisher]
An editorial set to appear on Monday in the four leading newspapers for the military calls for the resignation of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.

[The Washington Post]
The Bush administration has told a federal judge that terrorism suspects held in secret CIA prisons should not be allowed to reveal details of the "alternative interrogation methods" that their captors used to get them to talk. The government says in new court filings that those interrogation methods are now among the nation's most sensitive national security secrets and that their release—even to the detainees' own attorneys—"could reasonably be expected to cause extremely grave damage."

Why don't they just patent their torture techniques? Then they can sue for infringement!

[Times Online]
Six Arab states have announced that they are embarking on programmes to master atomic technology. The move, which follows the failure by the West to curb Iran’s controversial nuclear programme, could see a rapid spread of nuclear reactors in one of the world’s most unstable regions. The countries involved were named by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) as Algeria, Egypt, Morocco and Saudi Arabia. Tunisia and the UAE have also shown interest. All want to build civilian nuclear energy programmes, as they are permitted to under international law. But the sudden rush to nuclear power has raised suspicions that the real intention is to acquire nuclear technology which could be used for the first Arab atomic bomb.

[Vanity Fair]
As Iraq slips further into chaos, the war's neoconservative boosters have turned sharply on the Bush administration, charging that their grand designs have been undermined by White House incompetence. In a series of exclusive interviews, Richard Perle, Kenneth Adelman, David Frum, and others play the blame game with shocking frankness. Target No. 1: the president himself.

[ABC News]
Cheney explains his idea of democracy: It may not be popular with the public—it doesn't matter...

[Guardian Unlimited]
America is now seen as a threat to world peace by its closest neighbours and allies, according to an international survey of public opinion published today that reveals just how far the country's reputation has fallen among former supporters since the invasion of Iraq.

[Don'tVote.org]
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