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A President All Alone — Two weeks earlier on Capitol Hill, there was a groundswell of Republican demands — public and private — that President Bush pardon Scooter Libby. Last week, as Alberto Gonzales came under withering Democratic fire, there were no public GOP declarations …
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The most revealing three-minute You Tube clip ever — I want to return to the video clip of the jovial and dismissive discussion of the U.S. attorneys scandal on yesterday's Chris Matthews Show (embedded below). In one sense, this clip is completely typical of how our national media thinks and talks about political matters.
Discussion:
Hullabaloo, The Carpetbagger Report, White House Watch, Norwegianity, Firedoglake, The Mahablog and CorrenteWire

Gonzales Aide Won't Answer Questions About Prosecutor Firings — Monica Goodling, a counsel to U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales who helped coordinate the dismissals of eight U.S. attorneys, will invoke her constitutional right not to answer Senate questions about the firings, her lawyer said.
Discussion:
CNN Political Ticker

Beyond the pale: anti-gay, racist emails from Army recruiter … Is this the General Peter Pace policy at work? — Corey Andrew had his profile and resume posted at Careerbuilder.com, and it caught the eye of Army recruiter Marcia Ramode, who contacted him.
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Bigoted emails from Army recruiter outrage gay man — Jersey City resident Corey Andrew, like thousands of other job seekers, recently posted his profile on a popular career-based web site, hoping to nab some work as a copywriter. But the response he received was anything but typical.
Discussion:
Shakespeare's Sister

A Recruiter's Offensive Emails — Just days after General Peter Pace made his offensive comments about gays and lesbians, SLDN received a call from Jersey City resident Corey Andrew. Corey, who is openly gay, recently posted his resume at CareerBuilder.com.


Waxman Warns RNC, Bush-Cheney '04 Campaign: Don't Delete Your Emails — Multiple congressional investigations have uncovered evidence that White House appointees regularly communicate using email accounts provided by the Republican Party. As CREW has argued, such activity violates …
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GSA Chief Is Accused of Playing Politics
Discussion:
Firedoglake, The Mahablog, TPMmuckraker, War and Piece, Obsidian Wings, Think Progress, Redstate, NewsHog, The Carpetbagger Report, TIME: Swampland, The Swamp, Taylor Marsh, The Gavel, Shakespeare's Sister, The Impolitic, All Spin Zone, Watching Those We Chose, TAPPED, Macsmind, Citizens Blogging … and Matthew Yglesias

Work can be balm during health crisis — When John and Elizabeth Edwards learned Wednesday that Elizabeth Edwards' breast cancer had returned, the presidential campaign, which often seems removed from daily life, suddenly mirrored reality for thousands of American families facing a deadly illness.
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IRANIANS INTERROGATE CAPTURED ROYAL MARINES — The 15 Royal Marines and sailors captured by Iran are being "interrogated", officials in Tehran said today. — Amid fears that the 14 men and one woman face a show trial, Iranian television reported that the country did not want to exchange …
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Iran rebuffs Blair's plea for release of captives
Discussion:
Jules Crittenden, Hot Air, The Blotter, Telegraph, NewsBusters.org, Pajamas Media, Right Wing News and Michael P.F. van der Galiën

Iran Feels Pinch As Major Banks Curtail Business — More than 40 major international banks and financial institutions have either cut off or cut back business with the Iranian government or private sector as a result of a quiet campaign launched by the Treasury and State departments last September …
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N.Y. Mayor Is Eyeing '08, Observers Say — New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, a self-made billionaire, has told friends more than once that his definition of good financial planning is making sure the check to the undertaker bounces when it's finally time to go.
Discussion:
TAPPED, Donklephant, Agitprop, Norwegianity, CNN Political Ticker, First Read, Political Radar, Michael P.F. van der Galiën, Wonkette and On Deadline


Online, Churls Gone Vile — One of the unique qualities of Internet discourse is its freewheeling, no-holds-barred nature, where passionate arguments are often accompanied by some choice expletives and a virtual finger in the eye. — But what happens when the talk turns ugly, racist and violent?

Sticky wicket of creeping sharia — The other day Pakistan's Gen. Musharraf took time off from his hectic schedule of trying to survive assassination attempts to pay tribute to someone who, alas, had been less successful at dodging killers: A week ago, during the cricket World Cup, Bob Woolmer …
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This innuendo about the Pakistan team is a disgrace
Discussion:
The Corner


NI deal struck in historic talks — Devolved government is to return to Northern Ireland following an historic meeting between the leaders of the DUP and Sinn Fein. — Ian Paisley and Gerry Adams, sitting side by side for their first news conference in Stormont, confirmed that power-sharing would begin on 8 May.
Discussion:
Crooked Timber
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Aged, Frail and Denied Care by Their Insurers — CONRAD, Mont. — Mary Rose Derks was a 65-year-old widow in 1990, when she began preparing for the day she could no longer care for herself. Every month, out of her grocery fund, she scrimped together about $100 for an insurance policy …

McCain on the House Iraq Supplemental — John McCain has harsh words for the House Democratic Leadership on the Iraq Supplemental Appropriations Bill that they just passed. This is what he said at a town hall meeting in Plymouth, NH: — McCain has been taking some heat for skipping some votes recently.


Poor Behavior Is Linked to Time in Day Care — A much-anticipated report from the largest and longest-running study of American child care has found that keeping a preschooler in a day care center for a year or more increased the likelihood that the child would become disruptive in class …


Endgame — I just came back from the demonstrations...No, that's a lie. — I've been back almost an hour and a half now, and it took me this long to get myself together, shake myself out of the shock I am feeling, and actually sit down and write this. Here is what happend.