Top Items:
Wretchard / The Belmont Club:
A Knife-Thrower at the Carnival — Kofi Annan has accused Israel of deliberately targeting UN position in southern Lebanon. According to the Independent: … In order to have some sense of how plausible this accusation is, it would be useful to examine the statements of the UNIFIL itself prior to this incident.
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Guardian:
Annan: Israel bombed UN base for hours — Staff and agencies — The UN general secretary, Kofi Annan, today accused the Israeli military of carrying out a sustained bombing of the UN base on the Lebanon-Israel border that culminated in the killing of four unarmed monitors.
BBC:
Israel troops 'ignored' UN plea — UN peacekeepers in south Lebanon contacted Israeli troops 10 times before an Israeli bomb killed four of them, an initial UN report says. — The post was hit by a precision-guided missile after six hours of shelling, diplomats familiar with the probe say.
Discussion:
american footprints
Insight:
Dump Condi: Foreign policy conservatives charge State Dept. has hijacked Bush agenda — Conservative national security allies of President Bush are in revolt against Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, saying that she is incompetent and has reversed the administration's national security and foreign policy agenda.
Discussion:
The Mahablog, Outside The Beltway, The Next Hurrah, The Carpetbagger Report and Rising Hegemon
Associated Press:
U.N. Chief Accuses Hezbollah of 'Cowardly Blending' Among Refugees — LARNACA, Cyprus — The U.N. humanitarian chief accused Hezbollah on Monday of "cowardly blending" among Lebanese civilians and causing the deaths of hundreds during two weeks of cross-border violence with Israel.
David Ignatius / Washington Post:
A Way Forward — To stop the war in Lebanon, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will need to start with some basics: The best strategy for containing a militia such as Hezbollah is to build a strong Lebanese state; any lasting solution for this conflict will be political, not just military …
Fox News:
Hastert Rejects Calls to Disinvite al-Maliki to Speak to Congress — WASHINGTON — House Speaker Dennis Hastert has rejected calls Tuesday by congressional Democrats to cancel an address Wednesday by Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to a joint session of Congress.
Discussion:
Unqualified Offerings, Bull Moose, The Corner, Right Wing News, Booman Tribune, Say Anything and Brad DeLong's Semi …
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Michael R. Gordon / New York Times:
Battle for Baghdad Boils Down to Grabbing a Slice at a Time — BAGHDAD, Iraq, July 25 — The Bush administration's announcement on Tuesday that it will shift more forces to Baghdad is much more than a numbers game. It reflects a new strategy to reclaim control of the Iraqi capital and a new approach for deploying the troops.
Washington Post:
Bush to Add Troops in Baghdad, Citing 'Terrible' Sectarian Strife — President Bush said yesterday that he will send more U.S. forces and equipment to Baghdad as part of a fresh strategy to put down rising sectarian violence, abandoning a six-week-old operation that failed to pacify …
Carl Hulse / New York Times:
Senate Removes Abortion Option for Young Girls — WASHINGTON, July 25 — The Senate passed legislation Tuesday that would make it a federal crime to help an under-age girl escape parental notification laws by crossing state lines to obtain an abortion. — The bill was approved on a 65-to-34 vote …
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Charles Babington / Washington Post:
Interstate Abortion Bill Clears Senate
Interstate Abortion Bill Clears Senate
Discussion:
PoliPundit.com
Nell Henderson / Washington Post:
Tax Cuts May Come At a Price, Study Says — The federal government will need to either cut spending or raise taxes down the road to pay for extending President Bush's recent tax cuts, the Treasury Department said in a report released yesterday, dismissing the idea popular with many Republicans that such sacrifices can be avoided.
Guardian:
Iran warns the west: ignore us at your peril — Tehran predicts summit failure as UN observers die in Israeli airstrike — Iran warned the west yesterday that attempts to broker a Lebanon peace deal at today's Rome summit are destined to fail and it predicted a backlash across …
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Jennifer Harper / Washington Times:
50 percent of U.S. says Iraq had WMDs — Half of Americans now say Iraq had weapons of mass destruction when the United States invaded the country in 2003 — up from 36 percent last year, a Harris poll finds. Pollsters deemed the increase both "substantial" and "surprising" …
Discussion:
Secular Blasphemy, Bring it On!, JABBS, The Carpetbagger Report, Power Line, Unfogged and The Huffington Post
Christopher Hitchens / Slate:
Case Closed — THE TRUTH ABOUT THE IRAQI-NIGER "YELLOWCAKE" NEXUS. — Now that Joseph and Valerie Wilson's fantasies of having been persecuted by high officials in the administration have been so thoroughly dispelled by Robert Novak (and now that it seems the prosecutor has determined …
Mike Spector / Wall Street Journal:
Cry Bias, and Let Slip the Blogs of War — J.P. Borda started a Web log during his 2004 National Guard deployment in Afghanistan to keep in touch with his family. But when he got home, he decided it was the mainstream media that was out of touch with the war. — "You hear so much about what's going wrong," he says.
Radioblogger.com:
Chris Matthews comes unglued on the Imus In The Morning program. — If you're a rancher, according to Matthews, you can't be president. — Here is an excerpt of audio from Chris Matthews from earlier today on the Imus In The Morning program. Listening is fine, but you need to really read what he had to say.
Glenn Garvin / Miami Herald:
Fox News' Ailes says he's just getting started — Firing poison darts at his cable-news competitors and taunting his critics in the media, Fox News Channel boss Roger Ailes celebrated the 10th birthday of his network but instead of cake, served notice that his conquest of other television empires already is under way.
Discussion:
The Huffington Post
Mohammed Khaku / aljazeerah.info:
Senator Santorum Repugnant Remarks on Islam, Iran, and Syria — Sen. Rick Santorum (R., Pa.) remarks at the National Press Club on Wednesday July 19th 2006 calling for regime change in Iran and described "Islamic fascism" as the "great test" of this generation, as threatening to the United States …