Top Items:
Fred Barnes / Weekly Standard:
Inside the Oval Office — President Bush gives journalists a "heads up" about the mid-term elections, among other things. — WE NOW KNOW WHY the Bush administration hasn't made the capture of Osama bin Laden a paramount goal of the war on terror. Emphasis on bin Laden doesn't fit …
RELATED ITEMS:
Faiz / Think Progress:
Bush Tells Barnes Capturing Bin Laden Is 'Not A Top Priority Use of American Resources' — Weekly Standard editor Fred Barnes appeared on Fox this morning to discuss his recent meeting with President Bush in the Oval Office. The key takeaway for Barnes was that "bin Laden doesn't fit …
Discussion:
The Agonist, Air Force Times, Hullabaloo, News Hounds, Angry Bear, ECHIDNE OF THE SNAKES and The Left Coaster
Carpetbagger / The Carpetbagger Report:
Barnes explains Bush's 'strategy for combating terrorism'
Barnes explains Bush's 'strategy for combating terrorism'
Discussion:
DownWithTyranny!
Laurie Kellman / San Diego Union-Tribune:
Powell endorses efforts to block Bush's terrorist plan — WASHINGTON - Former Secretary of State Colin Powell on Thursday endorsed efforts by three Republican senators to block President Bush's plan to authorize harsh interrogations of terror suspects. — The latest sign of GOP division …
RELATED ITEMS:
Washington Post:
White House Seeks a Way to Keep Bolton at the U.N. — President Bush's nomination of John R. Bolton as ambassador to the United Nations appears increasingly endangered in the Senate, prompting the administration to explore other ways to keep him in the job after his temporary appointment expires in January, officials said yesterday.
Anne Plummer Flaherty / Associated Press:
Senate panel defies Bush on terror
Senate panel defies Bush on terror
Discussion:
Andrew Sullivan, Wizbang, The Left Coaster, The Heretik, Macsmind and Shakespeare's Sister
Dafna Linzer / Washington Post:
U.N. Inspectors Dispute Iran Report By House Panel — U.N. inspectors investigating Iran's nuclear program angrily complained to the Bush administration and to a Republican congressman yesterday about a recent House committee report on Iran's capabilities, calling parts of the document …
Eli Lake / New York Sun:
Iraqi Official Testifies to Links Between Saddam and Al Qaeda — WASHINGTON — A deputy prime minister of Iraq yesterday offered a sharp contradiction of the conventional wisdom here that Saddam Hussein's Iraq and Al Qaeda had no connection before the 2003 war, flatly contradicting a recent report …
RELATED ITEMS:
Hindrocket / Power Line:
QUICK, SOMEONE TELL THE INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE!
QUICK, SOMEONE TELL THE INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE!
Discussion:
Thomas Joscelyn
David D. Kirkpatrick / New York Times:
Despite Pledges, Congress Clings to Pet Projects — Nine months after Congressional leaders vowed to respond to several bribery scandals with comprehensive reforms, their pledges have come to next to nothing. — On Wednesday, leaders of the House prepared to take up a rule requiring individual lawmakers …
RELATED ITEMS:
Glenn Reynolds / Instapundit.com:
PORKBUSTERS UPDATE: The earmark reform legislation has passed the House and Senate, but there's also an important House rules change up for a vote today, and House Appropriators are balking because it is likely to undercut their power by making them more accountable.
Nancy Zuckerbrod / Associated Press:
Frist Targets Internet Gambling — WASHINGTON — Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist is trying use a bill authorizing U.S. military operations, including in Iraq and Afghanistan, to prohibit people from using credit cards to settle Internet gambling debts. — Frist, R-Tenn. …
RELATED ITEMS:
The Hill:
So we're divided — is that George Bush's fault? — Ask yourself this question: What actions, or series of actions, could President Bush and GOP leaders in Congress have taken in the war on terror that would cause Democratic leaders to say, seven weeks before mid-term elections …
RELATED ITEMS:
Alan W. Dowd / TCS Daily:
Help Wanted — Five years after it spawned 9/11 …
Help Wanted — Five years after it spawned 9/11 …
Discussion:
The Glittering Eye
Will / Attytood:
Santorum ad accusing Casey of corruption features dead man, pols linked to Santorum himself — GOP Pa. Sen. Rick Santorum's flagging re-election campaign has launched a new TV attack ad that can only be described as absurdist theatre, if not out-and-out absurd.
