Top Items:
Opinion Journal:
Bush and Libby — The commutation is a profile in non-courage. — President Bush's commutation late yesterday afternoon of the prison sentence of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby will at least spare his former aide from 2 1/2 years in prison. But by failing to issue a full pardon …
Discussion:
New York Times, Captain's Quarters, The Atlantic Online, New York Times, Outside The Beltway, National Review Online, The Glittering Eye, Brendan Nyhan, Betsy's Page, Macsmind, The Carpetbagger Report, Jon Swift, Sentencing Law and Policy, The Gavel, Election Central, Firedoglake, Democrats.com, PoliPundit.com, Cold Fury, Gay Patriot, Angry Bear, TPMmuckraker, The Corner, Political Radar, Viking Pundit and Taylor Marsh
RELATED:
Washington Post:
Too Much Mercy — IN COMMUTING I. Lewis Libby's prison sentence yesterday, President Bush took the advice of, among others, William Otis, a former federal prosecutor who wrote on the opposite page last month that Mr. Libby should neither be pardoned nor sent to prison.
Atrios / Eschaton:
Rich — Inevitably, the subject of Marc Rich comes up every time presidential pardons come up. Without going into all of the issues, can we just remind the world that... Marc Rich's lawyer was Scooter Libby.
Discussion:
The Atlantic Online
David Brooks / New York Times:
[TS] Op-Ed Columnist: Ending the Farce — President Bush's decision in the case of I. Lewis Libby Jr. was exactly right.
Discussion:
The Volokh Conspiracy, Talking Points Memo, bustardblog, The Atlantic Online and Prairie Weather
Michael Abramowitz / Washington Post:
A Decision Made Largely Alone — President Bush limited his deliberations over commuting the prison term of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby to a few close aides, opting not to consult with the Justice Department and rebuffing efforts by friends to lobby on Libby's behalf, administration officials and people close to Bush said yesterday.
Discussion:
TPMmuckraker, New York Times, The Huffington Post, Washington Monthly, Time, The Carpetbagger Report, BuzzFlash.org, Daily Kos, Grasping Reality …, The Volokh Conspiracy, The Moderate Voice, The Atlantic Online, CNN, PoliBlog (TM), Patterico's Pontifications, The Anonymous Liberal, Ace of Spades HQ, Captain's Quarters, MyDD, The Next Hurrah, Redstate and The Democratic Daily
David G. Savage / Los Angeles Times:
Bush spares Libby from jail
Bush spares Libby from jail
Discussion:
Booman Tribune, The Galloping Beaver, skippy the bush kangaroo, BuzzFlash.org and Washington Post
Digby / Hullabaloo:
"A Man Like This" — I don't know about you, but I was quite moved …
"A Man Like This" — I don't know about you, but I was quite moved …
Discussion:
Firedoglake, TPMCafe blogs, Street Prophets, The Next Hurrah, Shakesville, NO QUARTER, DownWithTyranny! and Discourse.net
Adam Liptak / New York Times:
Federal Judge Files Complaint Against Prosecutor in Boston
Federal Judge Files Complaint Against Prosecutor in Boston
Discussion:
TPMmuckraker
Bill Roggio / The Fourth Rail:
Clash at Islamabad's Red Mosque — Batan-wielding, burka-clad, sharia-enforcing women of the Lal Masjid. Click to view. — Pro-Taliban students at the Lal Masjid attack Pakistani Rangers, one killed; The Lal Masjid calls for sucide attacks — Pakistani security forces have clashed …
RELATED:
Bloomberg:
Pakistani Policeman Killed in Red Mosque Gun Battle — A Pakistani policeman was killed as the police fired tear gas and later exchanged gunfire with the students of the Red Mosque in the capital Islamabad today. — The police fired tear gas after students' pelted stones at policemen deployed outside …
Wall Street Journal:
How Conservatives Enhanced Online Voice — Talk Radio Blends — With Blog Postings — To Boost Message — Political activism on the Internet — and in the so-called blogosphere, in particular — has long been considered a liberal stronghold. But conservative bloggers show increasing signs of their own coming of age.
