memeorandum: Hersh: U.S. Funds Being Secretly Funneled To Violent Al Qaeda-Linked Groups (Nico/Think Progress)

VIDEO: Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth Wins Best Documentary — Tonight, Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth won the Academy Award for Best Documentary. Gore accepted the award, saying, "My fellow Americans, people all over the world — we need to solve the climate crisis. It's not a political issue.

Discussion: DownWithTyranny!

Allahpundit / Hot Air:

The Oscar thread; Update: Goracle (almost) announces! Update: Gore wins Oscar for Best Social Consciousness; Update: Scorsese wins — Tonight's the night Hollywood takes a break from disclaiming responsibility for any of the culture's ills to congratulate itself for having so much influence over the culture.

Discussion: Sister Toldjah, The Democratic Daily, Ed Driscoll.com, IMAO, NewsBusters.org and Crooks and Liars

SilentPatriot / Crooks and Liars:

Al Gore Takes Home the Statue! — Frankly, I'm thrilled but not surprised. An Inconvenient Truth was a teriffic documentary, plus, let's face it, politics plays a role in the selection process. Congrats, Al! Here's a little video compilation of the Vice President's big night. — Download (212) |

Discussion: Washington Post

Think Progress:

Al Gore's big announcement: » — the Oscars have gone green. Find out more HERE and watch Gore and Leonardo DiCaprio make the announcement at tonight's Academy Awards:

Discussion: Samizdata.net and Liberal Values

John Amato / Crooks and Liars:

Seymour Hersh: Negroponte-Iran Contra—Funds-al Qaeda...Oh my! — Sy Hersh tells us that the echos of Iran Contra weighed heavily in Negroponte's decision to resign his post and is claiming that Bush is funneling money without authorization or oversight that has ended up in the hands of Sunni jihadist groups.

Discussion: DownWithTyranny!, The Impolitic, The Mahablog, The Democratic Daily and The Agonist

Nico / Think Progress:

Hersh: U.S. Funds Being Secretly Funneled To Violent Al Qaeda-Linked Groups — New Yorker columnist Sy Hersh says the "single most explosive" element of his latest article involves an effort by the Bush administration to stem the growth of Shiite influence in the Middle East …

Discussion: Firedoglake, Taylor Marsh, TalkLeft, Big Brass Blog and The American Street

Seymour M. Hersh / New Yorker:

THE REDIRECTION — A STRATEGIC SHIFT — In the past few months, as the situation in Iraq has deteriorated, the Bush Administration, in both its public diplomacy and its covert operations, has significantly shifted its Middle East strategy. The "redirection," as some inside the White House …

Discussion: Political Animal, Once Upon a Time, Hullabaloo, TIME, CorrenteWire, Discourse.net, CANNONFIRE, Blue Crab Boulevard and Times of London

Digby / Hullabaloo:

Rube Goldberg Policy Contraption by digby After... tristero 2/25/2007 12:57:00 PM | — Rube Goldberg Policy Contraption — by digby — After you watch a presidential admnistration for a while you begin to see shifts in policy or different phases of the old ones by the way the officials all speak.

Washington Post:

Murtha Stumbles on Iraq Funding Curbs — Democrats Were Ill-Prepared for Unplanned Disclosure, Republican Attacks — The plan was bold: By tying President Bush's $100 billion war request to strict standards of troop safety and readiness, Democrats believed they could grab hold of Iraq war policy …

Discussion: The Huffington Post, DownWithTyranny!, Jules Crittenden, A Chequer-Board of Nights …, Redstate, QandO, CorrenteWire, Wake up America, Reason Magazine, The Strata-Sphere, Blue Crab Boulevard, Power Line, PoliPundit.com and Decision '08

Paul Mirengoff / News Bloggers Blog:

The limits of biography — If the stakes weren't so high, the efforts of Democrats to use combat veterans to push a defeatist foreign policy might be amusing. In 2004, the vehicle was John Kerry. Somehow, the Dems convinced themselves that his service in Vietnam would insulate him and the party …

New York Times:

Blast Kills 40 as Cleric Assails Baghdad Plan — A suicide bomber wearing a vest packed with explosives and ball bearings blew himself up at a Baghdad university today, killing at least 40 people and strewing fingers, pens, purses and bloody textbooks all over the ground.

