Top Items:
CNN:
Brown says he's been made Katrina scapegoat — Ex-FEMA chief blames Homeland Security for slow response — WASHINGTON (CNN) — Former Federal Emergency Management Agency Director Michael Brown told a Senate panel Friday that he feels he's been made a scapegoat for the government's sluggish response to Hurricane Katrina.
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Daniela Deane / Washington Post:
Former FEMA Chief Blames DHS — Michael Brown, the embattled former head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, testified before a Senate committee today that he told a top White House official on the day Hurricane Katrina struck that "our worst nightmares" had come true in New Orleans.
Joe Gandelman / The Moderate Voice:
White House Faces Renewed Credibility Problems On Katrina — A new storm is gathering. Right now it looks like a tropical storm...a political tropical storm...but it has the potential of morphing into a full-fledged political hurricane. — The White House house is facing renewed questions …
New York Times:
Brown Asserts He Alerted White House Quickly on Katrina — Michael D. Brown, former director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, testified today that he let senior White House staffers know as soon as he had heard that flooding had begun in New Orleans on the day Hurricane Katrina made landfall.
Lara Jakes Jordan / Associated Press:Documents: White House Knew About Levees
Discussion:
MyDD, KnoxViews, AGITPROP, Just a Bump in the Beltway, The Democratic Party and Think Progress
Stephen Brook / Guardian:
Political magazine pulls cartoon after police warning — Politics magazine the Liberal has followed the Spectator in publishing then hastily withdrawing from its website one of the controversial Danish cartoons featuring the prophet Muhammad. — The independent title …
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BBC:
Sweden shuts website over cartoon — The Swedish government has moved to shut down the website of a far-right political party's newspaper over cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad. — The site's host, Levonline, pulled the plug on the website of the Swedish Democrats' SD-Kuriren newspaper after consulting with the government.
David Stout / New York Times:
Bush Offers Details of 2002 Plot in Defense of Terror Strategy — WASHINGTON, Feb. 9 — President Bush defended his anti-terrorist policies anew today, asserting that the United States and its allies had foiled a terrorist plot meant to bring down a Los Angeles building that is the tallest …
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Charles Krauthammer / Washington Post:
Curse of the Moderates — As much of the Islamic world erupts in a studied frenzy over the Danish Muhammad cartoons, there are voices of reason being heard on both sides. Some Islamic leaders and organizations, while endorsing the demonstrators' sense of grievance and sharing their outrage …
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Washington Post:
Steele Apologizes for Holocaust Remarks — Compared Stem Cell Research to Nazi Medical Experiments — Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele apologized this morning for telling a Baltimore Jewish group yesterday that he believes stem cell research could be comparable to Nazi medical testing on Jews during World War II.
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Jennifer Skalka / Baltimore Sun:
Steele's words at meeting faulted … Discussing his position on embryonic stem cell research with Baltimore Jewish leaders yesterday, Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele said he is "concerned about the destruction of human life" and made a comparison between the controversial science and experiments done on Jews during the Holocaust.
Paul R. Pillar / Foreign Affairs:
Intelligence, Policy,and the War in Iraq — Summary: During the run-up to the invasion of Iraq, writes the intelligence community's former senior analyst for the Middle East, the Bush administration disregarded the community's expertise, politicized the intelligence process …
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Jim VandeHei / Washington Post:
Cheney Says NSA Spying Should Be an Election Issue — Vice President Cheney suggested last night that the debate over spying on overseas communications to or from terrorism suspects should be a political issue in this year's congressional elections. — Speaking to Republicans gathered …
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Sen. Evan Bayh / The Huffington Post:
A Tough And Smart National Security Strategy — Two weeks ago, Karl Rove - the President's deputy chief of staff and the architect of recent Republican election victories - told the Republican National Committee that the 2006 elections should be a referendum on who can best secure the country in the post 9-11 world.
Anthony Loyd / Times of London:
Murder of sheikh provokes Sunnis to turn on al-Qaeda — Ramadi, stronghold of the insurgents, has turned against al-Zarqawi — REGARDED as untouchable by the Sunni populace, Sheikh Naser Abdul Karim al-Miklif believed that he had no need for bodyguards. — Leader of the huge al-Bu Fahad tribe …
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The Hill:
Small typo, big headache — A typo in the budget-reconciliation bill may give congressional Democrats another shot at making political hay out of the $39 billion deficit-reduction measure President Bush signed yesterday. — Democratic leaders could block an attempt by Republicans to correct …
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tcsdaily.com:
Stop Worrying About the Trade Deficit — America's trade deficit — in December reaching a near-record $64.7 billion — is unfortunate, right? — Wrong. Contrary to popular opinion, this so-called "deficit" is a blessing. — Consider that if Americans export lumber, sheetrock …
Antonio Regalado / Wall Street Journal:
Academy to Referee Climate-Change Fight — Scientists' Group Agrees — To Congressional Request to Study — Temperature-History Charting — Seeking to resolve a scientific dispute that has taken on a rancorous political edge, the National Academy of Sciences said it had agreed …
Joseph Carroll / Gallup:
Bush Approval Steady at 42% — Approval ratings show essentially no change since late November 2005 — PRINCETON, NJ — President George W. Bush's State of the Union address on Jan. 31 did little to move his overall job approval rating, according to a new Gallup Poll.
Discussion:
The Carpetbagger Report
Atlas Shrugs:
THE MOHAMMAD CARTOON TEE SHRT BROUHAHAHA — It's funny, when I saw this tee shirt on metro spy earlier in the week, I ordered it immediately. Little did I know that it too would create a brouhaha (love that word). I even used it as a graphic in a prior post here.
Alexander Bolton / The Hill:
Two Dems seek money for elections — Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin and Sen. Chris Dodd, the ranking Democrat on the Rules Committee, said yesterday that they will push for public financing of federal elections. — The revelations follow public financing proposals that two senior House Democrats unveiled late last month.
