memeorandum: Giuliani Law Firm Lobbies in Texas for Chavez-Controlled Citgo (Bloomberg)

12:45 AM ET, March 15, 2007

Top Items:

Bush Defends Gonzales in Firing of Prosecutors — President Bush defended Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales today amid the furor over the firing of federal prosecutors, but he said he was troubled over the clumsy handling of the dismissals. — "I do have confidence in Attorney General Al Gonzales …

Discussion: PoliBlog (TM), Right Wing News, TalkLeft and Prairie Weather

White House:
President Bush and President Calderón Participate in a …

Discussion: TPMmuckraker and First Draft

Peter Baker / Washington Post:
Bush Defends Gonzales's Decision

Discussion: CNN, About U.S. Politics, Firedoglake, TPMmuckraker, The Rittenhouse Review, Law Blog and The Democratic Daily

John Amato / Crooks and Liars:
Bush defends Gonzales: Just some confusion and mismanagement is all....

Discussion: Think Progress, Real Cities, Captain's Quarters, Washington Post, Hullabaloo, The Mahablog, Macsmind and The Impolitic

CNN:
Bush irked by 'mistakes' in attorney firings

Discussion: The Anonymous Liberal, The Caucus, The Carpetbagger Report, My Left Wing, Citizens Blogging …, DownWithTyranny!, TPMmuckraker and Central Sanity

Stuart M. Gerson / Washington Post:
Inside the Justice Department and the U.S. Attorneys Controversy

Discussion: NewsBusters.org, Riehl World View and Talking Points Memo

Los Angeles Times: Bush 'not happy' with handling of fired attorneys

Laurie Kellman / Associated Press:
Republican says Gonzales should be fired

Discussion: Bloomberg, DownWithTyranny!, MyDD, Heath Haussamen …, Midtopia and The Carpetbagger Report

Lolita C. Baldor / Associated Press:

9/11 Mastermind Confesses in Guantanamo — WASHINGTON — Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the suspected mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks, confessed to that attack and a string of others during a military hearing at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, according to a transcript released Wednesday by the Pentagon.

Discussion: The American Street, TalkLeft, Intrepid Liberal Journal and Bring it On!

Allahpundit / Hot Air:

KSM confesses to Gitmo tribunal: I planned 9/11 "from A to Z"; Update: Full transcript added — And much, much more. … The Beeb says he also admitted to plots against Big Ben and Heathrow. — Looking for the transcript. Standby. — Update: Fox has updated their story.

Discussion: Fox News, Captain's Quarters, Jules Crittenden, Pajamas Media, Counterterrorism Blog and Little Green Footballs

The Blotter: Confessions of a Terrorist: I'm Guilty of 3,000+ Murders

Fred W. Baker III / DefenseLINK: Al Qaeda Operative Admits to Masterminding 9/11 Attacks

New York Times:

Clinton Sees Some Troops Staying in Iraq if She Is Elected — Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton foresees a "remaining military as well as political mission" in Iraq, and says that if elected president, she would keep a reduced but significant military force there to fight Al Qaeda …

Discussion: The Agonist, Riehl World View, the albany project, Confederate Yankee, Dean's World, MyDD and Roger L. Simon

Patrick Healy / New York Times:

Clinton and Obama Court Jewish Vote — As Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama compete for Jewish donors and voters, Mrs. Clinton is following a tried-and-true rule of hers from New York — support Israel to the last — while Mr. Obama is trying a more delicate strategy that hit some bumps this week.

