Top Items:
New York Times:
Time for Facts, Not Resolutions — We understand the frustration that led Senator Russell Feingold to introduce a measure that would censure President Bush for authorizing warrantless spying on Americans. It's galling to watch from the outside as the Republicans and most Democrats refuse …
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Unclaimed Territory:
The new Nixon Law is introduced — that which the President does is legal — (updated below) — Michael DeWine yesterday introduced what he is calling The Terrorist Surveillance Act of 2006 (.pdf), co-sponsored by those independent maverick Republicans Olympia Snowe, Chuck Hagel and Lindsay Graham.
Charles Babington / Washington Post:
Bill Would Allow Warrantless Spying — GOP Plan Would Bring Surveillance Under Review of Congress, FISA Court — The Bush administration could continue its policy of spying on targeted Americans without obtaining warrants, but only if it justifies the action to a small group of lawmakers …
Discussion:
Daily Kos, Balloon Juice, The Carpetbagger Report, The Huffington Post, Vichy Democrats and Truthdig
ABCNEWS:
New Documents from Saddam Hussein's Archives Discuss Bin Laden, WMDs — U.S. Government Releases Papers From Saddam's Reign — March 16, 2006 — Following are the ABC News Investigative Unit's summaries of four of the nine Iraqi documents from Saddam Hussein's government, which were released by the U.S. government Wednesday.
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The Aardvark / Abu Aardvark:
Iraqi document release — I've said before that the release of Iraqi documents for which Steve Hayes has long been agitating is a good idea. For all the fun I've had with Hayes in the past, it's hard to disagree with making information available - as long as it doesn't compromise current intelligence …
Discussion:
Natalie Solent, The Washington Monthly, The Anchoress, Informed Comment, The Strata-Sphere and Flopping Aces
Christopher / Back to Iraq 3.0:
Operation Overblown — BAGHDAD — Operation Swarmer is turning out to be much less than meets the eye, or the television camera, for that matter. … That sounds exciting! But according to a colleague of mine from TIME who traveled up there today on a U.S. embassy-sponsored trip …
Discussion:
State of the Day, Needlenose, James Wolcott, NewsHog, Comments From Left Field, AMERICAblog and Defense Tech
Ann Althouse / Althouse:
Distinguishing gay marriage and polygamy. — Charles Krauthammer says legalizing gay marriage paves the way to legalizing polygamy: … If Krauthammer has been writing about this subject for 10 years, it boggles the mind that the obvious distinction has not yet dawned on him.
Discussion:
The Volokh Conspiracy, Clayton Cramer's BLOG, Below The Beltway and Melanie Phillips's Diary
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apnews.excite.com:
Witness Tampering Cited in Moussaoui Case — WASHINGTON (AP) - Lawyers for two airlines being sued for damages by 9/11 victims prompted a federal lawyer to coach witnesses in the trial of al-Qaida conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui so the government's death penalty case would not undercut their defense, victims' lawyers allege.
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Dafydd / Big Lizards:
Moussaoui Case - Shocking Allegation
Moussaoui Case - Shocking Allegation
Discussion:
The Glittering Eye, Flopping Aces, Wizbang, Below The Beltway and The Pink Flamingo Bar Grill
Carl Hulse / New York Times:
Senate Approves Budget, Breaking Spending Limits — WASHINGTON, March 16 — The Senate narrowly approved a $2.8 trillion election-year budget Thursday that broke spending limits only hours after it increased federal borrowing power to avert a government default.
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Matt Stoller / MyDD:
Campaign Finance and Blogs: A Simple and Non-Legal Explanation — I updated this to include the media exemption, which I had forgotten. — Ok, so campaign finance regulations make my head hurt, so I'm going to try to explain the basic idea behind the differing bills instead of the legal ins-and-outs …
Discussion:
TAPPED, The Hotline's Blogometer, skippy the bush kangaroo, Daily Kos, Shakespeare's Sister, Calitics, Hugh Hewitt and Election Law
Jack Shafer / Slate:
Judith Miller's New Excuse — The former Times reporter tells Vanity Fair the "slanderous" bloggers destroyed her. — Judith Miller has a new alibi—the blogs done her in! — Writer Marie Brenner presents Miller's latest defense in an April Vanity Fair feature story about the fallout from the Valerie Plame investigation.
Mandi Bishop / woai.com:
Flying Cow Leaves Two Police Cars in Flames — Watch this story... Talk about a wild night near Seguin. A cow came flying out of its trailer, sent DPS and police scrambling, and left two police cars going up in flames. — "It was almost hard to believe," said Detective Sergeant Maureen Watson.
Jay Rosen / PressThink:
Twelve Newspapers in a State of Nature — Any of the ex-Knight-Ridder newspapers could become active agents in their own future. Exactly what they never were when HQ was in Miami and San Jose. Q: Where is HQ now? And who is there to get orders from? Who's going to tell you: no, you can't use a newspaper for that?
Washington Post:
Jessica Simpson, Smiling Up a Storm — Jessica Simpson is 30 minutes late; the scrum in Room 1539 of the Longworth House Office Building is getting vicious. AP, People and "Inside Edition" are here, bumping up against Christian Broadcasting Network, ESPN, Modern Health Care — all snarling for a good angle.
Jamie Coomarasamy / BBC:
US evangelicals warn Republicans — Prominent leaders from the Christian right have warned Republicans they must do more to advance conservative values ahead of the US mid-term elections. — Their message to Congress, controlled by Republicans, is "must do better".
Charles Lane / Washington Post:
Ginsburg Faults GOP Critics, Cites a Threat From 'Fringe' — Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg assailed the court's congressional critics in a recent speech overseas, saying their efforts "fuel" an "irrational fringe" that threatened her life and that of a colleague, former justice Sandra Day O'Connor.
David Ignatius / Washington Post:
Fighting Smarter In Iraq — BAGHDAD — Three years on, the U.S. military is finally becoming adept at fighting a counterinsurgency war in Iraq. Sadly, these are precisely the skills that should have been mastered before America launched its invasion in March 2003.