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 …
Chris Bowers / MyDD:
Two Stories and Two Primaries … Next, from the front-page of the Washington Post: … So, according to Gallup, Democrats are currently in their best position ever to retake the House of Representatives. Yet, despite this, for some reason we are subjected to front-page stories …
Associated Press:
DeLay to spend election night with lobbyists — WASHINGTON — Rep. Tom DeLay, whose association with lobbyist Jack Abramoff has left him politically vulnerable, is spending Texas' primary night Tuesday at a fundraiser hosted by two Washington lobbyists. — DeLay faces three opponents in the Republican primary.
Discussion:
The Carpetbagger Report
New York Post:
IRAQ: THE UNTOLD TRUTHS — AMONG the many positive stories you aren't being told about Iraq, the media ignored another big one last week: In the wake of the terrorist bombing of the Golden Mosque in Samarra, it was the Iraqi army that kept the peace in the streets.
Discussion:
Gina Cobb, The RCP Blog, TigerHawk, Dean's World, Power Line, GOP Bloggers and irishpennants.com
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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:
The Fourth Rail, QandO, Defense Tech, The Dread Pundit Bluto, On Deadline and GOP Bloggers
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 …
Discussion:
Thoughts of an Average Woman, Outside The Beltway, Marathon Pundit, BuzzMachine, Personal Democracy Forum, Wonkette, PoliBlog, The Talent Show, The Hotline's Blogometer, Norwegianity, PunditGuy, Blogmeister USA, Iowa Voice, Marquette Warrior, Attytood, A Chequer-Board of Nights …, Brainster's Blog, Crazy Politico's Rantings, The Conspiracy to Keep …, Roger Ailes, Left in the West, AFL-CIO Weblog, Economist's View, NewsBusters.org, On Tap and Crescat Sententia
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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:
ABCNEWS, Preemptive Karma, Body and Soul, IRAQ THE MODEL, David Corn, WhirledView, The Heretik, AMERICAblog, Pensito Review and The Washington Monthly
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Edward Wong / New York Times:
U.S. Takes Steps to Reduce Shiite Domination in Iraqi Military
U.S. Takes Steps to Reduce Shiite Domination in Iraqi Military
Discussion:
IntoxiNation
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 …
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.
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.
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 …
Mark Finkelstein / NewsBusters.org:
Lauer for the Defense: Matt Asks Colorado Teacher "Were You Set Up?" — Turns out the real culprit in the Colorado kerfluffle over the teacher who compared Pres. Bush to Hitler is . . . the student who complained about it. Just ask Matt Lauer. — Interviewing teacher Jay Bennish this morning …
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 …
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."