Top Items:
Jay Rosen / PressThink:
Dick Cheney Did Not Make a Mistake By Not Telling the Press He Shot a Guy — "The public visibility of the presidency itself is under revision. More of it lies in shadow all the time. Non-communication has become the standard procedure, not a breakdown in practice but the essence of it …
RELATED ITEMS:
Steve Clemons / 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 …
National Review:
The Little-Noticed Order That Gave Dick Cheney New Power — In addition to discussing his hunting accident, Vice President Dick Cheney, in his interview on the Fox News Channel Wednesday, also pointed to a little-known but enormously consequential expansion of vice-presidential power …
Kevin Sites / Associated Press:
Iran Renames Danish Pastries — TEHRAN, Iran - Iranians love Danish pastries, but when they look for the flaky dessert at the bakery they now have to ask for "Roses of the Prophet Muhammad." — Bakeries across the capital were covering up their ads for Danish pastries Thursday …
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:
Reuters, ACLU, Body and Soul, Obsidian Wings, Fausta's Blog, Daimnation!, Andrew Sullivan and Riehl World View
RELATED ITEMS:
Dr. Rusty Shackleford / The Jawa Report v3.0 Beta:
Exclusive: Prisoner Abuse Photos from Iraq that MSM Won't Show You — **Jawa Report Exclusive** — The Jawa Report has obtained new photos from a new prisoner abuse scandal in Iraq. The photos show Iraqi prisoners being murdered by troops. The photos have not been published by a single mainstream news outlet.
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 …
RELATED ITEM:
MSNBC:
U.S. must release domestic spying documents — Judge rules in favor of civil liberties group in Freedom of Information case — WASHINGTON - A federal judge Thursday ordered the Justice Department to respond within 20 days to requests by a civil liberties group for documents about President Bush's domestic eavesdropping program.
RELATED ITEMS:
Glenn Greenwald / Unclaimed Territory:The NSA scandal grows & other matters
Discussion:
Washington Post, skippy the bush kangaroo, The Heretik, Brilliant at Breakfast and Political Cortex
National Review:
Checked and Unbalanced — As a reverent admirer of George Will, it pains me to say that his diatribe today against the National Security Agency's terrorist-surveillance program is an embarrassing magpie of hyperbole and error. — Will's premise is that the administration, in authorizing the program …
RELATED ITEM:
White House:
President Discusses Health Care — Reforming Health Care for the 21st Century — THE PRESIDENT: Thanks for coming. Please be seated. (Applause.) Jack, thanks for the introduction, thanks for letting us convert your lobby into a — (laughter) — place to come and visit.
RELATED ITEM:
Associated Press:
Sheriff: Dick Cheney Won't Face Charges — SARITA, Texas (AP) - The sheriff's department closed its investigation Thursday into Dick Cheney's accidental shooting of a hunting partner and said no charges will be filed. — The Kenedy County Sheriff's Department issued a report that largely supports …
RELATED ITEM:
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.
Anthony Faiola / Washington Post:
Japanese Putting All Their Energy Into Saving Fuel — KAMIITA, Japan — When the Japanese government issued a national battle cry against soaring global energy prices this winter, no one heeded the call to arms more than this farming town in the misty mountains of western Japan.
Polly Curtis / Guardian:
Abortions at home are safe - pilot study — Women who are less than nine weeks pregnant can safely have medical abortions at home, according to the head of a government-backed pilot project. — Abortion services for the 20,000 women who seek a chemically induced abortion every year …
Ace / Ace of Spades HQ:
Bryant Gumbel: Winter Olympics So White They Look Like a "GOP Convention" — Well, yeah, moron. Last time I checked, black kids weren't walking around in Nike Air Turino luge-cleats. — Suffice to say that Mr. Gumbel will not, in the near future, be commenting on the NBA looking like a Biggie Smalls funeral procession.
Discussion:
Exposing Liberal Media Bias, RightWinged.com, Random Thoughts …, Expose the Left, IMAO, GOP and the City and USS Neverdock
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.
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 …
Mario F. Cattabiani / Philadelphia Inquirer:
Swann sat out on most election days — When Lynn Swann votes for himself in the May Republican primary, it will be a rare springtime trip to the polls. — Despite once saying that the right to vote should never be taken for granted, Swann missed 20 of the state's 36 elections in the last 18 years …
Gateway Pundit:
Female Reporter Stoned at Turkish Cartoon Protest — "We were doing our job as journalists. But apparently some people found that not covering my head was provocative. They called me a blasphemer while I was sitting on the bus. They threw stones and shoes. As a reporter from Konya I was ashamed."
Dorkafork / INDC Journal:
The Birdshot Conspiracy — You're close to the truth, Mr. Marshall. Closer than you know. — I was in New Zealand 20 hours after the shooting. And there was no mention of it in any of the newspapers. Not one. If I had been in the press office I would have sent out a press release immediately.
