Top Items:
New York Times:
Report Cites Grave Concerns on Iraq's Government — The government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki will become "more precarious" over the next six months to a year, and while its security forces have improved they are not strong enough to operate without outside help …
Discussion:
The Corner, Right Wing Nut House, Daily Kos, MoJoBlog, Time, NewsBusters.org, Wizbang, Macsmind and INDCJournal
RELATED:
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."
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 …
Faiz / Think Progress:
Right-Wing Operatives Plot To Overthrow Maliki, Replace Him With …
Right-Wing Operatives Plot To Overthrow Maliki, Replace Him With …
Discussion:
TPMmuckraker, D-Day, Donklephant, Democrats.com, Rising Hegemon, State of the Day and The Road to Surfdom
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 …
RELATED:
Joby Warrick / Washington Post:
McConnell: Fewer Than 100 Secret U.S. Wiretaps
McConnell: Fewer Than 100 Secret U.S. Wiretaps
Discussion:
Balkinization, TalkLeft, MoJoBlog, The Carpetbagger Report, Crooks and Liars, Macsmind and El Paso Times
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.
Tula Connell / Firedoglake:
Mourning in Bush America: Greed is Good — The six Utah coal miners still remain trapped after the Crandall Canyon mine collapse 22 days ago. And the three men who died trying to rescue the six miners are just being laid to rest. But owner Robert Murray was ready to move on—and make money.
Discussion:
Newsday
RELATED:
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 …
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
RELATED:
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.
Rusty / The Jawa Report:
NYC Muslim Calls Korean Hostages "Terrorists", Smiles at thought of Daniel Pearl Style Beheading — American Muslim convert and New York City native Yousef al-Khattab outdoes himself and compares the Korean hostages to "terrorists" and suggests that because they are guilty of the "crime" …
Discussion:
The Van Der Galiën Gazette
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
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 …
Juan Cole:
Military Coup Planned for Iraq? — A rumor is circulating among well-connected and formerly high-level Iraqi bureaucrats in exile in places like Damascus that a military coup is being prepared for Iraq. I received the following from a reliable, knowledgeable contact.
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.
Pajamas Media:
MANO A MANO: SPENCER V DERBYSHIRE — When Robert Spencer read John Derbyshire's "marvelously written and delightful to read" but "full of inconsistencies" review of his book, Religion of Peace? —Why Christianity Is and Islam Isn't, he promised Pajamas Media a response. He has delivered.
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.
Atrios / Eschaton:
Today's Moment of Zen — Serious! — ...this is from May 30, 2003, about 2.5 months after the war started.