Top Items:
Committee on Oversight and Government Reform:
Vice President Exempts His Office from the Requirements for Protecting Classified Information — The Oversight Committee has learned that over the objections of the National Archives, Vice President Cheney exempted his office from the presidential order that establishes government-wide procedures …
Discussion:
Threat Level, On Deadline, Balloon Juice, Blast Off!, Secrecy News, Donklephant, Obsidian Wings, Macsmind, All Spin Zone, Shakesville, Salon, Hullabaloo, The Moderate Voice and The Mahablog
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Justin Rood Reports / The Blotter:
Cheney Power Grab: Says White House Rules Don't Apply to Him — Justin Rood Reports: — Vice President Dick Cheney has asserted his office is not a part of the executive branch of the U.S. government, and therefore not bound by a presidential order governing the protection of classified information …
Discussion:
Scholars and Rogues, The Democratic Daily, The Agonist, Truthdig, AMERICAblog and TIME: Swampland
Jesse Lee / The Gavel:
Oversight Committee on the Vice President and Classified Information — From the Oversight and Government Reform Committee: … * Letter from National Archives to the Attorney General (pdf) — * Second Letter from National Archives to the Vice President's Office (pdf)
Associated Press:
White House near decision to close Guantanamo — WASHINGTON (AP) — The Bush administration is nearing a decision to close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility and move the terror suspects there to military prisons elsewhere, The Associated Press has learned.
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Mark Benjamin / Salon:
The CIA's torture teachers — Psychologists helped the CIA exploit a secret military program to develop brutal interrogation tactics — likely with the approval of the Bush White House. — A detainee is escorted by military police at Camp 4 of the maximum security prison Camp Delta …
Discussion:
The Next Hurrah
Marcus Mabry / Newsweek:
Poll: Bush hits lowest approval rating of presidency — President Bush registers the lowest approval rating of his presidency—making him the least popular president since Nixon—in the new NEWSWEEK Poll. — Iraq isn't the only issue dragging Bush's approval ratings down
Discussion:
Firedoglake, The Atlantic Online, Pollster.com, The Huffington Post, Wonkette, Corrente, MyDD, Liberal Values, Middle Earth Journal and WTF Is It Now??
David Stout / New York Times:
Senate Approves Stricter Fuel Standards for Autos — The Senate voted this evening to raise fuel-economy requirements for cars and sport utility vehicles, demanding that they get 35 miles per gallon by 2020. — The lawmakers first announced their agreement on raising the standards …
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Bill Roggio / The Fourth Rail:
Operation Phantom Thunder: The Battle of Iraq — Baghdad and the Belts. Red bordered units identified as active in offensive operations. Click map to view. — A status update on the operations in the Baghdad Belts and beyond — Operation Phantom Thunder, the name of the overarching operation …
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Joe Klein / Time:
Turning on al-Qaeda in Baquba
Turning on al-Qaeda in Baquba
Discussion:
New York Times, Hot Air, The Moderate Voice, Confederate Yankee, The Strata-Sphere and FOB Tacoma
ABCNEWS:
Deputy AG Says He Was Kept Out of the Loop on U.S. Attorney Firings — Paul McNulty Tells Congress He Had 'No Knowledge' of DOJ Plans Before October — The second in command at the Justice Department said Thursday that he was kept out of the loop regarding the controversial U.S. attorney firings last year.
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Geoffrey Wheatcroft / Slate:
RUSHDIE'S KNIGHTHOOD REIGNITES "SALMANOPHOBIA" AT HOME AND ABROAD. — "I am delighted for him," Ian McEwan said, when told that his friend and fellow novelist Salman Rushdie had been knighted. "He's a wonderful writer, and this sends a firm message to the book-burners and their appeasers."
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Scott McLemee / Jobs, News and Views …:
Mass Culture 2.0 — This month, Encyclopedia Britannica's blog is serializing a commentary on the cultural effects of Web 2.0. The author, Michael Gorman, is dean of library services at California State University at Fresno and a former president of the American Library Association.
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Jonathan Martin / The Politico:
Romney to talk terror today — Romney will discuss his "Comprehensive Strategy For Winning The War On Terror" in a speech today at an AEI conference in Colorado. — Per excerpts released by his campaign, the former governor will propose the creation of a new "Special Partnership Force" …
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Roger Simon / The Politico:
Nader ponders run, calls Clinton 'coward' — Ralph Nader says he is seriously considering running for president in 2008 because he foresees another Tweedledum-Tweedledee election that offers little real choice to voters. — "You know the two parties are still converging …
Discussion:
Obsidian Wings, USA Today, Washington Post, Associated Press, Newsday, Reason Magazine, ProfessorBainbridge.com ®, QandO, The Gun Toting Liberal™, PrezVid, The Reaction, Outside The Beltway, Captain's Quarters, The Mahablog, US News, culturekitchen, MSNBC, Liberal Values, Lawyers, Guns and Money, The Carpetbagger Report, No More Mister Nice Blog, The Moderate Voice, Air America Radio, WTF Is It Now??, Connecting.the.Dots and Taylor Marsh
Max Blumenthal:
The Film Take Back America Took Back — As a result of the attention surrounding my film about the 2007 Conservative Political Action Conference-it was a YouTube hit-the liberal Campaign for America's Future asked me to produce a similar video about their annual conference, Take Back America (TBA), held in Washington.
obama.senate.gov:
Obama Announces FY08 Federal Funding Requests — Discloses earmarks to improve government transparency — WASHINGTON, DC - U.S. Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) today announced that he had requested federal funding for the following projects, in the amounts designated by his constituents …
Carl Levin / Washington Post:
Lincoln's Example for Iraq — In his only term in Congress, Abraham Lincoln was an ardent opponent of the Mexican War. He introduced a series of resolutions that challenged President James Polk to show the "spot" of American soil on which Mexicans had spilled American blood …
Maria Recio / SunHerald.com:
Lott: 'I've already offended everybody' — Fence? Goats? What is Lott talking about? — WASHINGTON —What does a fence on the United State-Mexico border have to do with goats? — Sen. Minority Whip Trent Lott, R-Miss., was talking to reporters Wednesday about the immigration bill …
Jonathan Singer / MyDD:
MyDD Interview with Nancy Pelosi — Yesterday morning, Wednesday June 20, I had the opportunity to sit down for a few minutes with the Speaker of the United States House, Nancy Pelosi. — During the interview, which immediately followed Speaker Pelosi's speech at the Take Back America conference …
Bill Dedman / MSNBC:
List of journalists taking sides — And their explanations, from 'Yikes!' to 'They're all in somebody's pocket' — Have you captured a candidate on camera? We want to see it. Click here to send us your pictures and videos, and we'll post the best on MSNBC.com.