Top Items:
New York Times:
A War We Just Might Win — VIEWED from Iraq, where we just spent eight days meeting with American and Iraqi military and civilian personnel, the political debate in Washington is surreal. The Bush administration has over four years lost essentially all credibility.
Discussion:
The Newshoggers, Think Progress, Power Line, Times of London, Althouse, Townhall.com, Election Central, Reuters, The Atlantic Online, The Belmont Club, NewsBusters.org, Political Punch, Villainous Company, No More Mister Nice Blog, rubber hose, TigerHawk, Hot Air, Wake up America, Commentary, Thomas P.M. Barnett, Eschaton, BBC, Lawyers, Guns and Money, Taylor Marsh, BLACKFIVE, USS Neverdock, Informed Comment, The Strata-Sphere, The Carpetbagger Report, Gateway Pundit, National Review, Donklephant, The Sundries Shack, Balloon Juice, JustOneMinute, Connecting.the.Dots, Weekly Standard, Neptunus Lex, Captain's Quarters, Clayton Cramer's BLOG, Flopping Aces, Jules Crittenden, UrbanGrounds, Betsy's Page, WILLisms.com, QandO, Right Wing News, PrairiePundit, Macsmind, Dean's World, Transterrestrial Musings, Comments From Left Field, The Moderate Voice, Blue Crab Boulevard, TIME, The Young Turks, INDCJournal, Sister Toldjah, Telegraph, TalkLeft and Spectator
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Glenn Greenwald / Salon:
The really smart, serious, credible Iraq experts O'Hanlon and Pollack — (updated below) — What is the most vivid and compelling evidence of how broken our political system is? It is that the exact same people who urged us into the war in Iraq, were wrong in everything they said …
Joe Klein / TIME: Swampland:
What's Missing in this Column? — I agree with many, but not all, of the conclusions Ken Pollack and Michael O'Hanlon reach in this NY Times column, but you really can't write a piece about the wae in Iraq and devote only two sentences to the political situation, which is disastrous and …
White House:
President Bush Participates in Joint Press Availability with Prime Minister Gordon Brown of the United Kingdom — PRESIDENT BUSH: Welcome, thank you. It's good to have you here. So everybody is wondering whether or not the Prime Minister and I were able to find common ground, to get along, to have a meaningful discussion.
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George Pascoe-Watson / The Sun:
PM hails Bush's leadership — Tee cosy ... Brown & Bush in Camp David golf buggy — GORDON Brown last night praised George Bush for leading the global war on terror — saying the world owed America a huge debt. — The Prime Minister vowed to take Winston Churchill's lead and make Britain's ties with America even stronger.
Discussion:
NEWS.com.au, Guardian, Right Wing News, Spectator, Barcepundit, Pajamas Media and Hennessy's View
Mervyn Rothstein / New York Times:
Ingmar Bergman, Famed Director, Dies at 89 — Ingmar Bergman, the "poet with the camera" who is considered one of the greatest directors in motion picture history, died today on the small island of Faro where he lived on the Baltic coast of Sweden, Astrid Soderbergh Widding, president of The Ingmar Bergman Foundation, said.
Discussion:
Roger L. Simon, Pajamas Media, David E's Fablog, Reason Magazine, Connecting.the.Dots and Marginal Revolution
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Opinion Journal:
The Real Wiretapping Scandal — Our Terrorist Surveillance Program isn't as effective it was a few months ago. Where's the outrage? — Last Tuesday's Senate Judiciary Committee hearing—at which Attorney General Alberto Gonzales was insulted by senators and ridiculed by spectators—was Washington political theater at its lowest.
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Michael Isikoff / Newsweek:
How does Gonzales hang on?
How does Gonzales hang on?
