memeorandum: Sarkozy Wins in France and Vows Break With Past (Elaine Sciolino/New York Times)

3:05 PM ET, May 7, 2007

Top Items:

L'Adulte — Can Sarkozy reform France? — Conservative Nikolas Sarkozy's comfortable victory over Socialist Ségolène Royal in France's presidential race may that indicate Europe's slowest-growing major economy is finally ready for some change.

Discussion: Right Wing Nut House, Betsy's Page, The Right Angle, Times of London, EconoPundit, ConservativeHome, Redstate, GINA COBB, Little Green Footballs, News Bloggers Blog and State of the Day

Martin Arnold / Financial Times:
Defeated Socialists search for scapegoats

Discussion: Captain's Quarters, The Independent, Times of London, The Moderate Voice, QandO, Andrew Bolt, On Politics, Telegraph, Guardian, Redstate, Babalu Blog and AMERICAN FUTURE

Craig S. Smith / New York Times:
Sarkozy Wins the Chance to Prove His Critics Wrong

Discussion: NewsBusters.org and Don Surber

Angela Charlton / Associated Press:
Nicolas Sarkozy wins French presidency

Discussion: The Glittering Eye, Outside The Beltway, Little Green Footballs, Bloomberg and AMERICAblog

Elaine Sciolino / New York Times:
Sarkozy Wins in France and Vows Break With Past

Discussion: TAPPED, The Huffington Post, neo-neocon, Outside The Beltway and NewsBusters.org

MSNBC:
Nicolas Sarkozy elected French president

Discussion: Central Sanity, Michael P.F. van der Galiën and PoliPundit.com

Economist:
A force for change — Nicolas Sarkozy is comfortably elected as president.

Discussion: New York Times, Daniel W. Drezner, Washington Post and Fausta's blog

Hugh Hewitt / Hugh Hewitt's TownHall Blog:

Newspaper Suicide: The Star Tribune Kills Lileks' Column — Let's see. Your circulation is crashing. The value of your paper has plummeted. Everyone in the industry recognizes that the the future is online, and most realize that the byline has become the brand and that writers …

Discussion: Captain's Quarters, Hot Air, Don Surber, Tim Worstall, Riehl World View, Beltway Blogroll, Dave Barry's Blog, JammieWearingFool, Roger Ailes, CorrenteWire, Minnesota Monitor, Ed Driscoll.com, JunkYardBlog and Betsy's Page

Nancy / nancynall.com:

A bleat. — I wasn't going to write anything about James Lileks', er, sudden change of assignment. I mean, talk about your inside baseball. But reading about the right-wing blog star / Minneapolis Star Tribune "humor" columnist's predicament — abruptly told the paper had other plans for his FTE …

Discussion: Riehl World View, A Second Hand Conjecture, Media, alicublog, Minnesota Monitor and The Daily Whim

Paul Schmelzer / Minnesota Monitor:

Strib Shakeup: Amid Columnist Queries, Rumors of Buyouts and a 'Backfence' Departure — The Star Tribune has asked its metro columnists to voluntarily give up columns and take over reporting beats, The Rake's Brian Lambert reports — but, according to newsroom insiders, the shakeup won't end there.

Discussion: SCSUScholars

The Big Trunk / Power Line:
BIG BANG AT THE STAR TRIBUNE

Discussion: VodkaPundit, Hugh Hewitt's TownHall Blog, shotinthedark.info/wp … and Minnesota Monitor

Associated Press:

Backpack blast near Vegas casino kills 1 — LAS VEGAS (AP) — A backpack exploded in a parking garage attached to a Las Vegas hotel early Monday, killing a man who had picked it up and injuring another person, authorities said. — The man had removed the backpack from atop his car …

Discussion: Taylor Marsh and Vox Popoli

Ed Morrissey / Captain's Quarters:
Exploding Backpack In Las Vegas

Discussion: Wonkette and The Moderate Voice

Ken Ritter / Associated Press: 1 dead in casino parking lot explosion

Michelle Malkin:
Breaking: Explosion at the Luxor Hotel

Discussion: Hot Air, Sister Toldjah, Confederate Yankee, The Mahablog, The Corner and On Deadline

