Top Items:
CNN:
Pentagon: Iraqi troops downgraded — No Iraqi battalion capable of fighting without U.S. support — WASHINGTON (CNN) — The only Iraqi battalion capable of fighting without U.S. support has been downgraded to a level requiring them to fight with American troops backing them up, the Pentagon said Friday.
New York Times:
Sectarian Bloodshed Reveals Strength of Iraq Militias — BAGHDAD, Iraq, Feb. 24 — The sectarian violence that has shaken Iraq this week has demonstrated the power that the many militias here have to draw the country into a full-scale civil war, and how difficult it would be for the state to stop it, Iraqi and American officials say.
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Borzou Daragahi / Los Angeles Times:
Anger Tinged Calls for Peace in Iraq — BAGHDAD — Political and religious leaders in Iraq scrambled today to halt the country's slide toward sectarian civil war, renewing for tomorrow an extraordinary daytime curfew that was temporarily relaxed to allow a small measure of respite for the country.
Discussion:
Informed Comment
Glenn Reynolds / Instapundit.com:
ONE MORE PHOTO from the Danish Embassy rally. Reader Jonathan G. Williams, who sent it, writes: "Yes, those things they've got are danishes. (Cherry, I think.)" — Mmm. Cherry. — And Mark Tapscott notes an email from Linda Seebach of the Rocky Mountain News: … It's that whole Army of Davids thing.
Discussion:
Outside The Beltway
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Hasan Jamali / Associated Press:
Al-Qaida Claims Attack on Saudi Refinery — ABQAIQ, Saudi Arabia - Suicide bombers carried out a bold attack on the world's largest oil processing facility Friday but were stopped from breaking in by guards who fired on their cars, exploding both vehicles and killing the attackers.
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Jerome R. Corsi, Ph.D. / WorldNetDaily:
22 ports in Arab deal, not just 6 as reported — Scope of Dubai firm to stretch from Maine to Gulf of Mexico — Dubai Ports World is scheduled to take over operations at 22 U.S. ports, not six as previously reported by most major media. — According to the website of P&O Ports …
Discussion:
PunditGuy
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Jason Leopold / truthout.org:
White House 'Discovers' 250 Emails Related to Plame Leak — The White House turned over last week 250 pages of emails from Vice President Dick Cheney's office. Senior aides had sent the emails in the spring of 2003 related to the leak of covert CIA operative Valerie Plame Wilson …
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MSNBC:
Slacker Friday — Think Again is here. It's called "Second, Third and Fourth Thoughts about the President." — Not a joke: Later today, the Pentagon expects to release its quarterly Iraq Progress Report entitled "Measuring Stability and Security in Iraq."
Discussion:
The Big Picture
Tim Worstall:
Ken Livingstone Suspended — So Ken Livingstone is suspended from office for a month for his (subjectively) racist remarks to a reporter. Harry's, Brighton Regency, A Councillor, The Torygraph, well, use the search engines yourselves to find more views. Myself, if I actually thought …
Glenn Harlan Reynolds / Wall Street Journal:
Early Warning System — Technology is empowering ordinary people in all sorts of ways. The blogosphere has demonstrated the ability to process information more quickly and thoroughly than other media in the past. The debate over the acquisition of American port operations contracts …
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John J. Miller / The Corner on National Review Online:PORT BLOGGING — A short and smart piece by Glenn Reynold …
Discussion:
The Next Hurrah
Goel Pinto / Haaretz:
Chirac, de Villepin attend memorial ceremony for slain Jewish youth — PARIS - Cries of "vive la France" and "la justice" accompanied President Jacques Chirac, his wife Bernadette and Premier Dominique de Villepin last night as they left the memorial evening held here yesterday for Ilan Halimi.
Discussion:
GOP Bloggers
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Kevin Sullivan / Washington Post:
Bush, Blair, But Not Muhammad — At London Museum, Cartoonists Agree: Target the Powerful — LONDON, Feb. 23 — When the political cartoonist Martin Rowson draws President Bush with blood on his hands, he gets hundreds of angry and obscene e-mails. But he doesn't mind, he said, because …
Megan Myers / argusleader.com:
House sends abortion bill to Rounds (video) — Governor says he's inclined to sign ban — PIERRE - As the South Dakota House of Representatives gave final approval today to a bill aimed at banning most abortions and creating a U.S. Supreme Court challenge to the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision …
Discussion:
Vox Popoli
Dana Milbank / Washington Post:
washingtonpost.com > Live Discussions — washingtonpost.com's Daily Politics Discussion — Don't want to miss out on the latest buzz in politics? Start each day at wonk central: The Post Politics Hour. Join in each weekday morning at 11 a.m. as a member of The Washington Post's team …
Ralph Blumenthal / New York Times:
1 Cafe, 1 Gas Station, 2 Roads: America's Emptiest County — MENTONE, Tex. — How empty is Loving County? — So empty that when Sheriff Billy Burt Hopper ran for office in 2004, he and his opponent attended each other's campaign barbecues. So empty that it cannot sustain two political parties …
Discussion:
Brendan Nyhan
Mona Charen / Townhall.com:
Lethal injection blues — They found her body in a vineyard. Her purple sweater was pulled up revealing the knife protruding from her chest. Terri Lynn Winchell had been 17. It was 1981. — Michael Morales, whose execution was indefinitely delayed last week, was convicted of her murder.
