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:
Balloon Juice, Threat Level, Blast Off!, Donklephant, All Spin Zone, Shakesville, Secrecy News, Obsidian Wings, On Deadline, Macsmind, Salon, Hullabaloo, The Mahablog and The Moderate Voice
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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)
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
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
Matthew Lee / Associated Press:
White House near decision to close Gitmo — WASHINGTON - The Bush administration is nearing a decision to close the Guantanamo Bay detainee facility and move its terror suspects to military prisons elsewhere, The Associated Press has learned. — Senior administration officials said Thursday …
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
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
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.
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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 …
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Faiz / Think Progress:
Breaking: Senate Judiciary Committee Authorizes Subpoenas For NSA Domestic Spying Documents — The Senate Judiciary Committee just voted 13-3 to authorize chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) to issue subpoenas for documents related to the NSA warrantless surveillance program.
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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 …
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.
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, ProfessorBainbridge.com ®, QandO, Reason Magazine, The Gun Toting Liberal™, PrezVid, The Mahablog, Althouse, The Reaction, Outside The Beltway, Captain's Quarters, US News, culturekitchen, MSNBC, Liberal Values, The Carpetbagger Report, No More Mister Nice Blog, WTF Is It Now??, The Moderate Voice, Lawyers, Guns and Money, Air America Radio and Connecting.the.Dots
Scott Helman / Boston Globe:
Rival camps take aim at Romney's religion — Gathering for their April meeting at the county courthouse, Republican activists from Warren County, Iowa, planned for this summer's county fair and vented about illegal immigration. — And then the county chairman for Senator John McCain's …
Discussion:
The Caucus, Associated Press, The Newshoggers, Michael P.F. van der Galiën, The Atlantic Online and MSNBC
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
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 …