Top Items:
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 …
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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 …
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 …
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
Los Angeles Times:
Spying Inquiry Blocked by GOP — The Senate intelligence chair buys time, saying the White House is open to legislation on Bush's surveillance program. Many are doubtful. — WASHINGTON — Senate Republicans blocked a proposed investigation of President Bush's domestic spying operation Thursday …
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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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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The Big Trunk / Power Line:
SHUT UP, THEY EXPLAINED — We've obtained a copy of a striking message sent out by Minnesota Democrats seeking to silence the television advertisements featuring soldiers and the parents of fallen soldiers supporting the war in Iraq. Why would Democrats want to silence the voices of these citizens?
Discussion:
Right Wing Nut House
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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 …
David Goodman / Mother Jones:
Backroom Battles — NEWS: Economic sabotage, whisper campaigns, and threats: How the Democrats took Paul Hackett out. — Democratic Senate candidate and Marine Corps Major Paul Hackett is accustomed to waging quixotic battles and taking his hits. He just didn't expect the lowest—and fatal—blows to come from his own party.
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.
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.
talkingpointsmemo.com:
Fascinating. — Byron York has a piece up at NRO examining a little-scrutinized Executive Order 13292, dated March 25, 2003, while the Niger-Wilson-Plame story was bubbling away out of public view. — Byron has the precise details. But the gist is that the president delegated what would appear …
Discussion:
Secrecy News, Liberty Street, Booman Tribune, King of Zembla, Angry Bear, Decision '08, firedoglake, The Huffington Post and Sirotablog
E. M. Zanotti / The American Princess:
The Roses of the Prophet — We brought this to you some time ago, but it seems that the story has finally been substantiated to the degree that it can appear in the Associated Press (we know...it sounded stupid to us, too). It appears that the "freedom fries" mentality has extended …
Discussion:
Suitably Flip, California Conservative, Flopping Aces, bluestarchronicles … and Atlas Shrugs
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.
New York Times:
France Says Iran's Atomic Program Is a Military Cover — 0 PARIS (AP) — France accused Iran on Thursday of secretly making nuclear weapons, ditching Europe's traditional diplomatic caution for bluntness in remarks that echoed the tough U.S. stance on Iran's disputed nuclear program.
