Top Items:
Rebecca Carr / Palm Beach Post:
STEVENS IS SMOKED OUT — After much speculation, a staffer to Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, admitted to Cox Newspapers today that the senator is the lawmaker who placed a "secret hold" on legislation that would open up the obscure world of government contracting to public scrutiny.
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CNN:
Sen. Stevens is 'the secret senator' — From Andrea Koppel, Ted Barrett and Abbi Tatton — Adjust font size: — WASHINGTON (CNN) — The identity of the blogosphere's "secret senator" has been revealed. — CNN has confirmed that Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska …
Discussion:
TPMmuckraker, Suitably Flip, Beltway Blogroll, Inactivist, Captain's Quarters, Porkbusters and Lost Remote
Paul Kiel / TPMmuckraker:
"MASKED" BILL-BLOCKER REVEALS SELF — A spokesman for Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) just confirmed his boss was the man behind the secret hold on the Coburn/Obama spending database bill, which has captivated a segment of the political blogging community in recent days.
Associated Press:
CBS magazine slims down Couric in photo — NEW YORK - No, Katie Couric didn't suddenly lose 20 pounds. The incoming "CBS Evening News" anchor appears significantly thinner in a network promotional magazine photo thanks to digital airbrushing. — The touched-up photo of Couric dressed …
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Don Kaplan / New York Post:
WEIGHING ANCHOR — CBS PHOTO TRICKERY TAKES A LOAD OFF — 'SLIMMER' COURIC — Talk about a miracle diet - Katie Couric has become the Incredible Shrinking Anchorwoman. — Thanks to a computer "slight" of hand, the Tiffany network has made the new face of "CBS Evening News" instantly drop about 20 pounds.
Bradley Burston / Haaretz:
Nasrallah for Prime Minister - of Israel — Now it's official. Israel is a country without a prime minister. — This had been no more than an educated suspicion until Monday night, when Ehud Olmert effectively made the announcement. Not in so many words, of course.
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BBC:
Olmert firm on Lebanon blockade — Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has rebuffed calls for a swift end to Israel's seven-week blockade of Lebanon. — Speaking after talks with UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, he said the siege would only be lifted once ceasefire terms were fully implemented.
Brian Williams / MSNBC:
President Bush talks to Brian Williams — An exclusive conversation on the one-year anniversary of Katrina landfall … BRIAN WILLIAMS: You have apologized for the damage, but what about the damage to your presidency? And Mr. President, here's what I mean, most call it your low point.
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Chris Bowers / MyDD:
CT-Sen: Lieberman Views Campaign As Revenge For Party Democracy — Yet again, it is all about Lieberman: … I have watched the video, which is difficult to stomach and which I will not reproduce here since it is Faux News, and there seem to be two ways to read this quote.
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Scarce / My Left Nutmeg:
The Lieberman Effect — Foxnews asks "Will Connecticut senator's …
The Lieberman Effect — Foxnews asks "Will Connecticut senator's …
Discussion:
Firedoglake
Opinion Journal:
Fess Up, Mr. Armitage — Time to put the Plame conspiracy to its final rest. — From its very start, the ballyhooed case of who leaked the name of CIA analyst Valerie Plame to columnist Robert Novak has been drenched in partisan politics and media hypocrisy.
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Tom Maguire / JustOneMinute:
Some Silly Reaction To The Armitage Story
Some Silly Reaction To The Armitage Story
Discussion:
Investor's Business Daily, Crooks and Liars, Firedoglake, USS Neverdock and Gateway Pundit
USA Today:
Gasoline prices could keep falling — Gasoline prices are falling fast and could keep dropping for months. — "The only place they have to go is down," says Fred Rozell, gasoline analyst at the Oil Price Information Service (OPIS). "We'll be closer to $2 than $3 come Thanksgiving."
Discussion:
Six Meat Buffet, The Moderate Voice, A Chequer-Board of Nights … and Outside The Beltway
Confederate Yankee:
Armored Vehicle Experts: Reuters News Vehicle Not Hit By Israeli Missile — There has been quite a bit of debate in the blogosphere surrounding this story (note: link has been deactivated) of several days ago: … Despite the Israeli acknowledgement that they did fire on a "suspicious vehicle …
Barney Frank / Boston Globe:
Afghanistan ignored — A WAR is missing. Sadly, it is not missing from the physical location in which it is taking place, and people continue to die as it is waged. But it has largely disappeared from our national debate, and that debate has been sorely distorted as a consequence.
Paul Farhi / Washington Post:
Tomlinson Cited For Abuses at Broadcast Board — CPB Ex-Chief Put Friend On Payroll, State Dept. Says — A year-long State Department investigation has found that the chairman of the agency that oversees Voice of America and other government broadcasting operations improperly used his office …
Michelle Krupa / New Orleans Times-Picayune:
Records are examined in an effort to finish list of the dead — A year after Hurricane Katrina claimed the lives of 1,464 people in southeast Louisiana, state officials have released the names of about half of the victims and say that without continued federal support, it could be months …
Robin Wright / Washington Post:
Carter Agrees to Hold Talks With Khatami — Ex-President of Iran to Visit U.S. Amid Tensions Over Tehran's Nuclear Program — For an event that would turn a page in American history, former president Jimmy Carter has agreed in principle to host former Iranian president Mohammad Khatami …
Dafna Linzer / Washington Post:
Iran Enriching More Uranium — U.S. Officials View the Act as Defiant As Deadline to Suspend Program Nears — Iranian nuclear specialists have begun enriching a new batch of uranium in an apparent act of defiance just days ahead of a U.N. Security Council deadline for Tehran to stop …
Kevin Drum / Political Animal:
LOSING THE WAR THE RUMSFELDIAN WAY....I guess one way of viewing Don Rumsfeld's speech to the American Legion yesterday is that it was nothing more than garden variety election-year political pandering. Iowa farmers want to hear you swear undying fealty to ethanol subsidies and WWII vets want to hear paeans to blood and guts.
Bruce Kluger / USA Today:
Lieberman, 'Snakes' and the seductive mythology of the blogosphere — If ever America needed a wake-up call about the mythology of blogging, we got it this month. — On Aug. 8, Connecticut businessman Ned Lamont defeated U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman in the Democratic primary …
Amit R. Paley / Washington Post:
Iraqi hospitals are war's new 'killing fields' — Medical sites targeted by Shiite militiamen — Baghdad resident Abu Nasr, holding photographs and death certificates of relatives killed after going to the hospital, said that he would "prefer now to die instead of going to the hospitals."
San Francisco Chronicle:
DRIVER'S RAMPAGE THE HUMAN TOLL — THE VICTIMS: 'No pattern' in targets of rampage — The victims of Tuesday's hit-and-run carnage were men and women, old and young, black, white and Asian. One was on a bike, the rest on foot. — They were mowed down in at least 11 locations in San Francisco.
Mark Steyn / macleans.ca:
Call me crazy. I blame terrorists. — Who is A. K. Dewdney? He's an adjunct professor of biology at the University of Western Ontario, and he has pieced together the truth about what happened on 9/11. You may be familiar with the official version: "To account for the events of Sept. 11 …
Washington Post:
For Congress in Maryland — Our choices: two worthy incumbents and one fresh face — REP. ALBERT R. WYNN has represented Maryland's 4th Congressional District since 1993, and in that time he has never faced a serious challenger. This year, in Donna Edwards , he does.
Discussion:
Firedoglake, MyDD, DownWithTyranny!, Andrew Sullivan, Daily Kos, The News Blog and AMERICAblog