Top Items:
New York Times:
Senate Rejects Measure on Detainees — The Senate today rejected an amendment to a bill creating a new system for interrogating and trying terror suspects that would have guaranteed such suspects access to the courts to challenge their imprisonment. — The vote was 51 to 48 against the amendment …
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Pamela Leavey / The Democratic Daily:
John Kerry: 'This Bill Permits Torture' — Yesterday the House rushed through Bush's 'torture bill' and today as the Senate is in the midst of debate on the bill it is clear there is no stopping this travesty of justice. The N.Y. Times reports that "House Democrats were prevented from offering …
Patrick Quinn / Associated Press:
Iraq terror leader recruits scientists — CAIRO, Egypt - In a new audio message Thursday, the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq called for explosives experts and nuclear scientists to join his group's holy war against the West. He also said that more than 4,000 foreign insurgent fighters …
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Bryan Bender / Boston Globe:
Cost of Iraq war nearly $2b a week — WASHINGTON — A new congressional analysis shows the Iraq war is now costing taxpayers almost $2 billion a week — nearly twice as much as in the first year of the conflict three years ago and 20 percent more than last year — as the Pentagon spends …
Bruce Ackerman / Los Angeles Times:
The White House Warden — Congress may give the president the power to lock up almost anyone he thinks is a terror threat. — BURIED IN THE complex Senate compromise on detainee treatment is a real shocker, reaching far beyond the legal struggles about foreign terrorist suspects in the Guantanamo Bay fortress.
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Chris Borowski / Seattle Times:
Court to hear case over politics, union fees — WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court agreed Tuesday to hear a Washington state case that will decide whether labor unions can spend bargaining fees from nonmembers on political causes without their explicit permission.
Atrios / Eschaton:
Clinton Speaks — The Senate is currently debating a bill on how we treat detainees in our custody, and, more broadly, on how we treat the principles on which our nation was founded. — The implications are far reaching for our national security interests abroad; the rights of Americans at home …
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Michael D. Shear / Washington Post:
Webb Denies Ever Using Word as Epithet — Racial Slur Overshadowing All Else in Contest — Democratic Senate candidate James Webb on Wednesday sought to explain remarks he had made a day earlier, in which he refused to say whether he had used the "N-word," but he insisted he has never used it as a racial epithet aimed at anyone.
Discussion:
Captain's Quarters, NewsBusters.org, The Allen Blog, Right Wing News, Sister Toldjah, Wonkette and Virginia Centrist
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Associated Press:
Poll: Lieberman Leads Lamont in Conn. — HAMDEN, Conn. (AP) - Sen. Joe Lieberman has a 10-point advantage over Democrat Ned Lamont among likely Connecticut voters, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released Thursday. — Lieberman, a three-term Democrat running as an independent …
Discussion:
Classical Values, Blue Crab Boulevard, Redstate, Riehl World View, The Strata-Sphere and Pajamas Media
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CBS News:
Bob Woodward: Bush Misleads On Iraq — Tells 60 Minutes' Wallace That Kissinger Is Regular Visitor To White House — (CBS) Veteran Washington reporter Bob Woodward tells Mike Wallace that the Bush administration has not told the truth regarding the level of violence, especially against U.S. troops, in Iraq.
Discussion:
Taylor Marsh, Think Progress, Wonkette, CNN Political Ticker, The Next Hurrah and Dinocrat
Dan Froomkin / Washington Post:
Bush Rules — Today's Senate vote on President Bush's detainee legislation, after House approval yesterday, marks a defining moment for this nation. — How far from our historic and Constitutional values are we willing to stray? How mercilessly are we willing to treat those we suspect to be our enemies?
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The Blotter:
Sixteen-Year-Old Capitol Hill Page Concerned About E-mail Exchange with Congressman — Rhonda Schwartz and Maddy Sauer Report: — A 16-year-old male congressional page concerned about the appropriateness of an e-mail exchange with a congressman alerted Capitol Hill staffers to the communication.
Roll Call:
House Report Details 485 Contacts Between Abramoff Team and White House Officials — Hundreds of contacts between top White House officials and former lobbyist Jack Abramoff and his associates "raise serious questions about the legality and actions" of those officials, according …
Adina Greene / Jerusalem Post:
GPO warns press on doctored photos — The Government Press Office held a meeting with heads of foreign news agencies earlier this month to protest the doctoring of photographs of the recent Lebanon war and the ongoing conflict with the Palestinians, and warned them that action could be taken …
Hooman Majd / writely.com:
Mahmoud and Me — Ahmadinejad's Wild Week, by His Translator: 'I Heard You Sounded Great!' ; Meet the Wife; Asks for Michael Moore; Big Dinner at Hilton — On Tuesday, Sept. 19, the day of his now-famous speech, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad entered the General Assembly …
Michelle Malkin:
How not to argue about Islam — This post by Dean Esmay, "calling out Michelle Malkin," is what is known in the business as traffic bait. — So go ahead and click it and give Esmay more of the traffic he wants. I highly recommend you read his post as the classic blogospheric example of how not to argue about Islam.
David Corn:
This Is What Waterboarding Looks Like — As Congress has debated legislation that would set up military tribunals and govern the questioning of suspected terrorists (whom the Bush administration would like to be able to detain indefinitely), at issue has been what interrogation techniques …