Top Items:
MSNBC:
Court rules against Guantanamo detainees — Big win for administration although appeal to Supreme Court is likely — WASHINGTON - Guantanamo Bay detainees may not challenge their detention in U.S. courts, a federal appeals court said Tuesday in a ruling upholding a key provision in President Bush's anti-terrorism law.
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Marty Lederman / Balkinization:
Initial Thoughts on Boumediene — The U.S. Court of Appeals today by a 2-1 vote dismissed the pending habeas corpus petitons of hundreds of Guantanamo detainees. In an opinion by Judge Randolph, joined by Judge Sentelle, the court held (i) that the Military Commissions Act stripped …
Linda Greenhouse / New York Times:
Justices to Revisit Thorny Issue of Sentencing Guidelines in First Cases After Recess — The Supreme Court returns on Tuesday from a monthlong recess to face a daunting and urgent task: explaining what it meant two years ago when it ruled that the federal sentencing guidelines were to be treated as …
Hope Yen / Associated Press:
Court: Detainees can't challenge cases — WASHINGTON - A federal appeals court ruled Tuesday that foreign-born prisoners seized as potential terrorists and held in Guantanamo Bay may not challenge their detention in U.S. courts, a key victory for President Bush's anti-terrorism plan.
Rocky Mountain News:
Campos: The right's Ward Churchill — Murder is the premeditated unlawful killing of a human being. Glenn Reynolds, the well-known University of Tennessee law professor who authors one of the Internet's most popular blogs, recently advocated the murder of Iranian scientists and clerics.
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Glenn Reynolds / Instapundit.com:
PAUL CAMPOS thinks I'm beyond the pale for suggesting (in this post, which he does not link) that the Bush Administration might have been better off trying to use covert action to kill Iranian nuclear scientists and radical mullahs, instead of having to look at the massive air strikes now reportedly …
Paul Kane / Capitol Briefing:
Obama, McCaskill Plan Military Hospitals Bill — Seizing on an investigative report by The Washington Post's Dana Priest and Anne Hull, Sens. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) will introduce legislation next week to require more frequent inspections of hospitals providing treatment to active-duty military personnel.
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MSNBC:
'Hardball with Chris Matthews' for Feb. 19 — Guests: David Axelrod, Ron Reagan, Dana Priest — CHRIS MATTHEWS, MSNBC HOST: Tonight, the horrors of how we treat our Iraq wounded. More violence in the war and new pictures of the day Kennedy was assassinated. Let's play HARDBALL. — Good evening.
Jim Rutenberg / New York Times:
Trial Spotlights Cheney's Power as an Infighter — A picture taking shape from hours of testimony and reams of documents in the trial of I. Lewis Libby Jr. shatters any notion that the White House was operating as a model of cohesion throughout President Bush's first term.
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Mary Jane Park / St. Petersburg Times:
Tormented first by hiccups, now by media … ST. PETERSBURG - The notes under the door. The incessant phone calls. The impassioned pleas, all begging for a piece of the story. — It wasn't reporters in search of secret intelligence involving the war in Iraq.
Discussion:
CBS News
New York Times:
Moral Waivers and the Military — The Iraq war has plunged the Army into a vicious cycle of declining standards. Multiple, extended tours of duty have sapped morale and blighted recruiting. New plans for a larger overall force could reduce pressures but would also mean that recruiters would have to meet higher quotas.
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Steve Clemons / The Washington Note:
The Military's Moral Blinders: Criminals Preferred to Fill Ranks Over Gays
The Military's Moral Blinders: Criminals Preferred to Fill Ranks Over Gays
Discussion:
The Huffington Post
Geoff Mulvihill / Associated Press:
Gay couples get licenses in N.J. — TEANECK, N.J. - Hundreds of gay couples were granted the same legal rights, if not the title, as married couples Monday as New Jersey became the third state to offer civil unions. — More than a dozen other couples applied for licenses for ceremonies later in the week.
Discussion:
Daily. Gay. News. Towleroad
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Keith Epps / Free Lance-Star:
Police say political dispute with stranger got physical — Man's Republican beliefs irritate suspect — A Fredericksburg man was arrested Saturday on charges he assaulted three strangers at their home during a dispute over politics, police said. — According to a Fredericksburg police report …
Jim Davenport / Associated Press:
Clinton Objects to Confederate Flag — ORANGEBURG, S.C. (AP) — Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton said Monday that South Carolina should remove the Confederate flag from its Statehouse grounds, in part because the nation should unite under one banner while at war.
Discussion:
Associated Press, PoliBlog (TM), QandO, Betsy's Page, Captain's Quarters, Sister Toldjah, Althouse, PrairiePundit, Daily Pundit and The Right Angle
Emptywheel / Firedoglake:
Libby Live: Fitzgerald's Rebuttal — NOTES: (1) This is not a transcript — It's the blogger's approximation, and no one really knows what that is yet! But I do know you shouldn't quote anything not in quotation marks. (2) I'll timestamp the updates and will update about every 15 minutes, servers willing.
Discussion:
Booman Tribune
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Lyle Denniston / SCOTUSblog:
Court limits punitive damages — The Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday that it is unconstitutional for a jury to award punitive damages out of a desire to punish a company for harming individuals other than those directly involved in the lawsuit — that is, "strangers to the litigation."
USA Today:
Media cited for showing girls as sex objects — Advertising and media images that encourage girls to focus on looks and sexuality are harmful to their emotional and physical health, a new report by the American Psychological Association says. — The report, released Monday, analyzed some 300 studies over the past 18 months.
CNN:
Scores choke in poison gas attack … BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) — A cloud of deadly toxic gas engulfed an Iraqi town Tuesday, killing six people and leaving dozens of others choking on fumes after a tanker carrying chlorine exploded outside a restaurant. — An Iraqi Interior Ministry official …
The Politico:
Conservatives Target GOP War Critics in Congress — House Republican leaders and conservative activists are targeting critics of President Bush's plan to send more combat forces into Iraq — and some GOP lawmakers are on the hit list. — Amid a mounting campaign in Congress …
Richard Cohen / Washington Post:
The Talented Mr. Romney — I have been following the zigs and zags of Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor and now Republican presidential candidate, watching him grow progressively less progressive, sort of making himself up as he goes along. As a result, I surf the Web with trepidation …
Associated Press:
GOP donor hit with terror charges — WASHINGTON - A New York man accused of trying to help terrorists in Afghanistan has donated some $15,000 to the House Republicans' campaign committee over three years. — Abdul Tawala Ibn Ali Alishtari pleaded not guilty Friday in U.S. District Court …
David Brody / The Politico:
CHRISTIAN BROADCASTING NETWORK — What do you think the pro-life community will make of John McCain this weekend? The Associated Press is running a national article with the headline: — "McCain: Abortion ruling should be overturned." — This is what he said in Iowa this weekend: