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George F. Will / Washington Post:
Time for the U.S. to Get Out of Afghanistan — “Yesterday,” reads the e-mail from Allen, a Marine in Afghanistan, “I gave blood because a Marine, while out on patrol, stepped on a [mine's] pressure plate and lost both legs.” Then “another Marine with a bullet wound to the head was brought in.
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Mike Allen / The Politico:
W.H. fears liberal war pressure — White House officials are increasingly worried liberal, anti-war Democrats will demand a premature end to the Afghanistan war before President Barack Obama can show signs of progress in the eight-year conflict, according to senior administration sources.
William Kristol / PostPartisan:
No Will, No Way — George Will is dismayed by American casualties in Afghanistan, unhappy about the length of our effort there, dismissive of the contributions of our NATO allies, contemptuous of the Afghan central government, and struck by the country's backwardness. — I share many of these sentiments.
Joe Klein / Swampland:
Glenn Greenwald — Twice in the past month, my private communications have been splashed about the internet. That such a thing would happen is unfortunate, and dishonorable, but sadly inevitable, I suppose. I ignored the first case, in which a rather pathetic woman acolyte of Greenwald's published …
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Glenn Greenwald / Salon:
Beltway culture, checks on journalists and secrecy obligations — I'm ambivalent about whether even to acknowledge this obviously disturbed, Cheneyite rant from Joe Klein. On the one hand, I don't want to be dragged down into what is, for him, quite clearly a deeply emotional and personal matter …
Discussion:
TalkLeft
David Brooks / New York Times:
The Obama Slide — Two tides swept over American politics last winter. The first was the Obama tide. Barack Obama came into office with an impressive 70 percent approval rating. The second was the independent tide. Over the first months of this year, the number of people …
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Maggie Haberman / New York Post:
YOU CAN'T KEEP A BAD MAN DOWN — SPITZER IS EYEING A COMEBACK — Disgraced former Gov. Eliot Spitzer has been privately talking with friends about a possible comeback, and is considering a run for statewide office next year, several sources told The Post.
Gateway Pundit:
CAUGHT ON TAPE: Obama HCAN Organizer Instructs Supporters How to Shout Down Opponents & Take Over Meetings — More Hope and Change— A Health Care for America Now (HCAN) organizer is caught on tape outside the meeting instructing supporters on how to shout down opponents who get up to ask …
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Charlie Savage / New York Times:
Justice Dept. to Recharge Enforcement of Civil Rights — WASHINGTON — Seven months after taking office, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. is reshaping the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division by pushing it back into some of the most important areas of American political life …
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Joseph Weber / Washington Times:
EXCLUSIVE: Gonzales defends Holder's decision on CIA
EXCLUSIVE: Gonzales defends Holder's decision on CIA
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Front Row Washington
Alexander Bolton / The Hill:
GOP readies wave of objections to stall healthcare bill in Senate — Sen. Judd Gregg has hundreds of procedural objections ready for a healthcare plan Democrats want to speed through the Senate. — Gregg (N.H.), the senior Republican on the Budget Committee, told the Hill in a recent interview …
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Washington Post:
Thesis Thrusts Va. Gubernatorial Candidate's Past Views Into Spotlight — The Virginia governor's race ignited Monday over Republican Robert F. McDonnell's 20-year-old graduate thesis: Democrats assailed him in e-mail blasts and interviews for what he wrote about working women, homosexuals and …
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Tom Jensen / Public Policy Polling:
Virginia Race Tightens Up — The race to be the next Governor of Virginia is back in single digits, as Creigh Deeds has pulled to within 49-42 against Bob McDonnell after trailing 51-37 a month ago. — The movement in the race seems to be driven largely by an increase in Democratic enthusiasm for Deeds' candidacy.
Norman J. Ornstein / Washington Post:
Obama Takes Realistic Approach on Health Care — His Flexible Tactics Match Reform to Political Reality — The conventional wisdom is that President Obama and Democratic congressional leaders are on the run, that we seem to be heading for a replay of 1994, when the Clinton health-care plan went down in flames.
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Richard Cohen / Washington Post:
Torture's Ugly Dialogue — Call him Ishmael. — Call him a terrorist or a suicide bomber or anything else you want, but understand that he is willing — no, anxious — to give his life for his cause. Call him also a captive, and know that he works with others as part of a team …
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Ernest Luning / Colorado Independent:
Bachmann: ‘Slit our wrists, be blood brothers’ to beat health care reform — U.S. Rep. Michelle Bachmann, a Minnesota Republican, chats with a supporter at an Independence Institute fundraiser in Denver on Aug. 31. (Photo/Ernest Luning) — DENVER — In a fiery speech …
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Glen Johnson / Associated Press:
Mass. AG apparently first to seek Kennedy's seat — BOSTON — Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley appears to be the first candidate in a special election for the Senate seat left open by the death of Edward Kennedy. — A woman who said she was representing Coakley picked …
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David Weigel / The Washington Independent:
RNC Ad: We'll Ban Rationing! — The Republican National Committee is out with a TV ad running in Florida and “select national cable networks,” and it's the kind of thing that Republicans might have expected when they gave the telegenic Michael Steele the chairmanship of the party. — Here's their ad:
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KC Johnson / Durham-in-Wonderland:
Simply Extraordinary — Three Duke University students were the victims of the highest-profile fraudulent rape claim in modern American history. That fact alone should make the University particularly sensitive to the dangers of false rape allegations, and the need for a firm commitment …
Robert Reich / Robert Reich's Blog:
The Guns of August, and Why the Republican Right Was So Adept at Using Them on Health Care — What we learned in August is something we've long known but keep forgetting: The most important difference between America's Democratic left and Republican right is that the left has ideas and the right has discipline.
Barbarossa / The Jawa Report:
BREAKING: FL Rifqa investigators were led around by CAIR's Islamist Homeland Security mole **Bumped** — Two weeks ago Florida Judge Daniel Lawson directed the Florida Dept. of Law Enforcement to investigate the Columbus, Ohio Islamic community to provide him sufficient information …
Marc Ambinder / The Atlantic Politics Channel:
Something New On Health Care: Deal-Breakers From The President — This time, the President is going to be specific. Next week, President Obama is going to give Democrats a health care plan they can begin to sell. — He plans to list specific goals that any health insurance reform plan …