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Katherine Shrader / Associated Press:
Rice meets with Lebanon PM in Beirut — WASHINGTON - In a surprise visit to Beirut, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice praised the beleaguered prime minister of Lebanon on Monday for his courage in struggling to contain the fighting between the Hezbollah militia and Israel.
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Washington Post:
Rice Makes Unannounced Visit to Beirut — BEIRUT, July 24 — Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice made an unannounced stop in Beirut Monday in an effort to shore up Lebanon's fragile government, beleaguered by nearly two weeks of relentless bombing raids that have wrecked much of the country's infrastructure …
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TAPPED, The Left Coaster, Decision '08, The Talent Show, Political Animal and The Agonist
Valerie Olander / Detroit News:
Kerry knocks Bush on handling of Mideast conflict — U.S. Sen. John Kerry, D- Mass., who was in town Sunday to help Gov. Jennifer Granholm campaign for her re-election bid, took time to take a jab at the Bush administration for its lack of leadership in the Israeli-Lebanon conflict.
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Howard Kurtz / Washington Post:
A War Between Neighbors, Seen From Their Back Yard — Brian Williams was talking to a Detroit native fighting in the Israeli military as the soldier was launching a round of shells into southern Lebanon. — "One of these shells," the NBC anchor told him, "today or tomorrow …
Captain Ed / Captain's Quarters:
New, Improved John Kerry — Now With Even Less Substance!
New, Improved John Kerry — Now With Even Less Substance!
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GOP Bloggers
Rowan Scarborough / Washington Times:
U.S. doubts Israeli figures about damage of air war
U.S. doubts Israeli figures about damage of air war
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Jerusalem Post, Whiskey Bar, Outside The Beltway, Captain's Quarters, The News Blog and Below The Beltway
Christy Hardin Smith / Firedoglake:
Dialing for Spines...And the Constitution — Last week Pachacutec asked all of the Roots project members to reach out to their senators to find out how they intended to vote on Arlen Specter's revision of FISA legislation. [If you haven't yet joined the Roots Project, you should] (see UPDATE below).
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Arlen Specter / Washington Post:
Surveillance We Can Live With — President Bush's electronic surveillance program has been a festering sore on our body politic since it was publicly disclosed last December. Civil libertarians, myself included, have insisted that the program must be subject to judicial review to ensure compliance with the Fourth Amendment.
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Captain's Quarters, The Strata-Sphere, Begging To Differ, TalkLeft and Bark Bark Woof Woof
Glenn Greenwald / Unclaimed Territory:
Specter instructs us to be grateful to the President — Sen. Arlen Specter has an Op-Ed in this morning's Washington Post which attempts to justify his proposed FISA legislation — legislation which, at its core, renders legal the President's lawbreaking and cedes to the President the right …
Patrick Cockburn / Independent:
Sectarian break-up of Iraq is now inevitable, admit officials — The Iraqi Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki, meets Tony Blair in London today as violence in Iraq reaches a new crescendo and senior Iraqi officials say the break up of the country is inevitable.
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Nicholas Sambanis / New York Times:
It's Official: There Is Now a Civil War in Iraq
It's Official: There Is Now a Civil War in Iraq
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american footprints
Jeff Jacoby / Boston Globe:
'Chickenhawk' — ``IT'S TOUCHING that you're so concerned about the military in Iraq," a reader in Wyoming e-mails in response to one of my columns on the war. ``But I have a suspicion you're a phony. So tell me, what's your combat record? Ever serve?"
Dean Barnett / Weekly Standard:
Kos, Hezbollah, and Israel — WHEN THE BOMBS began to fall in the Middle East, the Daily Kos had a problem. And the Daily Kos's problem could soon be the Democratic party's problem. — On the one hand, one of the most solid blocks of support for the Democratic party is America's Jewish community.
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Jeff Goldstein / protein wisdom:
"The Lord Will Smite" — From progressive lefty site the Booman Tribune: … Wow!—a hard leftist wishing harm to a political opponent's children? Where have I heard that before? — A note to the progressive left: for behavior such as this to be labeled "non-representative" …
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Booman Tribune, Ace of Spades HQ, Little Green Footballs, The American Thinker and Cold Fury
Joby Warrick / Washington Post:
Pakistan Expanding Nuclear Program — Plant Underway Could Generate Plutonium for 40 to 50 Bombs a Year, Analysts Say — Pakistan has begun building what independent analysts say is a powerful new reactor for producing plutonium, a move that, if verified, would signal a major expansion …
Eric Pfeiffer / Washington Times:
Democrats pledge to fight Bolton nod — Senate Democrats have promised a "bruising fight" over the administration's nomination of John R. Bolton as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. — Mr. Bolton's nomination was sent out of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last year without …
Thomas E. Ricks / Washington Post:
'It Looked Weird and Felt Wrong' — From its first days in Iraq in April 2003, the Army's 4th Infantry Division made an impression on soldiers from other units — the wrong one. — "We slowly drove past 4th Infantry guys looking mean and ugly," recalled Sgt. Kayla Williams …
Annabelle McDonald / The Australian:
Peace prize winner 'could kill' Bush — NOBEL peace laureate Betty Williams displayed a flash of her feisty Irish spirit yesterday, lashing out at US President George W.Bush during a speech to hundreds of schoolchildren. — Campaigning on the rights of young people at the Earth Dialogues forum …
Discussion:
The Strata-Sphere
Mark Mazzetti / New York Times:
U.S. Cuts in Africa Aid Said to Hurt War on Terror — WASHINGTON, July 22 — The Bush administration and Congress have slashed millions of dollars of military aid to African nations in recent years, moves that Pentagon officials and senior military commanders say have undermined American efforts …