memeorandum: Bush administration readying immigration crackdown on employers (Associated Press)

4:00 PM ET, August 2, 2007

Top Items:

Hopes Dim in Minneapolis for Survivors — MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - Divers searched the Mississippi River for bodies Thursday among the submerged cars and twisted steel left by deadly interstate bridge collapse, their hopes of finding survivors having dimmed. — "This is not a rescue operation any longer …

Discussion: Minneapolis Star Tribune, Eschaton, Hullabaloo and Wake up America

Stephen Flynn / Popular Mechanics:

Minn. Bridge Collapse Reveals Brittle America: Expert Op-Ed — Yesterday's tragedy makes it clear that the U.S. has been squandering its infrastructure legacy by turning a reckless blind eye to critical upgrades, says a national security expert, former Coast Guard officer and senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.

Discussion: buzz.mn, Shakespeare's Sister, NewsBusters.org, michellemalkin.com, The Corner and Minneapolis Star Tribune

Rose Garden / White House:

President Bush Offers Sympathies and Assistance to Minneapolis and Calls on Congress to Act Before Recess — THE PRESIDENT: Good morning. I just finished a Cabinet meeting. One of the things we discussed was the terrible situation there in Minneapolis. We talked about the fact …

Discussion: Comments From Left Field and The Carpetbagger Report

Dan Browning / Minneapolis Star Tribune:

Bridge was rated 'structurally deficient' in 2005 — The highway bridge that collapsed into the Mississippi River on Wednesday was rated as "structurally deficient" two years ago and possibly in need of replacement. — The highway bridge that collapsed into the Mississippi River on Wednesday was rated as …

Jon Krawczynski / Associated Press: Police: More victims in submerged cars

Deb Riechmann / Associated Press:
White House cites deficiencies in bridge

Discussion: Attytood

Associated Press:

Obama says use of nuclear weapons to fight al-Qaida 'not on the table,' — WASHINGTON (AP) - Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama said Thursday he would not use nuclear weapons «in any circumstance. — «I think it would be a profound mistake for us to use nuclear weapons …

Discussion: Say Anything, Don Surber, MyDD, National Review, doubleplusundead, Blogs of War and Ian Schwartz

The Politico:

Obama on nukes: policy or character? (Updated) — The latest Obama story, from an interview with The Associated Press, isn't online yet, but get ready: It's an interview* in which Obama initially rules out the use of nuclear weapons entirely, then seems to take it back:

Discussion: TalkLeft, CNN Political Ticker and eyeon08.com

Peter Brookes / New York Post:

BARACK'S BLUNDER — INVADE A NUCLEAR POWER? — IN an "I am too tougher than Hillary" speech, Sen. Barack Obama warned Pakistan yes terday that as commander-in-chief he might act unilaterally if Islamabad didn't do more against the terrorists there. — "Let me make this clear …

Discussion: Chicago Sun Times, Guardian, PrairiePundit, Blue Crab Boulevard and Liberal Values

Editor and Publisher:

170 Cancel 'WSJ' Subscriptions — But How Many Will Follow? — NEW YORK At least 170 subscribers to the Wall Street Journal have canceled their orders since word emerged that Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. will soon take over the newspaper. — The paper does have 1.7 million print subscribers left.

Discussion: Liberal Values, QandO and JammieWearingFool

John Harwood / Wall Street Journal:

America's Economic Mood: Gloomy — Broad Public Pessimism — Spurs Democratic Candidates — To Target Business Interests — WASHINGTON — Americans are feeling decidedly sour about the economy and those in charge of it, fueling Democratic efforts to target business interests in the 2008 election campaign.

Discussion: Thought Theater, MSNBC and Pollster.com

Nedra Pickler / Associated Press: Edwards assails rivals over News Corp.

Newsweek:

Judge's ruling spurs scramble for spy powers — A federal judge's secret ruling restricting the intelligence community's surveillance powers helped spur a Capitol Hill bid to grant Bush new authority. — A secret ruling by a federal judge has restricted the U.S. intelligence community's surveillance …

Discussion: Balkinization, The Volokh Conspiracy, The Anonymous Liberal, CANNONFIRE and Prairie Weather

Greg Miller / Los Angeles Times:
Court puts limits on surveillance abroad

Discussion: TPMmuckraker, The Next Hurrah, TalkLeft, Comments From Left Field, PrairiePundit and Balkinization

AJStrata / The Strata-Sphere:

Congressional Idiots Telling al-Qaeda How To Subvert Our Protections — Want to know WHY there is Executive Privelege in a time of war? Because American lives are at stake and the debate in Congress completely neutralizes our so called SECRET defenses against another 9-11.

Discussion: protein wisdom, TPMmuckraker, Wake up America and PrairiePundit

The Corner: General Obama — Many have jumped all over Sen. Obama's suggestion …

Jerome Armstrong / MyDD:
On US Missles and Military in Pakistan

Discussion: Quad City Times, MSNBC, The Influence Peddler, TIME and The Atlantic Online

Los Angeles Times:

D.C. elites want you to shush on Iraq — Be afraid when the same centrist consensus that has a lousy track record on the war lashes out at partisans. — By By Matthew Yglesias — The united states is now well into the fifth year of a war in Iraq that has, at a cost of hundreds of billions of dollars …

Discussion: Ezra Klein

Mark Mazzetti / New York Times:
Iraq Snapshots Give 2 Views

Discussion: The Carpetbagger Report, FP Passport, D-Day, Outside The Beltway, TIME: Swampland and The Atlantic Online

David Stout / New York Times:

With Rove Absent, Aide Is Grilled by Senate Panel — The Senate Judiciary Committee grilled a young political aide from the White House today about the firings of nine United States attorneys and voiced disdain for a man who was not there: the aide's boss, Karl Rove, President Bush's chief political adviser.

Discussion: CNN Political Ticker and Prairie Weather

Paul Kiel / TPMmuckraker:
Rove Aide Refuses to Answer Questions on U.S. Attorney Firings

Discussion: Firedoglake and Corrente

Melanie Markley / Houston Chronicle:

Students must remember 'God' in Texas pledge — Texas students will have four more words to remember when they head back to class this month and begin reciting the state's pledge of allegiance. — This year's Legislature added the phrase "one state under God" to the pledge …

Discussion: Shakespeare's Sister, Comments From Left Field, doubleplusundead and skippy the bush kangaroo

Christy Hardin Smith / Firedoglake:

Shockingly Predictable — White House thumbs nose at yet another Congressional hearing. H/T to nolo for the find: … As nolo points out, they aren't relying on any case law precedent to make this claim but, rather, a musty old memo that former Justice Rehnquist penned back in his DOJ days.

Discussion: New York Observer and indict dick cheney

Nolo / indict dick cheney:
senator leahy's august 1, 2007 response re rove and jennings

Discussion: TalkLeft

Tim Dickinson / Rolling Stone:

Edwards: "Giuliani is Bush on Steroids" — Just got back from an Edwards event in San Francisco. He threw out a lot of red meat — in particular savaging the big oil, drug, and insurance companies — and these deep blue Americans loved every minute of it. — Edwards is awesome on the stump.

Discussion: No More Mister Nice Blog, QandO and MSNBC

Editor and Publisher:

Bush Insults BBC Political Editor at Press Conference — NEW YORK At a recent press conference at Camp David, President George Bush insulted BBC political editor Nick Robinson, the Daily Mirror reports. — Robinson, who has asked Bush pointed questions in the past such as whetherthe president was …

Discussion: Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler, Comments From Left Field, The Impolitic and The Democratic Daily

David S. Cloud / New York Times:

Gates Offers Blunt Assessment of Iraqi Political Progress — Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said today that he was discouraged by the departure of the major Sunni Arab bloc from Iraq's coalition government, and noted that the Bush administration may have misjudged the difficulty …

Discussion: Prairie Weather

Associated Press:

Bush administration readying immigration crackdown on employers — WASHINGTON: Employers across the U.S. are preparing to fire workers with questionable Social Security government identification numbers to avoid getting snagged in a Bush administration crackdown on illegal immigrants.

Discussion: Wake up America, QandO and Lonewacko