Top Items:
Allahpundit / Hot Air:
Cordesman on what's really going on in Basra — Excellent work as usual from a guy who's never shied from telling either side what it doesn't want to hear. I cringe every time I write about Basra since it's impossible anymore to tell who's allied with whom and why: Maliki, Sadr, the JAM …
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Erica Goode / New York Times:
Sadr Offers Deal for Truce as Fighting Persists in Iraq — BAGHDAD — The Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr on Sunday took a step toward ending six days of intense combat between his militia allies and Iraqi and American forces in Basra and Baghdad, saying in a statement that his followers …
Aqeel Hussein / Telegraph:
Iraqi army forces defect to Moqtada al-Sadr — With gunfire and explosions echoing round him, Lt Hamid Abbas of the Iraqi Army was letting no car pass unchallenged at his makeshift roadblock on the outskirts of a Basra slum. — His closest scrutiny, however, was reserved …
CNN:
Al-Sadr calls off fighting, orders compliance with Iraqi security — BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) — Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr called on followers to stop shooting and cooperate with Iraqi security forces Sunday, a move Iraq's government praised as a step toward ending six days of fighting that has left hundreds dead.
Ed Morrissey / Hot Air:
Remind me again — who's losing in Basra?
Remind me again — who's losing in Basra?
Discussion:
Redstate, Los Angeles Times, Middle Earth Journal, Roads to Iraq, rubber hose, Liberty Street, PoliGazette and NewsBusters.org
Cernig / The Newshoggers:
Breaking - Sadr Plays “Good Guy” Card [Updated]
Breaking - Sadr Plays “Good Guy” Card [Updated]
Discussion:
Voice of America, Reuters, Neptunus Lex, Daily Kos, kuna.net.kw, The Left Coaster and Balloon Juice
Gallup:
Gallup Daily: Obama Now at 52% to Clinton's 42% — McCain still has slight advantage over both Democratic opponents — PRINCETON, NJ — Barack Obama has extended his lead over Hillary Clinton among Democrats nationally to 52% to 42%, the third consecutive Gallup Poll Daily tracking report …
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Newsweek:
How to Win in a Knife Fight — The Democratic race could well come down to the first contested convention in years. Lessons on how to prevail. — After the last Democratic primary is held in early June, neither Hillary Clinton nor Barack Obama will have enough votes from delegates elected …
Discussion:
Dean's World
Josh Marshall / Talking Points Memo:
BRAZILE EXPLAINS CREDENTIALS COMMITTEE — Donna Brazile was on This Week this morning and explained how the credentials committee works. If she's right, and I'm sure Brazile knows this stuff like the back of her hand, it's even worse for Clinton than I thought.
Big Tent Democrat / TalkLeft:
Obama To Blame If The Dem Contest Goes To The Convention — Obama supporter Josh Marshall: … (Emphasis supplied.) What did Clinton actually say? … (Emphasis mine.) Josh's reaction to this? … (Emphasis supplied.) Excuse me? Not even Barack Obama says MI and FL is resolved.
Discussion:
Taylor Marsh
Josh Marshall / Talking Points Memo:
CLINTON: ALL THE WAY TO DENVER
CLINTON: ALL THE WAY TO DENVER
Discussion:
Matthew Yglesias, Scripting News, Brendan Nyhan, The Mahablog, The Carpetbagger Report and CNN
Think Progress:
Bush booed loudly while throwing out first pitch in Nationals home opener. — President Bush delivered the first pitch tonight at the new Nationals Park in Washington, D.C. to a resounding chorus of boos. After being announced, Bush was showered by boos as he strode to the mound.
Kenneth P. Vogel / The Politico:
Cash-strapped Clinton fails to pay bills — Hillary Rodham Clinton's cash-strapped presidential campaign has been putting off paying hundreds of bills for months — freeing up cash for critical media buys but also earning the campaign a reputation as something of a deadbeat in some small-business circles.
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Washington Post:
Don't Stop Campaigning — THE GROWING chorus among some Democrats …
Don't Stop Campaigning — THE GROWING chorus among some Democrats …
Discussion:
Hillary Is 44, Open Left, Booman Tribune, The Carpetbagger Report, The Crypt's Blogs, NO QUARTER and The Newshoggers
Michael Scherer / Swampland:
Say It Ain't So, Joe — It's not news that Sen. Joe Lieberman, the onetime Democratic VP candidate, is backing John McCain for President. Nor is it news that Lieberman takes a different view of the Iraq War than most Democrats. But what he said this morning on ABC's “This Week” is certainly news.
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Jane Hamsher / Firedoglake:
No, John McCain Can't Just Quit — Susan Milligan, writing in the Boston Globe, takes an all-too-rare foray into John McCain's campaign finance hypocrisy. But this bit, straight out of the McCain's disinformation machine, simply isn't true: … McCain took the money all right …
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Cincinnati.com:
Maupin's remains found in Iraq — digg us! del.icio.us! — Sgt. Matt Maupin is dead, the parents of the missing Clermont County soldier said today. — Maupin's remain were found in Iraq, nearly four years after he was captured by insurgents, his parents said.
Douglas Martin / New York Times:
Dith Pran, ‘Killing Fields’ Photographer, Dies at 65 — Dith Pran, a photojournalist for The New York Times whose gruesome ordeal in the killing fields of Cambodia was re-created in a 1984 movie that gave him an eminence he tenaciously used to press for his people's rights, died in New Brunswick, N.J., on Sunday.
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Deborah Howell / Washington Post:
Public Death, Private Life — What should a newspaper print about a person's most private life in a story after his death? — The Post ran a story March 22 about the burial at Arlington National Cemetery of Army Maj. Alan G. Rogers, a decorated war hero killed in an explosion in Baghdad.