memeorandum: Tragedy in Minneapolis: I-35 Bridge Collapses (Directorblue/Doug Ross)

10:25 PM ET, August 1, 2007

Top Items:

I-35W bridge collapses — The Interstate Hwy. 35W bridge over the Mississippi River collapsed during the evening rush hour Wednesday, dumping at least eight cars and a truck into the water and onto the land below, creating a horrific scene of damage, fire, smoke, injuries, frantic rescuers and terrified motorists.

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, Wizbang, Little Green Footballs, Rook's Rant, On Deadline, GINA COBB, theneweditor.com and Wake up America

KCCW-TV:

I-35W Bridge Collapses Into Mississippi River — Mayor R.T. Rybak reports that 6 people are dead. — Regions Hospital is prepared to receive accident victims from the I-35 bridge collapse. Currently, however, nobody has been brought to Regions. — "It sounded like a bomb and we ducked …

Discussion: Stop The ACLU and Shakespeare's Sister

Hindrocket / Power Line:

AN APPALLING CATASTROPHE — A little while ago, the Mississippi River Bridge on Highway 35W in downtown Minneapolis collapsed into the river. 35W is the main artery that runs through the Twin Cities; I've crossed that bridge hundreds if not thousands of times. One of my brothers-in-law crossed it four times today.

Discussion: KCCW-TV, A Blog For All and Outside The Beltway

Ed Morrissey / Captain's Quarters:

Pray For The Twin Cities — One of the most-traveled freeways in the Twin Cities — a span over the Mississippi River — collapsed about an hour ago. At the time, the highway had bumper-to-bumper traffic in the middle of rush hour, and dozens of cars have gone into the river or been caught in the rubble:

Discussion: Macsmind

CNN: 3 dead as Mississippi River bridge falls amid rush hour in Minneapolis

Directorblue / Doug Ross: Tragedy in Minneapolis: I-35 Bridge Collapses

Allahpundit / Hot Air:
Breaking: Horrific bridge collapse in Minneapolis; Update: Steel failure?

Discussion: MSNBC

Michelle Malkin:
Minneapolis bridge collapse

Discussion: Crooks and Liars and Associated Press

Patrick Condon / Associated Press: Bridge falls into Mississippi River

Obama'08:

Remarks of Senator Obama: The War We Need to Win — Thank you Lee, for hosting me here at the Wilson Center, and for your leadership of both the 9/11 Commission and the Iraq Study Group. You have been a steady voice of reason in an unsteady time. — Let me also say that my thoughts …

Discussion: The Corner, The Atlantic Online, Election Central, Hot Air, Done With Mirrors, TIME: Swampland, AMERICAblog, Weekly Standard, Faithful Progressive, rubber hose, Washington Monthly, democracyarsenal.org, National Review, Open Left, Flopping Aces, baldilocks, Media Blog and Taylor Marsh

Nedra Pickler / Associated Press:

Obama might send troops into Pakistan — WASHINGTON - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said Wednesday that he would possibly send troops into Pakistan to hunt down terrorists, an attempt to show strength when his chief rival has described his foreign policy skills as naive.

Ben Smith / The Politico:

Obama's speech: No mention of "war on terror" — Barack Obama was among those raising his hands in a recent debate to indicate that he believes there is a "war on terror," but his speech today — and read the whole thing — marks a really sharp departure from policies past …

Discussion: democracyarsenal.org, Roger Ailes, The Atlantic Online, No More Mister Nice Blog, Air America Radio and Oliver Willis

Michelle Malkin:
Barack Obama: Macho man

Discussion: Captain's Quarters, Associated Press, Sister Toldjah, FP Passport, TBogg, The Democratic Daily, Volunteer Opinion Journal, TIME: Swampland, Iowa Voice, JammieWearingFool and Babalu Blog

Oliver Willis / The Huffington Post:
Barack Obama Vows To Kill Bin Laden, Conservatives (and Some Liberals) Cry Foul

