Top Items:
CNN:
Bush makes surprise visit to Iraq — BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) — President Bush greeted his war commanders with salutes Monday during a surprise visit to a U.S. air base in Iraq's Anbar province. — Air Force One touched down at Al Asad Air Base at 3:43 p.m. (7:43 a.m. EDT) under a blazing sun.
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Ann Scott Tyson / Washington Post:
Bush, Advisers Make Surprise Visit to Iraq — AL ASAD AIRBASE, Anbar Province, Iraq, Sept. 3 — On the eve of major administration decisions on U.S. strategy in Iraq, President Bush, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and top U.S. military leaders including …
Discussion:
Hot Air, AMERICAblog, The Agonist, Hullabaloo, Brilliant at Breakfast, Corrente and WTF Is It Now?!?
Nancy A. Youssef / McClatchy Washington Bureau:
Combat deaths in Iraq decline; reasons aren't clear — WASHINGTON — American combat deaths in Iraq have dropped by half in the three months since the buildup of 28,000 additional U.S. troops reached full strength, surprising analysts and dividing them as to why.
David S. Cloud / New York Times:
Bush and Top Aides Visit Iraq Days Ahead of Assessment — President Bush and his top national security advisers made a surprise joint visit to Iraq today for talks with Gen. David H. Petraeus and top Iraqi officials a week before the American commander is scheduled to deliver a long-awaited assessment of the situation in Iraq.
Jules Crittenden:
Bush in Iraq — NPR reporting he's landed, enroute to an econmic summit in Australia. Web reports now coming in. — AP: He's in Anbar, landed at Al-Asad. — CNN here, BBC here. More on-air from Beeb, currently reporting he's expected to meet with al-Maliki and Sunni tribal leaders who've joined …
Scarecrow / Firedoglake:
Bush/Cheney in Iraq: Winning By Failing — The chart at left (click on it to enlarge) was compiled by The Washington Monthly's Kevin Drum in response to Juan Cole's assessment of claims the surge is a "success." I guess the President's sneak visit to Iraq this morning …
Amy Lorentzen / Associated Press:
Edwards backs mandatory preventive care — TIPTON, Iowa - Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards said on Sunday that his universal health care proposal would require that Americans go to the doctor for preventive care. — "It requires that everybody be covered.
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Ann Althouse / Althouse:
John Edwards: "you can't choose not to go to the doctor for 20 years." — Edwards' universal health care proposal ignores individual autonomy: … So, the mental health check is mandatory too? Why does he not even realize how bad that sounds? He's so warmed up about the generous benefits he's promising …
Discussion:
Hot Air
Daily Mail:
Soldiers evacuate babies from Israeli daycare centre as Islamic Jihad rockets fall — Soldiers scrambled to evacuate babies from a day care center in rocket-scarred Sderot today after a projectile fired by Palestinian militants thudded into the courtyard. — None of the 15 babies at the center was hurt.
Discussion:
The Moderate Voice, Associated Press, Blue Crab Boulevard, Wake up America and Jihad Watch
Denver Post:
Doug Lamborn's voice messages to Jonathan and Anna Bartha — The following is a text of two voice messages that Rep. Doug Lamborn left on the home telephone of Jonathan and Anna Bartha. — FIRST MESSAGE: "Hello, this is Doug Lamborn calling for either Jonathan or Anna. Something very serious has happened.
Discussion:
TPM Election Central, Blue Girl, Red State, SquareState.net, Associated Press and Firedoglake
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Washington Post:
When Controversy Follows Cash — Some Fundraisers With Legal Issues Slip Through Campaigns' Vetting — Sant S. Chatwal, an Indian American businessman, has helped raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaigns, even as he battled governments on two continents …
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Chris Hawley / Arizona Republic:
Strong words for America, stern warnings for Mexico — MEXICO CITY - Mexico's president drew a standing ovation from legislators as he chided Americans for new border fences and their "humiliating treatment" of illegal immigrants during his State of the Union speech on Sunday.
Discussion:
Wake up America
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Nick Gillespie / New York Times:
Democratic Vistas — With the possible exception of the Republicans, is there a major political party more stupefyingly brain-dead than the Democrats? That's the ultimate takeaway from "The Argument," Matt Bai's sharply written, exhaustively reported and thoroughly depressing account of …
Glenn Kessler / Washington Post:
Transformed By Her Bond With Bush — Rice's Loyalty Brings Power and Pitfalls — It was just two days after President Bush's reelection in 2004, and Condoleezza Rice was planning her move back home to California and to the tranquility of life at Stanford University. — But Bush had other plans.
Paul Krugman / New York Times:
[TS] Op-Ed Columnist: Snow Job in the Desert — It appears that many influential people in this country have learned nothing from the last five years.
Bradley S. Klapper / Associated Press:
Report: U.S. workers are most productive — GENEVA - American workers stay longer in the office, at the factory or on the farm than their counterparts in Europe and most other rich nations, and they produce more per person over the year. — They also get more done per hour than everyone …