Top Items:
Ann Scott Tyson / Washington Post:
No Drop in Iraq Violence Seen Since Troop Buildup — Three months into the new U.S. military strategy that has sent tens of thousands of additional troops into Iraq, overall levels of violence in the country have not decreased, as attacks have shifted away from Baghdad and Anbar …
Discussion:
Think Progress, Informed Comment, Heading Right, Captain's Quarters, IraqSlogger.com, The Atlantic Online, Outside The Beltway, Angry Bear, Crooks and Liars, The American Mind, PoliBlog (TM), Macsmind, Comments From Left Field, Jules Crittenden, State of the Day, Michael P.F. van der Galiën, Balloon Juice, Central Sanity and On Deadline
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John F. Burns / New York Times:
Efforts to Avert Sectarian Reprisals After Shrine Attack — Left, a file photo from December 2003 shows the two minarets and the Golden Dome of the al-Askari mosque in Samarra. At right, the mosque after the attack on the minarets on Wednesday. The dome was destroyed in a 2006 attack. More Photos >
John Bresnahan / The Politico:
Reid labels military leader 'incompetent' — Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid called Marine Gen. Peter Pace, the outgoing chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, "incompetent" during an interview Tuesday with a group of liberal bloggers, a comment that was never reported.
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David S. Broder / Washington Post:
The Immigration Bill In Harry Reid's Court — It is hard to say who looked worse in the Senate's impasse on immigration legislation — Democrats or Republicans — but the responsibility for reviving that measure clearly rests most heavily on the shoulders of Majority Leader Harry Reid.
Associated Press:
Key security HQ in Gaza City, last Fatah stronghold, falls — Hamas fighters overran Fatah-allied Preventive Security headquarters in Gaza City on Thursday, a key target in their battle to control the entire Gaza Strip, witnesses and a security agency official said.
Discussion:
Power Line, New York Times, Captain's Quarters, Confederate Yankee, QandO, Blue Crab Boulevard, Jihad Watch and Telegraph
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Roger Friedman / Fox News:
Angelina Jolie's Freedom of Press, on Her Terms — Odds 'n' Ends — Angelina Jolie's Freedom of Press, on Her Terms — Angelina Jolie's true colors came out Wednesday as she promoted a film about freedom of the press and then tried to censor all her interviews.
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Ben Smith / The Politico:
All Hillary, all positive, all the time — Not long ago, a campaign had a couple of options for getting out word of a big endorsement: a press release to political reporters, or maybe a calculated leak to a big local paper. — But Wednesday morning, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign broke …
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John Solomon / Washington Post:
FBI Finds It Frequently Overstepped in Collecting Data — An internal FBI audit has found that the bureau potentially violated the law or agency rules more than 1,000 times while collecting data about domestic phone calls, e-mails and financial transactions in recent years …
Discussion:
TPMmuckraker, The Carpetbagger Report, The Heretik, Too Sense, Vox Popoli, Prairie Weather and Booman Tribune
Lyle Denniston / SCOTUSblog:
Court rules foreign governments not immune to some taxes — The Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that foreign governments are not immune to being sued to force them to pay local property taxes on residences for their diplomats at the United Nations. "Property ownership is not an inherently sovereign function," the Court found.
Washington Post:
Judge to Rule on Libby's Request to Remain Free Pending Appeal — The federal judge presiding over the trial of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby is scheduled to decide today whether Vice President Cheney's former chief of staff must report to prison within weeks to begin serving a 30-month sentence …
Washington Post:
Primary Calendar Poses Big Challenges — As they criss-cross the nation at a dizzying pace, Democratic and Republican presidential candidates are locked in a fast-track campaign that has forced frontrunners and the far-behind to rethink the traditional path to nomination seven months before a single vote is cast.
Telegraph:
US town bans low-slung trousers — A town council in Louisiana has made it a crime to wear baggy trousers that expose the underwear. — Residents of Delcambre in the southern US state face six months in jail or a fine of $500 (£254) if they are caught wearing trousers which show their undergarments.
Discussion:
TalkLeft
Sam Youngman / The Hill:
Obama aide wants Libby pardoned — Sen. Barack Obama's (D-Ill.) top lawyer publicly made the case yesterday for a presidential pardon for convicted White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby. — Obama general counsel Robert Bauer did not ask his boss, a presidential candidate …