Top Items:
Glenn Greenwald / Unclaimed Territory:
The dying scandal that keeps growing — Ever since the NSA scandal began, Bush followers, led by Karl Rove, and even some frightened Democrats, have loudly insisted that this scandal is actually beneficial for Republicans, because they can use it to depict Democrats as weak on national security.
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New York Times:
Facing Pressure, White House Seeks Approval for Spying — After two months of insisting that President Bush did not need court approval to authorize the wiretapping of calls between the United States and suspected terrorists abroad, the administration is trying to resist pressure for judicial review …
Wichita Eagle:
EDITORIAL: ROBERTS' CREDIBILITY ON LINE — Many Kansans, including members of The Eagle editorial board, have long admired Sen. Pat Roberts for his plainspokenness and reputation for fair brokering of issues. — So it's troubling that Roberts, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee …
Elisabeth Bumiller / New York Times:
Troubleshooting the Tale of a Hunt Gone Sour — WASHINGTON — Mary Matalin, Vice President Dick Cheney's longtime troubleshooter, was sleeping in last Sunday when the phone jangled her awake at 8 a.m. She groggily picked it up to hear, 'The vice president shot somebody, and he's O.K.' "
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Guardian:
An instinct for the capillary — Luckily for the Bush administration, its media opponents can't shoot straight, writes Glenn Reynolds — "Vice-president has hunting accident." Not long ago, that would have been a page-seven story, at best. But this time it was the top story of the week in America.
Howard Kurtz / Washington Post:How Not to Keep Your Head Down — Nothing makes journalists madder …
Discussion:
Exposing Liberal Media Bias
Jimmy Carter / Washington Post:
Don't Punish the Palestinians — As the results of the recent Palestinian elections are implemented, it's important to understand how the transition process works and also how important to it are actions by Israel and the United States. — Although Hamas won 74 of the 132 parliamentary seats …
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Richard B. Schmitt / Los Angeles Times:
Privacy Guardian Is Still a Paper Tiger — A year after its creation, the White House civil liberties board has yet to do a single day of work. — WASHINGTON — For Americans troubled by the prospect of federal agents eavesdropping on their phone conversations or combing through their Internet records …
Jane Mayer / New Yorker:
THE MEMO — How an internal effort to ban the abuse and torture of detainees was thwarted. — One night this January, in a ceremony at the Officers' Club at Fort Myer, in Arlington, Virginia, which sits on a hill with a commanding view across the Potomac River to the Washington Monument …
Discussion:
Balkinization, Booman Tribune, Andrew Sullivan, Prairie Weather, TalkLeft, Daniel W. Drezner and Democrat Taylor Marsh …
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Robert Mayer / Publius Pundit:
RUSSIA SHUTS DOWN NEWSPAPER WITH CARTOON DEPICTING MOHAMMED — The municipal government in Volgograd has decided to close down a local newspaper for printing a cartoon showing Jesus, Buddha, Mohammed, and Moses watching a crowd of clashing people while saying, "We never taught them to do that …
Edward Rothstein / New York Times:
History Illuminates the Rage of Muslims — An ant climbs a blade of grass, over and over, seemingly without purpose, seeking neither nourishment nor home. It persists in its futile climb, explains Daniel C. Dennett at the opening of his new book, "Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon" …
Adloyada:
Denying anti-semitic motives to avoid riots? — A truly brutal murder of a young Jewish man, Ilan Halimi, kidnapped and tortured over many weeks in the suburbs of Paris. … The French public prosecutor thinks that anti-semitism had nothing to do with the murder. The official Jewish community is keen to calm down fears.
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Scott Shields / MyDD:
Bill Frist, Brilliant Political Strategist — It's not very often that we here at MyDD come up with the same conclusions as the folks over at RedState. But last week, I had to agree when Blanton wrote a piece that described Bill Frist as hapless and inept, and that he's "failed to be a real leader" in the Senate.
Jim Tankersley / toledoblade.com:
Hackett's research targeted Brown — Votes to cut funding for intelligence cited — Congressman and U.S. Senate candidate Sherrod Brown voted to cut intelligence funding more than a dozen times before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, a record that Paul Hackett's campaign advisers called proof …
Steven R. Hurst / Associated Press:
Bin Laden Vows Never to Be Captured Alive — CAIRO, Egypt - Osama bin Laden promised never to be captured alive and declared the United States had resorted to the same "barbaric" tactics used by Saddam Hussein, according to an audiotape purportedly by the al-Qaida leader that was posted Monday on a militant Web site.
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Michael J. Totten:
"Our Jerusalem" — ERBIL, IRAQ - Iraq may not survive in one piece. The overwhelming majority of Iraqi Kurds are packing their bags. Most have already said goodbye. Erbil (Hawler in Kurdish) is the capital of the de-facto sovereign Kurdistan Regional Government.
National Review:
"He Shall Direct Thy Paths to the Weapons of Mass Destruction." — William Tierney, the former United Nations weapons inspector who unveiled the so-called "Saddam Tapes" at a conference in Arlington, Virginia, Saturday, told National Review Online that God directed him to weapons sites in Iraq …
