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 …
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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
Don Surber:
Clinton lied, people died — Michael Isikoff, the reporter who broke the Monica Lewinsky story only to have his editors at Newsweek spike the story, has caught Bill Clinton in another lie: He never authorized the killing of Osama bin Laden. — Citing a recent CIA inspector general report, Isikoff and Mark Hosenball reported:
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Ed Morrissey / Captain's Quarters:
Did Clinton Lie About Targeting Bin Laden?
Did Clinton Lie About Targeting Bin Laden?
Discussion:
National Review, Wake up America, Fausta's blog, Gateway Pundit, QandO, Macsmind, A Second Hand Conjecture and THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS
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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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.
Discussion:
The Corner, New York Times, Captain's Quarters, The Atlantic Online, The Caucus, MSNBC, TIME, skippy the bush kangaroo and Taylor Marsh
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.
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.
Discussion:
Media Blog
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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 …
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. "
David Weigel / Reason Magazine:
Let Me Get An Encore, Do You Want More? — The big news in this sleepy (and in D.C., sunless) August week is the return of gentleman Ari Fleischer at the helm of an astroturf (i.e., fake grassroots) group called Freedom's Watch. Its goal: To spend $15 million (they don't have to tell us where they got it …
NY Daily News:
Obama Girl has Hil thrill — Sen. Barack Obama's sexiest fan respects the presidential candidate more than ever now that he has knocked her Web video, "I Got a Crush on Obama." But "Obama Girl"actually may vote for Hillary Clinton. — On Monday, Obama said he really wasn't that into Amber Lee Ettinger …
Discussion:
CNN Political Ticker
Ben Harris / The Jewish Week:
Foxman Blinks On Armenian Genocide — Under fire, ADL reverses course and now calls Armenian killings a genocide. — In a dramatic reversal, the Anti-Defamation League's national director has issued a statement describing the massacres perpetrated by the Ottoman Empire against the Armenians as "tantamount to genocide."
Discussion:
The Moderate Voice
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 …
Andrew Sullivan / The Atlantic Online:
The Weimar President — His speech yesterday actually managed to shock. You might think that, in wartime, a president would acknowledge what no one denies is a terribly grim decision in front of us - whether to pursue a clearly unwinnable war in order to govern a clearly ungovernable country …
Discussion:
Balloon Juice
Steve Clemons / The Washington Note:
Andrew Sullivan to Marry; Clemons to Guest Blog — Recently I spent a few days up in Provincetown, Massachusetts at the very point of Cape Cod and connected with some people and ideas that moved my soul and mind forward a few notches. — First, I spent some quality time with Andrew Sullivan …