Top Items:
Washington Post:
Democrats Struggle To Seize Opportunity — News about GOP political corruption, inept hurricane response and chaos in Iraq has lifted Democrats' hopes of winning control of Congress this fall. But seizing the opportunity has not been easy, as they found when they tried to unveil an agenda of their own.
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E. J. Dionne Jr / Washington Post:
The Democrats' Real Problem — It is now an ingrained journalistic habit: After a period of bad news for President Bush, media outlets invariably devote time and space to "balancing" stories that all say more or less: "Yes, the Republicans are in trouble, but the Democrats have no alternatives, no plans," etc.
Lydia Saad / Gallup:
Democrats Stretch Lead in Vote for Congress — Fourteen-point Democratic lead is among the widest since 1994 — PRINCETON, NJ — The latest CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll, conducted Feb. 28 to March 1, finds the Democrats holding a substantial lead over the Republicans as the party …
Discussion:
Eschaton
Chris Bowers / MyDD:Two Stories and Two Primaries … Next, from the front-page of the Washington Post:
Discussion:
Eschaton
Borzou Daragahi / Los Angeles Times:
U.S. Envoy to Iraq Warns of Wider War — He supports the White House view that an early pullout would backfire, but he is bleak about the Sunni-Shiite conflict and says it could spread. — BAGHDAD — The top U.S. envoy to Iraq said Monday that the 2003 toppling of Saddam Hussein's regime had opened a …
Discussion:
IRAQ THE MODEL, David Corn, ABCNEWS, WhirledView, The Heretik, AMERICAblog, The Washington Monthly and Pensito Review
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Edward Wong / New York Times:
U.S. Takes Steps to Reduce Shiite Domination in Iraqi Military — BAGHDAD, Iraq, March 6 — As the threat of full-scale sectarian strife looms, the American military is scrambling to try to weed out ethnic or religious partisans from the Iraqi security forces.
Discussion:
IntoxiNation
New York Times:
Shiites Try to Block Start of Parliament Amid New Violence — BAGHDAD, Iraq, March 7 — The struggle to get the country's sclerotic political process inching forward ran into a new complication today, as Shiite politicians sought to block the new parliament from holding its first meeting on Sunday.
Discussion:
TAPPED
Washington Post:
Now Repeal the Ban — THE SUPREME Court's unanimous decision yesterday upholding the Solomon Amendment is no surprise. It offers the correct answer to the legal question the case posed: Can the government deny federal money to universities that, in protest of the military's discrimination …
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Jane Roh / Fox News:Supreme Court Rules Against Schools in Military Recruiting Case
Discussion:
California Conservative
Michael Barbaro / New York Times:
Wal-Mart Enlists Bloggers in Its P.R. Campaign — Brian Pickrell, a blogger, recently posted a note on his Web site attacking state legislation that would force Wal-Mart Stores to spend more on employee health insurance. "All across the country, newspaper editorial boards …
Larry Johnson / NO QUARTER:
General Confusion? — So, is there a civil war in Iraq? Let's ask the Generals. — Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, "Perfect" Peter Pace (a moniker bestowed on him by his superiors in the Marine Corps) says things are swell. When asked by Tim Russert how Iraq was doing Pace responded:
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John Ward Anderson / Washington Post:
Iraqi Tribes Strike Back at Insurgents — In Turbulent Areas, Zarqawi's Fighters Are Target of Leaders and a New Militia — BAGHDAD, March 6 — First they killed the chief of the Naim tribe and his son. Then they killed a top tribal sheik who headed the Fallujah city council.
Discussion:
QandO, Defense Tech, Outside The Beltway, The Dread Pundit Bluto, On Deadline and GOP Bloggers
Monica Davey / New York Times:
South Dakota Bans Abortion, Setting Up a Battle — Gov. Michael Rounds of South Dakota signed into law the nation's most sweeping state abortion ban on Monday, an intentional provocation meant to set up a direct legal challenge to Roe v. Wade, the 1973 United States Supreme Court decision that made abortion legal.
Cernig / NewsHog:
ABC And The IED's From Iran That Were Made In The UK — Today, ABC News' Chief Investigative Correspondent, Brian Ross, presented an "exclusive" report telling us that: … Not once in the entire piece are we presented with any evidence that the bombs are being made with Iranian government materials …
Discussion:
Confederate Yankee, protein wisdom, Lawyers, Guns and Money, The Next Hurrah, The Mahablog, QandO, UNCoRRELATED, Faithful Progressive, Kobayashi Maru, The Heretik, Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler, Middle Earth Journal, Blanton's and Ashton's, AMERICAblog, Patterico's Pontifications, The Jawa Report v3.0 Beta, Dadahead and The Sundries Shack
Carl Hulse / New York Times:
House Conservatives Prepare Austere Alternative Budget — WASHINGTON, March 6 — With Congress heading into a politically perilous budget season, influential House conservatives plan this week to propose an austere alternative spending plan that would pare more than $650 billion over five years …
Nicholas Wade / New York Times:
Still Evolving, Human Genes Tell New Story — Providing the strongest evidence yet that humans are still evolving, researchers have detected some 700 regions of the human genome where genes appear to have been reshaped by natural selection, a principal force of evolution, within the last 5,000 to 15,000 years.
Ed Lavandera / CNN:
Dodge City showdown at funeral — DODGE CITY, Kansas (CNN) — This past Saturday morning I found myself in a five-car caravan cutting across the Kansas plains with about 30 religious protesters. In the back of a truck, there were signs that read "Thank God for IED's" and "Thank God for Dead Soldiers."
Somini Sengupta / New York Times:
Bombings in India Raise Fear of Sectarian Violence — NEW DELHI, March 7 — A series of apparently coordinated bombs went off in the ancient Hindu holy city of Benares in eastern India this evening, raising the specter of sectarian violence. — The first bomb exploded at the Sankat Mochan temple shortly …
Digby / Hullabaloo:
Democratic Sin Eaters — Speaking of Amy Sullivan's new article in the Washington Monthly about evangelicals leaving the Republican fold to join the Democrats, Kevin says: … Sullivan's article is only partially persuasive to me. I'm with Atrios on this.
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