Top Items:
Associated Press:
Bush unaware of port deal until after approval — White House: President only learned recently of handover to Arab firm … Today show — WASHINGTON - President Bush was unaware of the pending sale of shipping operations at six major U.S. seaports to a state-owned business …
RELATED ITEMS:
Opinion Journal:
Ports of Politics — How to sound like a hawk without being one. — Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist is the latest Republican to broadcast his "independence" from President Bush on homeland security, yesterday joining Senator Lindsey Graham, Representative Peter King and numerous state politicians …
New York Times:
Bush Would Veto Any Bill Halting Dubai Port Deal — WASHINGTON, Feb. 21 — President Bush, trying to put down a rapidly escalating rebellion among leaders of his own party, said Tuesday that he would veto any legislation blocking a deal for a state-owned company in Dubai to take over the management …
Discussion:
Think Progress, Houston Chronicle, Happy Furry Puppy Story …, BBC, Sisyphus Shrugged, Daniel W. Drezner, The Reality-Based Community, New York Post, The Carpetbagger Report, Gina Cobb, Bring it On!, TAPPED, WTF Is It Now??, News Hounds, Bark Bark Woof Woof, The All Spin Zone, Norwegianity, Andrew Sullivan, firedoglake and Jewschool
Michael McAuliff / truthout.org:
White House Has Ties to Dubai Firm — Washington - The Dubai firm that won Bush administration backing to run six U.S. ports has at least two ties to the White House. — One is Treasury Secretary John Snow, whose agency heads the federal panel that signed off on the $6.8 billion sale …
New York Times:
The President and the Ports — If President Bush follows through on his threat, he'll be making a strange choice for his first veto after more than five years in office. After giving a pass to a parade of misbegotten Congressional initiatives and irresponsible budget packages …
Discussion:
JustOneMinute, Washington Post, firedoglake, CNN, The Mahablog, Prairie Weather, Daily Kos, AMERICAN FUTURE, Alternate Brain and Bring it On!
Kevin Drum / The Washington Monthly:
PORTGATE....So what's up with this Dubai port deal, anyway? I hate to say it, but I can't help but think that Bush may be right about the whole thing. Just for the record: — This isn't a matter of outsourcing a government operation to a private company.
Phil Singer / dscc.org:
Republicans Opposing Dubai Deal Have Long Opposed Efforts To Secure America's Ports — This week, Republican Senators have come out in force against a controversial deal through which a company based in the United Arab Emirates would take over six major American ports.
Washington Post:Bush Threatens Veto Against Bid To Stop Port Deal
Discussion:
Associated Press, The Reaction, PunditGuy, Hullabaloo, Eschaton, The Strata-Sphere, Hugh Hewitt, INDC Journal, Michelle Malkin, JunkYardBlog, Legal Fiction, The Washington Monthly, Ezra Klein, QandO, Leiter Reports, State of the Day, The Next Hurrah, Democratic Veteran and Gateway Pundit
Edward Wong / New York Times:
Blast Destroys Golden Dome of Sacred Shiite Shrine in Samarra — BAGHDAD, Iraq, Feb. 22 - Insurgents dressed as police commandos detonated powerful explosives on Wednesday morning inside one of Shiite Islam's most sacred shrines, destroying most of the building, located in the volatile town of Samarra …
RELATED ITEMS:
Omar / IRAQ THE MODEL:
Holy Shia shrine bombed in Samarra. — As if we didn't have enough problems already! — The quality of the target and the timing of the attack were chosen in a way that can possibly bring very serious consequences over the country. — The situation in Baghdad is so tense now …
Ziad Khalaf / Associated Press:
Sunnis Hit After Shiite Shrine Blast — SAMARRA, Iraq - Assailants wearing uniforms detonated two bombs inside one of Iraq's most revered Shiite shrines Wednesday, blowing the top off its landmark golden dome and spawning mass protests and reprisal attacks against dozens of Sunni mosques.
BBC:
Iraqi blast damages Shia shrine — A bomb attack in Iraq has badly damaged one of the holiest sites in Shia Islam, sparking furious protests. — Thousands of Iraqis have gathered at the al-Askari shrine in Samarra, north of Baghdad, where two men blew up the famous golden dome in a dawn raid.
Discussion:
Mark in Mexico
Monica Davey / New York Times:
Vote Due on South Dakota Bill Banning Nearly All Abortions — PIERRE, S.D., Feb. 21 — Lawmakers here are preparing to vote on a bill that would outlaw nearly all abortions in South Dakota, a measure that could become the most sweeping ban approved by any state in more than a decade, those on both sides of the abortion debate say.
RELATED ITEMS:
Robert Burns / Editor and Publisher:
Rumsfeld Changes His Story on Planting Reports — WASHINGTON Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Tuesday that the Pentagon is reviewing its practice of paying to plant stories in the Iraqi news media, withdrawing his earlier claim that it had been stopped.
RELATED ITEM:
Alan M. Dershowitz / Boston Globe:
Coup against Summers a dubious victory for the politically correct — A PLURALITY of one faculty has brought about an academic coup d'etat against not only Harvard University president Lawrence Summers but also against the majority of students, faculty, and alumni.
RELATED ITEM:
Elana Schor / The Hill:
GOP Senator eyes public financing bill — Sen. George Voinovich, Ethics Committee chairman and a sometime gadfly to Republican leadership, is warming to Democratic-backed proposals for public financing of federal elections. — Voinovich (R-Ohio) told The Hill that he has met …
Charles Bremner / Times of London:
Jews claim police hid killers' motive to appease ghetto — THE torture and murder of a young Jewish man in Paris triggered outrage among Jewish leaders yesterday as the Government sought to prevent the affair from inflaming emotions in the Muslim-dominated housing estates of France.
New York Times:
Furor Over Cartoons Pits Muslim Against Muslim — AMMAN, Jordan, Feb. 21 — In a direct challenge to the international uproar over cartoons lampooning the Prophet Muhammad, the Jordanian journalist Jihad Momani wrote: "What brings more prejudice against Islam, these caricatures or pictures …
Fox News:
The Media Fallout Continues Over VP Cheney's Hunting Accident — This is a partial transcript from "Hannity & Colmes," February 20, 2006, that has been edited for clarity. — ALAN COLMES, CO-HOST: The media fallout continues over Vice President Cheney's accidental shooting during a hunting trip over a week ago.
Park Song-wu / KoreaTimes:
48% of Youth Would Support N. Korea in Case of US Attack — Survey Shows Half of Young Generation Are Progressive — Almost half of juniors surveyed, who will get their first voting rights in the 2007 presidential election, said in a recent poll that South Korea should side with North Korea …
David Ignatius / Washington Post:
From 'Connectedness' to Conflict — One of the baseline assumptions of U.S. foreign policy is that "connectedness" is a good thing. Linkage to the global economy fosters the growth of democracy and free markets, the theory goes, and that in turn creates the conditions for stability and security.
