[The New York Times]
New law (from the Clinton administration) to finally go into effect at midnight on December 31: Secret documents 25 years old or older will now automatically lose their classified status unless agencies have sought exemptions, reversing the current practice of releasing just what scholars request.

[St. Petersburg Times]
Liberaltarians? A compelling case is being made for the economically conservative yet socially liberal libertarians to switch their political allegiances from Republican to Democratic.

[BBC News]
Some 10,000 U.S. researchers have signed a statement protesting political interference in the scientific process. The statement, which includes the backing of 52 Nobel Laureates, demands a restoration of scientific integrity in government policy. According to the American Union of Concerned Scientists, data is being misrepresented for political reasons. It claims scientists working for federal agencies have been asked to change data to fit policy initiatives.

[Guardian Unlimited]
The Bush administration's policy towards the Middle East over the five years since 9/11 is culminating in a multiple train crash. Never in the field of human conflict was so little achieved by so great a country at such vast expense. In every vital area of the wider Middle East, American policy over the last five years has taken a bad situation and made it worse.

[Think Progress]
John McCain introduces anti-blog, anti-free speech legislation.

[LiveScience]
The Bush administration takes new steps in its ongoing effort to muzzle scientists while controlling and watering down the reporting of their research results.

[Newsvine]
Outgoing Georgia Rep. Cynthia McKinney has introduced a bill to impeach Bush.

[The Washington Post]
In a case that could shape firearms laws nationwide, attorneys for the District of Columbia is arguing in court that the Second Amendment right to bear arms applies only to militias, not individuals.

[The New York Times]
Democrats want to implement voting safeguards by 2008 election.

[ZDNet]
The FBI appears to have begun using a novel form of electronic surveillance in criminal investigations: remotely activating a mobile phone's microphone and using it to eavesdrop on nearby conversations.

[Voice of America]
Iraq Study Group report calls for major changes in Iraq to counteract Bush's failed policies (but do they go far enough?).

[The Washington Post]
Republicans in Congress complain about Democrats' plan to work 5 days a week.

[Yahoo! News]
Temporary U.N. Ambassador John Bolton, unable to get Senate approval, to relinquish post.

[OpinionJournal]
Garry Kasparov: "Mission accomplished" jokes aside, the original goals in Iraq—deposing Saddam Hussein and holding elections—have been achieved. Nation-building was never on the agenda, and it should not be added now. All the allied troops in the world aren't going to stop the Iraqi people from continuing their civil war if this is their choice. As long as Muslim leaders in Iraq and elsewhere are unwilling to confront their own radical elements, outsiders will be spectators in the line of fire.

[The Objective Standard]
Americans must remember what conservatives have forgotten (or never fully understood): that the United States was founded on the idea that individuals have unalienable rights to life, liberty, property, and the pursuit of happiness. These rights are valid only if individuals morally own themselves and are the proper beneficiaries of their own efforts. Each man is a morally sovereign entity. This is why no person is legitimately the master or the slave of another.

[Wired]
Government approves a new airport security program diminishing the hassle for those able and willing to pay $100/year. Now we know why they created those hassles in the first place (since they don't make flying more secure).

[AOL News]
Without their knowledge, millions of Americans and foreigners crossing U.S. borders in the past four years have been assigned scores generated by U.S. government computers rating the risk that the travelers are terrorists or criminals. Virtually every person entering and leaving the United States by air, sea or land is scored by the Homeland Security Department's Automated Targeting System, or ATS. The scores are based on ATS' analysis of their travel records and other data, including items such as where they are from, how they paid for tickets, their motor vehicle records, past one-way travel, seating preference and what kind of meal they ordered. EFF: It's probably the most invasive system the government has yet deployed in terms of the number of people affected.