Top Items:
Pam Easton / Associated Press:
Rita, Now Category 4, Heads for Gulf Coast — GALVESTON, Texas - Residents of this island city packed up mementoes and pets and started evacuating Wednesday as Hurricane Rita intensified into a Category 4 storm with 135 mph winds and threatened to devastate the Texas coast or already-battered Louisiana by week's end.
Discussion:
StormTrack, NewsHog, The Moderate Voice, A Blog For All, media girl (mediagirl.org) and PunditGuy
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Smash / The Indepundit:
Uh-Oh — HURRICANE RITA is now a category four storm, with winds in excess of 140 mph. This is roughly the same strength as Katrina when she made landfall. Most projected tracks have Rita making landfall somewhere west of Galveston, Texas on Saturday morning — but that is subject to change, as we all know.
Associated Press:
Evacuation orders again — Mayor Ray Nagin estimated that 400 to 500 residents were left in the city. The city plans to start to re-enforce the evacuation order Wednesday, he said. He did not give specifics on how the order will be enforced. — To people who refuse to leave, Nagin had this message: "We're all adults.
mars.jpl.nasa.gov:
Orbiter's Long Life Helps Scientists Track Changes on Mars — New gullies that did not exist in mid-2002 have appeared on a Martian sand dune. — That's just one of the surprising discoveries that have resulted from the extended life of NASA's Mars Global Surveyor, which this month began its ninth year in orbit around Mars.
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Captain Ed / Captain's Quarters:
Able Danger: Pentagon Spikes Witnesses While Shaffer Reveals New Source — The New York Times reports this evening that the Pentagon has blocked its military witnesses from testifying on Able Danger at the Senate Judiciary Committee hearings tomorrow. Senator Arlen Specter registered …
Discussion:
The Strata-Sphere, Dr. Sanity, The Anchoress, tapscottscopydesk.blogspot.com, Michelle Malkin and The Common Room
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Andy McCarthy / The Corner on National Review Online:WHY IS THE PENTAGON BARRING ITS WITNESSES FROM TESTIFYING ABOUT ABLE DANGER?
Discussion:
Power Line
Jonathan M. Katz / Associated Press:
Senator Sold Stock Before Price Dropped — Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, a potential presidential candidate in 2008, sold all his stock in his family's hospital corporation about two weeks before it issued a disappointing earnings report and the price fell nearly 15 percent.
Discussion:
AMERICAblog, David Corn, Big Brass Blog, The Carpetbagger Report, First Draft and Prometheus 6
Washington Post:
Katrina's Cost May Test GOP Harmony — Some Want Bush To Give Details on How U.S. Will Pay — Congressional Republicans from across the ideological spectrum yesterday rejected the White House's open-wallet approach to rebuilding the Gulf Coast, a sign that the lockstep GOP discipline …
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Washington Post:
Words That Will Haunt — IN ANNOUNCING his opposition yesterday to the nomination of Judge John G. Roberts Jr. to be chief justice of the United States, Senate Minority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) made a remarkable statement: "The president is not entitled to very much deference in staffing …
Discussion:
The Sideshow, QandO, neo-neocon, The Liquid List, Balloon Juice, Captain's Quarters, Roger L. Simon and Don Surber
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theonion.com:
Bush Braces As Cindy Sheehan's Other Son Drowns In New Orleans — Issue 41 •38 — WASHINGTON, DC—According to White House sources, President Bush is bracing for intensified criticism following Monday's report that the body of Tyler Sheehan, son of outspoken anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan …
Discussion:
Ace of Spades HQ
Washington Post:
Experts Say Faulty Levees Caused Much of Flooding — NEW ORLEANS, Sept. 20 — Louisiana's top hurricane experts have rejected the official explanations for the floodwall collapses that inundated much of New Orleans, concluding that Hurricane Katrina's storm surges were much smaller …
Will Collier / Vodkapundit:
"You Are Stuck On Stupid" — If you haven't seen it already, check out this transcript of General Honore's press conference in New Orleans. Better yet, click through and listen to the audio, it's even better. Duane's commentary at Radioblogger (just below the transcript) is spot-on, too.
RELATED ITEM:
Ian / The Political Teen:General Honore: "You are stuck on stupid" (VIDEO)
Discussion:
Patterico's Pontifications, Political Satire Fake News, SoCalPundit, PoliPundit.com, Ace of Spades HQ, bRight & Early, Power Line, Iowa Voice, Wizbang, Secular Blasphemy, WILLisms.com, Blogs for Bush, reasoned audacity …, Exit Zero, The Anchoress, Conservative Thinking and Ex-Donkey Blog
Glenn Harlan Reynolds / Tech Central Station:
Is This the Right Way to Return to the Moon? — President George W. Bush has called for Americans to return to the moon by 2020. Now NASA has come out with a more detailed presentation, reported in Space.com, of what they have in mind: — NASA briefed senior White House officials Wednesday …
Discussion:
The Daily Brief
LiberalOasis:
Chief Justice Roberts: What Went Wrong — Sen. Min. Leader Harry Reid put the nail in the coffin of the already limp Roberts opposition yesterday. — He announced his personal opposition to Roberts, but it was empty posturing to keep the base in check. — He also announced that the nomination …
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Nico / Think Progress:
The School Safavian and Abramoff Built — The FBI complaint filed against David Safavian yesterday accuses him of lying to ethics officers at the General Services Administration, where he served as chief of staff. Safavian informed the officials that Jack Abramoff, who had invited Safavian …
RELATED ITEM:
Mike Disharoon / The Stakeholder:The Stakeout: David Safavian Special Edition
Discussion:
TAPPED, The Carpetbagger Report, The Hotline's Blogometer, Sisyphus Shrugged and The Project …
Joseph R. Chenelly / Army Times:
GEDs no longer required — Army recruiters now have a wider pool to find future soldiers in. The Army is reaching out to a slice of America's youth long ineligible to serve: non-high school graduates who don't have a General Equivalency Diploma — Recruiters can now go after that demographic through …
John Tierney / Tallahassee Democrat:
Let Wal-Mart take over emergency management — SLIDELL, La. - I don't think Washington needs any more czars. But if President Bush feels compelled to put someone in charge of rebuilding the Gulf Coast, let me suggest a name: Lee Scott. — Scott is the chief executive of Wal-Mart …
Chris Cillizza / Washington Post:
2008 Starts Cruise to Warmer Waters — The world of 2008 presidential politics is like a glacier: Much more is going on below the surface than above it. — Take, for example, a trip last week by 50 members of the Greenville and Spartanburg chambers of commerce to Capitol Hill organized by Rep. Bob Inglis (R-S.C.).
