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Captain Ed / Captain's Quarters:
9/11 Commission Chairs Asked Keller To Shelve SWIFT Report — Outgoing Treasury Secretary John Snow, whose low-key leadership led to his eventual replacement, has ensured that he will make waves on his exit from the Bush Cabinet. Secretary Snow released a rebuttal to Bill Keller's wan explanation …
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Sheryl Gay Stolberg / New York Times:
Bush Says Report on Bank Data Was Disgraceful — WASHINGTON, June 26 — President Bush on Monday condemned as "disgraceful" the disclosure last week by The New York Times and other newspapers of a secret program to investigate and track terrorists that relies on a vast international database …
Eric Lipton / New York Times:
'Breathtaking' Waste and Fraud in Hurricane Aid — FEMA spends $250,000 a month to store about 10,000 empty mobile homes at an airfield in Hope, Ark. — WASHINGTON, June 26 — Among the many superlatives associated with Hurricane Katrina can now be added this one: it produced …
Dana Milbank / Washington Post:
In the Senate, Covering Themselves in Old Glory — The Citizens Flag Alliance, a group pushing for the Senate this week to pass a flag-burning amendment to the Constitution, just reported an alarming, 33 percent increase in the number of flag-desecration incidents this year.
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Carl Hulse / New York Times:
Senate Debates Flag Bill; Backers Seem Near Success
Senate Debates Flag Bill; Backers Seem Near Success
Discussion:
Hit and Run
Matthew Mosk / Washington Post:
Steele's Donor List Stirs Racial Questions — The fundraiser thrown for Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele on Thursday night, while ordinary in most ways, struck some African American leaders as notable because of the host. — Unlike the dozens of high-dollar events across the country …
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Christy Hardin Smith / Firedoglake:
Not Such a Rush... If I had to bet, I'd say that Roy Black is in a foul mood this morning. Nothing like cutting a sweet deal for a client and then having them screw it up within three months: it makes you look bad as an attorney because you've made representations about your client's willingness …
Discussion:
bradenton.com, James Wolcott, skippy the bush kangaroo, Thought Theater, Wonkette and Crooks and Liars
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Associated Press:
Limbaugh's latest drug run-in: Viagra — Police say commentator had drug without a prescription — WEST PALM BEACH, Florida (AP) — Rush Limbaugh was detained for about 3 1/2 hours at Palm Beach International Airport after authorities said they found a bottle of Viagra in his possession without a prescription.
Discussion:
cbs4.com, TPMmuckraker, The Moderate Voice, Macsmind, Billmon, Michelle Malkin, Crooks and Liars, Democrat Taylor Marsh …, The Carpetbagger Report, DownWithTyranny!, The Radio Equalizer, The Heretik, Assorted Babble, Pharyngula, Bark Bark Woof Woof, First Draft, AMERICAblog, Classical Values, PunditGuy, The Talent Show, PartisanTimes.com, skippy the bush kangaroo, Hang Right Politics, Eschaton, MyDD, Shakespeare's Sister, Pam's House Blend and The Left Coaster
Laurie Kellman / Associated Press:
Bush ignores laws he inks, vexing Congress — WASHINGTON - A bill becomes the rule of the land when Congress passes it and the president signs it into law, right? — Not necessarily, according to the White House. A law is not binding when a president issues a separate statement saying …
Dean Baquet / Los Angeles Times:
Why we ran the bank story — The Times editor on the paper's decision to expose U.S. money monitoring. — MANY READERS have been sharply critical of our decision to publish an article Friday on the U.S. Treasury Department's program to secretly monitor worldwide money transfers in an effort to track terrorist financing.
Discussion:
Hugh Hewitt, Winds of Change.NET, The Washington Monthly, Feministe, Blue Crab Boulevard, Marc Cooper and Don Surber
Raymond Hernandez / New York Times:
A Well-Known Political Blogger Is Hired by the Clinton Campaign — WASHINGTON, June 26 — Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign has hired Peter Daou, one of the most prominent political bloggers in the nation, to help disseminate her message in a forum that has not always been that hospitable to her.
Ibrahim Barzak / Associated Press:
Israeli soldier held in a 'secure place' — GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - A Palestinian militant leader said Tuesday a captured Israeli soldier was being held in a "secure place," and he claimed that his group also seized a Jewish settler in the West Bank. — The new claims came …
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Gardiner Harris / New York Times:
Top Democrat Finds F.D.A.'s Efforts Have Plunged — WASHINGTON, June 26 — A 15-month inquiry by a top House Democrat has found that enforcement of the nation's food and drug laws declined sharply during the first five years of the Bush administration. — For instance, the investigation found …
Art Buchwald / Washington Post:
When the Anchor Drops — Goodbye to Dan Rather. He was a good man and served CBS for 44 years with distinction. — Television is a tough business. When it's time to go, you go . And if you don't go the way they want you to, they get very upset. They tell the world …
Agence France Presse:
Harry Potter may perish in last book, author hints — Harry Potter may perish in the final installment of the boy wizard series in which two main characters die, author J.K. Rowling hinted in a television interview. — Speaking on Monday evening, Joanne Kathleen Rowling, 40 …
Michaelgalien / Liberty and Justice:
It's Official: Ayaan Hirsi Ali Keeps Dutch Nationality — NOS journaal reports that, during a meeting between different ministers - that lasted until well past midnight - the Dutch Cabinet decided that Ayaan Hirsi Ali is, and will remain, officially Dutch. Although Minister Verdonk …
Dexter Filkins / New York Times:
Taking Ramadi a Neighborhood at a Time — RAMADI, Iraq, June 26 — The 120-millimeter mortar shell landed with a crash in the middle of the new American-Iraqi outpost on Monday, hurling foot-long shards of metal and puncturing the chest of a young American soldier. — "What's the condition of the casualty?"
Michael Isikoff / Newsweek:
What the Government Knows — While an overseas program to track bank records has unleashed a political storm, the domestic Patriot Act has already made a wealth of financial data available to U.S. law enforcement agencies. — Christian Weidemann / AP — An aerial view of Swift's Belgian headquarters
Discussion:
TPMmuckraker