Top Items:
Matt Stoller / MyDD:
Hail Mary Attempt #1: Lieberman's New Thug Strategy — So I just tracked this down with several sources, and something really strange is going on. Lieberman's campaign seems to arming his supporters with aggressive talking points in order to pick fights at Lamont events.
Discussion:
Firedoglake, ConnecticutBLOG, Brilliant at Breakfast, The American Street, Daily Kos, Fact-esque and The News Blog
RELATED ITEMS:
Tim Tagaris / Ned Lamont for Senate:
"Paid-for Thuggery" [70] — I am just as astonished as anyone else watching reports from today's event in Meriden fly around the blogosphere at break-neck speed. I'll be honest, at first I was a bit skeptical. I had heard stories of behind-the-scenes desperation and frustration from the Lieberman camp …
John Dickerson / Slate:
With Friends Like These — THE BLOGGER WHO ISN'T HELPING NED LAMONT. — Ned Lamont wants to be a senator from Connecticut and that means reacting quickly to issues that get overblown by bloggers and the media. He got his first test Wednesday. Right as Lamont was busy campaigning …
Jeff Greenfield / CNN:
It's more than just Iraq — Lieberman has long been on the outs with his party's base
It's more than just Iraq — Lieberman has long been on the outs with his party's base
Associated Press:
Ahmadinejad's call to destroy Israel draws French condemnation — Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Thursday the solution to the Middle East crisis was to destroy Israel, Iranian state media reported. — In a speech during an emergency meeting of Muslim leaders in Malaysia …
RELATED ITEMS:
Victor Davis Hanson / Real Clear Politics:
It's Not Just About Land — Despite the claims of terrorist organizations, Israel's current two-front war is not just about land. After all, Hezbollah and Hamas fired rockets from Lebanon and Gaza well after Israel had withdrawn from both places. — Indeed, if sacred Arab ground …
Jerusalem Post:
France slams call to destroy Israel — TEHERAN — Days after calling Iran a "stabilizing" force in the Middle East, French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy issued a statement harshly criticizing Iran's call on Thursday to destroy Israel. — "I totally condemn these words," …
Discussion:
Security Watchtower, Captain's Quarters, Hot Air, Liberty and Justice, Sister Toldjah, QandO and It Shines For All
Reuters:
UPDATE 1-US Senate blocks minimum wage hike, estate tax cut — WASHINGTON, Aug 3 (Reuters) - A group of mostly Democratic U.S. senators blocked legislation on Thursday that would have raised the federal minimum wage for the first time in a decade, because it also would have permanently cut estate taxes paid by the rich.
RELATED ITEMS:
E. J. Dionne Jr / Washington Post:
The End Of the Right? — Is conservatism finished? — What might have seemed an absurd question less than two years ago is now one of the most important issues in American politics. The question is being asked — mostly quietly but occasionally publicly — by conservatives themselves …
Charles Babington / Washington Post:
GOP Bid On Wages, Estate Tax Is Blocked — Senate Democrats blocked a Republican bid to combine a tax cut for the wealthy with a wage increase for the working poor last night, adding a volatile economic issue to this fall's congressional campaigns. — GOP leaders fell three votes short …
David Stout / New York Times:
U.S. Generals See Growing Threat of Civil War in Iraq — Two senior American military commanders said today that the wave of sectarian bloodshed in Iraq has heightened the danger that the country will slide into all-out civil war. — "I believe that the sectarian violence is probably …
RELATED ITEMS:
Charles Krauthammer / Washington Post:
Israel's Lost Moment — Israel's war with Hezbollah is a war to secure its northern border, to defeat a terrorist militia bent on Israel's destruction, to restore Israeli deterrence in the age of the missile. But even more is at stake. Israel's leaders do not seem to understand how ruinous …
Discussion:
american footprints, Israel Matzav, Outside The Beltway, Israellycool, Taylor Marsh, The Agonist and Blue Crab Boulevard
Fausta / faustasblog.com:
Reading between Granma's lines: a Yasser moment — In today's Granma, the official organ of the Cuban dictatorship, another statement from the Commander in Chief (n Spanish), dated August 1 but posted on August 2, … Interesting statement, indeed: … As Mario Loyola puts it,
Seattle Post-Intelligencer:
Was 9/11 an 'inside job'? — More than a third of the American public suspects that federal officials assisted in the 9/11 terrorist attacks or took no action to stop them so the United States could go to war in the Middle East, according to a new Scripps Howard/Ohio University poll.
USA Today:
What's the real federal deficit? — The federal government keeps two sets of books. — The set the government promotes to the public has a healthier bottom line: a $318 billion deficit in 2005. — The set the government doesn't talk about is the audited financial statement produced …
Discussion:
ParaPundit, Tapscott's Copy Desk, Thoughts of an Average Woman, EconoPundit, Balloon Juice and Daily Pundit
CNN:
Bombs pound Beirut for second night — Hezbollah threatens to attack Tel Aviv as payback for airstrikes — BEIRUT, Lebanon (CNN) — Israel launched a second straight night of airstrikes on the southern suburbs of the Lebanese capital on Friday, targeting an area known as a stronghold of Hezbollah militants.
Robert J. Samuelson / Washington Post:
A Reform That Worked — President Bill Clinton signed the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996, better known as "welfare reform," on Aug. 22 of that year. A decade later it stands as a rarity: a Washington success story.
Ynetnews:
EU enlists Syrian help with Lebanon crisis — EU envoy and Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos says following talks with Assad that Damascus agreed to play constructive role in settling conflict by pressing Hizbullah to accept ceasefire — News agencies