memeorandum: Internet vulnerable to free speech issues (Ben Smith/The Politico)

4:00 PM ET, May 10, 2007

Top Items:

Administration Withheld E-Mails About Rove — The Bush administration has withheld a series of e-mails from Congress showing that senior White House and Justice Department officials worked together to conceal the role of Karl Rove in installing Timothy Griffin, a protégé of Rove's …

Discussion: Firedoglake, Washington Monthly, Think Progress, About U.S. Politics, Cliff Schecter, Balloon Juice, The Mahablog, Balkinization, Obsidian Wings, Liberal Values, KnoxViews and TPMmuckraker

New York Times:

Gonzales Seems Confident He Will Stay, Officials Say — Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales appears increasingly confident that he will survive the crisis over the dismissal of federal prosecutors, as White House aides who view him as a liability see little point in trying to persuade President Bush …

Discussion: TalkLeft, The Newshoggers, Los Angeles Times, The Carpetbagger Report, TPMmuckraker, On Deadline, Michael P.F. van der Galiën, Daily Kos, AMERICAblog and TIME: Swampland

Washington Post:

Number of Fired Prosecutors Grows — Dismissals Began Earlier Than Justice Dept. Has Said — The former U.S. attorney in Kansas City, Mo., Todd P. Graves, said yesterday that he was asked to step down from his job by a senior Justice Department official in January 2006 …

Discussion: TPMmuckraker, Think Progress, Firedoglake, The Raw Story, Talking Points Memo, The Next Hurrah, Shakesville, CorrenteWire, Norwegianity, New York Times, On Deadline and TalkLeft

Paul Kiel / TPMmuckraker:
NJ: Withheld Emails Show White House Signed Off on False Statements

Discussion: The Carpetbagger Report

Ed Morrissey / Captain's Quarters:

War Support Starting To Crumble — The lack of energy from the Iraqi government of Nouri al-Maliki has added what might be a final straw to Republican discontent about the progress of the war. A delegation of Congressional Republicans met with President Bush last night at the White House …

Discussion: Los Angeles Times, Middle Earth Journal, Macsmind, The Strata-Sphere and Hot Air

Washington Post:
House moves new Iraq funding bill

Discussion: WorkingForChange, DownWithTyranny!, Taylor Marsh and Confederate Yankee

Washington Post:
Bush Told War Is Harming The GOP

Qassim Abdul-Zahra / Associated Press:
Iraqi bill demands U.S. troops withdraw

Discussion: Hot Air, Captain's Quarters and Heading Right

Politico.com:
Bush meets with wavering Republicans

Discussion: Associated Press, QandO and Think Progress

Associated Press:
Bush willing to talk Iraq benchmarks

Discussion: Comments From Left Field, Shakesville and Truthdig

Guardian:

Blair quits as prime minister — Matthew Tempest and agencies — Tony Blair today announced he was stepping down after 10 years as prime minister and 13 as Labour leader. — The prime minister told a crowd of supporters in Trimdon Labour club he would stand down as PM on June 27.

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, Outside The Beltway, Associated Press, The Washington Note, The Newshoggers, Iain Dale's Diary, Tim Worstall, Wonkette, Sister Toldjah, Michael P.F. van der Galiën, The American Mind, Donklephant, Blue Crab Boulevard and The Mahablog

Daniel Finkelstein / Comment Central:

Five Americans who changed Tony Blair — 1. Will Marshall. In 1992, the President of the Progressive Policy Institute was visited by two young British Labour politicians. One of them was Gordon Brown, he forgot the name of the other. — But the impact on Blair of Marshall and his colleagues …

Alan Cowell / NYT > International:
Blair Says He Will Leave Office in June

Discussion: Right Wing Nut House, The Huffington Post, Hot Air and Booman Tribune

Yahoo! News: World:
Britain's Blair says he is resigning

Discussion: Redstate, Times of London, News Bloggers Blog, The Moderate Voice and Shakesville

Kevin Sullivan / Washington Post:
Britain's Blair Announces His Resignation

Discussion: Obsidian Wings and MSNBC

Middle East Times:

Hamas TV refuses to axe contested kids cartoon — RAMALLAH, West Bank — A Hamas-run television channel has defied a Palestinian government request to axe a controversial children's cartoon in which a Mickey Mouse look-alike urges resistance against Israel.

