memeorandum: McCain to Obama: It's 'flak jacket' (Newsdesk/Chicago Tribune)

8:50 AM ET, May 26, 2007

Top Items:

Sen. McCain, Keep Giving 'Em Flak ... er, Flack — Good for Senator McCain on his sharp rebuttal to Senator Obama. May I add one point, though, that continues to make me nuts? — Senator Obama says: " It is time to end this war so that we can redeploy our forces to focus on the terrorists …

Discussion: Outside The Beltway

Newsdesk / Chicago Tribune:
McCain to Obama: It's 'flak jacket'

Discussion: The RBC

The Huffington Post: Dave Johnson and James Boyce: Right Fires Up The Smear Machine Against Obama.

Greg Sargent / Election Central:
Obama Rips Romney And McCain, Scorns McCain's Baghdad Stroll

Discussion: The Hill, Central Sanity and Angry Bear

Jonathan Martin / The Politico:
McCain responds and then some

Discussion: The Anonymous Liberal, TIME: Swampland, Power Line, Hot Air, All Spin Zone, The Blue State, The Populist and politburo diktat 2.0

John Vidal / Guardian:

US rejects all climate proposals — The US has rejected any prospect of a deal on climate change at the G8 summit in Germany next month, according to a leaked document. — Despite Tony Blair's declaration on Thursday that Washington would sign up to "at least the beginnings" …

Discussion: AMERICAblog

New York Times:

U.S. Rebuffs Germany on Greenhouse Gas Cuts — The United States has rejected Germany's proposal for deep long-term cuts in greenhouse gas emissions, setting the stage for a battle that will pit President Bush against his European allies at next month's meeting of the world's richest countries.

Discussion: Daily Kos

Juliet Eilperin / Washington Post:

U.S. Rejects G-8 Climate Proposal — Germany Urges Limiting Emissions, Temperature Increase — U.S. officials have raised a second round of unusually bluntly worded objections to a proposed global-warming declaration that Germany prepared for next month's Group of Eight summit, according to documents obtained by The Washington Post.

Discussion: Balloon Juice

New York Times:

White House Is Said to Debate '08 Cut in Iraq Troops by 50% — The Bush administration is developing what are described as concepts for reducing American combat forces in Iraq by as much as half next year, according to senior administration officials in the midst of the internal debate.

Discussion: Prairie Weather, Roger L. Simon, PoliPundit.com, Brilliant at Breakfast, Blogs of War and TalkLeft

ABCNEWS:

O'Donnell Will Not Be Back on 'The View' — ABC Announces Early Departure for Host — The saga is over. — Rosie O'Donnell will not be returning to "The View." — In a statement today, Brian Frons, the president of Disney-ABC's Daytime Television Group, said, "We had hoped that Rosie …

Discussion: Fox News, Associated Press, The Huffington Post, Scared Monkeys, The Moderate Voice, Best Week Ever, Sister Toldjah, NewsBusters.org, The Populist, Right Wing News, Gateway Pundit, New York Post and GINA COBB

Ann Althouse / Althouse: "When painting there is a point u must step away from the canvas …

Associated Press:
Rosie O'Donnell won't return to 'The View'

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Democratic Underground … and The News Buckit

Los Angeles Times:

Sadr reemerges, demands U.S. pullout from Iraq — KUFA, Iraq — Influential cleric Muqtada Sadr resurfaced today after months in hiding and delivered a fiery sermon in this Shiite Muslim holy city in which he reiterated his demand for the swift departure of U.S. forces.

Discussion: Balloon Juice, Informed Comment, Guardian, The Populist, The Fourth Rail, Washington Post and The Moderate Voice

Sudarsan Raghavan / Washington Post:
Sadr Reappears With Nationalist Ambitions

Discussion: IraqSlogger.com, ScrappleFace, CNN and Little Green Footballs

Shaun Waterman / UPI:

LIBBY TRIAL JUDGE JOINS SECRET FISA COURT — The judge who presided over the trial of vice presidential aide Lewis Libby has been appointed to the secret court that oversees U.S. intelligence wiretaps. — Reggie Walton, a judge on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia …

Discussion: The Next Hurrah and TalkLeft

Christy Hardin Smith / Firedoglake:
Libby On The Verge Of Sentencing

Discussion: Associated Press, TalkLeft, New York Sun, The Garlic and Crooks and Liars

Christopher Hayes / In These Times:

Who's Afraid of Democracy? — Believing that "people are rational as consumers and irrational as voters," many conservatives would favor free markets without democracy — SHARE Digg del.icio.us Reddit Newsvine — Behavioral economists at UC San Diego recently conducted a study …

Discussion: Marginal Revolution, EconLog and Economist's View

Washington Post:

Top Talent Could Lose Fast Track to U.S. — Under Bill, Foreign Luminaries Would No Longer Skip Immigration Line — NEW YORK — Would America open its doors for the next Albert Einstein? Under the new immigration bill, the answer is maybe, but maybe not.

Discussion: The Atlantic Online

Brian Lockhart / Greenwich Time:

Thompson headlines Prescott Bush Awards — STAMFORD — Character actor and former Sen. Fred Dalton Thompson's next role is as president — he's playing Ulysses S. Grant in the HBO film "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee." — But Thompson last night did not end speculation about his possible run for the White House.

Discussion: Hotline On Call and Riehl World View

New York Times:

Danish Cyclist Admits Doping in Tour Victory — Bjarne Riis, a former Danish cyclist who won the 1996 Tour de France, admitted yesterday that he used several banned drugs, including EPO, steroids and human growth hormone, while competing in the 1990s, becoming the first champion of the sport's …

Discussion: First Draft and Michael P.F. van der Galiën

Ben Smith / The Politico:

How to kill a book, in 3 easy steps — Here's how you kill a book: — First, see to it that it emerges into the public eye on the Friday of a holiday weekend. — Then, express ostentatious boredom at its contents. — Then, attack. — Clinton spokesman Howard Wolfson declined …

Discussion: Mouth of the Potomac and Power Line

Seth Mydans / International Herald Tribune:

Thailand set to make Buddhism the state religion — BANGKOK: In a step that could sharpen divisions in its increasingly violent, largely Muslim southern provinces, Thailand appears ready for the first time to make Buddhism the state religion in a new constitution.

Discussion: The Belmont Club

Matthew Yglesias / Washington Monthly:

Memoirs of the man who thrice saved us from a Democratic presidency — Walking around Washington, D.C., telling people you're reading Bob Shrum's forthcoming memoir turns out to be a fantastic small-talk gambit. People are astounded, confused, sympathetic. Someone gave him a book deal?

Discussion: The Atlantic Online