Discussion: Decision '08

Damien Cave / New York Times:
Iraq Rebel Cleric Reins In Militia; Motives at Issue

Discussion: The American Street and The Daily Dish

Robert H. Reid / Associated Press:
Analysis: Shiite Protests Send Message

Discussion: Informed Comment and Booman Tribune

New York Post:

ANGELINA A BABE AMID BRAINIACS — The prestigious Council on Foreign Relations is about to get a jolt of sex appeal. — The exclusive, Manhattan-based foreign-policy group has decided to admit actress Angelina Jolie, a U.N. goodwill ambassador who has taken more than 30 trips worldwide …

Discussion: Hot Air and Lonewacko

Greyhawk / Mudville Gazette:

APPEAL FOR REDRESS: ASTROTURFING — This post originally appeared at MilBlogs in October, 2006. While some of the information uncovered herein has since made it's way into smaller media outlets, most major mainstream media sources are still reporting this effort as a "grass roots" campaign.

Discussion: BLACKFIVE and Riehl World View

mudvillegazette.com:
CHECK 60 — Looks like Appeal for Redress will get a big boost tonight …

Discussion: NewsBusters.org

CBS News:

Iraqi President Falls Ill — Jalal Talabani, 73, Flown To Jordan For Medical Treatment — (CBS/AP) Iraqi President Jalal Talabani arrived in Jordan late Sunday for medical treatment amid conflict reports about his health. Sources in Amman and from Talabani's office in Baghdad told CBS News …

Faiz / Think Progress:

Levin: Last Congress Didn't Investigate Walter Reed Because 'They Did Not Want To Embarrass' Bush — On NBC's Meet the Press today, Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI) argued that the Senate Armed Services Committee did not conduct oversight of the treatment at military facilities in recent years because …

Discussion: Washington Post

Newsweek: Forgotten Heroes — A Long Recovery: Gunnery Sgt. Kenneth Sargent …

New York Times:

In Big Buyout, Utility to Limit New Coal Plants — Under a proposed $45 billion buyout by a team of private equity firms, the TXU Corporation, a Texas utility that has long been the bane of environmental groups, will abandon plans to build 8 of 11 coal plants and commit to a broad menu …

Discussion: The Democratic Daily

David Roberts / The Huffington Post: If You Can't Beat 'Em, Buy 'Em: TXU Gets an Offer from Green-Friendly Equity Funds

Dirty Harry / LIBERTAS:

Live Blogging The Oscars — 9:04 - Forrest wins! Wonderful actor. And isn't it nice to have two black actors win tonight and their race not be any kind of big deal? — 9:03 - I'm rooting for Forrest. First Forrest to deserve an Oscar. Unlike that lousy Gump movie.

Joe Gandelman / The Moderate Voice:

Should News Entertain Or Inform — Or Both? — INDIO, California — It is the buzz up here at the Riverside County Fair, where I have been performing three shows a day in my other incarnation since Feb. 16. It's the subject of conversation among entertainers, some of the people who have booths …

Discussion: The Gun Toting Liberal ™, The Reaction and Jesus' General

James Joyner / Outside The Beltway: News Business is a Business — Austin Cline laments the fact …

Haaretz:

Report: 3 Gulf states agree to IAF overflights en route to Iran — Three Arab states in the Persian Gulf would be willing to allow the Israel Air force to enter their airspace in order to reach Iran in case of an attack on its nuclear facilities, the Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Siyasa reported on Sunday.

Discussion: BLACKFIVE, Riehl World View, NewsHog and The Reaction

Andrew Sullivan / The Daily Dish:

Obama on Iraq in 2002 — He was right. I was wrong. This clip is impressive.

Discussion: PoliBlog (TM), Outside The Beltway and The RBC