memeorandum @ 5:15 PM ET, March 9, 2006

5:15 PM ET, March 9, 2006

RELATED ITEMS:

Ports deal opens rift between Bush, House GOP — Committee votes 62-2 to block approval of UAE takeover — WASHINGTON (CNN) — The White House faced a major rupture with House Republicans on Thursday after a House committee overwhelmingly voted to block a deal that would allow …

Discussion: The Reality-Based Community, Crooks and Liars, The Washington Monthly, RedState, Media Blog on National …, Flopping Aces, New York Times, The Moderate Voice, Blogs for Bush, The Democratic Party, Wonkette, Peaktalk, GOP Bloggers, The Glittering Eye, The Jawa Report v3.0 Beta and The Indepundit

Fox News:

Senate Could Mirror House Rebuke of Ports Deal — WASHINGTON — The Senate on Thursday could vote on a Democratic amendment to halt a controversial ports deal that the Bush administration still hopes to push through. — The Senate vote would come just one day after the House Appropriations …

Discussion: Fraters Libertas, Tim Worstall and Hugh Hewitt

New York Times:

Dubai Company to Transfer U.S. Ports to American Company — WASHINGTON, March 9 — DP World, the United Arab Emirates state-owned company that had agreed to buy several port terminals in the United States, said today that it will transfer those properties to an American-owned company …

Discussion: On Deadline

New York Times:

G.O.P. Plan Would Allow Spying Without Warrants — WASHINGTON, March 8 — The plan by Senate Republicans to step up oversight of the National Security Agency's domestic surveillance program would also give legislative sanction for the first time to long-term eavesdropping on Americans without …

Discussion: Washington Post, Stop The ACLU, Booman Tribune, The Heretik, Unclaimed Territory, TalkLeft, Balloon Juice, The Jawa Report v3.0 Beta, IntoxiNation, Rising Hegemon and Prairie Weather

MSNBC:

Dubai to give up control of U.S. ports — Deal ran into tough opposition in Senate over security concerns … MSNBC TV — MSNBC staff and news service reports — WASHINGTON - A top Senate Republican says a Dubai-owned company has decided to give up its management stake in U.S. ports.

Discussion: Daily Kos

Roxana Tiron / The Hill:

Dubai threat to hit back — Dubai is threatening retaliation against American strategic and commercial interests if Washington blocks its $6.8 billion takeover of operations at several U.S. ports. — As the House Appropriations Committee yesterday marked up legislation …

Discussion: PunditGuy, Neocon Express, Instapundit.com, GOP Bloggers, Riehl World View and WTF Is It Now??

Michelle Malkin:
BREAKING PORT NEWS: DUBAI YIELDS

Discussion: Right Wing Nut House, The Political Pit Bull, Macsmind, Church and State, The Moderate Voice, Ace of Spades HQ, A Blog For All and JunkYardBlog

Associated Press:
GOP Leaders Tell Bush Ports Deal Is Doomed

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, Sister Toldjah and Blogs for Bush

Glenn Greenwald / Unclaimed Territory:
Sen. Rockefeller praises the GOP's actions on the Intelligence Committee

Discussion: Balloon Juice, The Next Hurrah and battlepanda.blogspot.com

New York Times:
The Death of the Intelligence Panel

Discussion: JustOneMinute and WTF Is It Now??

Jonathan Weisman / Washington Post:
Congress Prepares for Port Showdown

Discussion: The Sundries Shack, The Carpetbagger Report, PBD, Crazy Politico's Rantings, TPM Muckraker, Daily Kos and AMERICAblog

Peggy Noonan / Opinion Journal:

Boy in a Bubble — What George Clooney doesn't know about life. — Memo to: The Academy — From: Just another viewer — Re: Advice, as if you wanted more — I cannot remember a time when, in the days after the Academy Awards show, it was not criticized, and even blasted.

Discussion: Dr. Sanity, THE ASTUTE BLOGGER, Shakespeare's Sister, No More Mister Nice Blog, Shot In The Dark and SCSUScholars

John Byrne / rawstory.com:

Report posits that Chris Matthews has accepted hefty speaking fees from conservative groups — A new report advanced to RAW STORY Thursday suggests that Chris Matthews, the star of the Sunday talk show circuit's Hardball, has accepted hefty speaking fees from an array of conservative trade associations.

Discussion: Democrat Taylor Marsh … and King of Zembla

Ellen Knickmeyer / Washington Post:

Official Says Shiite Party Suppressed Body Count — BAGHDAD, March 8 — Days after the bombing of a Shiite shrine unleashed a wave of retaliatory killings of Sunnis, the leading Shiite party in Iraq's governing coalition directed the Health Ministry to stop tabulating execution-style shootings …

Discussion: Unqualified Offerings, News Blog, Norwegianity, ECHIDNE OF THE SNAKES, The Left Coaster, Martini Republic, Booman Tribune, Unfogged and Daily Kos

Washington Post:

Senator Resumes Lobbyist Huddles — After saying in January that he would end his regular meetings with lobbyists, Sen. Rick Santorum (Pa.), the third-ranking GOP leader in the Senate, has continued to meet with many of the same lobbyists at the same time and on the same day of the week.

Discussion: The Reality-Based Community, TPM Muckraker, Balloon Juice, Greg's Opinion, The Carpetbagger Report, DownWithTyranny!, Attytood and Think Progress

David Crary / Associated Press:

Men's Rights Group Eyes Child Support Stay — NEW YORK - Contending that women have more options than they do in the event of an unintended pregnancy, men's rights activists are mounting a long shot legal campaign aimed at giving them the chance to opt out of financial responsibility for raising a child.

Discussion: Shakespeare's Sister, Danny Carlton, GOP Bloggers, Running Scared, Majikthise, Sister Toldjah, Bring it On! and Ang's Weird Ideas

Michael J. Totten:

Zarqawi Was Here — BIARA, IRAQ - The PUK's Minister of the Interior ordered 20 heavily armed Peshmerga soldiers to go with me to the borderland mountain village of Biara. For years the village was occupied by Ansar Al Islam, the Kurdish-Arab-Persian branch of Al Qaeda in Northern Iraq.

Discussion: Andrew Sullivan and In the Bullpen

Jacob Weisberg / Slate:

The Three Stooges — Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, and Howard Dean. — According to the latest CBS News poll, George W. Bush's approval rating hit a personal worst of 34 percent in February, making him the most unpopular president since Nixon during Watergate.