Top Items:
Harold Meyerson / Washington Post:
Spineless Sages — Top GOP Senators Only Talk Against the War — Anyone searching for the highest forms of invertebrate life need look no further than the floor of the U.S. Senate last week and this. These spineless specimens go by various names — Republican moderates …
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Associated Press:
US: Top al-Qaida in Iraq figure captured — BAGHDAD - The U.S. command said Wednesday the highest-ranking Iraqi in the leadership of al-Qaida in Iraq has been arrested, adding that information from him indicates the group's foreign-based leadership wields considerable influence over the Iraqi chapter.
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo, The Jawa Report, Don Surber, Macsmind, Cox & Forkum and Scared Monkeys
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Michael Abramowitz / Washington Post:
Intelligence Puts Rationale For War on Shakier Ground — The White House faced fresh political peril yesterday in the form of a new intelligence assessment that raised sharp questions about the success of its counterterrorism strategy and judgment in making Iraq the focus of that effort.
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Fred Kaplan / Slate:
Read It and Weep — EVEN BUSH'S INTELLIGENCE REPORT SAYS THE WAR IN IRAQ IS MAKING US LESS SAFE AT HOME. — The National Intelligence Estimate that was released today—titled "The Terrorist Threat to the Homeland"—amounts to a devastating critique of the Bush administration's policies on Iraq, Iran, and the terrorist threat itself.
Ed Morrissey / Captain's Quarters:
Republicans Call Reid's Bluff — Harry Reid kept the Senate in business all night long as a way to publicize the fact that Republicans won't allow cloture on an amendment for retreating from Iraq. For some reason, Reid apparently thought that this would somehow break the will of the Republicans …
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Michael Gerson / Washington Post:
R. Milhous Giuliani — With the same rootless confidence that causes people to ignore hurricane warnings, many social conservatives remain in denial about Rudy Giuliani's chances of winning the Republican nomination. — But with three debates and eight months as the Republican front-runner under his belt …
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Washington Post:
Papers Detail Industry's Role in Cheney's Energy Report — At 10 a.m. on April 4, 2001, representatives of 13 environmental groups were brought into the Old Executive Office Building for a long-anticipated meeting. Since late January, a task force headed by Vice President Cheney …
Jacqueline L. Salmon / Washington Post:
Christian Fantasy Genre Builds Niche Without Hogwarts, Muggles or Spells — Could the next Harry Potter be a devout Christian? — As the days tick down until Saturday, when a breathless world learns the fate of the teenage wizard, a new breed of fantasy fiction, with Potter-style stories, is emerging.
Philip Elliott / Associated Press:
Edwards ad touts him as a tough guy — CONCORD, N.H. - Elizabeth Edwards tells voters her husband, Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards, is a tough guy "who can stare the worst in the face and not blink" in an ad set to start airing Wednesday in New Hampshire.
Discussion:
The Politico, New York Post, The Hill, Chicago Tribune, New York Times, New York Times and MSNBC
Carlin Romano / Chronicle of Higher Education:
If We Don't Call Them Names, the Terrorists Win — After the terrorist near misses in London and Glasgow, British officials did the expected. They raised their nation's threat-assessment level. They weighed the balance between civil liberties and new, tougher security measures.
Rebecca Keeble / NEWS.com.au:
Gore's message loses bite — Decrease Increase - — Submit comment: — ONLY one week after Live Earth, Al Gore's green credentials slipped while hosting his daughter's wedding in Beverly Hills. — Gore and his guests at the weekend ceremony dined on Chilean sea bass - arguably one of the world's most threatened fish species.
Gregg Easterbrook / The Huffington Post:
Greatest Living American Ignored — Today in Washington I was in the room as the greatest living American received a medal. George W. Bush, Nancy Pelosi and others were present. But will you ever hear this event occurred? To judge from tonight's major network evening newscasts, perhaps not.
Michael A. Fletcher / Washington Post:
White House Had Drug Officials Appear With GOP Candidates — White House officials arranged for top officials at the Office of National Drug Control Policy to help as many as 18 vulnerable Republican congressmen by making appearances and sometimes announcing new federal grants …
John Stossel / Real Clear Politics:
Where Michael Moore is Wrong — Michael Moore loves government. — OK, he doesn't love a government headed by George W. Bush, but he believes that once the Democrats are in charge, government will do a better job providing health care. — In his new movie, "Sicko," …
Thomas L. Friedman / New York Times:
[TS] Op-Ed Columnist: Help Wanted: Peacemaker — The Iraqi Parliament is on vacation in August and our soldiers are fighting in the heat. Something is wrong with this picture.
Discussion:
The Atlantic Online, Daniel W. Drezner, Dohiyi Mir, Brian Beutler, Michael P.F. van der Galiën and iraqwarit