Discussion: MyDD and The Atlantic Online

ABCNEWS:
Obama to Deliver Bold Speech About War on Terror

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, Don Surber, Hennessy's View, D-Day, Spectator, The Carpetbagger Report, Wake up America, Right Wing Nut House, QandO, CNN Political Ticker, Oliver Willis, TalkLeft and Taylor Marsh

Bryan / Hot Air:

Breaking: CAIR threatens Young America's Foundation, seeks to stifle Robert Spencer Updates — Noted author, Hot Air contributor/host and jihad watcher Robert Spencer is scheduled to speak before a gathering of the Young America's Foundation in Washington on Thursday.

Discussion: Captain's Quarters, Little Green Footballs, Jihad Watch, The Sundries Shack, Washington Times, Solomonia, Wizbang, Sister Toldjah and Wake up America

Robert / Jihad Watch:

CAIR threatens Young America's Foundation over my talk tomorrow — Note the personal smears, the attempt to bully and intimidate, and the non-specificity of the charges against me (they can't be specific, because I don't say anything inaccurate about them — or about Islam or jihad).

Discussion: Little Green Footballs and Hot Air

Michelle Malkin:
Outrage: CAIR's war on Robert Spencer, Young America's Foundation

Discussion: Flopping Aces and Clayton Cramer's BLOG

Stephen Farrell / New York Times:

Violence Rages in Iraq as Sunni Bloc Leaves Cabinet — Iraq's largest Sunni political faction resigned from Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki's cabinet on Wednesday, severely weakening the government's credentials as a national unity coalition and setting back hopes of reconciliation.

Discussion: Associated Press, Balloon Juice, Daily Kos, The Atlantic Online and The Democratic Daily

Abu Aardvark:
Sunni bloc withdrawal

Discussion: Crooks and Liars, The Next Hurrah, The Carpetbagger Report, Shakespeare's Sister, Washington Monthly and democracyarsenal.org

Bill Walsh / Breaking News Updates New Orleans:

White House threatens to veto water bill — WASHINGTON - In a major blow to Louisiana, President Bush threatened Wednesday to veto long-awaited legislation with billions of dollars to shore up hurricane protection along the Gulf Coast. — House and Senate negotiators struck a bargain late …

Discussion: Eschaton, Comments From Left Field and Associated Press

Marc Santora / New York Times:

Giuliani Seeks to Transform U.S. Health Care Coverage — Rudolph W. Giuliani on Tuesday called for transforming the way health care coverage is provided in the United States, advocating a voluntary move from the current employer-based system to one that would grant substantial tax benefits to people who buy their own insurance.

Discussion: DownWithTyranny!, Angry Bear, The Hill, Comments From Left Field, bustardblog, NewsBusters.org, TIME: Swampland, The Carpetbagger Report, Donklephant, Left in the West, TIME, Redstate, Liberal Values and MSNBC

Fred File:

Judge Southwick Should Be Confirmed — You've probably never heard of Rebecca Nurse, but bear with me for a moment. Nurse arrived in Salem, Massachusetts in 1640. There, despite being known as a woman of virtue and piety, she was accused of being a witch. On July 19, 1692, she was hanged.

Discussion: The Agitator

Zogby:

UPI/Zogby Poll: 54% Lack Confidence in Bush's Ability As Commander in Chief — Survey shows just 3% of Americans approve of how Congress is handling the war in Iraq; 24% say the same for the President — A majority of American adults (54%) lack confidence in President Bush's ability …

Discussion: Don Surber, All Spin Zone, Wake up America and Blue Crab Boulevard

The Corner:

Pulp Non-Fiction — Here's a story with huge implications for freedom of speech (all negative), and it's apparently gone almost entirely unreported in the mainstream press. According to the Chronicle of Higher Education (subscription required), under threat of a law suit …

Discussion: New English Review, SCSUScholars and Riehl World View