Top Items:
New York Times:
Report Cites Grave Concerns on Iraq's Government — The administration is planning to make public today parts of a sober new report by American intelligence agencies expressing deep doubts that the government of the Iraqi prime minister, Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, can overcome sectarian differences.
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Associated Press:
Report Will Be Critical of Iraq Leader — NEW YORK (AP) - A new assessment on Iraq may shed some negative light on Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. The New York Times is reporting on its Web site that U.S. intelligence agencies will issue a new assessment Thursday expressing doubt …
Pauline Jelinek / Associated Press:
Intel report questions Iraq's progress — WASHINGTON - U.S. intelligence agencies have written a mixed report on Iraq, finding some progress but judging that the Baghdad government may not be able to carry it forward, a defense official said Thursday. — Declassified portions …
Discussion:
The Van Der Galiën Gazette
Thom Shanker / New York Times:
Historians Question Bush's Reading of Lessons of Vietnam War for Iraq — The American withdrawal from Vietnam is widely remembered as an ignominious end to a misguided war — but one with few negative repercussions for the United States and its allies. — Now, in urging Americans to stay …
Discussion:
The Mahablog, Macsmind, Liberty Street, CNN, Middle Earth Journal, DownWithTyranny!, Liberty Pundit, Firedoglake and The Hill
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Satyam / Think Progress:
NIE: Violence To 'Remain High' In Iraq Over Next 'Six To Twelve Months' — Today, the Bush administration released an update to the National Intelligence Estimate (NIE), entitled, "Prospects for Iraq's Stability: Some Security Progress but Political Reconciliation Elusive."
Discussion:
Lawyers, Guns and Money
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George F. Will / Washington Post:
What September Won't Settle — Come September, America might slip closer toward a Weimar moment. It would be milder than the original but significantly disagreeable. — After the First World War, politics in Germany's new Weimar Republic were poisoned by the belief that the army …
Michael D. Shear / Washington Post:
Romney Struggles to Define Abortion Stance — Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney said this week that as president he would allow individual states to keep abortion legal, two weeks after telling a national television audience that he supports a constitutional amendment to ban the procedure nationwide.
John M. Broder / New York Times:
Rule to Expand Mountaintop Coal Mining — The Bush administration is set to issue a regulation on Friday that would enshrine the coal mining practice of mountaintop removal. The technique involves blasting off the tops of mountains and dumping the rubble into valleys and streams.
Paul Kiel / TPMmuckraker:
Constitutionally Protected Chats? — From the AP: … The AP notes the court decision early this month that the FBI had wrongfully seized Constitutionally protected legislative materials from Rep. William Jefferson's (D-LA) office, which strengthens the House's refusal to turn over the computer.
Discussion:
The Next Hurrah
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David McCumber / The Big Blog:
A ferry captain, the FBI and Benjamin Franklin — I certainly have plenty of feedback to consider from the ferry photo issue as we go forward. — I understand that people have a hard time with the concept that we get to decide what is news and what isn't, and what is fair and what isn't.
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Media Blog
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Amanda Ripley / Time:
Behind Giuliani's Tough Talk — Islamic terrorists are at war with us," Rudy Giuliani told about 300 people at a synagogue in Rockville, Md., one evening in July. He likes to say it that way—that they are at war with us, not the other way around. " They want to kill us," he warned a group in New Hampshire the same month. "
Dan Eggen / Washington Post:
White House Declares Office Off-Limits — Administrator of Missing E-Mails Not Subject to Open-Records Law, It Says — The Bush administration argued in court papers this week that the White House Office of Administration is not subject to the Freedom of Information Act as part of its effort …
John Edwards for President:
Remarks as Prepared for Delivery: "To Build One America, End the Game" — Hanover, New Hampshire — August 23, 2007 — This election is unlike any we have faced before. The stakes are higher. And the challenges we face as a nation are greater than at any time in memory.
Andrew Sullivan / The Atlantic Online:
VDH Responds — The riposte is a little sad, really. Hanson clearly favored an aggressive strategy that concentrated on shoot-to-kill aggression and opposed any increase in troops back in 2004; Petraeus, in contrast, was a stern critic of past efforts, wanted many more troops …
Discussion:
A Second Hand Conjecture
Stephen Dinan / Washington Times:
Bush hit over jobs for illegal workers — If President Bush is serious about getting tough on U.S. employers who hire illegal aliens, he can start with his own administration, which employs thousands of unauthorized workers, says the top Republican on the House immigration subcommittee.
New York Times:
Militias Seizing Control of Iraqi Electricity Grid — Armed groups increasingly control the antiquated switching stations that channel electricity around Iraq, the electricity minister said Wednesday. — That is dividing the national grid into fiefs that, he said, often refuse …