Discussion: Ezra Klein, The Debate Link, The Moderate Voice, Rootless Cosmopolitan, TIME: Swampland, The Politico and Matthew Yglesias

Glenn Greenwald / Salon:
The president receives "lessons" from his neoconservative tutors

Discussion: Weekly Standard, Council for Secular Humanism, Obsidian Wings, Sadly, No!, Ezra Klein, Michael P.F. van der Galiën and TAPPED

Zogby:

Zogby Poll: Voters Believe Media Bias is Very Real — Institute for Politics, Democracy, and the Internet/Zogby Poll shows American voters are skeptical political motivation may be behind blogs run by mainstream news organizations — The vast majority of American voters believe media bias …

Discussion: WILLisms.com, The Belmont Club, NewsBusters.org, Blue Crab Boulevard and Riehl World View

Nico / Think Progress:

BREAKING: CBC chooses CNN over Fox — Last week, the Prospect reported that the Congressional Black Caucus were close to nearing a deal to host two Democratic presidentialy primary debates in concert with Fox News: … Black online activists led by ColorOfChange.org partnered …

Discussion: U.S. Newswire, The Huffington Post, Media Matters for America, ColorOfChange.org, Afro-Netizen, Booman Tribune, culturekitchen, The Carpetbagger Report, Daily Kos, CorrenteWire, Taylor Marsh, NewsBusters.org, Crooks and Liars and MyDD

Bloomberg:

Giuliani Law Firm Lobbies in Texas for Chavez-Controlled Citgo — Rudolph Giuliani's law firm lobbies for Citgo Petroleum Corp., a unit of the state-owned oil company controlled by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, the U.S.'s chief antagonist in the Western Hemisphere.

Discussion: Balloon Juice, Liberal Values, The Gun Toting Liberal ™, Shakespeare's Sister, The Carpetbagger Report, Daily Kos and Hotline On Call

NY Daily News: Giuliani firm on payroll of Prez Chavez oil company

Andrew Zajac / Chicago Tribune:

Fitzgerald: Rove tried to limit choice — WASHINGTON — Former Sen. Peter Fitzgerald (R-Ill.) said Tuesday that White House political adviser Karl Rove told him in the spring of 2001 that he should limit his choice for U.S. attorney in Chicago to someone from Illinois.

Discussion: The Carpetbagger Report, Hullabaloo, TalkLeft, CorrenteWire and AMERICAblog

Nico / Think Progress:
Leahy Says He'll Subpoena Rove, Discusses Potential Crimes Involved …

Discussion: White House

Zzaki / Political Punch:

Senator Clinton, unplugged — This morning on Good Morning, America, we ran an interview with Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-NY, in which she called for Attorney General Alberto Gonzales's head. — "The buck should stop somewhere," Clinton said (CLICK HERE FOR MORE) "and the Attorney General …

Discussion: Firedoglake, NewsBusters.org, TIME, The Daily Dish, Instapundit.com, The Caucus, The Swamp, Scared Monkeys, Harry's Place, Donklephant and On Deadline

kuna.net.kw:

MIL-IRAQ-US SOLDIERS — Baghdad security crackdown seriously curbs killings of US soldiers — The rate of killings of US troops in Iraq has been on the decline, down by 60 percent, since the launch of the new security measures in Baghdad, according to statistics revealed …

Discussion: Attytood, protein wisdom, Hang Right Politics, The Jawa Report, Don Surber and Sister Toldjah

N.Z. / Victory Caucus:

The House Emergency Supplemental: Micro-managing The War — The Democratic leadership in the House of Representatives has decided to micro-manage the war effort by loading the funding bill required to authorize continued operations in Iraq with conditions and provisions designed to force …

Discussion: Hugh Hewitt's TownHall Blog, Michelle Malkin and Riehl World View

Ed Morrissey / Captain's Quarters: Cut And Run 3.0 On Display At The Victory Caucus

Associated Press:

French High Court Rejects Gay Marriage — PARIS (AP) - France's highest court Tuesday rejected as unlawful the first marriage by a gay couple in France, annulling the union of the two men. — Stephane Charpin and Bertrand Charpentier were married in a civil ceremony on June 5, 2004 …

Matthew Tostevin / Reuters:

Taste for Guinness wanes in changing Ireland — How about a glass of wine to celebrate Saint Patrick's Day in Dublin? — That might not sit well on the stomach of many residents of Ireland's capital this Saturday as they mark the year's biggest party with copious quantities of Guinness …

Discussion: Angry Bear