memeorandum: Thompson energizes young Republicans (Brendan Farrington/Associated Press)

2:20 PM ET, July 8, 2007

Top Items:

The Road Home — It is time for the United States to leave Iraq, without any more delay than the Pentagon needs to organize an orderly exit. — Like many Americans, we have put off that conclusion, waiting for a sign that President Bush was seriously trying to dig the United States …

Clark Hoyt / New York Times:

Seeing Al Qaeda Around Every Corner — AS domestic support for the war in Iraq continues to melt away, President Bush and the United States military in Baghdad are increasingly pointing to a single villain on the battlefield: Al Qaeda. — Bush mentioned the terrorist group 27 times …

Discussion: TalkLeft

Glenn Greenwald / Salon:
The NYT's growing pro-war fan club

Discussion: The Newshoggers, Norwegianity, Badgers Forward and Weekly Standard

Natan Sharansky / Washington Post:
Leave Iraq and Brace for a Bigger Bloodbath

Discussion: Blue Crab Boulevard, Badgers Forward and The Strata-Sphere

Sarah Baxter / Times of London:

Powell tried to talk Bush out of war — THE former American secretary of state Colin Powell has revealed that he spent 2½ hours vainly trying to persuade President George W Bush not to invade Iraq and believes today's conflict cannot be resolved by US forces.

Discussion: The Gun Toting Liberal™, PSoTD, Connecting.the.Dots and Liberal Values

Faiz / Think Progress:

'I tried to avoid this war.' — Former Secretary of State Colin Powell revealed that he spent 2.5 hours "vainly trying to persuade President George W. Bush not to invade Iraq and believes today's conflict cannot be resolved by U.S. forces. 'I tried to avoid this war,' Powell said at the Aspen Ideas Festival in Colorado.

Discussion: bustardblog and Lawyers, Guns and Money

Atrios / Eschaton:

Things I Don't Understand — What possible authority does the White House have to try to prevent a former employee from testifying about something? How can the White House "not let her" testify? — Obviously if she doesn't want to testify they can play legal games to try to prevent …

Discussion: Crooks and Liars and Talking Points Memo

Nico / Think Progress:

Conyers Raises Specter Of Impeachment, Highlights Support For Removing Bush And Cheney — This morning on ABC's This Week, House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-MI) highlighted the new American Research Group poll showing that nearly half of Americans want the House of Representatives …

Peter Baker / Washington Post:

White House Will Deny New Request In Attorneys Probe — The White House has decided to defy Congress's latest demand for information regarding the dismissal of nine U.S. attorneys, sources familiar with the decision said yesterday. Such an action would escalate the constitutional struggle and propel it closer to a court showdown.

Discussion: Think Progress and TPMmuckraker

Robert Sandall / Times of London:

Live Earth fails to pack large-scale punch — It did what it said on the poster - but no more. The British leg of Live Earth started at 1.30 pm sharp with a thunderous five-minute drum fanfare by a 20-odd troupe of flailing percussionists, battering a miscellany of ethnic skinned instruments.

Discussion: Reuters, The Huffington Post, Fox News, Townhall.com, American Thinker, Blogs for Bush, Blue Crab Boulevard and The Volokh Conspiracy

Telegraph:
Madonna criticised over links to polluters

Discussion: Blue Crab Boulevard and Tim Worstall

Glenda Cooper / Washington Post:
Live Earth London's Glacial Pacing

Discussion: Tim Blair

Joe Gandelman / The Moderate Voice:

Smelly Journalism Dept: Fred Thompson's Wife — To those of you who roll your eyes and groan when you hear people go on and on about the biased news media that injects its personal opinions into news stories and peppers them with assumptions that the writer more than "critics say" seems to hold, roll your eyes no longer.

Discussion: Michael P.F. van der Galiën, Sister Toldjah, WIMN's Voices, Doug Ross and blogsforfred.com

Brendan Farrington / Associated Press:
Thompson energizes young Republicans

Discussion: DownWithTyranny!, The RBC and The Crone Speaks

Michael Luo / New York Times:
Evangelicals See Dilemmas in G.O.P. Field

Discussion: The Crone Speaks, DownWithTyranny! and Cato-at-liberty

Charles Haviland / BBC:

Pakistan arrests 'Taleban aides' — Several key aides to the leader of Afghanistan's Taleban rebels, Mullah Omar, are reported to have been arrested in Pakistan. — An Afghan intelligence source told the BBC four senior associates of Mullah Omar were being held after operations by Pakistani security forces.

Discussion: The Strata-Sphere

Ed Morrissey / Captain's Quarters:
Getting Closer To Omar

Discussion: Redstate

Faisal Aziz / Reuters: Musharraf tells mosque militants "surrender or die"

John Amato / Crooks and Liars:

Sen. Schumer says they are thinking of calling Patrick Fitzgerald in for questioning — While talking about the Scooter Libby commutation on Face the Nation, Sen. Schumer said he talked to Pat Leahy about calling Patrick Fitzgerald in for questioning about Bush and Cheney because they didn't talk …

Discussion: Cliff Schecter and Firedoglake

David Leppard / Times of London:

Car bombs are linked with Iraq's Al-Qaeda — AT least one of the suspects being quizzed over the alleged plot to set off car bombs in Britain was in recent contact with Al-Qaeda in Iraq, senior security officials said yesterday. — Scotland Yard's Counter Terrorism Command SO15 is understood …

Discussion: protein wisdom, Outside The Beltway, The Strata-Sphere and PoliBlog (TM)

James Love / The Huffington Post:

Nuclear Profileration as a campaign issue — Reports over the weekend that the Bush Administration has given a green light for the government of Kazakhstan to buy 10 percent of Westinghouse, in return for the transfer of uranium-processing technology to the state-run uranium firm KazAtomProm …

Discussion: The Newshoggers and New York Times

Pakistan Daily Times: Kazakhstan to pay $486.3m for US N-reactor

Alasdair Palmer / Telegraph:

Not in their name? — Muslims were as much outraged by last weekend's failed car bomb attacks as the rest of the country. Does that mean they will now help the authorities to root out Islamist terrorists? Alasdair Palmer investigates — The statement from Muhammed Abdul Bari …

Discussion: Michael P.F. van der Galiën

Michael Hirsh / Newsweek:
Exploring Islam's 'Death Cult'

Discussion: Riehl World View, USS Neverdock and Blue Crab Boulevard

Washington Post:

Administration Shaving Yardstick for Iraq Gains — Goals Unmet; Smaller Strides to Be Promoted — The Iraqi government is unlikely to meet any of the political and security goals or timelines President Bush set for it in January when he announced a major shift in U.S. policy …

Discussion: Daily Kos, The Heretik and Prairie Weather

David R. Dow / Houston Chronicle:

But what about my client, Mr. Bush? — Reformed killer denied commuted death sentence by the then-Texas governor — George W. Bush became governor of Texas in 1994, when he upset the popular incumbent, Ann Richards. The following September, my client, Carl Johnson, was scheduled for execution.

Discussion: TalkLeft