Top Items:
David E. Sanger / New York Times:
Review of Port Deal Will Leave Decision to Bush — WASHINGTON, Feb. 26 — The Dubai company seeking to take over some terminal operations at six American ports formally asked the Bush administration on Sunday to conduct a deeper investigation into security concerns surrounding the deal.
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MSNBC:
Transcript for February 26 — MR. TIM RUSSERT: Our issues this Sunday: This man tries to mount apolitical comeback after his ballot initiatives were soundly rejected by the voters. With us, in an exclusive interview: the governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Edward Wong / New York Times:
Iraqi Sunni Bloc to Rejoin Talks on Government — BAGHDAD, Iraq, Feb. 26 — Leaders of the main Sunni Arab political bloc have decided to return to suspended talks over the formation of a new government, the top Sunni negotiator said Sunday. The step could help defuse the sectarian tensions …
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Qassim Abdul-Zahra / Associated Press:
Sunnis Said Ready to End Boycott of Talks — BAGHDAD, Iraq - Sunni Arabs are ready to end their boycott of talks to form a new government if rival Shiites return mosques seized in last week's sectarian attacks and meet other unspecified demands, a top Sunni figure said Monday.
John Fund / Opinion Journal:
Jihadi Turns Bulldog — The Taliban's former spokesman is now a Yale student. Anyone see a problem with that? — Never has an article made me blink with astonishment as much as when I read in yesterday's New York Times magazine that Sayed Rahmatullah Hashemi, former ambassador-at-large for the Taliban …
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James Glanz / New York Times:
Army to Pay Halliburton Unit Most Costs Disputed by Audit — The Army has decided to reimburse a Halliburton subsidiary for nearly all of its disputed costs on a $2.41 billion no-bid contract to deliver fuel and repair oil equipment in Iraq, even though the Pentagon's own auditors had identified …
John Marshall / Seattle Post-Intelligencer:
Octavia Butler, 1947-2006: Sci-fi writer a gifted pioneer in white, male domain — Her father was a shoeshine man who died when she was a child, her mother was a maid who brought her along on jobs, yet Octavia Butler rose from these humble beginnings to become one of the country's leading writers …
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MSNBC:
A tipping point on Islam? — With the Cartoon Wars giving way to the ports imbroglio, Jim Geraghty, blogging from Turkey, wonders if we're seeing a tipping point in Western attitudes toward Islam. Geraghty collects a lot of quotes, and writes of "my sense that in recent weeks …
LAW.com:
Harvard conference — Law professor blogging is such a hot topic that a confab of faculty members from across the country will meet at Harvard Law School in April for a two-day symposium focusing on how blogs are transforming legal scholarship. — "It's a whole different kind of animal," Caron said.
Kevin Sites / Reuters:
Saddam Hussein ends hunger strike: lawyer — AMMAN (Reuters) - Toppled Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein has ended on health grounds a hunger strike he began earlier this month to protest against the conduct of his trial, his chief lawyer said on Monday. — "The president maintained his hunger strike …
Discussion:
Captain's Quarters
Marc Kaufman / Washington Post:
Plan B Battles Embroil States — Filling a void left by the Food and Drug Administration's inability to decide whether to make the "morning-after" pill available without a prescription, nearly every state is or soon will be wrestling with legislation that would expand or restrict access to the drug.
Katharine Q. Seelye / New York Times:
Another White House Briefing, Another Day of Mutual Mistrust — Mike McCurry, who was President Bill Clinton's press secretary a decade ago, is kicking himself to this day for ever allowing the White House briefings to be televised live. — "It was a huge error on my part," …
Hindrocket / Power Line:
"SADDAM HAD WMD" — That's the title of this editorial in Investors Business Daily, which reprises some of the recently discovered evidence. There are Saddam's audio tapes: … Then there's the account given by Georges Sada, second in command in Iraq's air force: … The conclusion?
Marc Cooper / The Nation:
My Dinner With Ashcroft — I spent this past weekend bunkered in with 350 movement conservatives and some of their favorite pols and strategists - from John Ashcroft to Tom Tancredo to Jim Woolsey —and let me tell you, even many of these folks are openly worried about Republican chances in the Fall.
Robert Pear / New York Times:
Bush Policies Weakening Guard, Governors Say — WASHINGTON, Feb. 26 — Governors of both parties said Sunday that Bush administration policies were stripping the National Guard of equipment and personnel needed to respond to hurricanes, floods, tornadoes, forest fires and other emergencies.