(Late) Morning copy 9.14.2005

More than 150 die in a violent day in Iraq, FOX News. Al Qaeda claims responsibility.

Bush finally accepts responsibility for lapses in federal response to Katrina, New York Times.

Katrina's economic impact registers in August numbers, with a weakening retail market preceeding the hurricane, NY Times/AP.

News analysis of John Roberts' first real day of testimony, NY Times:

The nominee's message was oblique, but clear: Do not judge me by the hundreds of memorandums I wrote as a young lawyer in the Reagan administration. Or, as Justice Jackson once said in an opinion to which Judge Roberts alluded, repudiating as a Supreme Court justice a position he had advocated as attorney general: "The matter does not appear to me now as it appears to have appeared to me then."

Euphemisms Abound, so says the Washington Post's headline, LINK. The Jackson exchange is again referenced:

The exchange was emblematic of Roberts's performance on the first day fielding questions. Roberts, star litigator, adviser to presidents and top-flight jurist, showed that he could be something else: the very model of an enigmatic nominee. The Roberts who answered questions for eight hours yesterday was very much the Roberts who emerged in his writings released over the summer. He maddened the committee's Democrats, delighted its Republicans and charmed most of both.

Law and Order: Shaq Response Team.