memeorandum: U.S. relies on Sudan despite condemning it (Los Angeles Times)

11:10 AM ET, June 11, 2007

Top Items:

U.S. Arming Sunnis in Iraq to Battle Old Qaeda Allies — With the four-month-old increase in American troops showing only modest success in curbing insurgent attacks, American commanders are turning to another strategy that they acknowledge is fraught with risk: arming Sunni Arab groups …

Discussion: Think Progress, The Carpetbagger Report, Norwegianity, Blognonymous, Comments From Left Field, Outside The Beltway, Counterterrorism Blog, politburo diktat 2.0, KnoxViews, Brilliant at Breakfast, The Heretik, Jihad Watch, BlueGrassRoots and Real Cities

Washington Post:

Tribal Coalition in Anbar Said to Be Crumbling — U.S.-Backed Group Has Fought Al-Qaeda in Iraq — A tribal coalition formed to oppose the extremist group al-Qaeda in Iraq, a development that U.S. officials say has reduced violence in Iraq's troubled Anbar province, is beginning to splinter …

Discussion: Abu Aardvark, Hot Air, The Mahablog, The Strata-Sphere, Watching Those We Chose and Jules Crittenden

Los Angeles Times:

U.S. relies on Sudan despite condemning it — The nation accused of aiding the killings in Darfur provides spies in Iraq. In return, it gets access in Washington. — WASHINGTON — Sudan has secretly worked with the CIA to spy on the insurgency in Iraq, an example of how the U.S …

Discussion: Informed Comment

Spencer Ackerman / TPMmuckraker:
Tensions Within the Sunni Coalition Against al-Qaeda

Discussion: Brian Beutler

Washington Post:

Immigration Judges Often Picked Based On GOP Ties — Law Forbids Practice; Courts Being Reshaped — The Bush administration increasingly emphasized partisan political ties over expertise in recent years in selecting the judges who decide the fate of hundreds of thousands of immigrants …

Discussion: New York Times, TPMmuckraker, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Carpetbagger Report, DownWithTyranny!, Prairie Weather, Corrente, USA Today, All Spin Zone, The Gun Toting Liberal™, Watching Those We Chose, Suburban Guerrilla and ImmigrationProf Blog

Robert D. Novak / Washington Post:

Standing by the Wrong Guy — Just when it seemed George W. Bush's sinking prestige with his Republican base had bottomed out, his stock hit new lows. The president's seeming indifference to the sentencing of Scooter Libby was bad enough. But it coincided with Bush's apparent determination …

Discussion: Los Angeles Times, Middle Earth Journal, Brian Beutler and New Pairodimes

Laurie Kellman / Associated Press: Democrats to Push Vote on Gonzales

Laura McGann / TPMmuckraker:
Today's Must Read

Discussion: The Caucus and Firedoglake

Edwin Chen / Bloomberg: Bush Calls Vote on Attorney General `Meaningless' (Update1)

Eli Lake / New York Sun:

GOP's Powell Is Now Advising Obama — WASHINGTON — Colin Powell, who only a decade ago was being discussed as a possible Republican presidential nominee and who more recently served as President Bush's first secretary of state, is advising a Democratic presidential candidate, Senator Obama of Illinois.

Discussion: Central Sanity

Taegan Goddard's Political Wire:
Her Way — On Meet the Press yesterday, Tim Russert asked Jeff Gerth …

Discussion: Dick Polman's American Debate

Ed Morrissey / Captain's Quarters: Is Colin Powell An Obama Advisor?

Walter Pincus / Washington Post:
Powell Calls for Closure of Military Prison at Guantanamo

Discussion: Booman Tribune, Michael P.F. van der Galiën, The Democratic Daily and Truthdig

Robert Tanner / Associated Press:

Studies say death penalty deters crime — Anti-death penalty forces have gained momentum in the past few years, with a moratorium in Illinois, court disputes over lethal injection in more than a half-dozen states and progress toward outright abolishment in New Jersey.

Discussion: Captain's Quarters, Don Surber, Heading Right, Sister Toldjah, Liberal Values, The Jawa Report, Michael P.F. van der Galiën, Comments From Left Field, Jules Crittenden, Blue Crab Boulevard, Scared Monkeys and Secular Blasphemy

Lyle Denniston / SCOTUSblog:

Court to hear cocaine sentence case; issues five unanimous rulings. — The Supreme Court agreed on Monday to take up at its next Term the long-standing dispute over the fairness of punishing crack cocaine crimes far more severely — 100 to 1 — than those involving cocaine powder under federal Sentencing Guidelines.

Discussion: Sentencing Law and Policy and ACSBlog

David G. Savage / Los Angeles Times: IQ debate unsettled in death penalty cases

Nikki Finke / Deadline Hollywood Daily:

THAAAT'S What We Were All Waiting For? Angry 'Sopranos' Fans Crash HBO Website — The line to cancel HBO starts here. What a ridiculously disappointing end lacking in creativity to The Sopranos saga. But if you're one of those who found it perversely interesting, then don't bother to read on.

Discussion: Editor and Publisher, Liberal Values, At-Largely, Political Punch, UrbanGrounds, The American Mind, TMZ.com, TheOnlineWire, Scared Monkeys and PoliBlog (TM)

Robert Stacy McCain / Washington Times:

Reagan's famous line nearly clipped from Berlin speech — SANTA BARBARA, Calif. — Top administration officials said the speech was all wrong. Too provocative, said the National Security Council. Too tough, said the State Department. — The president overruled his advisers and …

John Fund / Opinion Journal:
Hitting the Wall — Reagan's prophetic Berlin speech, 20 years later.

Discussion: Power Line

Laurie Goodstein / New York Times:

Romney's Run Has Mormons Wary of Scrutiny — LOGAN, Utah — In this wide valley where the twin spires of the Mormon temple dominate the landscape and some neighborhoods have a Mormon chapel every few blocks, Mitt Romney's bid for president is both a proud sign of progress and a cause of trepidation.

Discussion: Michael P.F. van der Galiën, DownWithTyranny! and Outside The Beltway

Allahpundit / Hot Air:

Video: Dennis Miller goes nuclear on Harry Reid — The e-mails are flooding in. You want it? You got it. — If Rasmussen's right, this should resonate broadly. — Blowback

Discussion: Rasmussen Reports and BLACKFIVE

Marcus Baram / ABCNEWS:

Free Porn Threatens Adult Film Industry — More Porn Viewers Are Getting It For Free On The Web; Industry Sales Start to Slip — "Free porn" just might be the two most exciting or frightening words in the English language, depending on your point of view.

Discussion: Captain's Quarters and Outside The Beltway

Stacey Stowe / New York Times:

Marijuana Law in Connecticut Gains Ground — Seventeen years ago, Mark Braunstein dived 60 feet off a footbridge into a river, landed wrong and became a paraplegic. A librarian at Connecticut College, Mr. Braunstein, 55, walks with the aid of crutches and leg braces.

Discussion: TalkLeft

ABCNEWS:

EXCLUSIVE: Hilton Calls Barbara Walters from Jail — She 'Was Severely Depressed and Felt as if I Was in a Cage,' but now Has 'New Chance' — In jail serving out the remainder of her sentence for violating parole on reckless driving charges, Paris Hilton phoned ABC News' Barbara Walters Sunday …

Discussion: PerezHilton.com and Althouse