Top Items:
Matea Gold / Los Angeles Times:
Choice of Messenger Is an Issue in Its Own Right — An exclusive interview on Fox News is criticized as spin control, while the network says it's simply the result of persistence and stature. — NEW YORK — For days, the White House press corps has pounded the Bush administration …
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Pete Yost / Associated Press:
Cheney Says He Can Declassify Secrets — WASHINGTON - Vice President Dick Cheney says he has the power to declassify government secrets, raising the possibility that he authorized his former chief of staff to pass along sensitive prewar data on Iraq to reporters.
Steve / The Washington Note:
Can Cheney be His Own Declassification Machine? — In my view, the law says "No". . .but I have little doubt Alberto Gonzales and his minions will construct a rationale that says otherwise. — But I have run across some interesting information — and have some questions that we should all pose …
AOL News:
Rove Pushed Cheney to Talk — (Feb. 16) — President Bush's top political aide, Karl Rove, pushed Vice President Dick Cheney to speak publicly about shooting a fellow hunter, sources tell CBS News. — Rove worried the vice president's silence on the issue was becoming a political problem …
Discussion:
Media Matters for America, Adventus, SpeakSpeak News, The All Spin Zone, The Rude Pundit and Expose the Left
Peggy Noonan / Opinion Journal:
Hit Refresh? — Why Bush may be thinking about replacing Cheney. — The Dick Cheney shooting incident will, in a way, go away. And, in a way, not—ever. Some things stick. Gerry Ford had physically stumbled only once or twice in public when he became, officially, The Stumbler.
Discussion:
The RCP Blog, TKS on National Review Online, PoliBlog, No More Mister Nice Blog, Blinq, The Carpetbagger Report, PunditGuy, SCSUScholars, Althouse, The Political Pit Bull, Super Fun Power Hour, Tennessee Guerilla Women, Greg's Opinion, Dynamist Blog, sisu, Blogs for Bush, Riehl World View, aaron, Dr. Sanity, Booman Tribune, Hotline On Call and THE NEWS BLOG
Jay Rosen / PressThink:Dick Cheney Did Not Make a Mistake By Not Telling the Press He Shot a Guy
Discussion:
Confusing Visitors …, The Huffington Post, The Carpetbagger Report, The Mahablog and mediabistro
Howard Kurtz / Washington Post:Brit Hume, Cheney's Choice For a Straight Shooter
Discussion:
The Moderate Voice, New York Times, Outside The Beltway, Betsy's Page, David E's Fablog, Demagogue, The Heretik, The Radio Equalizer, Wizbang, Why Are We Back In Iraq?, Captain's Quarters, News Hounds, Exposing Liberal Media Bias, Confederate Yankee, the talking dog, Althouse, Crooks and Liars and mediabistro
Mark Benjamin / Salon:
Salon exclusive: The Abu Ghraib files — Never-published photos, and an internal Army report, show more Iraqi prisoner abuse — evidence the government is fighting to hide. — Print EmailFont: S / S+ / S++ — An unknown detainee with women's underwear on his head, strapped to a bed frame.
Discussion:
Body and Soul, Obsidian Wings, Fausta's Blog, A Blog For All, Andrew Sullivan, Riehl World View and The Reaction
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Eli Lake / New York Sun:
Furor Erupts Over Recordings of Saddam — CAIRO, Egypt - Two former CIA directors have resigned from the board of the organization planning tomorrow to make public secret recordings of Saddam Hussein and his advisers. — In the last week both John Deutch and James Woolsey abruptly left …
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Radio Blogger:
Helen Thomas hangs up on Hugh Hewitt. — The dean of the White House press corps, known lovingly around the Hugh Hewitt Show as Aunt Bethany... appeared on the program a little while ago, and it didn't end well, with Ms. Thomas hanging up on Hugh. Here's how it went: — 02-15thomas.mp3
BBC:
France steps up rhetoric on Iran — France has for the first time explicitly accused Iran of using its nuclear programme as a cover for clandestine military nuclear activity. — Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy told French TV no civilian programme could explain Iran's activity.
Thomas E. Ricks / Washington Post:
The Lessons of Counterinsurgency — U.S. Unit Praised for Tactics Against Iraqi Fighters, Treatment of Detainees — TALL AFAR, Iraq — The last time the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment served in Iraq, in 2003-04, its performance was judged mediocre, with a series of abuse cases growing out of its tour of duty in Anbar province.
Warren Hoge / New York Times:
U.N. Report Calls for End to Guantánamo Detentions — UNITED NATIONS, Feb. 16 — United Nations human rights investigators called on the United States today to shut down the Guantánamo Bay camp and give detainees prompt trials or release them.
Raleigh News & Observer:
Able Danger hearing sets intelligence officers at odds — The Pentagon's top intelligence official clashed repeatedly Wednesday with former operatives of the clandestine Able Danger program over how much the government knew about al-Qaeda before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
MB Williams / Wampum:
The 2005 Koufax Awards: Best Writing — This category seeks to recognize the best overall writing by a lefty blogger. In some cases, nominations were specific for a particular blogger on a group blog. In other cases, the entire blog, whether a singular or group effort, was nominated.
Discussion:
The Heretik, Rox Populi, firedoglake, The Mahablog, Natalie Davis' All Facts … and Creek Running North
George F. Will / Washington Post:
No Checks, Many Imbalances — The next time a president asks Congress to pass something akin to what Congress passed on Sept. 14, 2001 — the Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) — the resulting legislation might be longer than Proust's "Remembrance of Things Past."
Linda Greenhouse / New York Times:
Court Veteran Remembers a Scary Start — WASHINGTON, Feb. 15 — No one will blame Justice Stephen G. Breyer if he flashes back more than 11 years to his own challenging start on the Supreme Court when Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. is ceremonially sworn in there on Thursday.
tcsdaily.com:
Blogging: for Love or Money? — People are making a living, or a decent chunk of one, by blogging. Some are warbloggers in the Middle East, like Michael Totten, who blogs from Beirut, with occasional sidetrips to Egypt, Turkey, and Iraq, or Michael Yon, who served as a war correspondent via blog …
Discussion:
Outside The Beltway, The Anchoress, Transterrestrial Musings, Riehl World View and Andrew Sullivan
