memeorandum: Blair Says He Will Leave Office in June (Alan Cowell/NYT

3:10 PM ET, May 10, 2007

Top Items:

Administration Withheld E-Mails About Rove — The Bush administration has withheld a series of e-mails from Congress showing that senior White House and Justice Department officials worked together to conceal the role of Karl Rove in installing Timothy Griffin, a protégé of Rove's …

Discussion: Firedoglake, Cliff Schecter, About U.S. Politics, Balloon Juice, Balkinization, Obsidian Wings, KnoxViews, TPMmuckraker and The Xsociate Files

New York Times:

Gonzales Seems Confident He Will Stay, Officials Say — Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales appears increasingly confident that he will survive the crisis over the dismissal of federal prosecutors, as White House aides who view him as a liability see little point in trying to persuade President Bush …

Discussion: TPMmuckraker, TalkLeft, Los Angeles Times, The Carpetbagger Report, On Deadline, Michael P.F. van der Galiën, Daily Kos, AMERICAblog and TIME: Swampland

Washington Post:

Number of Fired Prosecutors Grows — Dismissals Began Earlier Than Justice Dept. Has Said — The former U.S. attorney in Kansas City, Mo., Todd P. Graves, said yesterday that he was asked to step down from his job by a senior Justice Department official in January 2006 …

Discussion: TPMmuckraker, Think Progress, Firedoglake, Talking Points Memo, The Raw Story, The Next Hurrah, Shakesville, New York Times, CorrenteWire, Norwegianity, On Deadline, TalkLeft and www.kansascity.com

Paul Kiel / TPMmuckraker:
NJ: Withheld Emails Show White House Signed Off on False Statements

Discussion: The Carpetbagger Report

Washington Post:

Bush Told War Is Harming The GOP — House Republican moderates, in a remarkably blunt White House meeting, warned President Bush this week that his pursuit of the war in Iraq is risking the future of the Republican Party and that he cannot count on GOP support for many more months.

Ed Morrissey / Captain's Quarters:

War Support Starting To Crumble — The lack of energy from the Iraqi government of Nouri al-Maliki has added what might be a final straw to Republican discontent about the progress of the war. A delegation of Congressional Republicans met with President Bush last night at the White House …

Discussion: Los Angeles Times, Middle Earth Journal, Macsmind, The Strata-Sphere and Hot Air

Washington Post:

House moves new Iraq funding bill — Measure starts cuts to war spending in July — May 10. — ouse Democrats declared yesterday that they will vote on an Iraq spending bill that could cut funding for the war as early as July, defying a threat from President Bush that he would veto the proposal.

Discussion: WorkingForChange, DownWithTyranny!, Taylor Marsh and Confederate Yankee

Qassim Abdul-Zahra / Associated Press:
Iraqi bill demands U.S. troops withdraw

Discussion: Hot Air, Captain's Quarters and Heading Right

Politico.com:
Bush meets with wavering Republicans

Discussion: Associated Press, QandO and Think Progress

Chicago Tribune:
GOP pressures Bush on war

Discussion: Booman Tribune and Daily Kos

Faiz / Think Progress:
LaHood: Bush 'Surprised,' 'Sobered' Over GOP Frustration About Iraq

Discussion: CNN

Guardian:

Blair quits as prime minister — Matthew Tempest and agencies — Tony Blair today announced he was stepping down after 10 years as prime minister and 13 as Labour leader. — The prime minister told a crowd of supporters in Trimdon Labour club he would stand down as PM on June 27.

Discussion: Outside The Beltway, Associated Press, The Washington Note, The Newshoggers, Wonkette, Iain Dale's Diary, Tim Worstall, Michael P.F. van der Galiën, Sister Toldjah, The American Mind, Donklephant, Blue Crab Boulevard and The Mahablog

Alan Cowell / NYT > International:

Blair Says He Will Leave Office in June — After months of coy hints and fevered speculation, Prime Minister Tony Blair announced today that he would leave office on June 27 after a decade in power in which he sacrificed his popularity to the war in Iraq and struggled at home to improve schools, policing and hospitals.

Discussion: Right Wing Nut House, The Huffington Post, Hot Air and Booman Tribune

Yahoo! News: World:
Britain's Blair says he is resigning

Discussion: Times of London, Redstate, News Bloggers Blog, The Moderate Voice and Shakesville

Daniel Finkelstein / Comment Central: Five Americans who changed Tony Blair

Patrick Wintour / Guardian:
Today, the beginning of the end

Discussion: Taylor Marsh, Heading Right and AMERICAblog

Kevin Sullivan / Washington Post:
Britain's Blair Announces His Resignation

Discussion: Obsidian Wings and MSNBC

Middle East Times:

Hamas TV refuses to axe contested kids cartoon — RAMALLAH, West Bank — A Hamas-run television channel has defied a Palestinian government request to axe a controversial children's cartoon in which a Mickey Mouse look-alike urges resistance against Israel.

Discussion: Little Green Footballs, Associated Press, Hot Air, Wizbang and Blue Crab Boulevard

Little Green Footballs: Outrage: CNN Covers Up Death Cult Mickey Mouse Video

Bill Roggio / The Fourth Rail:

The Diyala Salvation Front — Tribal leaders in the troubled province organize against al Qaeda — Map of southern Diyala. Click map to view. — In March, we noted the successful model of the Anbar Salvation Council will very likely be replicated elsewhere in regions where al Qaeda has established bases of operation.

Discussion: Washington Times, The Earth Times Online …, The Strata-Sphere, Weekly Standard, Confederate Yankee and QandO

Mohammed Fadhil / NY Daily News:

A Baghdad plea: U.S. should stay and fight — Be Our Guest — I wasn't surprised when I saw Al Qaeda's second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahiri, appear on Al Jazeera to announce America's defeat last week, not long after U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid did.

Discussion: Redstate and Gateway Pundit

The Smoking Gun:

Uncle Sam Probes Michael Moore — Treasury Department investigating director's unauthorized Cuba trip — Director Michael Moore is being investigated by the Treasury Department for traveling to Cuba in violation of a U.S. trade embargo. In a May 2 letter, the Office …

Discussion: Debbie Schlussel, Michelle Malkin, On Deadline and Pajamas Media

David Germain / Associated Press:
Michael Moore faces U.S. Treasury probe

Discussion: Captain's Quarters and Hot Air

Amanda / Think Progress:

Pentagon Breaks Pledge To Troops, Sends Them Back To Iraq After Just Nine Months At Home — On April 11, Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced that tours of duty for the Army would be extended from 12 months to 15 months, effective immediately. In exchange for the extensions …

Discussion: Stars & Stripes, The Newshoggers and The Carpetbagger Report

USA Today:
Troops in Iraq get safer vehicle

Discussion: TAPPED, Lawyers, Guns and Money and Chicago Tribune

Roger L. Simon / Pajamas Media:

Film Review: "Islam vs. Islamism" — Martyn Burke's documentary "Islam vs. Islamism" (produced with Frank Gaffney and Alex Alexiev) was commissioned by PBS for its "American Crossroads" series, but never shown by the network. Quality control or censorship?

Discussion: The Jawa Report, Classical Values, Townhall.com and Neptunus Lex

Rob Bluey / Bluey Blog:

A Trotskyite at the Heritage Foundation — stollerMatt_5027-1, originally uploaded by matthewnstoller. — This morning at the Heritage Foundation, I hosted a panel discussion about the Open House Project, an effort by the Sunlight Foundation to bring greater transparency to the House of Representatives.

Discussion: joshua.treviño.at, TechRepublican.com, Redstate and Sunlight Foundation blogs

Nicole Fuller / Baltimore Sun:

Rush Limbaugh billboard near I-83 defaced … Apparently, somebody in Baltimore isn't a fan of Rush Limbaugh. — A large billboard advertising local air times for the conservative radio talk-show host has been defaced. — Robert Murrow, a spokesman for the city's Department of Public Works …

Discussion: Right Wing News, Hot Air, Democratic Underground … and NewsBusters.org

Roxana Tiron / The Hill:

Defense authorization bill fails to address habeas corpus for detainees — The new chairman of the House Armed Services Committee dealt a blow to the human-rights community by failing to include provisions to overhaul GOP legislation governing military tribunals in the 2008 defense authorization bill.

Discussion: MyDD, The Impolitic, The Moderate Voice and Think Progress