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 …
RELATED:
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, PoliBlog (TM), 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)
Greg Sargent / Election Central:
Rahm Emanuel To Cheney: Please Get The Heck Out Of The White House — Call it the Dick Branch of the American government. — Rahm Emanuel's office just sent out a nifty chart illustrating Veep Cheney's latest. As you may have heard by now, Cheney reportedly exempted his own office …
Discussion:
A Spork in the Drawer
Scott Shane / New York Times:
Cheney in Dispute on Oversight of His Office — For four years, Vice President Dick Cheney has resisted routine oversight of his office's handling of classified information, and when the office in charge of overseeing classification in the executive branch objected, the vice president's office suggested …
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.
RELATED:
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:
Pollster.com, Firedoglake, Wonkette, The Reaction, Corrente, The Huffington Post, MyDD, Liberal Values, Connecting.the.Dots, WTF Is It Now?? and The Agonist
RELATED:
Jackie Kucinich / The Hill:
House Republican wants to restrict Pelosi's travel — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) will not be permitted to use State Department funds to travel to nations that are known to have sponsored terrorism if a Republican amendment to appropriations legislation passes the House on Thursday.
RELATED:
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 …
RELATED:
Ulrike Putz / Spiegel Online:
A Visit to Fatah's Torture Chamber — A building formerly occupied by Fatah's intelligence service in Gaza was long notorious for torture and execution. Now Hamas is in control — and is letting former inmates visit the chamber of horrors. — The cells are small, perhaps six feet by six feet …
Discussion:
Israel Matzav, Little Green Footballs, A Blog For All, Jihad Watch, New York Times and Israpundit
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 …
RELATED:
Dan Murphy / Christian Science Monitor:
Backlash grows against British award of knighthood to Salman Rushdie — Pakistani hard-line clerics respond with an award of their own to Osama bin Laden. — The award of a knighthood to Salman Rushdie, author of "The Satanic Verses," has prompted deep criticism from Egypt's parliament …
RELATED:
Paul Kane / Washington Post:
Ashcroft Tells of Surveillance Disputes — House Panel Hears Of Battle Within Administration — Former attorney general John D. Ashcroft told the House intelligence committee yesterday about disputes in the Bush administration over aspects of its domestic surveillance program …
RELATED:
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.
Discussion:
Power Line, Done With Mirrors, National Review, The Oxford Medievalist, Lonewacko, The Jawa Report, Clayton Cramer's BLOG, TIME: Swampland, Hot Air, Romenesko, NewsBusters.org, The Caucus, michellemalkin.com, D-Day, Say Anything, Taegan Goddard's …, Michael P.F. van der Galiën, On Deadline, PoliPundit.com, Redstate and JammieWearingFool
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.
Marianne Garvey / New York Post:
NBC'S $1M DEAL FOR PARIS CHAT — NBC has agreed to pay as much as $1 million for Paris Hilton's first after-jail interview, which will appear on the "Today" show, The Post has learned. — Sources told The Post the sit-down will be conducted by Meredith Vieira the day after the heir-head is sprung some time next week.
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 …
Daniel Schulman / Mother Jones:
Meet the New Bosses — NEWS: After crashing the gate of the political establishment, bloggers are looking more like the next gatekeepers. — Last June, Markos Moulitsas Zúniga, former soldier, one-time Reagan Republican, and proprietor of the wildly successful liberal blog Daily Kos …
Discussion:
TalkLeft
Fred Kaplan / Slate:
The Man Who Knows Too Little — WHAT RUDY GIULIANI'S GREEDY DECISION TO QUIT THE IRAQ STUDY GROUP REVEALS ABOUT HIS CANDIDACY. — If you don't read Newsday, you might not know (I didn't until this week) that Rudy Giuliani was an original member of the Iraq Study Group …
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, Heading Right, Associated Press, Washington Post, Newsday, ProfessorBainbridge.com ®, QandO, PrezVid, Reason Magazine, The Gun Toting Liberal™, The Mahablog, The Reaction, Outside The Beltway, US News, Althouse, Captain's Quarters, culturekitchen, MSNBC, Liberal Values, WTF Is It Now??, Lawyers, Guns and Money, No More Mister Nice Blog, The Carpetbagger Report, The Moderate Voice, Air America Radio, Connecting.the.Dots, Taylor Marsh, AMERICAN DIGEST, Democratic Underground … and Townhall.com