Top Items:
Jeff Stein / CQ Politics:
Sources: Wiretap Recorded Rep. Harman Promising to Intervene for AIPAC — Rep. Jane Harman , the California Democrat with a longtime involvement in intelligence issues, was overheard on an NSA wiretap telling a suspected Israeli agent that she would lobby the Justice Department reduce espionage …
Discussion:
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Ron Kampeas / blogs.jta.org:
Why the Harman leaks smell to high heaven — I just posted a brief picking up this CQ Politics story by Jeff Stein, re-raising allegations that U.S. Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.) attempted to intervene on behalf of Steve Rosen and Keith Weissman, the two former AIPAC staffers charged …
Discussion:
Raw Story
Josh Marshall / Talking Points Memo:
Must Read — This story is so radioactive it's hard to know which of fifty different directions to go with it. In brief, Jeff Stein at CQ has a much, much more detailed account of that story, first reported in 2006, of Rep. Jane Harman getting caught on a wiretapped phone call allegedly discussing …
Glenn Greenwald / Salon:
Major scandal erupts involving Rep. Jane Harman, Alberto Gonzales and AIPAC — Other obligations prevent me from writing until later today — and I intend to focus on Rahm Emanuel's war-crimes-protecting proclamation that Obama's desire for immunity extends beyond CIA officers perpetrating torture to the …
Discussion:
The Hill's Blog Briefing Room, RebelReports, Calitics, MyDD and The Washington Independent
Josh Marshall / Talking Points Memo:
More on that “Suspected Israeli Agent” — Let me follow up on my earlier post which asked just who that “suspected Israeli agent” was who Rep. Jane Harman (D-CA) was talking to. Some quick TPM staff research shows that the original Time article on this story from 2006 identified Harman's interlocutor as Haim Saban.
Discussion:
Mondoweiss
Myglesias / Matthew Yglesias:
Surveillance and Political Corruption — Lord knows I'm not a big AIPAC fan, but the fact of the matter has always been that the AIPAC spy case, though a fun black eye for a nasty operation, has been pretty fishy as a legal matter. And along those lines, the premises under …
Discussion:
Eschaton
Associated Press:
Delegates walk out on Ahmadinejad at Geneva — Article's topics: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Durban 2 — As Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called for the eradication of Israel in his address to the United Nations anti-racism conference which — opened its week long event in Geneva on Monday …
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Times of London:
Walkout at UN conference after Iran president calls Israel ‘racist’ — British delegates joined a dramatic diplomatic walkout today when President Ahmadinejad of Iran told a major UN conference against racism that the state of Israel had been founded “on the pretext of Jewish suffering” during the Second World War.
Carol E. Lee / The Politico:
Gingrich slams Obama over Chavez — Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich tore into President Barack Obama Monday for his friendly greeting of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, saying Obama is bolstering the “enemies of America.” — Gingrich appeared on a number of morning talk shows comparing Obama …
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Peter Nicholas / Los Angeles Times:
Obama defends greeting Hugo Chavez
Obama defends greeting Hugo Chavez
Discussion:
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Michael A. Fletcher / Washington Post:
Obama to Order Cabinet to Quickly Cut $100 Million From Department Budgets — President Obama plans to convene his Cabinet for the first time today, where he will order members to identify a combined $100 million in budget cuts over the next 90 days, according to a senior administration official.
Discussion:
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Khaled Wassef / CBS News:
Al Qaeda No. 2 Blasts Obama, Again — Al Qaeda's deputy commander, Ayman Zawahri, has issued another scathing attack on President Obama in a new audio tape released on jihadi Web sites. — Zawahri argues that the U.S. president is following the same policies as his predecessor, George W. Bush.
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Scott Shane / New York Times:
Waterboarding Used 266 Times on 2 Suspects — C.I.A. interrogators used waterboarding, the near-drowning technique that top Obama administration officials have described as illegal torture, 266 times on two key prisoners from Al Qaeda, far more than had been previously reported.
Discussion:
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Gabriel Sherman / New York Magazine:
The Wail of the 1% — As the privileged class loses its privileges, a collective moan rises from the canyons of Wall Street. — Shortly after 1:30 on the afternoon of March 18, two dozen traders in AIG's financial-products division stepped away from their Bloomberg terminals …
Fredric U. Dicker / New York Post:
RUDY RIPS GOV'S BID FOR GAY NUPS — RUDY GIULIANI is declaring war on gay marriage — vowing to use his strong opposition of it against the Democrats if he runs for governor next year. — The former mayor, in an extended interview with The Post, also predicted that Gov. Paterson's high-profile effort …
Discussion:
Ben Smith's Blog, Washington Monthly, NY Daily News, Gawker, Political Machine and Pam's House Blend
Jackson Diehl / Washington Post:
Barack Obama's Quick Foreign Policy Fixes Run Into Stubborn World Problems — New American presidents typically begin by behaving as if most of the world's problems are the fault of their predecessors — and Barack Obama has been no exception. In his first three months he has quickly taken steps …
The New Republic:
Truth and Reconciliation — Are Democrats making an egregious power grab by sidestepping the filibuster? Hardly. — 'Reconciliation" means “restoration of harmony. ” But as a term of art in budgeting, it has become an act of war. President Obama and most Democrats in Congress hope …
A.C. Kleinheider / Nashville City Paper:
Post Politics: The Tea Party revolution will likely be betrayed — While many on the Right are energized by the level of engagement on display by grassroots libertarians and conservatives in last week's “Tea Party” protests, conservatives should fight the urge to get too excited …
Discussion:
Right Wing News
C. J. Chivers / New York Times:
A Blast, an Ambush and a Sprint Out of a Taliban Kill Zone — ALIABAD, Afghanistan — The two Army lieutenants crouched against boulders beside the Korangal River. Taliban gunfire poured down from villages and cliffs above, hitting tree branches and rocks and snapping as the bullets passed over the officers' helmets.