Discussion: Associated Press, The Jawa Report, Wizbang and Blue Crab Boulevard

Little Green Footballs:
Death Cult Mickey Still on the Air

Discussion: Hot Air and Jules Crittenden

Little Green Footballs: Outrage: CNN Covers Up Death Cult Mickey Mouse Video

Mohammed Fadhil / NY Daily News:

A Baghdad plea: U.S. should stay and fight — Be Our Guest — I wasn't surprised when I saw Al Qaeda's second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahiri, appear on Al Jazeera to announce America's defeat last week, not long after U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid did.

Discussion: Redstate and Gateway Pundit

Bill Roggio / The Fourth Rail:

The Diyala Salvation Front — Tribal leaders in the troubled province organize against al Qaeda — Map of southern Diyala. Click map to view. — In March, we noted the successful model of the Anbar Salvation Council will very likely be replicated elsewhere in regions where al Qaeda has established bases of operation.

Discussion: Washington Times, The Earth Times Online …, The Strata-Sphere, Weekly Standard, Confederate Yankee and QandO

The Smoking Gun:

Uncle Sam Probes Michael Moore — Treasury Department investigating director's unauthorized Cuba trip — Director Michael Moore is being investigated by the Treasury Department for traveling to Cuba in violation of a U.S. trade embargo. In a May 2 letter, the Office …

Discussion: Debbie Schlussel, Michelle Malkin, On Deadline and Pajamas Media

David Germain / Associated Press:
Michael Moore faces U.S. Treasury probe

Discussion: Captain's Quarters and Hot Air

Amanda / Think Progress:

Pentagon Breaks Pledge To Troops, Sends Them Back To Iraq After Just Nine Months At Home — On April 11, Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced that tours of duty for the Army would be extended from 12 months to 15 months, effective immediately. In exchange for the extensions …

Discussion: Stars & Stripes, The Newshoggers and The Carpetbagger Report

USA Today:
Troops in Iraq get safer vehicle

Discussion: TAPPED, Lawyers, Guns and Money and Chicago Tribune

Faiz / Think Progress:

LaHood: Bush 'Surprised,' 'Sobered' Over GOP Frustration About Iraq — This morning on CNN, Rep. Ray LaHood (R-IL) — one of 11 Republican members to have recently visited the White House and plead with President Bush to change course in Iraq — described the meeting as "unvarnished …

Discussion: CNN

Chicago Tribune:
GOP pressures Bush on war

Discussion: New York Times, Booman Tribune and Daily Kos

Roger L. Simon / Pajamas Media:

Film Review: "Islam vs. Islamism" — Martyn Burke's documentary "Islam vs. Islamism" (produced with Frank Gaffney and Alex Alexiev) was commissioned by PBS for its "American Crossroads" series, but never shown by the network. Quality control or censorship?

Discussion: The Jawa Report, Classical Values, Townhall.com and Neptunus Lex

Ben Smith / The Politico:

Internet vulnerable to free speech issues — Forget television executives and the FEC. The new regulators of political speech are Sergey Brin, Rupert Murdoch and Mark Zuckerberg -the chieftains of YouTube, MySpace and Facebook, respectively. — Those sites are where you'll find …

Discussion: The Caucus

Nicole Fuller / Baltimore Sun:

Rush Limbaugh billboard near I-83 defaced … Apparently, somebody in Baltimore isn't a fan of Rush Limbaugh. — A large billboard advertising local air times for the conservative radio talk-show host has been defaced. — Robert Murrow, a spokesman for the city's Department of Public Works …

Discussion: Right Wing News, Democratic Underground …, Hot Air and NewsBusters.org