memeorandum: Working With The Mob: Your Government Dollars At Work (Ed Morrissey/Captain's Quarters)

12:45 PM ET, June 27, 2007

Top Items:

Michael Abramowitz / Washington Post:

Cheney Aide Explains Stance on Classified Material — Vice President Cheney's office offered its first public written explanation yesterday for its refusal to comply with an executive order regulating the handling of classified material, arguing that the order makes clear that the vice president …

Discussion: TPMmuckraker, Crooks and Liars, Captain's Quarters, All Spin Zone, Heading Right, Donklephant, Balkinization, The Gavel and TIME: Swampland

Mike Allen / The Politico:

Dems force Cheney flip-flop on secret docs — Dick Cheney's office is abandoning a justification for keeping the Vice-President's secret papers out of the hands of the National Archives. — Officials working for Cheney had tried to claim he is separate from the executive branch …

Discussion: The Raw Story, The Heretik, The Next Hurrah and Comments From Left Field

White House:

Press Briefing by Tony Snow — White House Conference Center Briefing Room — MR. SNOW: Hello. How may I help you? (Laughter.) — Q Good morning. How are you doing? — MR. SNOW: Good afternoon. I'm feeling well, thank you. — Q Did the President watch the vote?

Discussion: First Draft

New York Times:

New Poll Finds That Young Americans Are Leaning Left — Young Americans are more likely than the general public to favor a government-run universal health care insurance system, an open-door policy on immigration and the legalization of gay marriage, according to a New York Times/CBS News/MTV poll.

CBS News:

Poll: Young Voters Favor Obama, Clinton — CBS/NYT/MTV Poll: More 17- To 29-Year-Olds Paying Attention To 2008 Presidential Campaign — (CBS) Democrats Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are the favored presidential candidates of younger Americans, according to a poll conducted by CBS News, The New York Times and MTV.

Discussion: Hillary Is 44 and Chicago Sun Times

Jonathan D. Salant / Bloomberg:
Clinton and Obama, Romney and Giuliani Seek Bragging Rights

Discussion: ABCNEWS and MSNBC

Mike Baker / Associated Press:

Ms. Edwards asks Coulter to stop attacks — RALEIGH, N.C. - Elizabeth Edwards pleaded Tuesday with Ann Coulter to "stop the personal attacks," a day after the conservative commentator said she wished Edwards' husband, Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards, had been killed by terrorists.

Discussion: The Huffington Post, National Review, Washington Post, Sister Toldjah, AMERICAblog, NewsBusters.org, Outside The Beltway, The Right's Field and Corrente

CNN Political Ticker:
Edwards confronts Coulter in on-air clash

Discussion: The Hill

Mark Murray / MSNBC:
Elizabeth Edwards vs. Ann Coulter

Discussion: The Huffington Post, The Caucus, NewsBusters.org, No More Mister Nice Blog, Shakespeare's Sister, State of the Day, The American Mind, Jon Swift, The Heretik, Michael P.F. van der Galiën and Right Wing News

Washington Post:

GOP Skepticism On Iraq Growing — Key Republican senators, signaling increasing GOP skepticism about President Bush's strategy in Iraq, have called for a reduction in U.S. forces and launched preemptive efforts to counter a much-awaited administration progress report due in September.

Discussion: New York Times, Guardian, The Atlantic Online, Taylor Marsh, Eschaton, AMERICAblog, Air America Radio and IraqSlogger.com

Manu Raju / The Hill: Lugar's words reverberate

Bill Schneider / CNN:
Poll: GOP support on Iraq starts to waver

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, Comments From Left Field, Dick Polman's American Debate, The Mahablog, Outside The Beltway, The Strata-Sphere, Daily Kos and The American Street

Thomas L. Friedman / New York Times:

[TS] Op-Ed Columnist: The Whole World Is Watching — The blogosphere has made the global discussion so much richer — and each of us so much more transparent.

Discussion: The Newshoggers, The Moderate Voice and Economist's View

Ezra Klein:
"How" — It's of course inevitable that Tom Friedman …

Discussion: Eschaton and The Atlantic Online

blog.washingtonpost.com:

Leaving No Tracks — Sue Ellen Wooldridge, the 19th-ranking Interior Department official, arrived at her desk in Room 6140 a few months after Inauguration Day 2001. A phone message awaited her. — "This is Dick Cheney," said the man on her voice mail, Wooldridge recalled in an interview.

Discussion: TPMmuckraker, Firedoglake, Think Progress, Majikthise, Cato-at-liberty, The Next Hurrah, The Moderate Voice, