Top Items:
Larry Johnson / NO QUARTER:
The Iraq Blackwater Test — Depending on whether the Blackwater security firm stays in Iraq will inform us whether Prime Minister Maliki has any power or is just a U.S. puppet. My money is on the puppet. Over the weekend Blackwater contractors escorting a State Department/US Embassy Baghdad convoy got into a shoot out.
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Spencer Ackerman / tpmmuckraker.com:
Iraqis Order Blackwater out of Iraq — But Will It Leave? — Following a Baghdad shootout yesterday that left at least nine civilians dead, security-contractor giant Blackwater will no longer be permitted to operate in Iraq, according to the Iraqi Interior Ministry.
Time:
Will Iraq Kick Out Blackwater? — TIME has obtained an incident report prepared by the U.S. government describing a fire fight Sunday in Baghdad in which at least eight Iraqis were reported killed and 13 wounded. The deadly incident occurred when a convoy of U.S. personnel protected …
Discussion:
Danger Room
Massimo Calabresi / Time:
How Bush's AG Pick Irritates the Right — If the administration was trying to avoid a fight with the left over the confirmation of Alberto Gonzales' replacement as Attorney General, they may have succeeded with the nomination of former New York district judge, Michael Mukasey.
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Minneapolis Star Tribune:
Ramstad won't run for 10th term in House — U.S. Jim Ramstad is expected to announce his retirement from Congress. He has served nine terms, beginning in 1990. — Veteran congressman will leave seat representing western suburbs he has held for 9 terms.
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Garrett Therolf / Los Angeles Times:
Chemerinsky to return as UC Irvine law dean — UC Irvine Chancellor Michael V. Drake and Erwin Chemerinsky have reached an agreement that will return the liberal legal scholar to the dean's post at the university's law school, sources told The Times this morning.
Ezra Klein:
The Hillary Plan — Let me try and give a quick sketch of the Clinton proposal before I have to run for a meeting. Here's the thumbnail: Clinton's plan is of the "individual mandate" variety, in which universal coverage is achieved by mandating that every American purchase health care.
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TMZ.com:
Barry to Elisabeth: Your "View" is Dangerous — TMZ has learned that legendary singer Barry Manilow has pulled out of his scheduled appearance on "The View" tomorrow — because he strongly disagrees with host Elisabeth Hasselbeck's conservative view! Paging Rosie O'Donnell!
ABCNEWS:
ACLU Backs Sen. Larry Craig — Senator Accused of Soliciting Sex Has an Unlikely Ally in American Civil Liberties Union — Idaho's Republican Senator Larry Craig reads a statement to the media Monday afternoon, Aug. 28, 2007, in Boise, Idaho. He read a statement and took no questions during …
In From the Cold:
New Details (and Lingering Questions) — Israeli Air Force F-15Is (GlobalSecurity.org) — Sunday's U.K. Times provided tantalizing details of Israel's recent airstrike against that Syrian nuclear facility. — Based on reporting from the Middle East and Washington …
National / Homeland Security National Terror Alert:
School Terror Threat - "Jihad Boom" Postcards With Threatening Cartoon Sent To Nine Schools … Investigators released the postcards with the threatening drawings on them Monday in hopes of generating leads in the case. Officials said that the postcards are made up of various and traditional themes …
Discussion:
WKMG-TV, The Jawa Report, Wake up America, Atlas Shrugs, Jihad Watch and The Moderate Voice
Ian James / Associated Press:
Venezuela's Chavez Warns Private Schools — CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez threatened on Monday to close or take over any private school that refuses to submit to the oversight of his socialist government as it develops a new curriculum and textbooks.
Cliff May / The Corner:
The Most Offensive Thing I've Seen All Day — The Palestinian Authority celebrates the 9/11/01 attacks on the U.S. - most recently with a cartoon showing Osama bin Laden raising his index and middle fingers in the V for Victory sign, except his fingers are the burning World Trade Center Towers.
Jane Hamsher / Firedoglake:
Why Do Republicans Want to Punish the Troops for George Bush's Failures? — Glenn Greenwald's piece on the Kagan family is such a concise, elegant, tight portrait of everything that is wrong with the warmongers who lead this country and dominate our political discourse that it almost makes your teeth hurt.
Dan Froomkin / Washington Post:
Bush's Battlefield Envy — President Bush wishes that he could be alongside the troops in Iraq — except that he's too old. — At least that's what he reportedly told a blogger embedded with U.S. troops in Iraq. In the first session of its kind, Bush spent almost an hour on Friday talking …