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OMG! OMG! Lou Dobbs is on TV right now, talking about how the Congress shut down the ports deal and he’s so totally cute that I just want to put him in my pocket! His idealism is all alit and he’s pumping his fists and he’s trying to get Kyra Phillips to hop on the new day in America train with him. MORE »

* House Appropriations Committee votes overwhelmingly to block Dubai ports deal; measure was attached to war spending bill. [WP]
* For Republican lawmakers, “political considerations” trump loyalty to Bush over port deal and, to a lesser extent, eavesdropping. Rep. Roy Blunt (R-MO): “If there was ever a good time for Congress to figure out oversight, it would be in the sixth year of a presidency.” [NYT]
* Senate compromise would permit eavesdropping on Americans without court warrant; administration would have 45 days to prove individual cases. [NYT]
* Bush accuses Congress of underfunding Gulf Coast reconstruction: “Congress heard our message about improving the levees, but they shortchanged the process by about $1.5 billion.” [WP, NYT]
* Senators agree to reject meals and gifts from lobbyists. [WP, NYT]
* Jack Abramoff to Vanity Fair: “Any important Republican who comes out and says they didn’t know me is almost certainly lying.” [NYT]
* Senate Republicans try to trim Bush’s spending requests for defense and foreign aid. [W$J]
* South Dakota expected to start trend of states rethinking abortion rights; nine others are moving to limit the procedure. [W$J]
* Michael Chertoff looks for the high road as others point fingers of blame — and some directly at him. [NYT]

* House Republicans set vote on Dubai port deal for next week despite White House resistance. House Majority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio): “This has become a very hot political potato.” [WP, NYT]
* Military spending for Iraq and Afghanistan will reach $117.6b this fiscal year. [W$J]
* Harold Ickes, with George Soros, are sidestepping the DNC to create a massive nationwide voter list. Ickes: “The Republicans have developed a cadre of people who appreciate databases and know how to use them, and we are way behind the march.” [WP]
* Congress renews Patriot Act by vote of 280 to 138. [WP, NYT]
* Senate Select Committee on Intelligence rejects Democratic calls for inquiry of NSA eavesdropping; White House agrees to new oversight rules. [WP, NYT, W$J]
* The CIA is not interested in cooperating with the Libby investigation by providing classified documents. [WP, NYT]
* Sen. Clinton moves to tie up money and talent for ‘08 race. [NYT]
* Cato Institutes vents beef with Bush. [WP]
* Rep. DeLay wins Republican primary in Texas. [AP]

Is the cartoon riot thing over yet? We don’t remember hearing about it this week at all. That’s always a good sign, right? Good work Hitch and Sully!

We do hope that episode ended, or fizzled out, or whatever. ‘Cause we don’t think people should be blowing up Danes, sure, but also because we want to go back to the world where no one gave a shit about cartoons. The world of, like two months ago. When editorial cartoonists, secure in their obscurity, could repeat the jokes they stole from 1950’s Herblock cartoons with crosshatching and textual labeling of strained metaphors straight outta vintage Thomas Nast.

We miss that innocent time. And so does our buddy the Comics Curmudgeon. CC’s been blogging about daily, non-political comics for a while now, so we asked him to take the impressive skills he’s developed as America’s Premier Comic Strip Mocker and train them on the political cartoonists of our nation’s newspapers. His analysis is after the jump.

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* Video shows Bush was warned about the potential for a levee breach, despite denials after the fact: “Was the president misinformed, misspoken or misleading?” [WP, USAT]
* Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco hesitantly told Bush that the levees were safe on the morning of Aug. 29th. [AP]
* U.S. and India announce deal for nuclear cooperation, for energy and weapons; “new plan would allow India enough fissile material for as many as 50 weapons a year.” [WP, NYT, W$J]
* Senate passes renewal of the Patriot Act by vote of 89 to 10. [NYT]
* 54% disapprove of Bush’s handling of the war on terrorism and 64% say the country is on the wrong track, according to LAT-Bloomberg poll; findings echo new Gallup poll. [LAT, Bloomberg, USAT]
* Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee,vows to stop Dubai port deal. [WP, W$J]

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* Reliable Source: J. Robert Oppenheimer biographers try to get his reputation restored, but reopening of case is nixed by judge’s son … Oscar Predictions: “Andrew Sullivan… pegs… Philip Seymour Hoffman….” (quote edited for hilarity). [WP]
* Under the Dome: Silvio Berlusconi gets an enthusiastic reception from Italian-American Congressmen, including Pat Leahy, who is a “Grand Official of the Republic of Italy” … Bottles of Pepto-Bismol sent to members of Congress by group protesting changes in state food-safety laws … Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX) makes rhetorical leap from Thomas Edison to criticism of ports deal. … Congress about to let smoking ban pass. [The Hill]
* Lloyd Grove: Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY) bashes Ports deal. Her husband Bill, meanwhile, praises Dubai as an “ally,” may have a financial stake in seeing them get the deal. [NYDN]

* Republicans are breaking with Bush over homeland security issues, once thought to be his chief selling point. Senior White House official: “We’ve got a period of time when the news that’s dominating the headlines is not good and some Republicans are going to feel free to distance themselves from the president, but at the end of the day, I don’t think the breach is deep or lasting because this is the president’s strong suit. I think it’s about this moment in time. I don’t think it’s fundamental.” [WP, NYT, WT]
* Gonzales implies that warrant-less eavesdropping is more widespread than Bush suggested. [WP]
* Supreme Court justices “seemed aware of stepping into an epic soap opera” starring Anna Nicole Smith; Chief Justice John Roberts mentions the “substantial amount of assets” involved. [WP, USAT]
* Administration officials “could find no shelter” from questions about Dubai port deal. [WP]
* Bush stands by port deal on principle. [WP, NYT]

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This week’s Chatology is abbreviated due to illness on the part of the author and TOTAL FUCKING LACK OF NEWS. You thought circle jerking to the tune of “Cheney’s Got a Gun” was boring — at least people could feign some kind of disagreement over it. The Port World of Dubai deal sets up a debate between those who think the deal should definitely go through and those who think that it should go through after 45 days. Mean people suck. Ice cream is good. Also, Joe Biden was on.

Full rundown and highlights after the jump.

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Hello, I’m Rich Cohen. MORE »

You know, we haven’t come out strongly one way or the other on this whole UAE ports controversy (”Zzzzzzzzzzzz”), but if this is true, then, uh, we have to say we’re starting to come around to Dubai Ports World. MORE »