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CBS News:
Poll: Bush Ratings At All-Time Low — (CBS) The latest CBS News poll finds President Bush's approval rating has fallen to an all-time low of 34 percent, while pessimism about the Iraq war has risen to a new high. — Americans are also overwhelmingly opposed to the Bush-backed deal giving …
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Washington Post:
Iraq's Deadly Surge Claims 1,300 — Morgue Figure Eclipses Other Counts Since Shrine Attack — BAGHDAD, Feb. 27 — Grisly attacks and other sectarian violence unleashed by last week's bombing of a Shiite shrine have killed more than 1,300 Iraqis, making the past few days the deadliest …
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Confederate Yankee, The Heretik, Bring it On!, Total Information Awareness, Secular Blasphemy, Booman Tribune, CorrenteWire, Decision '08, Left I on the News, The Wide Awake Cafe, PoliBlog, The Moderate Voice, State of the Day, Democratic Veteran, AMERICAblog, Obsidian Wings, IntoxiNation-News …, The Reaction, LGF Watch and Hoffmania!
Christopher Lee / Washington Post:
Court Blocks DOD's New Rules for Workers — A federal judge blocked the Defense Department from implementing much of its new personnel system yesterday, handing the Bush administration a major setback in its efforts to streamline work rules and install pay-for-performance systems in federal workplaces.
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Jonathan Weisman / Washington Post:
Coast Guard Saw 'Intelligence Gaps' on Ports — The U.S. Coast Guard, in charge of reviewing security at ports operated by a Dubai maritime company, warned the Bush administration it could not rule out that the company's assets could be used for terrorist operations, according to a document released yesterday by a Senate committee.
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Richard Cohen / Washington Post:
Bush, Speaking Up Against Bigotry — There are times when George Bush sorely disappoints. Just when you might expect him to issue a malapropian explanation, pander to his base or simply not have a clue about what he is talking about, he does something so right, so honest and, yes …
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Michael Freund / Jerusalem Post:
Exclusive: Dubai ports firm enforces Israel boycott — The parent company of a Dubai-based firm at the center of a political storm in the US over the purchase of American ports participates in the Arab boycott against Israel, The Jerusalem Post has learned.
Nina Bernstein / New York Times:
U.S. Is Settling Detainee's Suit in 9/11 Sweep — Ehab Elmaghraby in Alexandria, Egypt, with his parents in April 2004. Mr. Elmaghraby, detained after 9/11, said he settled his lawsuit reluctantly. — The federal government has agreed to pay $300,000 to settle a lawsuit brought …
Linda Greenhouse / New York Times:
Supreme Court Set to Weigh Central Election-Law Issues — WASHINGTON, Feb. 27 — The most pressing and unsettled questions in election law are those that concern the role of money, the role of race and the role of partisanship. The Supreme Court will take up all three this week.
Lydia Polgreen / New York Times:
Refugee Crisis Grows as Darfur War Crosses a Border — ADRÉ, Chad — The chaos in Darfur, the war-ravaged region in Sudan where more than 200,000 civilians have been killed, has spread across the border into Chad, deepening one of the world's worst refugee crises.
David Carr / New York Times:
Franklin Foer Is Named Top Editor of New Republic — For a small outfit, The New Republic has always gone long on drama. Its changes in leadership have usually arrived in the form of rolling coups or lightning bolts from above. So it is refreshing, if a bit underwhelming …
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The Washington Monthly, Winds of Change.NET, Hit and Run, Talking Points Memo, Daily Kos and Brad DeLong's Semi …
Nelson Hernandez / Washington Post:
Diplomacy Helped To Calm the Chaos — U.S.-Kurdish Campaign Sought to Steer Sunnis, Shiites From Brink of Civil War — BAGHDAD, Feb. 27 — In the days that followed the bombing of a sacred Shiite shrine, Iraq seemed within a hair's breadth of civil war. But an aggressive U.S …
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Zogby:
U.S. Troops in Iraq: 72% Say End War in 2006 — Le Moyne College/Zogby Poll shows just one in five troops want to heed Bush call to stay "as long as they are needed" — While 58% say mission is clear, 42% say U.S. role is hazy — Plurality believes Iraqi insurgents are mostly homegrown
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Drudge Report:
BUSH CHEERS DECLINE OF MAINSTREAM MEDIA, RISE OF ALTERNATIVE PRESS — President Bush, for the first time, is hailing the rise of the alternative media and the decline of the mainstream media, which he now says "conspired" to harm him with forged documents. — "I find it interesting …
New York Times:
Lobbyist Turns Senator but Twists Same Arms — WASHINGTON, Feb. 27 — It might be said that Senator John Thune went through the revolving door — backward. — As a lobbyist in 2003 and 2004, Mr. Thune earned $220,000 from the Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern Railroad, a small but ambitious company in South Dakota.
Pauline Jelinek / Associated Press:
Postwar Iraq Chaos Blamed on Poor Planning — WASHINGTON - Poor prewar planning left the United States without enough skilled workers to efficiently rebuild Iraq's economy and public works, according to a report issued Monday. — The study by the Special Inspector General …
New York Magazine:
Should Cheney Go? — The political argument for Cheney's retention is equally familiar: He's beloved by the Republican base. And no doubt there's truth to this. "I don't know if they love him, but they admire him," says Marshall Wittmann, a former staffer to both the Christian Coalition and John McCain.
Louis Uchitelle / New York Times:
Two Tiers, Slipping Into One — R ICK DOTY is a 30-year veteran of Caterpillar, the big tractor and earth-moving equipment manufacturer. He is paid $23.51 an hour as a machinist, and he receives additional benefits worth almost as much. That sets him far above newly hired workers consigned to a much lower wage scale.
Andrew Taylor / Associated Press:
Veterans May Face Health Care Cuts in 2008 — WASHINGTON - At least tens of thousands of veterans with non-critical medical issues could suffer delayed or even denied care in coming years to enable President Bush to meet his promise of cutting the deficit in half — if the White House is serious about its proposed budget.
