Top Items:
StrategyPage:
Why Al Qaeda Is Retreating From Iraq — April 30, 2006: Despite the many brickbats of the media, al Qaeda has been defeated in Iraq, and is now retreating to lick its wounds where it can. If it can. Just over four and a half years, al Qaeda has gone from being the dominant terrorist group …
Discussion:
The Belmont Club
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Fareed Zakaria / Newsweek:
Osama Needs More Mud Huts — Global Islamic terrorism is the product of scattered groups. It has much less support in the Muslim world than people think. — May 8, 2006 issue - Imagine if a few months after September 11 someone had said to you, "Five years from now, in the space of a single week …
Kevin Drum / The Washington Monthly:
ZARQAWI STORY CONFIRMED....Two years ago, Jim Miklaszewski of NBC News reported that a few months after 9/11 the Pentagon drafted multiple plans to hit the camp of Abu Musab Zarqawi, the al-Qaeda terrorist who had taken up residence in Iraq's northern no-fly zone, outside Saddam Hussein's control.
A Senior Administration Official / Independent Sources:
Hiltzik Saga, The Denouement: Los Angeles Times Management Gets It A Little Right, A Little Wrong … The Los Angeles Times has disciplined sock-puppeteer columnist Michael Hiltzik. — For traditional media, his crime was pseudonymous posting. That was the gist of most of the published stories …
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Associated Press:
Day without immigrants approaches — Some big businesses closing for the day — NEW YORK (AP) — Now that immigrants have grabbed the nation's attention, what next? — Monday has been set aside for immigrants to boycott work, school and shopping to show how much they matter to their communities.
Monica Davey / New York Times:
With Calls for Boycott by Immigrants, Employers Gird for Unknown — Leading up to a new wave of immigration demonstrations around the country set for today, employers met with workers, posted letters on bulletin boards and in employee lunchrooms, and braced for the day ahead.
Washington Post:
Rift Could Diminish Boycott's Strength — Area Immigrant Groups Argue Over Movement's Path — Some local activists predicted that thousands of Washington area immigrants would participate in a national economic boycott today, but immigrant groups who have spoken out against the boycott …
New York Times:
Sharp Reaction to G.O.P. Plan on Gas Rebate — WASHINGTON, April 30 — The Senate Republican plan to mail $100 checks to voters to ease the burden of high gasoline prices is eliciting more scorn than gratitude from the very people it was intended to help. — Aides for several Republican …
Billmon:
American Nightmarez — If you want to see the difference between real political satire and the cheap imitation stuff, watch (or read) Stephen Colbert's merciless skewering of the Cheney administration and its media lapdogs, then go fork over your $10 and see the movie American Dreamz, which purports to do the same thing.
Discussion:
Blogcritics.org, KnoxViews, First Draft, A Tiny Revolution, Democrat Taylor Marsh …, Hullabaloo and Middle Earth Journal
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Boston Globe:
Examples of the president's signing statements — Since taking office in 2001, President Bush has issued signing statements on more than 750 new laws, declaring that he has the power to set aside the laws when they conflict with his legal interpretation of the Constitution.
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Sudarsan Raghavan / Washington Post:
Divisions Cast Aside in Cry for Darfur — Clutching signs that read "Never Again," thousands of protesters from across religious and political divides descended on the Mall yesterday along with celebrities and politicians to urge President Bush to take stronger measures to end the violence …
Discussion:
The Democratic Daily Blog, OxBlog, Kesher Talk, The Carpetbagger Report, Don Surber and The Big Pharaoh
Arshad Sharif / Reuters:
FEATURE-Pakistani jihadi videos thrive on execution scenes — ISLAMABAD, April 30 (Reuters) - The movie salesman was selling jihad to the converted. — The buyers thronging his stall on the sidelines of a late-night rally in the Pakistani capital belonged to a crowd organised by a sectarian Sunni Muslim group.
Discussion:
Jihad Watch
Anne E. Kornblut / New York Times:
From Senator Clinton, a Lesson in Tactical Bipartisanship — WASHINGTON, April 29 — Only eight years have passed since Lindsey Graham, then an ambitious Republican member of the House, paraded over to the Senate each day to argue the impeachment case against President Bill Clinton.
Discussion:
David Sirota
Robert / Jihad Watch:
A trip to the nuthouse — A few days ago you could have checked my biography at Wikipedia and found this: … Of course, this has happened before. Jihad Watch News Editor Anne Crockett has noted here before that Wikipedia, since anyone can edit it, is absolutely worthless …
Newsweek:
Back on the Stand — Rove's latest trip to the grand jury leaves his fate in the Plame leak case as mysterious as ever. — May 8, 2006 issue - It was August 2004, and special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald was zeroing in on I. Lewis (Scooter) Libby as the leaker in the Valerie Plame case.
BBC:
Liberal thinker JK Galbraith dies — Renowned economist and liberal thinker John Kenneth Galbraith has died in the US at the age of 97. — He died on Saturday of natural causes in hospital in Cambridge, Massachusetts, his son Alan said. — The Canadian-born Harvard professor wrote …