Top Items:
Guardian:
United States to Israel: you have one more week to blast Hizbullah — Bush 'gave green light' for limited attack, say Israeli and UK sources — The US is giving Israel a window of a week to inflict maximum damage on Hizbullah before weighing in behind international calls for a ceasefire in Lebanon …
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Ravi Nessman / Associated Press:
Israeli ground troops enter Lebanon — JERUSALEM - Israel declared Tuesday it was ready to fight Hezbollah guerrillas for several more weeks, raising doubts about international efforts to broker an immediate cease-fire in the fighting that has killed more than 260 people and displaced 500,000.
Discussion:
Captain's Quarters, Counterterrorism Blog, AMERICAblog, Assorted Babble, THE NEWS BLOG and lgf
Debbie Schlussel:
Most Americans in Lebanon Are Hezbollah Supporters; U.S. Taxes Shouldn't Fund Their Return — **** AS READ ON THE AIR TODAY BY RUSH LIMBAUGH—THANKS, RUSH! **** ALSO, SCROLL DOWN FOR UPDATES **** — One thing is lost in all the press coverage of the whining Americans who went to Lebanon …
New York Times:
Arming of Hezbollah Reveals U.S. and Israeli Blind Spots — WASHINGTON, July 18 — The power and sophistication of the missile and rocket arsenal that Hezbollah has used in recent days has caught the United States and Israel off guard, and officials in both countries are just now learning …
Discussion:
The Agonist
CNN:
Stranded in bomb-ravaged Beirut — Westerners scramble to leave as fighting intensifies — BEIRUT, Lebanon (CNN) — Westerners have piled on to cruise ships to flee war-torn Lebanon, but tens of thousands remain stranded in the capital Tuesday waiting for help to arrive.
Caroline Drees / Reuters:
FBI eyes Hizbollah in US as tensions with Iran rise — NEW YORK (Reuters) - The FBI is trying to ferret out possible Hizbollah agents in the United States amid concerns that rising U.S.-Iranian tensions could trigger attacks on American soil, FBI officials said.
Reuters:
Iran's Hizbollah says ready to attack US, Israel —Text+TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran's Hizbollah, which claims links to the Lebanese group of the same name, said on Tuesday it stood ready to attack Israeli and U.S. interests worldwide. — "We have 2,000 volunteers who have registered since last year …
Murray Waas / National Journal:
Bush Blocked Justice Department Investigation — Attorney General Alberto Gonzales testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee today that President Bush personally halted an internal Justice Department investigation into whether Gonzales and other senior department officials acted within …
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Mark Sherman / Associated Press:
Bush blocked eavesdropping program probe — WASHINGTON - President Bush personally blocked a Justice Department investigation of the anti-terror eavesdropping program that intercepts Americans' international calls and e-mails, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said Tuesday.
Think Progress:
Brownback Holds Up Drawing Of Embryo, Asks 'Are You Going To Kill Me?' — Sen. Sam Brownback (R-KS) is leading the opposition to the H.R. 810, the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act. On Saturday, the Washington Post reported that Brownback has used a deceptive and false report …
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James Wolcott:
ROVING HANDS — Most of the commentary I've seen regarding President Bush's impromptu shoulder-rub/aborted massage of German Chancellor Angela Merkel at the G8 summit has treated the incident as a light, wacky divertissement, much like Bush's goofball attempt to make a dramatic exit …
Discussion:
The Democratic Daily, The Raw Story, Feministe, Confederate Yankee, Wizbang, PSoTD and Preemptive Karma
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Jim Galloway / Atlanta Journal-Constitution:
Reed concedes — Former Christian Coalition leader Ralph Reed conceded defeat about 9:50 p.m. in Georgia's Republican primary for lieutenant governor. — "Tonight my candidacy for lieutenant governor comes to an end," he said. — He promoied to work for the GOP ticket, including Sen. Casey Cagle …
Discussion:
CQPolitics.com, The Moderate Voice, Legal Fiction, Booman Tribune, Eschaton and BluegrassReport.org
The Poor Man Institute:
Keep it up — Glenn Greenwald - like David Neiwert - spends a lot of his time cataloging, recording, and referencing the extremist, often eliminationist rhetoric which has become the standard form of "debate" in the modern right-wing media. This is exhausting, thankless work - I tried …
Discussion:
damnum absque injuria, Patterico's Pontifications, Right Wing Nut House, Dean's World and Instaputz
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Louis Meixler / Associated Press:
Turkey signals it's prepared to enter Iraq — ANKARA, Turkey - Turkish officials signaled Tuesday they are prepared to send the army into northern Iraq if U.S. and Iraqi forces do not take steps to combat Turkish Kurdish guerrillas there — a move that could put Turkey on a collision course with the United States.
Discussion:
Middle Earth Journal
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Taegan Goddard's Political Wire:
In Connecticut, Can Republicans Push Schlesinger? — Hartford Courant columnist Kevin Rennie sends us this exclusive dispatch on the Republican jockeying to come up with a better U.S. Senate candidate in Connecticut. — Having failed last week to escort Republican U.S. Senate nominee Alan Schlesinger …
Discussion:
Connecticut Local Politics
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Jim Abrams / Associated Press:
House Rejects Gay Marriage Ban Amendment — The House on Tuesday rejected a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage, ending for another year a congressional debate that supporters of the ban hope will still reverberate in this fall's election. — The 236-187 vote for the proposal …
Monica Davey / New York Times:
Chicago Weighs New Prohibition: Bad-for-You Fats — CHICAGO, July 14 — In Grant Park, this city's front yard along Lake Michigan, a dizzying pack of people filled the streets evening after evening, all holding their gazes firmly on the little plates in their hands, loaded with catfish beignets …