Top Items:
Ed OKeefe / Political Punch:
Obama to Break Promise, Opt Out of Public Financing for General Election — In a web video to supporters — “the people who built this movement from the bottom up” — Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, announced this morning that he will not enter into the public financing system, despite a previous pledge to do so.
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Ben Smith / Ben Smith's Blogs:
Obama aide blames McCain on public-financing — Obama spokesman Bill Burton is blaming Senator John McCain's campaign for failing, he says, to negotiate in good faith on a course to public financing. — “In the past couple of weeks, our campaign counsels met and it was immediately clear …
Discussion:
MSNBC, TIME.com, Political Punch, TPM Election Central, Macsmind, Donklephant, Outside The Beltway, Spin Cycle and Salon
Sam Graham-Felsen / Barack Obama:
Video: Important Announcement from Barack — The campaign sent out this email this morning... Friend — Barack Obama recorded a video message with an important announcement that he wanted you to hear first: — We have made a crucial decision that will impact how we compete in the general election …
New York Times:
Obama Opts Out of Public Financing for Campaign — WASHINGTON — Senator Barack Obama announced on Thursday that he would not participate in the public financing system for presidential campaigns. He argued that the system had collapsed, and would put him at a disadvantage running …
Lynn Sweet:
Obama told Tim Russert at Feb. 27 debate he would “sit down with John McCain” to discuss public financing. Obama never did before opting out of system. — WASHINGTON-The legacy of the sharp questioning of Tim Russert, who died Friday, is clear in this exchange he had in a Feb. 27 Democratic primary debate …
Wall Street Journal:
Lawmakers Reach Deal To Expand Surveillance — WASHINGTON — After more than a year of partisan acrimony over government surveillance powers, Democratic and Republican leaders have agreed to a bipartisan deal that would be the most sweeping rewrite of spy powers in three decades.
Discussion:
Obsidian Wings, Redstate, War and Piece, TPMMuckraker, Emptywheel, The Carpetbagger Report, TIME.com and ACSBlog
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Glenn Greenwald / Salon:
Obama, telecoms and the Beltway system — As noted yesterday, Blue Dog Rep. John Barrow of Georgia has been one of the most enthusiastic enablers of the radical and lawless policies of the Bush administration. When running for re-election, he ran ads accusing his own party of wanting to …
Jackie Kucinich / The Hill:
House to vote on FISA reform Friday — The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) will be brought to the House floor on Friday, Majority Leader Steny Hoyer's (D-Md.) office said. — Hoyer announced the decision during a meeting of the Democratic Caucus, according to sources familiar with the conversation.
David Kurtz / Talking Points Memo:
THAT'S SOME COMPROMISE — Who really thinks that the White House and the telecoms would go along with this so-called “conditional immunity” that congressional Democrats have agreed to if they didn't think they could satisfy the condition? — All they must do is provide a federal district court judge with …
Daniel W. Reilly / The Crypt's Blogs:FISA Deal completed, House vote likely tomorrow
Discussion:
Wake up America
Andrew E. Kramer / New York Times:
Deals With Iraq Are Set to Bring Oil Giants Back — BAGHDAD — Four Western oil companies are in the final stages of negotiations this month on contracts that will return them to Iraq, 36 years after losing their oil concession to nationalization as Saddam Hussein rose to power.
Discussion:
The Huffington Post, Attackerman, The Washington Independent, TPMMuckraker, Firedoglake, Needlenose, A Tiny Revolution, Hullabaloo, The Carpetbagger Report, War in Context, TalkLeft, ECHIDNE OF THE SNAKES, Bang the Drum, Obsidian Wings, About.com US Politics, Daily Kos, TIME.com, Whiskey Fire, Don Surber and Think Progress
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Jacques Steinberg / New York Times:
Russert's Son Sounds a Theme of Unity at Funeral — WASHINGTON — In death, Tim Russert did on Wednesday what no living journalist has accomplished this campaign season: he got Barack Obama and John McCain to sit together and talk, quietly. — Specifically, it was Mr. Russert's son, Luke …
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Anne Schroeder Mullins / Anne Schroeder's Blogs: The Russert Memorial — By now everyone has seen all the coverage …
Thomas W. Evans / New York Times:
Sue OPEC — THE president of the United States has the power to attack, and perhaps destroy, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, the illegal cartel that has driven the price of oil over $130 per barrel. This can be accomplished without invasion or bombing. No special legislation is needed.
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Vali Nasr / Washington Post:
Iran on Its Heels — In Tehran's Setbacks, an Opportunity in Iraq — For the first time since 2003, Iran has stumbled in Iraq. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's decision to confront Moqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army in Basra and Sadr City last month caught Tehran off guard.
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David Harsanyi / Post-Ed Notes:
Not Over for Haditha Marine — I just spoke with Brian Rooney at the Thomas More Center, a public interest law firm based in Ann Arbor that has been defending the Haditha “massacre” marines — Yesterday's good news about the dismissal of all charges against Lt Colonel Jeffrey Chessani …
Roxana Tiron / The Hill:
Rumsfeld repays McCain; declines to back candidate — Former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld recently declined to answer whether he will support Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) for president. — McCain, the GOP presidential standard-bearer, has been one of Rumsfeld's harshest critics.
Chuck Bennett / New York Post:
SUBPOENA BLITZ PUTS HEAT ON AL — IRS SEEKS INFO FROM TOP DONORS — The probe into the Rev. Al Sharpton's finances intensified this week, with the IRS sending out a flurry of subpoenas to his most generous corporate donors, The Post has learned. — Anheuser-Busch, the brewer of Budweiser …
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