Top Items:
Insight:
Rove counting heads on the Senate Judiciary Committee — The White House has been twisting arms to ensure that no Republican member votes against President Bush in the Senate Judiciary Committee's investigation of the administration's unauthorized wiretapping.
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Charles Babington / Washington Post:
Activists on Right, GOP Lawmakers Divided on Spying — Despite President Bush's warnings that public challenges to his domestic surveillance program could help terrorists, congressional Republicans and conservative activists are split on the issue and are showing no signs of reconciling soon.
Adam Liptak / New York Times:
In Limelight at Wiretap Hearing: 2 Laws, but Which Should Rule? — It is the sort of problem that judges confront every day. One law forbids a certain activity. The other may allow it. Which one counts? — Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales made the case to the Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday …
Julie Bosman / New York Times:
Protesters at Philadelphia Paper Ask It to Apologize for Cartoon — The Philadelphia Inquirer became the first major American newspaper to publish any of the caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad on Saturday, prompting a small protest outside the newspaper's offices yesterday morning.
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Guardian:
Danish paper rejected Jesus cartoons — Gwladys Fouché — Jyllands-Posten, the Danish newspaper that first published the cartoons of the prophet Muhammad that have caused a storm of protest throughout the Islamic world, refused to run drawings lampooning Jesus Christ, it has emerged today.
Michelle Malkin:
AMERICAN NEWSPAPERS, WILL YOU PLEASE STAND UP? — Kudos to the Philadelphia Inquirer for braving the forces of political correctness, foreign and domestic, and publishing one of the forbidden Muhammad cartoons. The point that needs to be hammered again and again is that the newspaper …
New York Times:
Those Danish Cartoons — Cartoons making fun of the Prophet Muhammad that were published in a Danish newspaper last September are suddenly one of the hottest issues in international politics. Muslims in Europe and across the Middle East have been holding protests with growing levels of violence and now loss of life.
Discussion:
The American Thinker
Chicago Tribune:
Text of the letter from Sen. McCain to Sen. Obama — WASHINGTON — Following is the text of the letter from U.S. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) to U.S. Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), as released by McCain's press secretary, Andrea Jones: — The Honorable Barack Obama — United States Senate — SH-713
Discussion:
The Washington Note, WuzzaDem, Pundit Review, The RCP Blog, bRight & Early, Two Babes and a Brain, RedState and MyDD
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Associated Press:
Protests Against Cartoon Flare in Afghanistan — KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — NATO peacekeepers exchanged fire with protesters who attacked their base Tuesday in the second straight day of violent demonstrations in Afghanistan over the publication of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad, Afghan officials said.
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Jonathan Weisman / Washington Post:
Budget Plan Assumes Too Much, Demands Too Little — President Bush's budget blueprint would bring the federal government's budget deficit under control by decade's end. But to do that without raising taxes, the White House would need a sweeping tax reform that it has avoided proposing and a swift end to the war in Iraq.
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Robin Toner / New York Times:
Holding Fast to a Policy of Tax Cutting — WASHINGTON, Feb. 6 — George W. Bush ran for office as a "compassionate conservative," arguing that Americans did not have to choose between huge tax cuts and a government that would do its part to address social needs like education and health care.
Discussion:
The Next Hurrah, Democratic Veteran, skippy the bush kangaroo and The Carpetbagger Report
Thomas Kleine-Brockhoff / Washington Post:
Tolerance Toward Intolerance — Last week the publication I work for, the German newsweekly Die Zeit, printed one of the controversial caricatures of the prophet Muhammad. It was the right thing to do. — When the cartoons were first published in Denmark in September, nobody in Germany took notice.
Discussion:
New Sisyphus, Blinq, INDC Journal, TKS on National Review Online, AmSpec Blog, Balloon Juice, Hit and Run and USS Neverdock
rawstory.com:
Reporter hits McClellan on taps: 'You know what happened to Nixon when he broke the law' — RAW STORY — White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan got in a heated row with a White House correspondent at Monday's press briefing over President Bush's warrantless domestic spying program, RAW STORY has learned.
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John Amato / Crooks and Liars:
Alberto: George Washington loves electronics too — Monday Funnies — Sometimes you just hit the jackpot. — Video-WMP Video-QT (hat tip Intoxination) — Alberto: President Washington, President Lincoln, President Wilson, President Roosevelt have all authorized electronic surveillance on a far broader scale.
Associated Press:
Duo hogs top prize in pig-squealing contest — Father-son team oinks way to victory in French cult competition — TRIE-SUR-BAISE, France - Yohann and Olivier Roussel's performance climaxed in a cacophony of oinks and grunts, unleashing an explosion of applause.
Discussion:
PoliPundit.com
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NEWS.com.au:
Iran to publish Holocaust cartoons — IRAN'S largest selling newspaper announced today it was holding a contest on cartoons of the Holocaust in response to the publishing in European papers of caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed. — "It will be an international cartoon contest about the Holocaust …
John Dickerson / Slate:
Where's My Subpoena? — Valerie Plame, Scooter Libby, and me. — In Washington, the only thing worse than having to testify before a grand jury is not being asked to. I never wanted to go to prison or make hard choices about protecting my sources, but I thought I'd get more out of my bit part …
Discussion:
The Plame Page
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CNN:
London protest: Calls for arrests — Signs calling for death denounced as 'disgraceful' — LONDON, England — London police were under pressure to arrest Muslim protesters who carried signs threatening death and terrorist attacks at a demonstration over cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed.
Eli Lake / New York Sun:
Congress's Secret Saddam Tapes — The House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence is studying 12 hours of audio recordings between Saddam Hussein and his top advisers that may provide clues to the whereabouts of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. — The committee has already confirmed through …
Carl Bialik / Wall Street Journal:
Sometimes in Polling, It's All in the Question — What does the public think about the Bush administration's wiretapping program? — It depends on how you ask the question. — A half dozen polls on the issue have turned up different conclusions, and a key distinction appears …