RELATED:
Dean Barnett / Townhall.com:
What Mort Doesn't Know — Markos Moulitsas and I disagree on a lot of things.
What Mort Doesn't Know — Markos Moulitsas and I disagree on a lot of things.
Discussion:
Riehl World View
CBS News:
Al Qaeda In Iraq Behind U.K. Bomb Plot? — Sources Tell CBS News Suspects Recruited By Leader Of Terror Group's Iraq Branch — (CBS/AP) British intelligence services increasingly believe that the failed car bombings in London and Glasgow bare the fingerprints of al Qaeda in Iraq, CBS News has learned.
Discussion:
Power Line, Hot Air, Captain's Quarters, The Glittering Eye, Gateway Pundit and Yourish.com
New York Times:
U.S. Says Iran Helped Iraqis Kill Five G.I.'s — Agents of Iran helped plan a January raid in Shiite holy city of Karbala in Iraq in which five American soldiers were killed by Islamic militants, an American military spokesman said Monday. The charge was the most specific allegation …
Discussion:
Confederate Yankee, Jules Crittenden, INTEL DUMP, Power Line, Gateway Pundit and The Strata-Sphere
Rogers / Kung Fu Monkey:
L33T Justice — According to the Dictionary of Video Game Theory, an "exploit" is — … I'd been working on this post vis a vis the Gonzales situation. The DoJ situation, in it's own way, magnificent. They're averaging a DoJ resignation a week over the attorney scandal.
RELATED:
New York Times:
Short on Money, McCain Campaign Dismisses Dozens — The presidential campaign of Senator John McCain, the Arizona Republican who once seemed poised to be his party's nominee in 2008, acknowledged yesterday that it was in a political and financial crisis as a drop in fund-raising forced …
Discussion:
Washington Post, Arizona Republic, The Politico, Norwegianity, MSNBC and Associated Press
RELATED:
Sydney Morning Herald:
Human greed takes lion's share of solar energy — HUMANS are just one of the millions of species on Earth, but we use up almost a quarter of the sun's energy captured by plants - the most of any species. — The human dominance of this natural resource is affecting other species …
Rasmussen Reports:
Romney Holds Nine-Point Lead in New Hampshire — Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney has the lead in the first Rasmussen Reports poll of New Hampshire's Republican Presidential Primary. Romney currently attracts support from 26% of Likely Primary Voters, nine points more than his nearest competitor.
E. J. Dionne Jr / Washington Post:
Mistrust Puts Up A Wall — The United States is a cranky nation in a crabby mood. To relieve our distemper, we need the leadership we're now lacking and a citizenry with greater hope in its democratic capacities. — The defeat last week of the immigration bill is the most obvious manifestation …
Discussion:
Democracy Project
Associated Press:
Hillary Clinton breaks out Bubba in Iowa — DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Bill Clinton, one of the most popular figures in Democratic politics, embarked Monday on a Fourth of July tour with his wife, White House hopeful Hillary Clinton, in the leadoff voting state of Iowa in an effort to boost her campaign.
John Amato / Crooks and Liars:
Marcy Wheeler on Hardball — You go girl. Marcy Wheeler joined David Shuster on Hardball and represented the blogosphere on a topic she wrote a book about that's called "Anatomy of Deceit." She told MSNBC that Libby did the bidding of Bush and Cheney and we know that's all too true.
Discussion:
Firedoglake
Cernig / The Newshoggers:
Credibility Explosion — Confederate Yankee this morning has a picture provided by Multi-National Corps-Iraq which purports to be of Iranian explosives seized in Iraq. — The Yankee accepts this provenance without question, but I think there are good reasons to look twice at it.
Richard Cohen / Washington Post:
A Local Lesson That Democrats Fail — The eight Democratic presidential candidates assembled in Washington last week for another of their debates and talked, among other things, about public education. They all essentially agreed that it was underfunded — one system "for the wealthy, one for everybody else," as John Edwards put it.