memeorandum: Edwards Receives Support Of Steelworkers And Mine Workers Unions (John Edwards for President)

1:50 PM ET, September 3, 2007

Top Items:

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.

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, Time, The Van Der Galiën Gazette, Daily Kos, PoliBlog (TM), Wake up America, Main and Central, Macsmind, QandO, Neptunus Lex and CALIFORNIA YANKEE

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: AMERICAblog, Hot Air, 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.

Discussion: Captain's Quarters, QandO, Jules Crittenden, Burkean Reflections, Back Talk, Sister Toldjah, Wake up America, Connecting.the.Dots, Blue Girl, Red State and Show Me Progress

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 …

Discussion: Gateway Pundit and Don Surber

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.

Discussion: The Democratic Daily, The Heretik, Hoffmania! and Norwegianity

Scarecrow / Firedoglake:
Bush/Cheney in Iraq: Winning By Failing

Discussion: Crooks and Liars and New York Times

Associated Press:
President Bush Makes Surprise Visit to Iraq

Discussion: Power Line

Libby Spencer / The Newshoggers:
Bush sneaks into Iraq

Discussion: JammieWearingFool

Ed Morrissey / Captain's Quarters:
Bush Drops By Iraq

Discussion: CNN Political Ticker and Flopping Aces

James Joyner / Outside The Beltway:
Bush Makes Surprise Iraq Visit

Discussion: Associated Press, The Carpetbagger Report and The Heretik

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

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.

Discussion: PoliBlog (TM), The Reaction, Central Sanity, Betsy's Page, Six Meat Buffet, Outside The Beltway, Redstate, THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS, protein wisdom, Liberal Values, The American Pundit, The Strata-Sphere, The Democratic Daily, QandO and Upper Left

John Edwards for President:

Edwards Receives Support Of Steelworkers And Mine Workers Unions — Official endorsement at Pittsburgh Labor Day rally gives Edwards largest bloc of union support among presidential candidates so far — Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania - The United Steelworkers (USW) and the United Mine Workers of America …

Discussion: AFL-CIO Weblog

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

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

Manuel Roig-Franzia / Washington Post:
State of Mexico Addressed, by Invitation Only

Discussion: Flopping Aces, Fausta's blog and Hot Air

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 …

Discussion: Sweetness & Light, NewsBusters.org, New York Post, New York Times and Macsmind

Jamiecnn / CNN Political Ticker: Huckabee: I can take on Clinton — LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) …

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 …

Discussion: The Corner and Dr. Sanity

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.

Discussion: Firedoglake, Booman Tribune and The Atlantic Online

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.

Discussion: The Washington Note, TalkLeft, Prairie Weather and Middle Earth Journal

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 …

Discussion: Liberty Street, The Glittering Eye, The Mahablog, Blue Crab Boulevard and Corrente

Zappatero / Daily Kos:

CO-05: Republican Congressman threatens local couple — Colorado representative Doug Lamborn has just made the final doo-doo step it what will be the shortest and most lackluster career the House has ever seen. Doug Lamborn's recorded threats to a pair of voters critical of his views …

Discussion: protein wisdom, Riehl World View and Crooks and Liars