KCBS - KCBS All News 740 AM:

Iraq War Hampers Kansas Cleanup — GREENSBURG, Kan. (AP) — The rebuilding effort in tornado-ravaged Greensburg, Kansas, likely will be hampered because some much-needed equipment is in Iraq, said that state's governor. — Governor Kathleen Sebelius said much of the National Guard equipment …

Discussion: NewsBusters.org, NION, Middle Earth Journal, The Gun Toting Liberal™, The Carpetbagger Report, Think Progress, Donklephant and JammieWearingFool

Amanda / Think Progress: Sebelius: Iraq War Is Slowing National Guard's Tornado Response

Tim Shorrock / Salon:

George Tenet cashes in on Iraq — If you go by the book jacket of his new memoir, "At the Center of the Storm," George Tenet is enjoying the life of a retired government servant teaching at Georgetown University, where he was appointed to the faculty in 2004.

Discussion: The Newshoggers, Prairie Weather and Daily Kos

Paul Kiel / TPMmuckraker:

Today's Must Read — I'm not sure if this qualifies as ironic or just sadly fitting. — As we've attempted to document here, the Civil Rights Division has been the focus of the most dramatic effort at politicization in the Justice Department. Career lawyers, harassed and discouraged …

Discussion: Real Cities, The Right Angle, The Carpetbagger Report, Shakesville, The Sideshow, Comments From Left Field and Prairie Weather

Alec MacGillis / Washington Post:

On Poverty, Edwards Faces Old Hurdles — Critics Say He Brings Few Fresh Ideas to Signature Issue — ALLENDALE, S.C. — His rivals for the Democratic presidential nomination were busy April 26 preparing for their first televised debate, but John Edwards was 45 miles south …

Discussion: Prairie Weather, Matthew Yglesias and TIME

Michael Isikoff / Newsweek:

The Loyalty Enforcer — The role of Monica Goodling, a former GOP "oppo" researcher who became a top aide to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, is getting new scrutiny in the U.S. attorneys flap. — Justice confirmed it's investigating whether Goodling improperly assessed the political loyalties …

Discussion: Firedoglake and The Next Hurrah

Adam Nagourney / New York Times:

California Gains Clout With Earlier Primary — When Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, finished a speech on foreign policy recently in Northern California, he was surrounded by reporters who wanted to ask about another topic: global warming and how it was contributing to the state's water shortage.

Discussion: Heading Right, On Politics, The Swamp, TIME, Captain's Quarters and First Read

Sam Dillon / New York Times:

Whistle-Blower on Student Aid Is Vindicated — WASHINGTON — When Jon Oberg, a Department of Education researcher, warned in 2003 that student lending companies were improperly collecting hundreds of millions in federal subsidies and suggested how to correct the problem, his supervisor told him to work on something else.

Discussion: Obsidian Wings, The Gavel, Norwegianity and Democratic Underground …

Steven R. Weisman / New York Times:

Panel to Find That Wolfowitz Broke Rules, Officials Say — The World Bank committee investigating misconduct charges against Paul D. Wolfowitz, the bank president, failed to complete its review on schedule this weekend, but bank officials said the panel would eventually find that he violated bank rules barring conflicts of interest.

Discussion: David Corn, Firedoglake, Washington Post and Wonkette

John Schwartz / New York Times:

Critic Says Levee Repairs Show Signs of Flaws — Some of the most celebrated levee repairs by the Army Corps of Engineers after Hurricane Katrina are already showing signs of serious flaws, a leading critic of the corps says. — The critic, Robert G. Bea, a professor of engineering …

Discussion: Facing South and First Draft

Michael Portillo / Times of London:

Having large families 'is an eco-crime' — HAVING large families should be frowned upon as an environmental misdemeanour in the same way as frequent long-haul flights, driving a 4x4 car and failing to reuse plastic bags, according to a report to be published tomorrow by a green think tank.