Top Items:
Sudarsan Raghavan / Washington Post:
Iraq's Sadr Overhauls His Tactics — NAJAF, Iraq — The movement of Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr has embarked on one of its most dramatic tactical shifts since the beginning of the war. — The 33-year-old populist is reaching out to a broad array of Sunni leaders, from politicians to insurgents …
Discussion:
Informed Comment, The Newshoggers, Unqualified Offerings, Talking Points Memo and The Atlantic Online
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Greg Miller / Los Angeles Times:
Influx of Al Qaeda, money into Pakistan is seen — U.S. officials say the terrorist network's command base is increasingly being funded by cash coming out of Iraq. — WASHINGTON — A major CIA effort launched last year to hunt down Osama bin Laden has produced no significant leads on his whereabouts …
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Kevin Drum / Washington Monthly:
GETTING OUT....Greg Miller of the LA Times reports today that the CIA deployed about 50 additional agents in Pakistan last year as part of a plan to replace the agents who were yanked out of Afghanistan in 2002 to help prepare for the war with Iraq. The goal was to reinvigorate the search …
Abu Kais / From Beirut to the Beltway:
Assad's volcano in Lebanon — Terrorist group Fatah al-Islam unleashed its fury on the Lebanese army today, killing at least 12 army soldiers and ISF members and wounding dozens of others, including civilians. The Syrian-backed group— made up of Syrian, Palestinian, Lebanese …
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Rick Weiss / Washington Post:
Tainted Chinese Imports Common — In Four Months, FDA Refused 298 Shipments — Dried apples preserved with a cancer-causing chemical. — Frozen catfish laden with banned antibiotics. — Scallops and sardines coated with putrefying bacteria. — Mushrooms laced with illegal pesticides.
Think Progress:
Specter: Gonzales Will Likely Resign Before No Confidence Vote — Last week, Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and Charles Schumer (D-NY) called on the Senate to hold a no-confidence vote on Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. — The White House and its conservative allies quickly derided the vote …
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Logan Murphy / Crooks and Liars:
Specter Believes Alberto Gonzales Will Step Down
Specter Believes Alberto Gonzales Will Step Down
Discussion:
PoliBlog (TM)
Richard Schickel / Los Angeles Times:
Not everybody's a critic — Sure, anyone with a blog can express an opinion about a book, but true criticism is more than just an opinion. — THE MOST grating words I've read in a newspaper recently were in a New York Times report on the shrinkage of book reviewing in many of the nation's leading newspapers.
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Glenn Reynolds / Instapundit.com:
JEEZ, ANDREW'S AT IT AGAIN. — I never understand what sends him off on these tears. I kind of think he actually wants me to be pro-torture, though he certainly knows better. Sullivan's certainly not above torturing the record to get the answers he wants, though to be fair he more often simply ignores it.
Salena Zito / PittsburghLIVE.com:
Fred's watershed? — TRIBUNE-REVIEW — On the day of the first Southern-state Republican debate on the Fox News Channel, one undeclared GOP candidate performed a media leapfrog. — With the help of one 38-second video clip and a great sense of humor, Fred Thompson …
Associated Press:
Carter: Bush 'worst' in world relations — LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - Former President Carter says President Bush's administration is "the worst in history" in international relations, taking aim at the White House's policy of pre-emptive war and its Middle East diplomacy.
Bryan Burrough / New York Times:
Or No Conspiracy? — I have no idea what book wears the crown of longest nonfiction title ever published. Whoever holds the record, it is about to be challenged by Vincent Bugliosi, whose new work, "Reclaiming History," a cellular-level re-examination of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, clocks in at 1,612 pages.
Michael D. Shear / Washington Post:
Gingrich Assails 'Radical Secularism' — In Speech, Ex-Speaker Praises Falwell, Offers No Hints About His Political Plans — Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich decried a "growing culture of radical secularism" Saturday morning as he hailed the life of Liberty University's late founder …
Discussion:
The Carpetbagger Report, Talking Points Memo, Liberal Values, TPMCafe blogs and Rising Hegemon
The Big Trunk / Power Line:
"F*** YOU": THE INSIDE STORY — John McCain's eruption at fellow conservative Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) is an incident that reverberates on several levels. It renews lingering doubts about whether McCain possesses proper temperament to be President. It also raises serious questions …
Discussion:
Townhall.com
Des Moines Register:
Mitt Romney leads Republicans — Mitt Romney has sprinted ahead of presidential competitors John McCain and Rudy Giuliani in a new Iowa Poll of likely Republican caucus participants. — The Des Moines Register poll shows Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, is the top choice of 30 percent …
Telegraph:
US surge is failing, says UK's Iraq envoy — The "troop surge" by American soldiers in Iraq is not working, one of Britain's senior military officials in Baghdad has said. — In a pessimistic assessment of the strategy designed to pull Iraq back from all-out civil war, Alastair Campbell …
Mark Steyn / National Review:
Re: Why doesn't this surprise me? — Mark, I always thought the requirement in last year's bill was pretty sweet: You had to pay two out of three years' back taxes. Most legal Americans would love that deal: Pay any two years of tax and we'll give you the third for free!
David S. Broder / Washington Post:
Western Allies In the Twilight — The two wounded warriors stood side by side in the sunshine of the White House Rose Garden. Tony Blair and George Bush, partners in a transatlantic alliance that has come a cropper in Iraq, tried to shield each other from the slings and arrows of two nations' reporters.
Jerry Seper / Washington Times:
Border agents hit illegals bill — The leadership of all 11,000 nonsupervisory U.S. Border Patrol agents yesterday criticized an immigration compromise by senators and the Bush administration as "piecemeal" legislation that invites future terrorist attacks and fails to secure the nation's borders.
Discussion:
The Moderate Voice
Liz Garrigan / Washington Post:
He Sure Can Act the Part — Like voters everywhere, we Tennesseans want our politicians to be part professor, part John Wayne. But the top-tier candidates in the GOP field so far — John McCain, Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney — somehow lack that magic merger of smarts and swagger …