Top Items:
National Review:
Shameful Attacks — In the course of a free-wheeling conversation so common on talk-format programs, Bill Bennett made a minor point that was statistically and logically unassailable, but that touched a third rail — namely, the nexus between race and crime — within the highly charged context of abortion policy.
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Brad DeLong / Brad DeLong's Semi-Daily Journal:
In Defense of Bill Bennett — Bill Bennett is a hypocrite, a loathsome fungus on the tree of American politics, a man who has worked unceasingly to make America a worse place—when he's not publishing the work of others under his own name, or rolling the dice at Las Vegas while claiming …
Discussion:
www.AndrewSullivan.com, Daily Kos, blackprof.com, The Corner on National … and Crooks and Liars
Nick Schulz / Tech Central Station:
Bill Bennett's Reality-Based Defenders — Former Drug Czar and Secretary of Education Bill Bennett's comments over skin color, crime and abortion have lots of folks howling, from Nancy Pelosi to Howard Dean to the NAACP to Ted Kennedy to the White House (go figure). What prompted this bipartisan outrage?
Steven D. Levitt / Freakonomics:
Bill Bennett and Freakonomics — Bill Bennett and I have a fair amount in common. We've both written about crime (his "superpredator" theory gets a quick discussion in Freakonomics), we have both thought a lot about illegal drugs and education (he was the original "drug czar" …
Garance Franke-Ruta / TAPPED:
OUTRAGE VERSUS CLEVERNESS. One of the reasons the left has such a difficult time moving public opinion is that, all too often, it reacts with cleverness to situations where outrage would be a more appropriate response. Bill Bennett yesterday offered left bloggers a golden opportunity to make political hay, and what do we have?
Discussion:
The Sideshow
The Nation:
A CIA-Did-It Defense for Scooter in the Plame Leak Case? — When you already have a fall guy, use him—especially if he's a dead man. — Could that be the legal strategy of I. Lewis Libby (a.k.a. Scooter), Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, in the Plame/CIA leak case?
Discussion:
JustOneMinute, Making Light, The American Street, Needlenose, Hullabaloo and War and Piece
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Dan Froomkin / Washington Post:
Miller's Big Secret — Can it be? That after all that, New York Times reporter Judith Miller sat in jail for 12 weeks to protect the confidentiality of a very senior White House aide — even though the aide repeatedly made it clear he didn't want protecting?
Discussion:
The Moderate Voice, The Next Hurrah, mediabistro, The Sideshow, Roger Ailes, Media Nation and BuzzMachine
Hindrocket / Power Line:
SO WHO'S SHE PROTECTING? — New York Times reporter Judith Miller has finally been released from jail, after agreeing to testify to what everyone already knew, i.e., that she discussed Valerie Plame with Scooter Libby, Dick Cheney's chief of staff. I wrote about this last night …
Washington Post:
N.Y. Times Reporter Testifies in CIA Leak Case — Miller Says Source Released Her From Pledge of Confidentiality — New York Times reporter Judith Miller testified today before a federal grand jury investigating the leak of a covert CIA agent's identity and said afterward she agreed to end …
Janet Elliott / Houston Chronicle:
Others deny DeLay didn't get chance to tell his side — AUSTIN - The day after U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay's grand jury indictment, his lawyer and the jury foreman on Thursday appeared to contradict the Texas politician's assertions that he was not given a chance to speak before the jury.
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Hermelinda Vargas / news8austin.com:
Grand jury foreman defends DeLay indictment — The 12-member grand jury that indicted U.S. Rep. Tom Delay, R-Sugar Land, faces scrutiny from critics who say they are lackeys for Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle. — Foreman William Gibson lives in a Northeast Austin neighborhood.
Aoife White / Associated Press:
EU Wants Shared Control of Internet — The European Union insisted Friday that governments and the private sector must share the responsibility of overseeing the Internet, setting the stage for a showdown with the United States on the future of Internet governance.
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Matt Margolis / Blogs for Bush:
With Love, From Air America — An alert B4B reader and blogger, Jeff, alerted us last night that Mark Noonan's piece Do the Democrats Want a Civil War? caught the attention of Air America host Mike Malloy. Jeff told Mark that Malloy "recommended that his listeners physically assault you several times.
Martha Neil / abanet.org:
HALF OF U.S. SEES 'JUDICIAL ACTIVISM CRISIS' — ABA Journal Survey Results Surprise Some Legal Experts — More than half of Americans are angry and disappointed with the nation's judiciary, a new survey done for the ABA Journal eReport shows. — A majority of the survey respondents agreed …
Discussion:
irishpennants.com
Rachel Zoll / Associated Press:
Jesuit Official Rips Expected Ban on Gays — NEW YORK - A top Jesuit official is raising objections about an upcoming Vatican document that's expected to reinforce Roman Catholic teaching that gays are not welcome in the priesthood, while some U.S. leaders of men's religious orders are considering …
