Top Items:
Laurie Kellman / Associated Press:
Senate to tackle gay marriage ban — WASHINGTON - President Bush and congressional Republicans are aiming the political spotlight this week on efforts to ban gay marriage, with events at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue — all for a constitutional amendment with scant chance of passage but wide appeal among social conservatives.
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John / AMERICAblog:
ACTION ALERT: Call Congress, ask if THEY'RE defending THEIR marriages — UPDATE: Here how one call went to Senator Crapo's office (R-ID) - it's hysterical - and a few other offices. And you can now watch Bush's bigoted White House announcement about the amendment today.
Discussion:
Democrats.com, The Rude Pundit, WTF Is It Now??, Bark Bark Woof Woof and Pam's House Blend
White House:
President Discusses Marriage Protection Amendment — THE PRESIDENT: Thank you all. Please be seated. Good afternoon, and welcome to the White House. It is a pleasure to be with so many fine community leaders, scholars, family organizations, religious leaders, Republicans, Democrats, independents.
Ronald Brownstein / Los Angeles Times:
Gay Marriage Vote Serves Only to Divide Nation — 'That's vanity ... not politics," President John F. Kennedy once snapped at an aide who wanted him to provoke a confrontation with Congress on an issue Kennedy knew he didn't have the votes to pass. — Times change, don't they?
Discussion:
Think Progress, The Claremont Institute, ECHIDNE OF THE SNAKES and The Washington Monthly
Maria Newman / New York Times:
Senate Debates Gay Marriage Ban Unlikely to Pass — President Bush reaffirmed his support for a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage today as the Senate began several days of debate on the measure, which is not expected to be passed. — The president, speaking …
Julian E. Barnes / Los Angeles Times:
Army Manual to Skip Geneva Detainee Rule — The Pentagon's move to omit a ban on prisoner humiliation from the basic guide to soldier conduct faces strong State Dept. opposition. — WASHINGTON — The Pentagon has decided to omit from new detainee policies a key tenet of the Geneva Convention …
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Jeff Goldstein / protein wisdom:
Conservative Stalwart Andrew Sullivan is MORE MORAL THAN THOU (UPDATED) — At the risk of prompting unstable people to issue anonymous threats against his beagle, I reprint this latest from The Daily Dish: … Sullivan pronounces on the debased status of a once great nation in response …
Ian Austen / New York Times:
In Bomb Plot News Coverage, a Toronto Newspaper Shines — TORONTO, June 4 — The competition between Toronto's four major daily newspapers is often intense, particularly over crime news. But its results are rarely as one-sided as the coverage that followed the arrests of 17 Ontario residents …
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Beth Duff-Brown / Associated Press:
Paper: Canadian police supplied explosives
Paper: Canadian police supplied explosives
Discussion:
Villainous Company, A Blog For All, Yourish.com, Darleen's Place, Daimnation! and Regnum Crucis
David Carr / New York Times:
Show Me the Bodies — FOR war photography, Vietnam remains the bloody yardstick. During the Tet offensive, on Feb. 9, 1968, Time magazine ran a story that was accompanied by photos showing dozens of dead American soldiers stacked like cordwood. The images remind that the dead are both the most patient and affecting of all subjects.
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The Raw Story:
Bush press secretary says gay marriage amendment civil rights measure; Stumbles when asked to define civil rights — At the White House press briefing today, Bush press secretary Tony Snow signaled that Bush considers an amendment barring same-sex marriage a "civil rights" matter …
Marc Lacey / New York Times:
Islamic Militants Declare Victory in Mogadishu — NAIROBI, Kenya, June 5 — Islamic militias declared victory today over Somalia's traditional warlords in the battle for control of Mogadishu, quelling months of fierce fighting in the lawless capital but raising new questions about whether this regime …
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Sebastian Mallaby / Washington Post:
Reward for the Hereditary Elite . . . It doesn't matter if you are liberal or conservative, Democrat or Republican. There is no possible excuse for doing what Congress is poised to do this week: Abolish the estate tax. — The federal government faces a future of expanding deficits.
Peter Wehner / Washington Post:
And Now For Some Good News — By now Americans know the litany: The nation is engaged in a difficult and costly war in Iraq; Iran is trying to build a nuclear weapon; gas prices are high; the costs of reconstructing the Gulf Coast region are huge; illegal immigration is a major problem — and more.
Discussion:
The Liquid List, The Reaction, Blogs for Bush, Decision '08, Blue Crab Boulevard and The American Thinker
Bob Kemper / Atlanta Journal-Constitution:
McKinney probe enters 3rd month — Police unions criticize U.S. attorney — Washington - The grand jury investigation of 4th District Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney enters its third month today with no hint from the federal prosecutor about how much longer it will take to settle a case …
Jackson Diehl / Washington Post:
Iran's China Syndrome — In the middle of a tirade about the pointlessness of talking with the Bush administration, a senior Iranian official I met in Tehran last month abruptly paused and asked if he could speak off the record. Then he said: "What we need is an American president …
Media Matters for America:
Cavuto: Media biased if they cover Iraqi insurgency, biased if they don't … On the June 1 edition of Fox News' Your World, host Neil Cavuto complained that "the media is all over" the alleged killings of Iraqi civilians by U.S. Marines in Haditha, Iraq, but that there has been …