Top Items:
New York Times:
Sectarian Fury Turns Violent in Wake of Iraq Shrine Blast — BAGHDAD, Iraq, Feb. 23 - At least 95 people, some of them prominent Sunni Arab clerics, were killed in revenge in Baghdad and the surrounding areas in the chaotic 24 hours following the bombing Wednesday morning …
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Mohammed / IRAQ THE MODEL:
In the aftermath of the shrine attack... Today is a day off in Iraq, emergency situation now officially declared with extended curfews 8pm-6am. — Sistani has been calling for restraint and calm but it seems that some Shia factions are not listening to him but instead they are listening …
Alexandra Zavis / Associated Press:
Dozens Slain in Iraq Sectarian Violence — BAGHDAD, Iraq - Gunmen shot dead 47 civilians and left their bodies in a ditch near Baghdad Thursday as militia battles and sectarian reprisals followed the bombing of a sacred Shiite shrine. Sunni Arabs suspended their participation in talks on a new government.
Discussion:
New York Times, The Left Coaster, Jihad Watch, The Democratic Party and Rantings of a Sandmonkey
Bill Roggio / The Fourth Rail:
Looking for Signs of Civil War in Iraq — Reviewing the leading indicators that Iraq is sliding into a full scale civil war. — After the destruction of the dome of the Golden Mosque Samarra, the fashionable meme in the media is to declare Iraq is on the verge of a full civil war - if not already in the midst of one.
Washington Post:
Sectarian Violence Surges After Shrine Bombing — Curfews Extended; Popular Arab Journalist Kidnapped and Killed — BAGHDAD, Feb. 23 — A wave of sectarian strife and recrimination swept Iraq Thursday after Wednesday's bombing of a revered Shiite shrine in the city of Samarra.
Swopa / Needlenose:Blowing a hole in Iraq's political process
Discussion:
Associated Press, Bradford Plumer, The Peking Duck, Reuters, Loaded Mouth and The Left Coaster
CNN:
Bush: No need to worry about port security — President tries to calm uproar over planned UAE takeover — WASHINGTON (CNN) — President Bush on Thursday defended his administration's decision to allow a company from an Arab country to operate six major U.S. ports, saying, "People don't need to worry about security."
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CBS News:
Political Backlash Over Port Deal — (CBS/AP) If there is one thing Congressional leaders and the White House can agree on, it is that neither knew the port deal with a United Arab Emirates company was even in the works, reports CBS News political analyst Gloria Borger.
New York Times:
Panel Saw No Security Issue in Port Contract, Officials Say — WASHINGTON, Feb. 22 — The Bush administration decided last month that a deal to hand over operations at major American ports to a government-owned company in Dubai did not involve national security and so did not require a more lengthy review …
David E. Sanger / New York Times:Big Problem, Dubai Deal or Not
Discussion:
Outside The Beltway, The Washington Monthly, TAPPED, Associated Press, Talking Points Memo, Gina Cobb, ed fitzgerald's unfutz, NewDonkey.com, Thoughts from Kansas, The Carpetbagger Report, Democrat Taylor Marsh …, The American Street, Reuters, Six Meat Buffet, Wizbang, The Heretik, BrothersJudd Blog and tapscottscopydesk.blogspot.com
Washington Post:
A Failure of the Press — There was a time when the press was the strongest guardian of free expression in this democracy. Stories and celebrations of intrepid and courageous reporters are many within the press corps. Cases such as New York Times v. Sullivan in the 1960s were litigated …
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Evelyn Nieves / Washington Post:
S.D. Abortion Bill Takes Aim at 'Roe' — Senate Ban Does Not Except Rape, Incest — South Dakota lawmakers yesterday approved the nation's most far-reaching ban on abortion, setting the stage for new legal challenges that its supporters say they hope lead to an overturning of Roe v. Wade .
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Monica Davey / New York Times:Ban on Most Abortions Advances in South Dakota
Discussion:
Pacific Views, SCOTUSblog, firedoglake, TBogg, Balloon Juice, Left in the West, The New York Observer … and feministing.com
Philip Kennicott / Washington Post:
What Was and Never Shall Be — In the Destruction of a Golden Dome, the Debris of Certainty — Again and again, it's distressing how little we know about how Iraq looked before destruction became an everyday occurrence. And so the first glimpse, for many, of the Askariya shrine …
Ezra Klein:
Won't Somebody Please Think of the Puppies!? — I think Digby goes a little far here. Confused polling on abortion is evidence that Americans have confused views on abortion, not that the cover story obscuring their Handmaid's Tale instincts is insufficiently clever.
Kevin Sites / Reuters:
German court convicts man for insulting Islam — DUESSELDORF, Germany (Reuters) - A German court on Thursday convicted a businessman of insulting Islam by printing the word "Koran" on toilet paper and offering it to mosques. — The 61-year-old man, identified only as Manfred van H. …
Peggy Noonan / Opinion Journal:
If Cattle Flew — Look at the airports. Why would terrorists bother with seaports? — We are debating port security. While we're at it, how about airport security? Does anyone really believe that has gotten much better since 19 terrorists hijacked four planes five years ago?
Discussion:
Outside The Beltway, No More Mister Nice Blog, A Blog For All, The Dread Pundit Bluto and open book
Ron Strom / WorldNetDaily:
Student under fire for yelling: 'Remember Chappaquiddick!' — Self-described liberal hollers phrase as Kennedy begins on-campus speech — A community college student in Massachusetts faces possible disciplinary action for shouting "Remember Chappaquiddick!" during an on-campus speech by Democrat Sen. Edward Kennedy yesterday.
George F. Will / Washington Post:
Smile if (and Only if) You're Conservative — To bemused conservatives, it looks like yet another example of analytic overkill by the intelligentsia — a jobs program for the (mostly liberal) academic boys (and girls) in the social sciences, whose quantitative tools have been brought to bear to prove the obvious.
William Branigin / Washington Post:
White House Identifies Katrina Response Failures — The White House called today for an overhaul of the nation's comprehensive response plan for dealing with major catastrophes and proposed a greater role for the U.S. military to help overcome shortcomings identified in the federal response to last year's Hurricane Katrina.
