Top Items:
Jo Becker / New York Times:
Records Show Ex-Senator's Work for Family Planning Unit — Billing records show that former Senator Fred Thompson spent nearly 20 hours working as a lobbyist on behalf of a group seeking to ease restrictive federal rules on abortion counseling in the 1990s, even though he recently …
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Adam Nagourney / New York Times:
Candidates Shift as G.O.P. Field Alters — The decline of John McCain's presidential campaign, and the rising profile of Fred D. Thompson as a prospective contender, are forcing candidates to rewrite their strategies as they adjust to a playing field vastly different from just one month ago.
Discussion:
MSNBC
Ed Morrissey / Captain's Quarters:
Billing Records Resurrected? (Updated & Bumped) — The Los Angeles Times will report in the next day or so that billing records have been found at Arent Fox which show some consultations between Fred Thompson and the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association.
Associated Press:
Mysterious insurgent a sham, U.S. says — BAGHDAD — Over the past year, Iraqis heard several audio recordings by a mysterious terrorist leader named Omar al-Baghdadi singing the praises of al-Qaida and urging his followers to attack U.S. troops. — The whole thing was a sham, the U.S. military said Wednesday.
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Michael R. Gordon / New York Times:
U.S. Says Insurgent Leader It Couldn't Find Never Was
U.S. Says Insurgent Leader It Couldn't Find Never Was
Discussion:
Left I on the News
Christopher Lee / Washington Post:
Bush: No Deal On Children's Health Plan — President Says He Objects On Philosophical Grounds — President Bush yesterday rejected entreaties by his Republican allies that he compromise with Democrats on legislation to renew a popular program that provides health coverage to poor children …
Discussion:
The Newshoggers, Obsidian Wings, the talking dog, The RBC, Bark Bark Woof Woof, AMERICAblog, KnoxViews, The Crone Speaks and Booman Tribune
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Joe Gandelman / The Moderate Voice:
George Bush Leaves Children Behind In Health Insurance Proposal Stance
George Bush Leaves Children Behind In Health Insurance Proposal Stance
Discussion:
Kiko's House
Sewell Chan / City Room:
Steam Pipe Explosion Jolts Midtown; One Person Is Confirmed Dead — A view of the hole created by the explosion at Lexington Avenue near Grand Central Station. (Photo: Peter Foley/European Pressphoto Agency) More Photographs — A steam pipe installed in 1924 ruptured in a thunderous explosion shortly …
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A'Melody Lee / Political Radar:
Sex Ed for Kindergarteners 'Right Thing to Do,' Says Obama — ABC News' Teddy Davis and Lindsey Ellerson Report: Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., told Planned Parenthood Tuesday that sex education for kindergarteners, as long as it is "age-appropriate," is "the right thing to do."
Discussion:
Right Wing News, The Reaction, The Jawa Report, The Anonymous Liberal, Bluey Blog, Vox Popoli, Gateway Pundit and Chicago Tribune
Lewis Z. Koch / Firedoglake:
Whose Conspiracy? — The government has concluded its case against Jose Padilla and yesterday, to no one's surprise U.S. District Court Judge Marcia Cooke refused a defense request for directed verdict of not guilty. Assistant U.S. Attorney Brian Frazier claimed "I think it is a very tightly knit conspiracy."
Discussion:
TalkLeft
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Will Wilkinson / The Fly Bottle:
The Courage to Conjoin — Ramesh Ponnuru writes: … This is a stupefyingly widespread view that flows from an elementary error in thinking. — Suppose you know that there is free will or that moral reasoning is not futile. Next, suppose you find that the universe is made out of only whatever the universe is made out of.
Discussion:
The Atlantic Online
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Andrew Grice / The Independent:
How Murdoch had a hotline to the PM in the run-up to Iraq war — Tony Blair had three conversations with the media magnate Rupert Murdoch in the nine days before the start of the Iraq war, the Government has disclosed. — Details of the former prime minister's contacts with Mr Murdoch …
Discussion:
AMERICAblog
Think Progress:
Bush's Agencies Of Mass Politicization — This week's report that officials in the Office of National Drug Control Policy made politically motivated appearances in the months leading up to the 2006 elections are only the latest example of the Bush administration's misuse of federal employees.
KTVT-TV:
UPDATE: Cache Of Weapons Found In Dallas Apartment — FIRST REPORTED ON CBS11TV.COM — (CBS 11 News) DALLAS Federal sources tell CBS 11 News that law enforcement officers have confiscated a large cache of weapons found in an apartment near the federal building in downtown Dallas.
hughhewitt.townhall.com:
General David Petraeus on the conditions on the ground in Iraq — The Hugh Hewitt Show — HH: Welcome, General. You took over command of the multinational forces in February of this year, February 10. In the past five months, how have conditions in Iraq changed?
Discussion:
In From the Cold, No More Mister Nice Blog, The Belmont Club, The Atlantic Online and Oliver Willis
Zogby:
Zogby: Bush Job Approval 34% — President's rating mostly stable since start of year; Just 14% give the new Dem Congress a positive rating—nine points below GOP Congress last October — President Bush's job approval rating now stands at 34% among likely voters nationwide …
Richard Pérez-Peña / New York Times:
Murdoch's Arrival Worries Journal Employees — On May 14, more than 100 reporters, editors and executives clustered in The Wall Street Journal's main newsroom to mark the retirement of Peter R. Kann, the longtime leader of their corporate parent, Dow Jones & Company.
George F. Will / Washington Post:
Author of His Own Undoing — At noon on April 25, in Prescott Park in Portsmouth, N.H., John McCain announced his presidential candidacy. Less than two hours earlier, in the U.S. Supreme Court, a lawyer who had been solicitor general in the Clinton administration spoke in the name of McCain.