Discussion:
Washington Post, McClatchy Washington Bureau, TPMmuckraker, The Next Hurrah and All Spin Zone
Michael J. Totten:
Baghdad Raid Night — BAGHDAD - "We want to use you as bait," Sergeant Eduardo Ojeda from Los Angeles, California, told me before I embedded with his unit on what was shaping up to be a night raid. — "Excellent," I said. "That's why I'm here." — This is what passes for black Army humor in Baghdad.
Mike Allen / The Politico:
Fred's funds raise fear of flop — Fred Thompson plans to announce Tuesday that his committee to test the waters for a Republican presidential campaign raised slightly more than $3 million in June, substantially less than some backers had hoped, according to Republican sources.
ABCNEWS:
Surveillance Cameras Win Broad Support — Majority of Americans Favor Extra Safety Factor of Cameras — Crime-fighting beats privacy in public places: Americans, by nearly a 3-to-1 margin, support the increased use of surveillance cameras — a measure decried by some civil libertarians …
Reuters:
Taliban: Male hostage shot dead — KABUL, Afghanistan (Reuters) — Taliban kidnappers shot dead a male South Korean hostage on Monday, a spokesman said, accusing the Afghan government of not listening to rebel demands. — "We shot dead a male captive because the government did not listen to our demands …
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Hindrocket / Power Line:
GLOBAL OPTIMISM, AMERICAN PESSIMISM — At Real Clear Politics, Michael Barone dissects the latest Pew Global Attitudes survey. There is some specific good news about attitudes in Muslim countries: … More broadly, what is striking is how much optimism is reflected in the survey, world-wide.
Discussion:
Argghhh!
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Paul Krugman / New York Times:
[TS] Op-Ed Columnist: An Immoral Philosophy — What kind of philosophy says that it's O.K. to subsidize insurance companies, but not to provide health care to children?
Robin Toner / New York Times:
Anti-Abortion Leaders Size Up G.O.P. Candidates — After 30 years of political organizing within the Republican Party, the anti-abortion movement has won a series of victories in legislatures and courts and stands tantalizingly close to winning even more. But these are anxious days for the movement.
The Brody File:
Exclusive: Barack Obama E-mails The Brody File — It's not everyday that Barack Obama stops by The Brody File but over the weekend he sent me an e-mail. — A few weeks ago, the Obama campaign asked us to submit a few questions, and they said Barack Obama would personally answer them.
USA Today:
Study links more hurricanes, climate change — The number of hurricanes that strike each year has more than doubled over the past century, an increase tied to global warming, according to a study released Sunday. — "We're seeing a quite substantial increase in hurricanes over the last century …
New York Post:
NERVY JUDITH RATTLED HILLARY — JUDITH Giuliani is an opportunistic, puppy-killing homewrecker who has a full-time hairstylist and needs an extra seat on planes for "Baby Louis," her Louis Vuitton handbag - at least according to a hatchet job on the former mayor's wife in the September issue of Vanity Fair.
Discussion:
Taylor Marsh, TIME, DownWithTyranny!, National Review, Charleston Daily Mail and Inside Long Island Politics
Porkbusters:
weak tea indeed: democratic leaders water down ethics & earmark reform bill — Porkbusters obtained the latest version of the "Honest Leadership and Open Government Act of 2007'', and as expected, the Democratic leadership has worked some funny business to dilute some of the Act's key provisions.
Discussion:
Tapscott's Copy Desk
Dan Balz / Washington Post:
A True Political Partner — John Edwards's Wife Has Helped Shape His Presidential Bid and Often Shares Its Spotlight — Aboard a small chartered jet, Elizabeth Edwards — lawyer, mother, author, cancer patient, candidate's wife — was flying recently from New Hampshire to Iowa.
Rob Hotakainen / McClatchy Washington Bureau:
Congress eyes pay raise for itself — WASHINGTON — After raising the minimum wage by 70 cents an hour this week, many members of Congress are ready to give themselves a pay increase of roughly $4,400 per year. — That would take their annual salaries to nearly $170,000.
Discussion:
The Swamp