Top Items:
Ben Smith / The Politico:
Obama Ditches CBC/Fox Debate — Barack Obama has chosen not to attend September's Democratic presidential primary debate co-sponsored by the Congressional Black Caucus Institute and Fox News, an aide said, effectively dooming the event. — Obama is the only member of the Congressional Black Caucus running …
Discussion:
MyDD, The American Street, Hot Air, The Carpetbagger Report, TIME: Swampland, Bob Krumm, Riehl World View, On Politics, Sister Toldjah, Wonkette and TIME
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Political Radar:
Obama to Nix Fox Debate — ABC News' Jake Tapper Reports: Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, will be the second Democratic presidential candidate to boycott a proposed debate to be broadcast by Fox News Channel. — "CNN seems to be a more appropriate host," an Obama campaign aide tells ABC News.
Brad Stone / New York Times:
A Call for Manners in the World of Nasty Blogs — Is it too late to bring civility to the Web? — The conversational free-for-all on the Internet known as the blogosphere can be a prickly and unpleasant place. Now, a few high-profile figures in high-tech are proposing a blogger code …
Discussion:
O'Reilly Radar, The Huffington Post, The Agonist, MyDD, BuzzMachine, Brilliant at Breakfast, The Volokh Conspiracy, The Impolitic, Dependable Renegade, Kiko's House, Captain's Quarters, Donklephant, NewsHog, TalkLeft, Reason Magazine, Right Wing News, PrawfsBlawg, News Bloggers Blog, Instapundit.com, The Mahablog, The Big Picture, Attytood, JustOneMinute, Althouse, Norwegianity, QandO, All Spin Zone, rexblog.com, Daniel W. Drezner, CorrenteWire, Dohiyi Mir, The Daily Dish, Macsmind and No Silence Here
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SilentPatriot / Crooks and Liars:
Imus and Sharpton Square Off Over Racial Remarks — Don Imus got himself into hot water last week after he made racially insensitive remarks about the Rutgers women's basketball team. Today he sat down with Reverend Al Sharpton, who has called for his firing, to talk about the incident.
Digby / Hullabaloo:
Hey, Must Be The Money — So I make myself some coffee and open my dead tree version of the NY Times this morning only to see a call for blogger ethics on the front page. How interesting. Another call for "managed civil speech" (which is claimed to be "freer" than unfettered free speech.)
Media Matters for America:
Fineman to pal Imus: Racist comments aren't OK any more like they used to be — Discussing host Don Imus' April 4 comments on MSNBC's Imus in the Morning — in which Imus referred to the Rutgers women's basketball team as "nappy headed hos" — and the controversy that ensued …
Don'T Miss This / MSNBC:
MSNBC, CBS Radio suspend Imus show — But charity event will air as scheduled Thursday and Friday — NEW YORK - After a career of cranky insults, radio star Don Imus was fighting for his job Monday following one joke that by his own admission went "way too far."
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David Carr / New York Times:
With Imus, They Keep Coming Back — "Imus in the Morning" is scheduled to start this morning like any other, with Don Imus and his crew cracking wise about the weekend's events, riffing off the news and chatting with Evan Thomas, one of Newsweek's top guns.
Discussion:
Confederate Yankee, On Politics, Gawker, Public Eye, NY Daily News, The Radio Equalizer and Romenesko
Gene Weingarten / Washington Post:
Pearls Before Breakfast — Can one of the nation's great musicians cut through the fog of a D.C. rush hour? Let's find out. — HE EMERGED FROM THE METRO AT THE L'ENFANT PLAZA STATION AND POSITIONED HIMSELF AGAINST A WALL BESIDE A TRASH BASKET. By most measures, he was nondescript …
Discussion:
Ezra Klein, The Impolitic, Done With Mirrors, Hullabaloo, Alarming News, On Deadline and Talking Points Memo
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Kevin Drum / Political Animal:
JOSHUA'S FIDDLE....Have you read Gene Weingarten's cover story in this week's Washington Post magazine? Basically, he took a world-class violinist (Joshua Bell) and had him play for about an hour at the entrance to a DC Metro stop to see if anyone would notice. To a good approximation, no one did.
Edward Wong / New York Times:
Iraqis Protest U.S. Occupation of Iraq — Tens of thousands of people marched to the city of Najaf today, the fourth anniversary of the fall of Baghdad, to protest the American occupation of Iraq. — The demonstration, which has remained peaceful, was being held at the urging of militant Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr.
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Lauren Frayer / Associated Press:
Iraqis protest to mark Baghdad's fall
Iraqis protest to mark Baghdad's fall
Discussion:
Chicago Tribune, NewsHog, DownWithTyranny!, The Mahablog, CorrenteWire, New York Times, TPMmuckraker, NewsBusters.org and Dohiyi Mir
Mike Baker / charlotteobserver.com:
Elizabeth Edwards afraid of neighbor — She has never met `rabid Republican,' but wouldn't be nice — RALEIGH —Elizabeth Edwards says she is scared of the "rabid, rabid Republican" who owns property across the street from her Orange County home — and she doesn't want her kids going near the gun-toting neighbor.
Tom Newton Dunn / The Sun:
Faye's amazing hostage story — and JULIE MOULT — FREED British hostage Faye Turney told last night how she feared she was being measured for her COFFIN by her evil Iranian captors. — The sickening charade was an act of mental torture — but to Navy sailor Faye it was terrifyingly real.
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Robert D. Novak / Washington Post:
Worse Than Apartheid? — BETHLEHEM, West Bank — Hani Hayek, an accountant who is the Christian mayor of the tiny majority-Christian Palestinian village of Beit Sahour, was angry last week as he drove me along the Israeli security wall. "They are taking our communal lands," he said …
Anchorage Daily News:
Frozen bay turns otters into easy prey — PORT HEIDEN: Hunger leads animals to seek food on the tundra. — By ALEX deMARBAN — An extra-cold winter on the Alaska Peninsula has frozen sea otters out of the bay and pushed them onto the tundra near Port Heiden where they're easy prey for wolves, humans and hunger.
Glenn Reynolds / Instapundit.com:
GOOD QUESTION: "Under Bush, unemployment dropped to numbers seldom seen — far below the Clinton years. Clinton's people counter with well, the stock market took off when he was prez. Wait a second, aren't Republicans supposed to be the Wall Street guys while Democrats are the blue collar guys?"