Top Items:
bizjournals:
HUD secretary's blunt warning — Alphonso Jackson says deal was scuttled after contractor admits not liking Bush — Once the color barrier has been broken, minority contractors seeking government work may need to overcome the Bush barrier. — That's the message U.S. Housing …
Discussion:
The Carpetbagger Report, Sirotablog, Wonkette, Talking Points Memo, The Washington Monthly, Shakespeare's Sister, Midtopia and QandO
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Judd / Think Progress:
Housing Sec. Canceled Contract Because Contractor Criticized Bush, Apparently Violating Law — Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Alfonso Jackson publicly admitted that he canceled a government contract with a business because the CEO was critical of President Bush. From the Dallas Business Journal:
The Raw Story:
Senator demands resignation of Housing Secretary after 'don't like Bush' dispute — Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) called on President Bush to ask for the immediate resignation of the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Alphonso Jackson if a report about government contracts being awarded based …
Digby / Hullabaloo:
Lapfull of Dick — Richard Cohen got 2,000 mean e-mails and this signals the end of the Democratic party. I'll leave you to figure out why that should follow. In case Cohen hasn't noticed nobody on the f**king planet likes squishy faux liberal courtiers. There's no political downside to hating Richard Cohen.
Discussion:
Eschaton, The Political Pit Bull, The American Street, The Huffington Post, Sadly, No!, TAPPED and MyDD
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Captain Ed / Captain's Quarters:
Will Rage Undo The Democrats? — Two items from prominent opinion journalists point to a meltdown in the Democratic base even as they close in on a vulnerable GOP in midterm elections. Jonah Goldberg and Richard Cohen have one thing in common: irrational e-mail.
Richard Cohen / Washington Post:
Digital Lynch Mob
Digital Lynch Mob
Discussion:
Michael Bérubé's "Web" "Log", skippy the bush kangaroo, The Huffington Post, Daily Kos, The Mahablog, The American Street, PSoTD, Pharyngula, Confederate Yankee, Balloon Juice, Orcinus, TAPPED, Environmental Republican, Shakespeare's Sister, Mathew Gross, No More Mister Nice Blog, Crossing the Rubicon2, Gay Patriot, Blue Crab Boulevard, The Real Ugly American.com, Wonkette, A Tiny Revolution, Democratic Underground, Done With Mirrors, Brad DeLong's Semi …, The Influence Peddler, Ankle Biting Pundits › News, Daily Pundit, PunditGuy, Michelle Malkin and Shadow of the Hegemon
Jonathan Chait / The New Republic:
STYLE POINTS: — Over at Tapped, Greg Sargent has an interesting take on my post from earlier today. He writes, "it was Chait who threw down the gauntlet first and set an 'uncivil' tone in the initial column." — Ah, I see. So before I wrote my column last Sunday …
Discussion:
Sadly, No!, The Washington Monthly, TAPPED, Ezra Klein, MaxSpeak, Booman Tribune and Andrew Sullivan
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Tamara Traubman / Haaretz:
New U.K. attempt to boycott Israeli universities, professors — The largest university and college lecturers union in Britain is likely to decide shortly to recommend that its 67,000 members boycott Israeli lecturers and academic institutions that do not publicly declare their opposition to Israeli policy in the territories.
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Neil A. Lewis / New York Times:
Bar Panel Downgrades Bush Nominee for Judiciary — WASHINGTON, May 8 — The American Bar Association said Monday that it had downgraded its rating of one of President Bush's judicial nominees. — The A.B.A. committee that evaluates judicial nominees said that the nominee, Brett M. Kavanaugh …
Discussion:
PointofLaw.com
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Christine Hauser / New York Times:
Iranian's Letter to Bush Emerges — In his letter to President Bush, Iran's President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, declared that Western-style democracy had failed and that the use of secret prisons in Europe and aspects of the war in Iraq could not be reconciled with Mr. Bush's Christian values.
New York Times:
White House Begins Push for C.I.A. Pick — WASHINGTON, May 8 — The White House moved forcefully on Monday to quell opposition from Republicans on Capitol Hill over the president's selection of a military officer, Gen. Michael V. Hayden, as the next director of the demoralized Central Intelligence Agency.
RELATED ITEMS:
Jeff Green / CNN:
U.S. has second worst newborn death rate in modern world, report says — Research: 2 million babies die in first 24 hours each year worldwide — (CNN) — An estimated 2 million babies die within their first 24 hours each year worldwide and the United States has the second worst newborn mortality rate …
Robin Toner / New York Times:
Optimistic, Democrats Debate the Party's Vision — WASHINGTON, May 8 — With Democrats increasingly optimistic about this year's midterm elections and the landscape for 2008, intellectuals in the center and on the left are debating how to sharpen the party's identity and present a clear alternative …
Sheryl Gay Stolberg / New York Times:
Senate Rejects Award Limits in Malpractice — WASHINGTON, May 8 — The Senate on Monday once again rebuffed a Republican effort to limit jury awards in medical malpractice cases, taking the issue — a high priority for both President Bush and the majority leader, Senator Bill Frist — off the agenda for this year.
Agence France Presse:
Flying robot attack "unstoppable": experts — It may sound like science fiction, but the prospect that suicide bombers and hijackers could be made redundant by flying robots is a real one, according to experts. — The technology for remote-controlled light aircraft is now highly advanced …
Discussion:
In From the Cold, Blue Crab Boulevard, USS Neverdock, The Glittering Eye and Texas Rainmaker
Michelle Roberts / Newhouse News:
Recruiting Abuses Mount as Army Struggles to Meet Goals — PORTLAND, Ore. — Jared Guinther is 18. Tall and lanky, he will graduate from high school in June. Girls think he's cute, until they try to talk to him and he stammers or just stands there — silent.
Natalie Angier / New York Times:
One Thing They Aren't: Maternal — Oh, mothers! Dear noble, selfless, tender and ferocious defenders of progeny all across nature's phylogeny: How well you deserve our admiration as Mother's Day draws near, and how photogenically you grace the greeting cards that we thrifty offspring will send in lieu of a proper gift.
Washington Post:
Another Possible Bump to the Debt Ceiling — A $2.7 trillion budget plan pending before the House would raise the federal debt ceiling to nearly $10 trillion, less than two months after Congress last raised the federal government's borrowing limit. — The provision — buried on page 121 …
James Glanz / New York Times:
Killings in Iraq Spawn Search for Missing Funds — BAGHDAD, Iraq, May 8 — The killing of Fern Holland, a human rights worker from Oklahoma, remains unsolved and as mysterious as it was when her body was found riddled with bullets on a desolate stretch of road near one of Iraq's southern holy cities in March 2004.