Top Items:
New York Times:
G.O.P. Senators and Bush Reach Wiretap Accord — WASHINGTON, March 7 — Moving to tamp down Democratic calls for an investigation of the administration's domestic eavesdropping program, Republicans on the Senate Intelligence Committee said Tuesday that they had reached agreement with the White House …
Discussion:
CNN, Booman Tribune, No More Mister Nice Blog, The Blogging of the President, The Carpetbagger Report, Left in the West, The Strata-Sphere, Hit and Run, TAPPED, JustOneMinute, Reuters, PBD, The Left Coaster, Bring it On!, The Next Hurrah, Stop The ACLU, Think Progress, Daily Kos, The Heretik, Confederate Yankee, PoliBlog, The Jawa Report v3.0 Beta, Decision '08, newsrack blog, The Rude Pundit, The American Street, Shakespeare's Sister, Prairie Weather, Democratic Veteran, AMERICAblog, Brainster's Blog, Ace of Spades HQ and Pensito Review
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Glenn Greenwald / Unclaimed Territory:
Post-mortem on the Intelligence Committee vote — (updated below) — The Senate Intelligence Committee yesterday rejected Sen. Rockefeller's motion to hold hearings to investigate the President's warrantless eavesdropping program by an 8-7, strict party line vote.
Discussion:
Decision '08, RedState, State of the Day, The Democratic Party, Thoughts from Kansas, Bring it On!, rubber hose and firedoglake
Walter Pincus / Washington Post:
Senate Panel Blocks Eavesdropping Probe — The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence voted along party lines yesterday to reject a Democratic proposal to investigate the Bush administration's domestic surveillance program and instead approved establishing, with White House approval, a seven-member panel to oversee the effort.
Sylvia Moreno / Washington Post:
DeLay Wins Tex. GOP Primary — Former House Majority Leader Easily Beats Three Challengers — AUSTIN, March 7 — Rep. Tom DeLay, facing an unusual four-way Republican primary, won the party's nomination Tuesday, calling his victory a rejection by voters of "the politics of personal destruction."
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Thomas B. Edsall / Washington Post:
Democrats' Data Mining Stirs an Intraparty Battle — With Private Effort on Voter Information, Ickes and Soros Challenge Dean and DNC — A group of well-connected Democrats led by a former top aide to Bill Clinton is raising millions of dollars to start a private firm that plans …
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Raymond Hernandez / New York Times:
Clinton Says New York, but Money Hints at '08 — WASHINGTON, March 7 — Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton is locking up some of the Democratic Party's top fund-raisers, in a move that party officials and strategists say seems intended to complicate the efforts of any potential rivals in the 2008 presidential contest.
George W. Bush / White House:
Executive Order: Responsibilities of the Department of Homeland Security with Respect to Faith-Based and Community Initiatives — By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, and in order to help the Federal Government coordinate …
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Spencer S. Hsu / Washington Post:
Bush Orders DHS to Create Center for Faith-Based Aid — President Bush ordered the Department of Homeland Security yesterday to create a center for faith-based and community initiatives within 45 days to eliminate regulatory, contracting and programmatic barriers to providing federal funds …
Bill Brubaker / Washington Post:
Rumsfeld Says Media Exaggerating Iraqi Civilian Deaths — Defense Secretary Suggests Misreporting Swaying Public Opinion — Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld today presented an upbeat report of the conflict in Iraq and said he agrees with the commander of the U.S.-led coalition …
Discussion:
The Huffington Post, The Heretik, Rising Hegemon, Needlenose, CNN, The Left Coaster, Waveflux, AMERICAblog and Daily Kos
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Guardian:
US envoy to Iraq: 'We have opened the Pandora's box' — · 80% of Americans think civil war likely — · Rumsfeld accuses Tehran of fomenting conflict — Julian Borger in Washington and Ewen MacAskill — The US ambassador to Baghdad conceded yesterday that the Iraq invasion …
George Jahn / Associated Press:
Iran Threatens U.S. With 'Harm and Pain' — VIENNA, Austria (AP) — Iran threatened the United States with "harm and pain" Wednesday for its role in hauling Tehran before the U.N. Security Council over its nuclear program. America's ambassador to the United Nations said Iran's comments reflected the menace it poses.
