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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, The American Street, Ned Lamont for Senate, Daily Kos, Fact-esque and The News Blog
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Tim Tagaris / Ned Lamont for Senate:
"Paid-for Thuggery" [64] — 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 …
Taegan Goddard's Political Wire:
Lieberman Falls Short on Recruits — Guest contributor Kevin Rennie is a columnist for the Hartford Courant. — Lieberman Falls Short on Recruits — Sen. Joseph Lieberman's (D-CT) Tour for Tomorrow continues to be punctuated with today's struggles to save his troubled campaign.
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
Ctblogger / ConnecticutBLOG:
Focus — It's really easy to loose focus when covering this wacky senate race.
Focus — It's really easy to loose focus when covering this wacky senate race.
John Dickerson / Slate:
With Friends Like These — THE BLOGGER WHO ISN'T HELPING NED LAMONT.
With Friends Like These — THE BLOGGER WHO ISN'T HELPING NED LAMONT.
Discussion:
Orcinus, The Agonist, Beltway Blogroll, TPMCafe blogs, Daily Kos, A Blog For All and culturekitchen
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 …
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Victor Davis Hanson / Real Clear Politics:
It's Not Just About Land — Despite the claims of terrorist …
It's Not Just About Land — Despite the claims of terrorist …
Anne Plummer Flaherty / Associated Press:
Generals raise fears of Iraq civil war — WASHINGTON - Two of the Pentagon's most senior generals conceded to Congress on Thursday that the surge in sectarian violence in Baghdad in recent weeks means Iraq may descend into civil war. — "Iraq could move toward civil war" …
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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 …
R.G. Ratcliffe / Houston Chronicle:
Court rules GOP can't replace DeLay on ballot — AUSTIN - A federal appeals court panel today in a bipartisan order ruled that former U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay cannot be replaced on the November ballot for the congressional seat he vacated in June. — The Republican Party said it will quickly file …
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Greg Sargent / tpmcafe.com:
CT-SEN: Mailing Touts Lieberman As Among "First" To Battle Bush On Social Security — Election Central has just obtained a political mailing which touts Joe Lieberman as "one of the first Senators to stand up to George W. Bush's dangerous plan to privatize Social Security."
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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.
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.
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.
Discussion:
New York Times, Washington Post, The Moderate Voice, Iowa Voice, The Left Coaster, Daily Kos and Fact-esque
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,
Stephen Holden / New York Times:
Tony Bennett at 80, Keeping the Flame — A quintessential Tony Bennett moment comes at the end of "It's a Wonderful World," the tender duet he recorded with K. D. Lang for their 2002 Louis Armstrong tribute album, "A Wonderful World." After they swap greeting-card doggerel celebrating …
Little Green Footballs:
New Lieberman Art at Daily Kos — Posted in the comments to one of several threads bashing Joe Lieberman today at Daily Kos, we find the following febrile Photoshop fantasies from the "progressive" minds of the Kos Kidz. — This time with the always-popular homosexual slur theme. (Hat tip: DM.
Discussion:
Ace of Spades HQ
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.
Media Matters for America:
O'Reilly blasts "smear merchants" and "vampires" criticizing Mel Gibson; Rivera smears Olbermann, Stewart, and Colbert … During a discussion on the August 2 edition of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor with Geraldo at Large host and former Fox News correspondent Geraldo Rivera …
Rolling Stone:
THE LOW POST: The Mansion Family — In the first installment of his weekly Web-only column, Matt Taibbi writes that yuppie paranoia (and David Brooks) guarantees the Democrats are still — and forever — doomed. — "The conservative mansion has many rooms.
USA Today:
Bush trims this year's Texas stay to 10 days — WASHINGTON — This year, Bush is cutting his down time to only 10 days — the shortest summer break of his presidency — against the backdrop of the Middle East in crisis, Baghdad beset by violence and Cuba in flux.