memeorandum: FOUR YEARS IN. 300? IT'S JUST A MOVIE. (Pajamas Media)

9:45 AM ET, March 19, 2007

Top Items:

U.S. attorney's firing may be connected to CIA corruption probe — WASHINGTON - Fired San Diego U.S. attorney Carol Lam notified the Justice Department that she intended to execute search warrants on a high-ranking CIA official as part of a corruption probe the day before a Justice Department official sent …

Discussion: The Anonymous Liberal, MyDD, The Impolitic, The Sideshow, The Carpetbagger Report, Macsmind, The Huffington Post, PoliBlog (TM), Patterico's Pontifications, On Deadline, protein wisdom and JustOneMinute

Sheryl Gay Stolberg / New York Times:

Senator Insists Bush Aides Testify Publicly — The Democratic senator leading the inquiry into the dismissal of federal prosecutors insisted Sunday that Karl Rove and other top aides to President Bush must testify publicly and under oath, setting up a confrontation between Congress and the White House …

Discussion: Booman Tribune, The Swamp, Democracy in America, Ezra Klein, The Reaction, FP Passport, TalkLeft, LiberalOasis, Obsidian Wings and Balloon Juice

Dan Eggen / Washington Post:

Prosecutor's Firing Was Urged During Probe — The U.S. attorney in San Diego notified the Justice Department of search warrants in a Republican bribery scandal last May 10, one day before the attorney general's chief of staff warned the White House of "a real problem" with her, a Democratic senator said yesterday.

Discussion: Captain's Quarters, Outside The Beltway, The Heretik, DownWithTyranny!, LiberalOasis and Salt Lake Tribune

Amy Goldstein / Washington Post:

Justice Dept. Recognized Prosecutor's Work on Election Fraud Before His Firing — One of the U.S. attorneys fired by the Bush administration after Republican complaints that he neglected to prosecute voter fraud had been heralded for his expertise in that area by the Justice Department …

Discussion: TPMmuckraker, Think Progress and Oliver Willis

Russell Berman / New York Sun: Schumer Faulted on Probe

Adam Cohen / New York Times: It Wasn't Just a Bad Idea. It May Have Been Against the Law.

MSNBC:
MTP Transcript for Mar. 18, 2007

Discussion: The Caucus, The Huffington Post, Crooks and Liars, WorldwideStandard.com, The Democratic Daily and TBogg

Gary Langer / ABCNEWS:

Voices From Iraq 2007: Ebbing Hope in a Landscape of Loss — National Survey of Iraq — A new national survey paints a devastating portrait of life in Iraq: widespread violence, torn lives, displaced families, emotional damage, collapsing services, an ever starker sectarian chasm …

Discussion: NewsHog, No More Mister Nice Blog and AMERICAblog

USA Today:

Iraqis see hope drain away — Jobs gone and schools closed. Marriages delayed and children mourned. Markets bombed and clean water in short supply. Speaking freely now a dangerous act. — And hope lost. — Four years after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, Iraqis describe daily lives …

Discussion: The American Street

George Packer / New Yorker:
BETRAYED — The Iraqis who trusted America the most. — Text Size:

Discussion: Matthew Yglesias

Karen DeYoung / Iraq:

Iraq War's Statistics Prove Fleeting — The U.S. war in Iraq enters its fifth year today. That, and 3,197 U.S. military deaths reported by the Pentagon as of 10 a.m. Friday, are among the few numerical certainties in a conflict characterized from the start by confusion and misuse of key data.

Jules Crittenden: Insurgents Resilient! — The AP's Stephen R. Hurst proclaims …

Jay Rosen / PressThink:

Assignment Zero, Day Six: Help Wanted Section — I'm looking for amateur-friendly pros who can work with the people who have joined up with us. Five days ago we launched AZ. We now have 450 contributors—each with a profile and a blog—slowly filtering into the site. What do we do now? they're asking.

David Carr / New York Times:
All the World's a Story — Journalism has always been a product of networks.

Discussion: zero.newassignment.net …

Michael Barone / Real Clear Politics:

The Blame-America-First Crowd — "They always blame America first." That was Jeane Kirkpatrick, describing the "San Francisco Democrats" in 1984. But it could be said about a lot of Americans, especially highly educated Americans, today. — In their assessment of what is going on in the world …

Discussion: Maggie's Farm

Times of London:

We can do more than beg, says new finance chief for Palestinians — The new Palestinian Finance Minister gave warning yesterday that the incoming Government was inheriting a "crippling financial crisis" from Hamas. Salam Fayyad, the internationally respected financier …

Discussion: The Moderate Voice

Audrey Gillan / Guardian:

The regrets of the man who brought down Saddam — His hands were bleeding and his eyes filled with tears as, four years ago, he slammed a sledgehammer into the tiled plinth that held a 20ft bronze statue of Saddam Hussein. Then Kadhim al-Jubouri spoke of his joy at being the leader …

Discussion: PoliPundit.com and Cliff Schecter

Edmund L. Andrews / New York Times:

Official Alerted F.B.I. to Rules Abuse 2 Years Ago, Lawyer Says — Almost two years before the Federal Bureau of Investigation publicly admitted this month that it had ignored its own rules when demanding telephone and financial records about private citizens, a top official in that program warned …

Mark Ward / BBC:

Vehicle warning system trialled — Technology correspondent, BBC News website — Vehicles may soon be swapping information about road conditions to warn drivers about jams and dangers. — A German research project on show at hi-tech trade fair Cebit envisions a peer-to-peer network …

Tim Lambon / New Statesman:

Observations on Iraq — It's hard to describe the noise when a whole cabinet of crockery is emptied on to the floor. Even harder not to shout in indignation when the American soldier who intentionally tipped it forward, until the plates and dishes slid smashing to the floor, says without regret …

Discussion: Today in Iraq and Jules Crittenden