Top Items:
Robert Barr / Associated Press:
Iran nabs British sailors in Iraq waters — LONDON - Iranian naval vessels seized 15 British sailors who had boarded a ship suspected of smuggling cars in the Persian Gulf off the Iraqi coast on Friday, officials said. — The British government demanded "the immediate and safe return of our people and equipment."
Discussion:
New York Times, Guardian, Scotsman, GINA COBB, Gateway Pundit, NO QUARTER, Atlas Shrugs, Jules Crittenden, Blue Crab Boulevard and TigerHawk
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Washington Post:
E-Mails Show Machinations to Replace Prosecutor — Administration Worked for Months to Make Rove Aide U.S. Attorney in Arkansas — Two months before Bud Cummins was fired as U.S. attorney in Little Rock, a protege of presidential adviser Karl Rove was maneuvering with the Justice Department to take his place.
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David Ignatius / Washington Post:
An Inside-the-Bushies Mentality — If you read the obituary pages …
An Inside-the-Bushies Mentality — If you read the obituary pages …
Discussion:
Balloon Juice, TPMCafe blogs, Multi Medium, The Impolitic, Middle Earth Journal, TIME: Swampland and The Washington Note
Anne Flaherty / Associated Press:
House Dems more confident on Iraq vote — WASHINGTON - House Democrats are increasingly confident they have the votes to pass legislation designed to force an end to the war in Iraq next year. — Several party members dropped their opposition to the bill following days of wrangling within a deeply divided caucus.
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CNN:
House passes spending bill with Iraq deadline … WASHINGTON (CNN) — The House of Representatives on Friday voted 218-212 to approve a spending bill that includes a firm deadline — August 31, 2008 — for combat troops to leave Iraq. — President Bush, who already has said he would veto the bill …
New York Times:
Democrats Shore Up Support for Iraq Votes — For days, Democratic leaders have scrambled to shore up enough support to pass their Iraq legislation. They delayed the final vote by a day, fearful that a few undecided lawmakers — on the left and right — could jeopardize their plan to set …
Joe Conason / Salon:
Rove, proven liar — President Bush's "offer" to let Congress interview Karl Rove about the U.S. attorney firings without an oath is a joke. As we learned in Plamegate, Rove cannot be trusted to tell the truth. — White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove (L) and Press Secretary Tony Snow listen …
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Amanda / Think Progress:
O'Donnell Tells Leahy: 'You're Going To Get The Truth From Karl Rove' — The White House refuses to allow Karl Rove and other top aides to testify about the administration's prosecutor purge. Instead, it has offered closed door "interviews" with no oath and no transcript.
Discussion:
Political Discontent, The Carpetbagger Report, CNN Political Ticker, Angry Bear and TPMmuckraker
Jennifer Loven / Associated Press:
White House Spokesman to Undergo Surgery — WASHINGTON (AP) - Presidential spokesman Tony Snow is undergoing surgery Monday to remove a growth in his lower abdomen, a procedure he said was being done "out of an aggressive sense of caution" because he had colon cancer two years ago.
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Austin Bay Blog:
Michael Yon threatened with expulsion by a general — This is stupid. Michael Yon and Bill Roggio are the best out there. Telling Michael Yon to exit the theater is the WWII equivalent of telling Ernie Pyle to quit filing dispatches. — Everyone knows the PAO system has never …
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Washington Post:
Retreat and Butter — TODAY THE House of Representatives is due to vote on a bill that would grant $25 million to spinach farmers in California. The legislation would also appropriate $75 million for peanut storage in Georgia and $15 million to protect Louisiana rice fields from saltwater.
Discussion:
Salon, Power Line, Horses Mouth, Captain's Quarters, TalkLeft, Sadly, No! and JustOneMinute
John Heilprin / Associated Press:
Ex-Deputy to Plead Guilty in Lobbyist Case — WASHINGTON — Former Deputy Interior Secretary Steven Griles will plead guilty to one count of obstruction of justice in the Jack Abramoff corruption investigation, The Associated Press has learned. — Griles, an oil and gas lobbyist who became …
Ann Scott Tyson / Washington Post:
GAO Faults U.S. Military Over Munitions in Iraq — Report Says Insurgents Took Unsecured Explosives — The U.S. military's faulty war plans and insufficient troops in Iraq left thousands and possibly millions of tons of conventional munitions unsecured or in the hands of insurgent groups …
Pew Research Center:
Trends in Political Values and Core Attitudes: 1987-2007 — Political Landscape More Favorable To Democrats — Summary of Findings — View the complete report in pdf format — Increased public support for the social safety net, signs of growing public concern about income inequality …
Discussion:
MyDD, The Carpetbagger Report, Los Angeles Times, DownWithTyranny!, Middle Earth Journal and Hullabaloo
Jamie Glazov / Front Page Magazine:
Symposium: The First Nuclear Terrorist Power — An Islamist insurgency is afoot in Pakistan, posing a dire threat of overthrowing Musharraf. — And this may happen sooner rather than later. — If the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is created, it means Islamists get their hands on Pakistan's nuclear weapons.
Discussion:
The Corner
New York Times:
Army Revises Upward the Number of Desertions — A total of 3,196 active-duty soldiers deserted the Army last year, or 853 more than previously reported, according to revised figures from the Army. — The new calculations by the Army, which had about 500,000 active-duty troops at the end of 2006 …
Michael Kinsley / time-blog.com:
Politics, Lies, and 93 v. 8 — David Brooks has an excellent column today, and not for the usual reasons that liberals praise Brooks (and he drives conservatives crazy): because he comes halfway toward us. It's because, in discussing the US Attorneys story, he nails a distinction that I, at least, was struggling with.
Charles Krauthammer / Washington Post:
Unnecessary Scandal — Alberto Gonzales has to go. I say this with no pleasure — he's a decent and honorable man — and without the slightest expectation that his departure will blunt the Democratic assault on the Bush administration over the firing of eight U.S. attorneys.