RELATED ITEMS:
John M. Broder / New York Times:
Democrats Form New Group for Fund-Raising and Ads — Sensing both political danger and opportunity, a top Democratic operative and a group of major party donors have banded together to deliver a barrage of late advertising and on-the-ground action to secure Democratic victories in November.
Jules Crittenden / Boston Herald:
Hezbollah war crimes: Amnesty International cries — Heads up! — Amnesty International has introduced a comprehensive report accusing a terrorist group of war crimes.In utter defiance of the predominant American left, European and United Nations view that Israel engaged in gross war crimes …
Discussion:
Liberty and Justice, Riehl World View, USS Neverdock, Blue Crab Boulevard and Ace of Spades HQ
Associated Press:
World has tapped just 18 percent of global oil supplies, Saudi executive says — VIENNA, Austria - The world has tapped only 18 percent of the total global supply of crude, a leading Saudi oil executive said Wednesday, challenging the notion that supplies are petering out.
Rick Lyman / New York Times:
Ann Richards, Former Governor of Texas, Dies at 73 — Ann W. Richards, the silver-haired Texas activist who galvanized the 1988 Democratic National Convention with her tart keynote speech and was the state's 45th governor until upset in 1994 by an underestimated challenger named George W. Bush, died Wednesday at her home in Austin.
Discussion:
Associated Press, NewsBusters.org, Gawker, PoliBlog, Outside The Beltway, Pajamas Media, The Democratic Daily and RIGHTWINGSPARKLE
Paul Majendie / Reuters:
Blair attacks Europe's "mad anti-Americans" — LONDON (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Tony Blair launched a withering attack on Thursday on what he called "mad anti-Americanism" among European politicians. — Blair, U.S. President George W. Bush's closest ally in the so-called war on terror …
Discussion:
Democracy Project, EU Referendum, The American Thinker, Little Green Footballs and Blue Crab Boulevard
MSNBC:
U.S. passes up chance to strike Taliban — Predator had suspected fighters in its sights, but military passed on shot — This undated photo obtained by NBC News, reportedly taken by an unmanned U.S. aircraft, shows a Taliban gathering in Afghanistan that the U.S. Army wanted to attack. — NBC VIDEO
Edmund L. Andrews / New York Times:
Interior Official Assails Agency for Ethics Slide — The Interior Department's chief official responsible for investigating abuses and overseeing operations accused the top officials at the agency on Wednesday of tolerating widespread ethical failures, from cronyism to cover-ups of incompetence.
Pew Research Center:
Democrats Hold Solid Lead; Strong Anti-Incumbent, Anti-Bush Mood — Terrorism Focus Increases, But No GOP Boost — Summary of Findings — As the congressional midterm campaign begins in earnest, the mood of the electorate is sharply drawn. Voters are disappointed with Congress and disapproving of President Bush.
Politics Central:
AL-DURA: THE TRIAL (PART ONE) — Starting September 14, three Frenchmen go on trial in Paris for questioning the veracity of the 2000 videotape of the putative murder of Palestinian child Mohammed Al-Dura by Israeli soldiers. This tape - promulgated by the French state-run channel France 2 …
Bill Sammon / Examiner:
Meet the Next President: Kerry's Second Shot — KEENE, N.H. - Moments before Sen. John Kerry shows up to campaign for a local politician at a backyard rally here, voter Sue Borden wrinkles her nose at the mention of the man who lost to President Bush. — "You get one chance," the Democrat tells a reporter.
John McWhorter / New York Sun:
I Love My Think Tank — For eight years after I got my P.h.D, I was a professor of linguistics. I first found myself involved with the media in 1996 when the Ebonics controversy hit. I happened to be the black linguist working closest to Oakland where the issue arose (I was at UC Berkeley), and so the media called me.
Discussion:
Washington Times, The Moderate Voice, The American Thinker, The Corner and Liberty and Justice
David Warren / Real Clear Politics:
Our Real Enemy is Within Us — Listening to President Bush speak, on Monday's anniversary of 9/11, after a day of distastefully sentimental memorials, my question was not what have we achieved in the last five years, but rather, what have we learned? Bush and Blair — the captain …