Reading Recommendations: 2006-12-31

This list ought to indicate how sincere I am when I wish us all a happier new year.

• Notes from Iraq and Christmas in Iraq

  Two emails from a soldier on duty in Iraq to Tom Tomorrow. Note, in particular, the soldier's description of the on-base Internet filtering.
  
  

• The Bill of Wrongs: The 10 most outrageous civil liberties violations of 2006

  It's sometimes hard to remember all of the specific instances of the Bush administration defecating on the Constitution. Dahlia Lithwick, Slate's legal correspondent, provides a good summary of the most egregious acts, in what ought to serve as the new Congress's New Year's resolutions.
  
  

• The Top Ten Stories You Missed in 2006

  There are probably a few of these around, but this list from Foreign Policy is well worth your time. I knew about number 10, and mentioned it a while ago, and I'd heard about it a few of the others. I didn't know about all of them, though. Number 7 is a piece of good news that I missed.
  
  Thanks to Eat The Press for the link.
  
  

• Does Iraq need more debate?

  Martin Kaplan, back on the 19th, in the LA Times. This is not just another yada-yada Iraq-is-a-mess column. As my referent points out, it's a call to arms. Holding pencils, I mean.