Top Items:
Examiner:
Spending money behind closed doors? — The Washington DC Examiner Newspaper, The Examiner — WASHINGTON - Something new is happening today as The Examiner invites readers to help uncover which members of Congress sponsored the 1,867 secret spending earmarks worth more than $500 million …
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Andrew Roth / clubforgrowth.org:
The New Pork Database — A while back, several groups including the Club for Growth, were able to get their hands on the 2007 Labor-HHS appropriations bill that was introduced in the House (but has not yet passed), along with the committee report. What we found were 1,867 pork projects hidden in the bill.
Caroline Glick / Jerusalem Post:
Our World: The Olmert government must go — From all sides of the political spectrum calls are being raised for the establishment of an official commission of inquiry to investigate the Olmert government's incompetent management of the war in Lebanon. These calls are misguided.
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E. J. Dionne Jr / Washington Post:
A Gap In Their Armor — The Democratic Party has a self-image problem. — Talk to Democrats at every level about the strong position the party is in for this fall's elections and the conversation inevitably ends with a variation of: "Yeah, if we don't blow it."
Discussion:
The Mahablog, Political Animal, Althouse, DonkeyRising, Martini Republic and Liberal Values
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Carl Hulse / New York Times:
Democrats See Security as Key Issue for Fall — After being outmaneuvered in the politics of national security in the last two elections, Democrats say they are determined not to cede the issue this year and are working to cast President Bush as having diminished the nation's safety.
Associated Press:
Hizbullah likely to retain weapons — Hizbullah will not hand over its weapons to the Lebanese government but rather refrain from exhibiting them publicly, according to a new compromise that is reportedly brewing between Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Seniora and Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah.
George F. Will / Washington Post:
The Triumph of Unrealism — Five weeks have passed since the kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers provoked Israel to launch its most unsatisfactory military operation in 58 years. What problem has been solved, or even ameliorated? — Hezbollah, often using World War II-vintage rockets …
KLTV-TV:
Clinton Sounds Off on Terror, Republicans — Taking a break from his work at the XVI International AIDS Conference in Toronto on Monday, former President Clinton warned Republicans not to politicize the London terror arrests, slammed Sen. Joe Lieberman, whom he campaigned for just a couple weeks ago …
Howard Kurtz / Washington Post:
Up Close And Too Personal — Katie Couric, Center of Attention, Says She Just Wants to Do Her Job — She is already the most heavily scrutinized, psychoanalyzed and gossiped-about anchor in network history, and she hasn't yet uttered a single "good evening" on a CBS newscast.
Discussion:
NewsBusters.org
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Washington Post:
George Allen's America — "MY FRIENDS, we're going to run this campaign on positive, constructive ideas," Sen. George F. Allen told a rally of Republican supporters in Southwest Virginia last week. "And it's important that we motivate and inspire people for something."
Jeffrey M. Jones / Gallup:
Latest Bush Approval Rating at 37% — Little fundamental change in rating since June — PRINCETON, NJ — The latest Gallup Poll finds George W. Bush's presidential job approval rating at 37%, consistent with recent polling. His approval rating has bounced between 36% and 40% since early June …
John Dickerson / Slate:
Stranger and Stranger — WHY IS GEORGE BUSH READING CAMUS? — On his summer vacation in Crawford, Texas, George Bush read Albert Camus' novel The Stranger. I'm not sure what to make of this. It's usually college freshmen who suddenly take up the French existentialist's slim volume …
Reuters:
Snow White's dwarfs more famous than US judges: poll —Text+NEW YORK (Reuters) - Three quarters of Americans can correctly identify two of Snow White's seven dwarfs while only a quarter can name two Supreme Court Justices, according to a poll on pop culture released on Monday.
Discussion:
Captain's Quarters, Ankle Biting Pundits, Scared Monkeys, PoliPundit.com and Preemptive Karma
Glenn Harlan Reynolds / TCS Daily:
Don't Trust If They Won't Verify — Once again, fake news is in the news, as it turns out that many moving stories of carnage in Lebanon were not only moving, but, well, fake. This raises major questions about the future of the news business, and offers a significant threat to free expression.
Adrian Blomfield / Telegraph:
Israel humbled by arms from Iran — Abandoned Hizbollah positions in Lebanon yesterday revealed conclusive evidence that Syria - and almost certainly Iran - provided the anti-tank missiles that have blunted the power of Israel's once invincible armour. — After one of the fiercest confrontations …
Discussion:
The Strata-Sphere
Richard A. Posner / Washington Post:
We Need Our Own MI5 — What lessons can we draw from the recent foiled plot to bring down U.S.-bound airliners with liquid bombs? — The first concerns the shrewdness of al-Qaeda and its affiliates in continuing to focus their destructive efforts on civil aviation.
Adam Cohen / New York Times:
Has Bush v. Gore Become the Case That Must Not Be Named? — At a law school Supreme Court conference that I attended last fall, there was a panel on "The Rehnquist Court." No one mentioned Bush v. Gore, the most historic case of William Rehnquist's time as chief justice, and during the Q. and A. no one asked about it.