Top Items:
Charles Babington / Washington Post:
Congressional Probe of NSA Spying Is in Doubt — Congress appeared ready to launch an investigation into the Bush administration's warrantless domestic surveillance program last week, but an all-out White House lobbying campaign has dramatically slowed the effort and may kill it, key Republican and Democratic sources said yesterday.
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Hugh Hewitt:
The MSM Campaign Against Cheney — Headlines: — Los Angeles Times: Hunter Suffers Setback as Criticism of Cheney Grows — The Washington Post: Cheney's Response A Concern In GOP — The New York Times: Handling of Mishap Creates Strain in the White House — The Boston Globe: Hunter shot by Cheney has a heart attack
Discussion:
The Mahablog, New York Times, Hyscience, Oliver Willis, The Huffington Post, The Right Coast, Suitably Flip and Michelle Malkin
David E. Sanger / New York Times:
Handling of Accident Creates Tension Between White House Staffs — WASHINGTON, Feb. 14 — When the White House press secretary, Scott McClellan, came to the press room just before 10 a.m. Tuesday and suggested he was wearing an orange tie to avoid a stray shot from Vice President Dick Cheney …
David Ignatius / Washington Post:
An Arrogance of Power — There is a temptation that seeps into the souls of even the most righteous politicians and leads them to bend the rules, and eventually the truth, to suit the political needs of the moment. That arrogance of power is on display with the Bush administration.
John / AMERICAblog:
McClellan knew Whittington had heart attack and was in intensive care BEFORE his press briefing, but said nothing — ABC News just reported that White House spokesman Scott McClellan laughed today during his noon press briefing, and told the media it was "time to move on" …
Discussion:
Think Progress, Shakespeare's Sister, Crooks and Liars, In Search Of Utopia and The Left Coaster
Kevin Sites / Agence France Presse:
Democrats blast Cheney secrecy after shooting — WASHINGTON (AFP) - Democrats in Congress accused Vice President Dick Cheney of a pattern of secrecy, and demanded that he "level" with the public, after keeping mum about accidentally shooting an associate over the weekend.
Washington Post:
Cheney's Response A Concern In GOP — Vice President Cheney's slow and unapologetic public response to the accidental shooting of a 78-year-old Texas lawyer is turning the quail-hunting mishap into a political liability for the Bush administration and is prompting senior White House officials …
Tony Blankley / realclearpolitics.com:The Shooting Party — In the absence of any pressing news …
Discussion:
Gina Cobb
Reuters:
New pictures from Abu Ghraib surface — *** VIEWER DISCRETION ADVISED - GRAPHIC IMAGES *** — Feb. 15 - Australian network SBS broadcasts images of alleged abuse of what it says are prisoners at Abu Ghraib in Iraq. — Previously unpublished images of abuse of Iraqi prisoners …
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Gareth Porter / ipsnews.net:
U.S. Risks Reporter's Life to Strike Tough Pose — WASHINGTON, Feb 13 (IPS) - The George W. Bush administration went well beyond refusing to negotiate with terrorists in its handling of the threat by freelance journalist Jill Carroll's abductors to kill her if all female detainees were not released from U.S.-run prisons in Iraq.
Lawrence K. Altman / New York Times:
Account of Doctors Raises Questions on Heart Injury — The account given yesterday by doctors caring for the Texas lawyer accidentally shot by Vice President Dick Cheney last weekend raises serious questions about how and when a pellet entered his heart and what tests were done to establish …
Discussion:
The Huffington Post, firedoglake, Amygdala, Talking Points Memo and Shakespeare's Sister
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Monisha Bansal / CNSNews:
Intelligence Summit to Air 'Saddam's WMD Tapes' — See Related Story: Secret Saddam WMD Tapes Subject of ABC Nightline Special — (CNSNews.com) - Reportedly armed with 12 hours of Saddam Hussein's audio recordings, the organizers of an upcoming "Intelligence Summit" are describing the tapes as the …
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Jose Lambiet / Palm Beach Post:
Ballot botch: Coulter votes in wrong precinct — She may be smart enough to earn millions from her acidic political barbs, but when it comes to something as simple as voting in her tiny hometown, hard-core conservative pundit Ann Coulter is a tad confused. — Palm Beach County Supervisor …
Michael J. Totten:
The Dream City of the Kurds — ERBIL, IRAQ - Kurdistan is a place of the mind. It doesn't exist on any maps unless the maps are made by the Kurds. Southern Kurdistan is known to the rest of the world as Northern Iraq. Northern Kurdistan is described as Eastern Turkey.
Washington Post:
325,000 Names on Terrorism List — Rights Groups Say Database May Include Innocent People — The National Counterterrorism Center maintains a central repository of 325,000 names of international terrorism suspects or people who allegedly aid them, a number that has more than quadrupled since …
Discussion:
Left I on the News, Amygdala, The Heretik, Air America Radio and Just a Bump in the Beltway
Alix Spiegel / New York Times:
More and More, Favored Psychotherapy Lets Bygones Be Bygones — For most of the 20th century, therapists in America agreed on a single truth. To cure patients, it was necessary to explore and talk through the origins of their problems. In other words, they had to come to terms with the past to move forward in the present.
Tom Zeller Jr / New York Times:
Online Firms Facing Questions About Censoring Internet Searches in China — For Internet companies doing business in China, a piece of a booming market has not come without compromises. — A series of episodes showing that the companies were bending to the restrictive demands of Beijing …
David Rennie / Telegraph:
Tiny island that's ready to stop Europe in its tracks — In the decade since they voted to join the European Union the islanders of the Aland archipelago in the Baltic Sea have been outvoted and overruled by Brussels, time and again. — Now Aland, a unique, autonomous region of Finland …
Ron Brynaert / rawstory.com:
'Beer quote' pulled from MSNBC Cheney hunting party article — An article at MSNBC's Website was edited to remove references to alcohol, that may have been available at a picnic, which preceded the accidental shooting of a 78-year-old lawyer by Vice President Cheney last Saturday, RAW STORY has learned.
Lara Jakes Jordan / Associated Press:
House Probe Blasts Katrina Preparation — WASHINGTON - The deaths and suffering of thousands of Hurricane Katrina's victims might have been avoided if the government had heeded lessons from the 2001 terror attacks and taken a proactive stance toward disaster preparedness, a House inquiry concludes.
Michelle Malkin:
THE ISLAMISTS' WAR ON THE INTERNET — Last Tuesday, during or immediately after my appearance on Fox News Channel to discuss the Mohammed Cartoons, this blog was hit by a large, foreign-based denial of service attack. Last night, my hosting service notified me that it is receiving ongoing threats …
Carlotta Gall / New York Times:
Afghan Suicide Bombings, Tied to Taliban, Point to Pakistan — KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, Feb. 12 — Arrests and interrogations of suspects in a recent series of suicide bombings in Afghanistan show that the attacks have been orchestrated from Pakistan by members of the ousted Taliban government …
