Top Items:
The Influence Peddler:
Is Hillary a Sure Loser? — Jim Geraghty has a significant post on Hillary's floor and ceiling: … The actual Rasmussen release on this point is here: … Hillary has nearly universal name identification. Nearly every American has an opinion of her. And regardless of what Americans …
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David Johnston / New York Times:
Immunity Deals Offered to Blackwater Guards — State Department investigators offered Blackwater security guards immunity during an inquiry into last month's deadly shooting of 17 Iraqi civilians, government officials said today, calling it a potentially serious investigative misstep …
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Lara Jakes Jordan / Associated Press:
Immunity deal hampers Blackwater inquiry — WASHINGTON - The State Department promised Blackwater USA bodyguards immunity from prosecution in its investigation of last month's deadly shooting of 17 Iraqi civilians, The Associated Press has learned. — The immunity deal has delayed …
Karen DeYoung / Washington Post:
Immunity Jeopardizes Iraq Probe — Guards' Statements Cannot Be Used in Blackwater Case — Potential prosecution of Blackwater guards allegedly involved in the shooting deaths of 17 Iraqi civilians last month may have been compromised because the guards received immunity for statements …
Bluto / The Dread Pundit Bluto:
Full Text of Email Reveals Greenwald Mischaracterizations — Welcome, fellow minions of the lgf New World Odor — Glenn Greenwald, as he had promised in his post at Salon, has forwarded the email he says he received from Colonel Steven A. Boylan, Public Affairs Officer for General Petraeus.
Discussion:
Salon, The Belmont Club, Liberty Street, Don Surber, Punditry, The Jawa Report, Blue Crab Boulevard, Balloon Juice, his vorpal sword, bustardblog, BitsBlog, Wizbang, Crooks and Liars, Wake up America, Take Our Country Back, Discourse.net, Bookworm Room, Ezra Klein, Unqualified Offerings and Classical Values
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Glenn Greenwald / Salon:
Abject stupidity defined — (updated below - Update II) — If there is a place with more abject stupidity swirling around than the right-wing blogosphere, I'd like to know where it is. Truly, consider what has to be going on inside their brains for this to happen:
Discussion:
Balloon Juice, The Carpetbagger Report, The Dread Pundit Bluto, The Sideshow and Unqualified Offerings
Dean Barnett / Weekly Standard:
Obama Stumbles...Again — The Illinois senator's problematic, "semi-gay" supporter. — MOST STANDARD READERS probably think the big campaign news of the days is Mitt Romney landing the endorsement of New Hampshire senator Judd Gregg. As an avowed Romney supporter, I applaud this development …
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John Aravosis / AMERICAblog:
Obama issues 3-page memo defending gay-basher spokesman …
Obama issues 3-page memo defending gay-basher spokesman …
Discussion:
The Trail, Hullabaloo, NewsBusters.org, Slog, Middle Earth Journal, Crooks and Liars and DownWithTyranny!
White House:
President Bush Announces Recipients of Presidential Medal of Freedom — President George W. Bush today announced recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Nation's highest civil award. Established by Executive Order 11085 in 1963, the Medal may be awarded by the President …
Holly Ramer / Associated Press:
Giuliani: Dems Will Change Minds on Iraq — LONDONDERRY, N.H. (AP) - Republican presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani said Monday that two of the Democratic candidates will change their minds again about the Iraq war and agree that it was the right decision. — Asked at a town-hall meeting …
Atrios / Eschaton:
There Is No Crisis — I imagine some readers who haven't been hanging around these parts for all that long might have justifiably been puzzled at the reaction to Obama's decision to try to make dealing with Social Security his signature attack on Clinton. It's true that Obama didn't assert that there was some huge crisis.
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Bill Roggio / The Long War Journal:
Iraqi troops free tribal leaders kidnapped by Mahdi Army commander — Just 24 hours after the capture of 11 Sunni and Shia tribal leaders in northern Baghdad, the Iraqi Army has freed eight of the sheikhs. Meanwhile, Multinational Forces Iraq has identified the Mahdi Army commander responsible …
Will Dunham / Reuters:
AIDS virus invaded U.S. from Haiti: study — WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The AIDS virus invaded the United States in about 1969 from Haiti, carried most likely by a single infected immigrant who set the stage for it to sweep the world in a tragic epidemic, scientists said on Monday.
Discussion:
Six Meat Buffet
Kevin Drum / Washington Monthly:
GIULIANI'S LATEST....The Washington Post notes that Rudy Giuliani will be running a new radio ad in New Hampshire starting today: … You will be unsurprised to learn that Giuliani is full of s**t. As you can see from the chart on the right, Britain and the United States have virtually identical mortality rates from prostate cancer.
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John B. Judis / The New Republic:
Authority Figure — The childhood roots of Giuliani's strange views of liberty. — At a town hall meeting in Exeter, New Hampshire, last month, local resident Bob Roughsedge introduced Rudy Giuliani as "the next mayor of the United States." No one tittered or spoke up.
Allahpundit / Hot Air:
Too good to check: DUers "prove" waterboarding is torture — by waterboarding each other — "[I]f it isn't torture, it can't be that bad, right?" our hero wonders rhetorically before declaring it most definitely bad — and recounting how he went in for one, two, three, four rounds of the stuff.
Barbara Starr / CNN:
U.S. destroyer pursuing hijacked ship — WASHINGTON (CNN) — A U.S. destroyer has entered Somali territorial waters in pursuit of a Japanese-owned ship loaded with benzene that was hijacked by pirates over the weekend, military officials said Monday. — The guided-missile destroyer USS …
AlterNet.org:
Rumsfeld Flees France, Fearing Arrest — Anti-torture protesters in France believe that the defense secretary fled over the open border to Germany, where a war crimes case against Rumsfeld was dismissed by a federal court. — Former U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld fled France today fearing arrest …
Discussion:
The Newshoggers
Katrin Bennhold / International Herald Tribune:
Sarkozy storms out of "60 minutes" interview — PARIS: "No, no. This is stupid," President Nicolas Sarkozy snorted, abruptly unplugging his microphone and calling his press secretary an "imbecile" for setting up an interview with American television network CBS on a busy day.