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, Time, Daily Kos, MoJoBlog, 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
Peter Wehner / Commentary:
No More Vietnams (or Cambodias) — In his speech to the Veterans of Foreign Wars yesterday, President Bush reminded us of the agony and genocide that followed the American retreat in Vietnam: … These words summon to mind a powerful passage from the third volume of Henry Kissinger's memoirs …
Discussion:
Weekly Standard
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Thom Shanker / New York Times:
Historians Question Bush's Reading of Lessons of Vietnam War for Iraq
Historians Question Bush's Reading of Lessons of Vietnam War for Iraq
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 and Macsmind
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.
Discussion:
The Huffington Post, New York Times, The Agonist, "7.62mm Justice" ™ and The Atlantic Online
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 Moderate Voice
New York Times:
Obscure Company Is Behind 9/11 Demolition Work — The John Galt Corporation of the Bronx, hired last year for the dangerous and complex job of demolishing the former Deutsche Bank building at 130 Liberty Street, where two firefighters died last Saturday, has apparently never done any work like it.
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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 …
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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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.
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
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.
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 …
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.
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.
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 …