“The Guardian” on The Daily Caller

The Guardian issued a retraction on Monday of its explosive July 4, 2011 claim that News of the World hackers were responsible for the deletion of messages from a young murder victim’s cell phone. (more)

LONDON — A report published by a British magazine on Tuesday said the WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, suggested that British journalists, including the editor of The Guardian, were engaged in a Jewish-led conspiracy to smear his organization. (more)

On Monday, The Guardian published “WIKILEAKS: Inside Julian Assange’s War on Secrecy.” (more)

1.) Will newly elected governors put on a better show than House Republicans? — We are all fiscal conservatives now; at least at the state level. According to the New York Times, the majority of newly elected governors have said they will redeem their states’ economies in a similar manner: “Slash spending. Avoid tax increases. Tear up regulations that might drive away business and jobs. Shrink government, even if that means tackling the thorny issues of public employees and their pensions.” Scott D. Pattison at the National Association of State Budget Officers told the Times that the rhetoric is so consistent, “[Y]ou can’t tell if it’s a Republican or Democrat, a conservative or a liberal.” There are exceptions to this new rule: In order to get at the vast wealth of his few remaining rich residents, incoming Illinois Gov. Patrick J. Quinn signed into law a 66% income tax increase. (more)

According to a scientist at the University of Texas, a person’s first kiss is likely to be one of their most vivid memories, The Guardian reports. (more)

From the Independent, March 20th, 2000: (more)

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 10: Kicking off a spectacular week of sensitivity toward women’s issues, tonight Olbermann giddily crowed over the fact that two BBC reporters mispronounced “Secretary of Culture Hunt.” Then he told a story about the time that he himself made a pronunciation error in reporting on air about a “quail hunt.” GET IT? He repeated it several times in case you didn’t, almost bouncing out of his chair with excitement over the cleverness and hilarity of it all. (more)

Britain is now more Thatcherite than when Margaret Thatcher was in power, with people much less supportive of the welfare state and the redistribution of wealth than in the 1980s, according to an authoritative study of the country’s mood. (more)

In January 2008 we wrote EU and Iran: No Chance for Sanctions to Work. Eight months later we made the case for The Coming War with Iran in view of Teheran’s ideologically-driven intransigence over its nuclear program. In the latter, we not only asserted that military action was almost inevitable if Teheran refuses — as it obviously has — to play diplomatic ball, but that an Israeli-US strike would not only not lead to an ensuing “conflagration across the Middle East” as “experts” repeatedly tout, but it would be actively welcomed by Iran’s regional neighbors. (more)

Although this week’s “ministerial” meetings have yet to play out at the Cancun talks seeking a possible successor to the Kyoto Protocol expiring at the end of 2012, several things are already clear. The most important are these: (more)

Hillary Clinton expressed her regret to the UK today for disparaging remarks made about British politicians and troops in secret US diplomatic cables revealed by the whistleblowing website WikiLeaks. (more)

It is, quite simply, the classic plot of every fish-out-of-water film, hitting all of the cliches along the way with the enthusiasm of a 1980s comedy: the unlikely outsider arrives in New York, after some initial translation difficulties the city falls gleefully in love with this eccentric newcomer, he then accomplishes some incredible feat, the city cheers, cue end credits, over a rendition of – in this particular case – Elvis. (more)

Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin recently released a collection of photos “to preserve his image as a man of deeds in case he returns to the presidency in 2012,” The Guardian reports. Rather than accomplish this, however, the glamor shots make Putin look like he’s posing for L.L Bean’s fall catalog. (more)

It’s easy to get into a policy discussion about rationing late-stage cancer drugs without considering the practical effects rationing could have on cancer patients. But by reading the British press, you can get a sense of the pain, anguish, anxiety and helplessness patients under a government-run health care system feel when a life-extending drug is yanked from their hands. (more)

The North Korean leader’s youngest son Kim Jong-un has been appointed as a general, state media announced tonight, in the clearest signal yet that he is Kim Jong-il’s chosen heir. (more)

The enduring mystery of why men rarely flatter themselves when they take to the dancefloor may finally have been solved. (more)

Tariq Aziz is slumped on a tattered brown sofa seat cradling his walking stick and cigarettes, his gaunt face topped, incongruously for a practising Christian, by a Muslim prayer cap. It is perhaps only the familiar black-ringed spectacles that signal to the visitor that this was Iraq’s former face to the world – Saddam Hussein’s right-hand man, his most powerful deputy. (more)

The release of thousands of classified documents by WikiLeaks is an act of political warfare against the United States.  It was a publicity stunt to promote the organization’s leader, but also an attempt by non-US citizens to manipulate American perceptions of our soldiers’ actions and political leaders’ policies.  Luckily the American public WikiLeaks intended to demoralize is savvy enough not to be thrown off balance by classified reports confirming the difficult factors of the current war.  They also understand that some information must be restricted: our enemies do not operate from an open playbook and neither should the U.S.  However, the leak will result in serious damage to national security and is yet another crisis in which the Obama administration has been caught utterly unprepared for the dangerous world we confront and the malefactors throughout.  To prevent further damage, the WikiLeaks web site should be shut down—via cyberwarfare if necessary. (more)

Documents released today by WikiLeaks have cast fresh doubts on the United States’ ability to win the War in Afghanistan. The documents, believed to be have been released at least in part by Pfc. Bradley Manning of Potomac, Md., according to Fox. Despite avoiding naming Manning as its source explicitly, WikiLeaks has offered to help fund his defense. Adrian Lamo, a former hacker who Manning allegedly attempted to enlist in the publication of the documents before turning to WikiLeaks, said this morning on Good Morning America that he believes Manning is the source, but that the computer analyst lacked the technical knowledge to have acted alone. (more)

Talked about on numerous blogs and websites, covered by the New York Times, attacked by The Daily Show and attracting upwards of 38m global page views a month, the women’s website Jezebel has clearly come of age. (more)