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.
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.
Porter Goss / New York Times:
Loose Lips Sink Spies — AT the Central Intelligence Agency, we are more than holding our own in the global war on terrorism, but we are at risk of losing a key battle: the battle to protect our classified information. — Judge Laurence Silberman, a chairman of President Bush's commission …
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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 …
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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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.
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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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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Toni Locy / Associated Press:
Libby Says Leaks Authorized, Papers Show — WASHINGTON - A former top aide to Vice President Dick Cheney told a federal grand jury that his superiors authorized him to give secret information to reporters as part of the Bush administration's defense of intelligence used to justify invading Iraq, according to court papers.
Discussion:
NewsHog, JustOneMinute, Washington Post, truthout.org, Power Line, Transterrestrial Musings, Prairie Weather and Birmingham Blues
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Juan / Informed Comment:Cheney Authorized Libby to Disclose Classified Documents
Discussion:
firedoglake
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.
Telegraph:
An experiment? (1) — Another experiment today, this time an exercise in transparency. One reason the blogosphere fascinates me, as someone who makes a living from the mainstream media, is because it so clearly shows the long, pent-up resentment of so many readers at the unequal distribution of power …
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 …
India / White House:
Press Briefing by Scott McClellan — MR. McCLELLAN: Good afternoon, everyone. I've got a couple of announcements to make, and then some brief remarks, and then I'll be glad to go to your questions. — First of all, I have a statement from the President. "Claude Allen has been a trusted adviser since 2001.
Jennifer Loven / Associated Press:
Update 19: Bush Reveals Rationale Behind Surveillance — President Bush defended his warrantless eavesdropping program Friday, saying during what he thought were private remarks that he concluded that spying on Americans was necessary to fill a gap in the United States' security.
Andrew Sullivan / The Daily Dish:
Blackmail — So now we see where this is leading. The head of Hezbollah, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, … And he essentially made a threat: … People keep talking about avoiding conflict. They are in denial. The conflict is already here. It is outrageous to be informed by a crowd …
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.
