memeorandum: Pentagon Breaks Pledge To Troops, Sends Them Back To Iraq … (Amanda/Think Progress)

5:00 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: The Huffington Post, Firedoglake, Think Progress, The Moderate Voice, Associated Press, Balloon Juice, About U.S. Politics, Cliff Schecter, Obsidian Wings, The Mahablog, Balkinization, TPMmuckraker, Liberal Values and KnoxViews

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

Washington Post:
Number of Fired Prosecutors Grows

Discussion: TPMmuckraker, Firedoglake, Think Progress, The Raw Story, Talking Points Memo, The Next Hurrah, Shakesville, CorrenteWire, WSJ.com, 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

Kevin Drum / Washington Monthly:
HIDDEN EMAILS....Back in February, Kyle Sampson drafted a letter …

Discussion: Firedoglake

Washington Post:

Bush Told War Is Harming The GOP — House Republican moderates, in a remarkably blunt White House meeting, warned President Bush this week that his pursuit of the war in Iraq is risking the future of the Republican Party and that he cannot count on GOP support for many more months.

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: 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

Brian Knowlton / New York Times:
Bush Says He's Open to Benchmarks in Iraq Bill

Discussion: TIME: Swampland

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

Discussion: Heading Right and Captain's Quarters

Anne Flaherty / Associated Press:
House likely to pass Iraq bill Thursday

Discussion: AMERICAblog

Associated Press:
Bush willing to talk Iraq benchmarks

Discussion: Comments From Left Field, Shakesville and Truthdig

USATODAY.com News:
Bush gives on Iraq benchmarks

Discussion: DownWithTyranny!

Allahpundit / Hot Air:
Majority of Iraqi MPs endorse bill demanding timetable for U.S …

Discussion: Associated Press, Los Angeles Times, The Carpetbagger Report and The Jawa Report

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, Michael P.F. van der Galiën, Sister Toldjah, 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, neo-neocon and Booman Tribune

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

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

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, Riehl World View and Blue Crab Boulevard

Little Green Footballs:

Death Cult Mickey Still on the Air — Imagine my surprise. — When the terrorists of Fatah announced yesterday that the degenerate, evil Mickey Mouse clone had been dropped by Hamas TV, they were lying: Hamas TV refuses to axe contested kids cartoon. … (Hat tip: LGF readers.)

Discussion: Hot Air and Jules Crittenden

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

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, Pajamas Media and On Deadline

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

Discussion: The Newshoggers, 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 Carpetbagger Report and The Newshoggers

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: Michael P.F. van der Galiën, The Jawa Report, Classical Values, Townhall.com and Neptunus Lex

The Blotter:

OxyContin: The Giuliani Connection — Brian Ross, Richard Esposito & R. Schwartz Report: — Rudolph Giuliani and his consulting company, Giuliani Partners, have served as key advisors for the last five years to the pharmaceutical company that pled guilty today to charges it misled doctors …

Discussion: bustardblog, PoliBlog (TM), Hullabaloo and Taylor Marsh

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 …, NewsBusters.org and Hot Air

John Sullivan / SWJ Blog:

The Missing Mission: Expeditionary Police for Peacekeeping and Transnational Stability — On Wednesday, April 11, 2007 U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon asked New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg if some of the city's police could be deployed with the U.N. for peacekeeping missions.

Discussion: INTEL DUMP and Thomas P.M. Barnett

Edward Epstein / San Francisco Chronicle:

GOP keeps the heat turned up on Pelosi — Speaker's foes likely to sling mud until something sticks — (05-10) 04:00 PDT Washington — Firebrand Republicans would have you believe that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi might have engaged in corruption for her husband, tried to grab a luxury …

Discussion: The Impolitic and Sister Toldjah