memeorandum: Obama's Economic Brain Trust Breaks With `Status Quo' (Update1) (Bloomberg)

8:30 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 …

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: Washington Post, The Newshoggers, Balloon Juice, TalkLeft, The Carpetbagger Report, Talking Points Memo, Los Angeles Times, TPMmuckraker, Shakesville, Chicago Tribune, On Deadline, WSJ.com, Norwegianity, Michael P.F. van der Galiën, Daily Kos, AMERICAblog and TIME: Swampland

Paul Kiel / TPMmuckraker:

Gonzales and The Secret Collaborative Process — Alberto Gonzales' strategy in a nutshell: to defend the firing of the U.S. attorneys whenever possible, but when confronted with inescapable evidence that the process was a sham, to backpedal and either blame Kyle Sampson or admit that the process could have been more "rigorous."

Discussion: Firedoglake and politburo diktat 2.0

Amanda / Think Progress:
Gonzales: 'I Haven't Really Thought About' Habeas Corpus

Discussion: MyDD and The Carpetbagger Report

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

Brian Knowlton / New York Times:

Bush Says He's Open to Benchmarks in Iraq Bill — President Bush said today that he was willing to work with lawmakers to include benchmarks for the performance of the Iraqi government in a war spending bill, something members of both parties have been vigorously seeking.

Discussion: Washington Post, WorkingForChange and TIME: Swampland

USATODAY.com News:
Bush gives on Iraq benchmarks

Discussion: DownWithTyranny!

Ed Morrissey / Captain's Quarters:
War Support Starting To Crumble

Discussion: Hot Air, Associated Press, Heading Right, Weekly Standard, Los Angeles Times, JunkYardBlog, Flopping Aces, Middle Earth Journal, Neptunus Lex, ABCNEWS, The Carpetbagger Report and The Strata-Sphere

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: Yahoo! News, The Moderate Voice, New York Times, Times of London, Associated Press, The Newshoggers, The Washington Note, Wonkette, Gawker, Michael P.F. van der Galiën, The American Mind, Sister Toldjah, Donklephant, Blue Crab Boulevard and The Mahablog

Daniel Finkelstein / Comment Central: Five Americans who changed Tony Blair

Redstate:
Tony Blair and the Jihad.

Discussion: Outside The Beltway, Instapundit.com, Guardian and The Moderate Voice

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

Discussion: Right Wing Nut House, The Huffington Post, Obsidian Wings, Hot Air, neo-neocon, Slate, Comment Central and Booman Tribune

Michelle Phillips / anamosaje.com:

Giuliani Snubs Jones County — OLIN-Last weekend Deb and Jerry VonSprecken of Olin received a call from former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani's campaign office asking them if they would be interested in holding a campaign rally on May 4, after she had donated to his campaign.

Discussion: Hotline On Call

Greg Sargent / Horses Mouth:

Did Rudy Giuliani's campaign snub an Iowa farmer couple because they weren't millionaires and hence wouldn't be a suitable prop for Rudy's anti-"death tax" campaigning? And will the haircut-obsessed political media cover it? — Check out this unbelievable story from the Anamosa Journal-Eureka …

Discussion: Wonkette, Balloon Juice and Cliff Schecter

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

Discussion: Hot Air and Jules Crittenden

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, The Newshoggers, digg and No More Mister Nice Blog

USA Today:
Troops in Iraq get safer vehicle

Discussion: Lawyers, Guns and Money and TAPPED

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: The Caucus, bustardblog, Liberal Values, PoliBlog (TM), Hullabaloo and Taylor Marsh

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

Anne Flaherty / Associated Press:

House likely to pass Iraq bill Thursday — WASHINGTON - The White House acknowledged public frustration with the Iraq war but tried to play down Republican anxieties Thursday as the House prepared to pass legislation that could cut off funding for U.S. troops as early as July.

Discussion: DownWithTyranny!, AMERICAblog and Associated Press

Redstate:

Straw, Meet Camel — THUS WE SEE JOHN MCCAIN RISE FURTHER IN THE POLLS — "Though the care and management of five bright and typical boys was the primary focus of Ann Romney's life, she was always deeply involved in her husband's business and political career and in the public life …

Discussion: Hot Air, Townhall.com and The Atlantic Online

Andrewbreitbart / Breitbart.tv:

Free Speech Fracas: Joke Describes Violent Sex Assault of Condoleezza Rice — Warning: Extremely Vulgar Language. XM Shock Jocks Opie and Anthony engage in discussion about forced sex with the Secretary of State. A studio guest, Homeless Charlie, begins describing the scenario as the hosts laugh and encourage him.

Discussion: Captain's Quarters, Hot Air, Gold-Plated Witch on Wheels, Sister Toldjah, Feministing, Roger L. Simon and JammieWearingFool

Hindrocket / Power Line:

WHAT'S NEWS? — Yesterday, Scott wrote about the Appeal for Courage which was presented to Congress yesterday afternoon. You can read about the Appeal here. The Appeal was signed by more than 2,700 active duty servicemen and women. It says: … The Appeal was received yesterday …

Discussion: Associated Press, News Bloggers Blog, Ed Driscoll.com and Transterrestrial Musings

ABCNEWS:

The Sheer Stupidity of Newspapers These Days — The Silicon Insider Looks at Mainstream Media's Follies — The most heated topic in the blogosphere this week was the announcement by James Lileks, one of the world's most popular bloggers, that his longtime employer, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune …

Discussion: City Pages