Top Items:
Charles Babington / Washington Post:
Congressional Probe of NSA Spying Is in Doubt — Congress appeared ready to launch an investigation into the Bush administration's warrantless domestic surveillance program last week, but an all-out White House lobbying campaign has dramatically slowed the effort and may kill it, key Republican and Democratic sources said yesterday.
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David Ignatius / Washington Post:
An Arrogance of Power — There is a temptation that seeps into the souls of even the most righteous politicians and leads them to bend the rules, and eventually the truth, to suit the political needs of the moment. That arrogance of power is on display with the Bush administration.
Discussion:
Donklephant, The Jawa Report v3.0 Beta, Dohiyi Mir, Super Fun Power Hour, Greg's Opinion and Middle Earth Journal
Washington Post:
Cheney's Response A Concern In GOP — Vice President Cheney's slow and unapologetic public response to the accidental shooting of a 78-year-old Texas lawyer is turning the quail-hunting mishap into a political liability for the Bush administration and is prompting senior White House officials …
David E. Sanger / New York Times:
Handling of Accident Creates Tension Between White House Staffs — WASHINGTON, Feb. 14 — When the White House press secretary, Scott McClellan, came to the press room just before 10 a.m. Tuesday and suggested he was wearing an orange tie to avoid a stray shot from Vice President Dick Cheney …
Craig Gordon / Newsday:
Cheney's shot gives critics ammo — WASHINGTON — He had a father-knows-best quality beside a relatively green White House hopeful, the strong-but-silent political type George W. Bush picked to help reassure voters he was up to the job. — In Vice President Dick Cheney …
Kevin Sites / Agence France Presse:
Democrats blast Cheney secrecy after shooting — WASHINGTON (AFP) - Democrats in Congress accused Vice President Dick Cheney of a pattern of secrecy, and demanded that he "level" with the public, after keeping mum about accidentally shooting an associate over the weekend.
Hugh Hewitt:
The MSM Campaign Against Cheney — Headlines: — Los Angeles Times: Hunter Suffers Setback as Criticism of Cheney Grows — The Washington Post: Cheney's Response A Concern In GOP — The New York Times: Handling of Mishap Creates Strain in the White House — The Boston Globe: Hunter shot by Cheney has a heart attack
Joe Strupp / Editor and Publisher:Ari Fleischer Joins Criticism Of Cheney's Response to Shooting
Discussion:
Taegan Goddard's …
Reuters:
New pictures from Abu Ghraib surface — *** VIEWER DISCRETION ADVISED - GRAPHIC IMAGES *** — Feb. 15 - Australian network SBS broadcasts images of alleged abuse of what it says are prisoners at Abu Ghraib in Iraq. — Previously unpublished images of abuse of Iraqi prisoners …
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Lawrence K. Altman / New York Times:
Account of Doctors Raises Questions on Heart Injury — The account given yesterday by doctors caring for the Texas lawyer accidentally shot by Vice President Dick Cheney last weekend raises serious questions about how and when a pellet entered his heart and what tests were done to establish …
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Michael J. Totten:
The Dream City of the Kurds — ERBIL, IRAQ - Kurdistan is a place of the mind. It doesn't exist on any maps unless the maps are made by the Kurds. Southern Kurdistan is known to the rest of the world as Northern Iraq. Northern Kurdistan is described as Eastern Turkey.
Discussion:
Captain's Quarters
Washington Post:
325,000 Names on Terrorism List — Rights Groups Say Database May Include Innocent People — The National Counterterrorism Center maintains a central repository of 325,000 names of international terrorism suspects or people who allegedly aid them, a number that has more than quadrupled since …
Discussion:
Left I on the News, Amygdala, The Heretik, Air America Radio and Just a Bump in the Beltway
Carlotta Gall / New York Times:
Afghan Suicide Bombings, Tied to Taliban, Point to Pakistan — KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, Feb. 12 — Arrests and interrogations of suspects in a recent series of suicide bombings in Afghanistan show that the attacks have been orchestrated from Pakistan by members of the ousted Taliban government …
Michelle Malkin:
THE ISLAMISTS' WAR ON THE INTERNET — Last Tuesday, during or immediately after my appearance on Fox News Channel to discuss the Mohammed Cartoons, this blog was hit by a large, foreign-based denial of service attack. Last night, my hosting service notified me that it is receiving ongoing threats …
Tom Zeller Jr / New York Times:
Online Firms Facing Questions About Censoring Internet Searches in China — For Internet companies doing business in China, a piece of a booming market has not come without compromises. — A series of episodes showing that the companies were bending to the restrictive demands of Beijing …
Jonathan Ewing / Associated Press:
Scalia Dismisses 'Living Constitution' — PONCE, Puerto Rico - People who believe the Constitution would break if it didn't change with society are "idiots," U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia says. — In a speech Monday sponsored by the conservative Federalist Society …
Matt Stoller / MyDD:
Mike Turk, Mike Krempasky, and GOP.com — After the Hotline blog picked up my post about the GOP.com and the conflicts they are having with their netroots, both Mike Turk and Mike Krempasky went after me fairly aggressively. Turk, the former eCampaign Director of Bush-Cheney '04 and the RNC …
Jose Lambiet / Palm Beach Post:
Ballot botch: Coulter votes in wrong precinct — She may be smart enough to earn millions from her acidic political barbs, but when it comes to something as simple as voting in her tiny hometown, hard-core conservative pundit Ann Coulter is a tad confused. — Palm Beach County Supervisor …
Gallup:
Bush Approval at 39% — Smoothed estimates put Bush's approval at 41% — PRINCETON, NJ — A new CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll, conducted Feb. 9-12, puts President George W. Bush's job approval rating at 39%. This marks a slight, three-point drop in Bush's approval rating compared to Gallup's Feb. 6-9 …
Daniel Finkelstein / Times of London:
How I woke up to a nightmare plot to steal centuries of law and liberty — THE POINT IS, I don't want to seem like a nutter. It's a very common human emotion, that — not wanting to stand out for thinking something hardly anyone else thinks. Best keep your head down and say nothing.
David S. Cloud / New York Times:
Quick Rise for Purveyors of Propaganda in Iraq — WASHINGTON, Feb. 14 — Two years ago, Christian Bailey and Paige Craig were living in a half-renovated Washington group house, with a string of failed startup companies behind them. — Mr. Bailey, a boyish-looking Briton, and Mr. Craig …
Discussion:
CorrenteWire
Charles Lane / Washington Post:
Alito Hires as a Clerk Former Ashcroft Aide — Lawyer Played Key Role at Justice Dept. — Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. has hired one of the architects of then-Attorney General John D. Ashcroft's policies to serve as his law clerk at the Supreme Court for the rest of the current term, the court announced yesterday.
