Top Items:
New York Times:
Doing the President's Dirty Work — Is there any aspect of President Bush's miserable record on intelligence that Senator Pat Roberts, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, is not willing to excuse and help to cover up? — For more than a year, Mr. Roberts has been dragging …
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New York Times:
Accord in House to Hold Inquiry on Surveillance — WASHINGTON, Feb. 16 — Leaders of the House Intelligence Committee said Thursday that they had agreed to open a Congressional inquiry prompted by the Bush administration's domestic surveillance program. But a dispute immediately broke …
Discussion:
The Carpetbagger Report, Amygdala, Althouse, AMERICAblog, Decision '08 and State of the Day
Washington Post:
Senate Rejects Wiretapping Probe — But Judge Orders Justice Department to Turn Over Documents — The Bush administration helped derail a Senate bid to investigate a warrantless eavesdropping program yesterday after signaling it would reject Congress's request to have former attorney …
David Stout / New York Times:
Senate Panel Decides Against Eavesdropping Inquiry, for Now — WASHINGTON, Feb. 16 — The Senate Intelligence Committee decided today not to investigate President Bush's domestic surveillance program, at least for the time being. — "I believe that such an investigation is currently unwarranted …
Discussion:
The Mahablog, Macsmind, The Huffington Post, The Sideshow, Mark in Mexico, Democratic Veteran, TalkLeft and Decision '08
Glenn Greenwald / Unclaimed Territory:
Federal court orders Justice Dept. to release NSA documents — This development seems quite significant; at the very least, it will ensure that the scandal continues regardless of the degree of success the White House finds in attempting to suppress a meaningful Congressional investigation.
Shankar Vedantam / Washington Post:
Glacier Melt Could Signal Faster Rise in Ocean Levels — Greenland's glaciers are melting into the sea twice as fast as previously believed, the result of a warming trend that renders obsolete predictions of how quickly Earth's oceans will rise over the next century, scientists said yesterday.
Discussion:
NewDonkey.com, IntoxiNation-News …, Booman Tribune, Daily Kos, The Washington Monthly and AMERICAblog
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Jim Hansen / Independent:
Climate change: On the edge — Greenland ice cap breaking up at twice the rate it was five years ago, says scientist Bush tried to gag — A satellite study of the Greenland ice cap shows that it is melting far faster than scientists had feared - twice as much ice is going into the sea as it was five years ago.
Thomas Sowell / realclearpolitics.com:
Spoiled Brat Media — The first revolt of the American colonists against their British rulers was immortalized by Ralph Waldo Emerson as "the shot heard round the world." Vice President Dick Cheney's hunting accident has now become the shot heard round the Beltway.
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John Pomfret / Washington Post:
Cheney Shooting Case Is Closed in Texas — Report on Accident Backs Explanations by Vice President and Ranch Owner — CORPUS CHRISTI, Tex., Feb. 16 — The sheriff's department responsible for investigating Vice President Cheney's shooting of a Texas lawyer has closed its investigation …
Richard Cohen / Washington Post:
What Is the Value of Algebra? — I am haunted by Gabriela Ocampo. — Last year, she dropped out of the 12th grade at Birmingham High School in Los Angeles after failing algebra six times in six semesters, trying it a seventh time and finally just despairing over ever getting it.
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Charles Krauthammer / Washington Post:
Quell Quailgate — Cheney's Call Was Wrong but Understandable — I'm just glad he didn't shoot Scalia. — Well, everyone's entitled to one Quailgate joke, so that's mine. Although the best one, occurring at the White House news briefing Monday, was only inadvertently funny.
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Mark Brunswick / Minneapolis Star Tribune:
KSTP takes issue with Iraq war ad — It refused to air 60-second spot that defends U.S. policy, saying it is untruthful in how it represents the media. — In an unusual break from its competitors, KSTP-TV refused to air a controversial ad defending U.S. policy in Iraq that the station …
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The Big Trunk / Power Line:SHUT UP, THEY EXPLAINED — We've obtained a copy of a striking …
Discussion:
Right Wing Nut House
William Lobdell / Los Angeles Times:
Bedrock of a Faith Is Jolted — DNA tests contradict Mormon scripture. The church says the studies are being twisted to attack its beliefs. — From the time he was a child in Peru, the Mormon Church instilled in Jose A. Loayza the conviction that he and millions of other Native Americans …
Robin Givhan / Washington Post:
Winning Flush — Vice President Cheney sat in the warm glow of his ceremonial office in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building Wednesday afternoon and, in an interview with Fox News, accepted responsibility for the hunting accident in which he blasted Texas lawyer Harry Whittington with birdshot.
Discussion:
Betsy's Page
Associated Press:
White House Defends Port Sale to Arab Co. — WASHINGTON — The Bush administration on Thursday rebuffed criticism about potential security risks of a $6.8 billion sale that gives a company in the United Arab Emirates control over significant operations at six major American ports.
Discussion:
Captain's Quarters, BREITBART.COM, Michelle Malkin, A Blog For All, Tim Worstall and Brilliant at Breakfast
Cameron W. Barr / Washington Post:
Policing Porn Is Not Part of Job Description — Montgomery Homeland Security Officers Reassigned After Library Incident — Two uniformed men strolled into the main room of the Little Falls library in Bethesda one day last week and demanded the attention of all patrons using the computers.
Keith Bradsher / New York Times:
China Seeking Auto Industry, Piece by Piece — Workers at a Lifan Group factory in Chongqing assemble 520 sedans. The car's $9,700 price includes leather seats, dual air bags and a DVD system. — CHONGQING, China, Feb. 16 — China is pursuing a novel way to catapult its automaking into a global force …
Discussion:
The Peking Duck
Declan McCullagh / CNET News.com:
Proposed law targets tech-China cooperation — Nearly every U.S. company with a Web site located in China will have to move it elsewhere or its executives would face prison terms of up to a year, according to proposed legislation expected to be introduced this week in the U.S. Congress.
