Top Items:
New York Times:
U.S. Rebuffs Germany on Greenhouse Gas Cuts — The United States has rejected Germany's proposal for deep long-term cuts in greenhouse gas emissions, setting the stage for a battle that will pit President Bush against his European allies at next month's meeting of the world's richest countries.
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John Vidal / Guardian:
US rejects all climate proposals — The US has rejected any prospect of a deal on climate change at the G8 summit in Germany next month, according to a leaked document. — Despite Tony Blair's declaration on Thursday that Washington would sign up to "at least the beginnings" …
Juliet Eilperin / Washington Post:
U.S. Rejects G-8 Climate Proposal — Germany Urges Limiting Emissions, Temperature Increase — U.S. officials have raised a second round of unusually bluntly worded objections to a proposed global-warming declaration that Germany prepared for next month's Group of Eight summit, according to documents obtained by The Washington Post.
Glenn Greenwald / Salon:
Major troop reductions imminent — again — Wonderful — and highly credible — front page news today, from The New York Times: … For four straight years, the same set of war supporters have constantly and reptitiously given the same exact false assurances about Iraq — virtually verbatim …
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Richard B. Schmitt / Los Angeles Times:
Immigration judges lack apt backgrounds — A growing number of the jurists have little or no experience in that area of law. Some have strong Republican resumes. — WASHINGTON — Over the last two years, U.S. Atty. Gen. Alberto R. Gonzales has appointed more than two dozen individuals as federal immigration judges.
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Dan Eggen / Washington Post:
Officials Say Justice Dept. Based Hires on Politics Before Goodling Tenure — The Justice Department considered political affiliation in screening applicants for immigration court judgeships for several years until hiring was frozen in December after objections from department lawyers, current and former officials said yesterday.
Steve Clemons / The Washington Note:
Pat Lang & Lawrence Wilkerson Share Nightmare Encounters with Feith, Wolfowitz, and Tenet — (Lawrence Wilkerson and his regular Thursday students. These are not the ones in the audience referred to below.) — Jeff Stein of Congressional Quarterly has a great recap of what former Pentagon …
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Jeff Stein / CQ.com:
Iraq Intelligence Horror Stories Shouldn't Be Old News — Hearing horror stories about the manipulation of Iraq intelligence is like watching "The Exorcist" again and again: Each time you see something new and laugh at the parts that used to make your hair go up straight.
Discussion:
Obsidian Wings
Big Tent Democrat / TalkLeft:
Iraq Supplemental: Is The Problem Cowardice? No, Poor Thinking — Jon Alter, writing about the Dems' Iraq Supplemental disaster, says: … I'm going to concentrate only on the politics of the situation here, let's leave the human lives at stake aside. Ahhhhhh.
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Kevin Drum / Washington Monthly:
ON BEING RATIONAL....In The Myth of the Rational Voter, Bryan Caplan argues that although people are rational in the marketplace (which is a good thing, since this assumption is required to make classical economics work), they become foolish and incoherent when they step into the voting booth.
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Margalit Fox / New York Times:
William Peters, 85, Journalist Who Examined Race in U.S., Dies — William Peters, a journalist and award-winning documentary film producer who chronicled American race relations during the turbulent years of the mid-20th century, died on Sunday in Boulder, Colo. He was 85.
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Robert Stein / The Moderate Voice:
Everything a Reporter Should Be — When William Peters died …
Everything a Reporter Should Be — When William Peters died …
Discussion:
The Populist
Rusty / The Jawa Report:
Don't Panic! Four Terror Suspects Escape Probation; one a Zarqawi associate — British authorities have released the names of four terror suspects who have "escaped" the British equvalent of something like probation. Iraqi born Bestun Salim, Algerian born Lamine Adam, Ibrahim Adam …
Mike McIntire / New York Times:
SUIT SHEDS LIGHT ON CLINTONS' TIES TO A BENEFACTOR — When former President Bill Clinton and Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton took a family vacation in January 2002 to Acapulco, Mexico, one of their longtime supporters, Vinod Gupta, provided his company's private jet to fly them there.
Discussion:
Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, NewsBusters.org, The RBC, The Politico, Chicago Tribune and protein wisdom
Agence France Presse:
Tehran's interest-rate cuts 'economic suicide for banks' — TEHRAN: Iran's moderate press and economists Thursday slammed a decision by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to slash interest rates, describing the move as "incomprehensible" and risking "economic suicide."
Discussion:
National Review
Jules Crittenden:
Breastfeed Your Way Out of Sexist Oppression — I'm just going to get of the way and let this one tell itself. MEMRI: … Stone the bloody crows! … Let me see if I've got this straight. You put a bloke and a sheila in close quarters, behind closed doors, and one thing might lead to another.
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L. Lavi / MEMRI:
Al-Azhar Lecturer Suspended after Issuing Controversial Fatwa …
Al-Azhar Lecturer Suspended after Issuing Controversial Fatwa …
Discussion:
Neptunus Lex
Sheryl Gay Stolberg / New York Times:
White House Memo: Winning on Iraq, Bush Turns to Immigration — Having won his fight with Congressional Democrats on an Iraq war spending bill, President Bush is now waging an equally aggressive battle with Republicans, as he tries to persuade them to support an immigration bill that he hopes will be a signature domestic achievement.
Discussion:
BAGnewsNotes