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Dana Milbank / Washington Post:
At Conservative Forum on Bush, Everybody's a Critic — If the ancient political wisdom is correct that a charge unanswered is a charge agreed to, the Bush White House pleaded guilty yesterday at the Cato Institute to some extraordinary allegations. — "We did ask a few members …
Jonathan Weisman / Washington Post:
House Agrees To Vote On Ports — Efforts by the White House to hold off legislation challenging a Dubai-owned company's acquisition of operations at six major U.S. ports collapsed yesterday when House Republican leaders agreed to allow a vote next week that could kill the deal.
William Saletan / Slate:
Take the Fifth — South Dakota's invitation to snuff your embryo. — Monday morning, Gov. Mike Rounds signed into law a ban on nearly all abortions in South Dakota. He called it a "direct challenge" to Roe v. Wade. But the ban also poses a direct challenge to the pro-life movement …
Discussion:
Crescat Sententia, The American Scene, Bark Bark Woof Woof, ACSBlog, Asymmetrical Information and SCOTUSblog
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Chris Bowers / MyDD:
Super Late Night Thread — Well, I ain't going to DC tomorrow (I mean today) for sure now. Here is an insanely late-night thread on the election for those of you still awake (I guess it is only 11:20 on the West Coast). — Well, that's it for me. In 2000, I went to bed about 5 minutes …
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Jamie Glazov / Front Page Magazine:
Symposium: To Rape an Unveiled Woman — A Muslim rape epidemic in sweeping over Europe — and over many other nations host to immigrants from the Islamic world. The direct connection between the rapes and Islam is irrefutable, as Muslims are significantly overrepresented among convicted rapists and rape suspects.
Jeff Jarvis / BuzzMachine:
NJ's dumb bill on anonymity — New Jersey Assemblyman Peter Biondi has proposed a numbskulled, unconstitutional, offensive, and downright stupid bill that would force operators of internet services — presumably, forums, chats, blog hosts, web hosts, perhaps even email services and ISPs …
Discussion:
bluejersey.net, Instapundit.com, Beltway Blogroll, A Blog For All, Centerfield, PointofLaw.com, CNET News.com, Right Wing News and Prometheus 6
Bloomberg:
Libby Briefings Request Would Be a Security Risk, CIA Says — March 7 (Bloomberg) — A request by former White House official I. Lewis ``Scooter'' Libby for copies of daily presidential briefings to help in his defense poses a risk to national security, the CIA said in court papers in his case.
Zachary A. Goldfarb / Washington Post:
Delivering the Conservative Line on 'Monologues' — Monique Stuart was a teenager when Eve Ensler's "The Vagina Monologues" first appeared off-off-Broadway a decade ago. — But by the time the 24-year-old saw the play in her senior year of college, she'd already made up her mind that it wasn't worth much.
George F. Will / Washington Post:
Professors of Pretense — The institutional vanity and intellectual slovenliness of America's campus-based intelligentsia have made academia more peripheral to civic life than at any time since the 19th century. On Monday its place at the periphery was underscored as the Supreme Court …
Discussion:
Althouse, The Volokh Conspiracy, PrawfsBlawg, PointofLaw.com, The Sundries Shack and ProfessorBainbridge.com
New York Times:
Elite Troops Get Expanded Role on Intelligence — WASHINGTON, March 7 — The military is placing small teams of Special Operations troops in a growing number of American embassies to gather intelligence on terrorists in unstable parts of the world and to prepare for potential missions to disrupt, capture or kill them.
Associated Press:
New animal resembles furry lobster — PARIS, France (AP) — Divers have discovered a new crustacean in the South Pacific that resembles a lobster and is covered with what looks like silky, blond fur, French researchers said Tuesday. — Scientists said the animal, which they named Kiwa hirsuta …
Discussion:
Running Scared
Nick Schulz / Slate:
The Crappiest Invention of All Time — Why the auto-flushing toilet must die. — After a stint of telecommuting, I recently returned to working in a large downtown building. My office shares a men's room with everyone who works on our level. The bathroom sports three stalls …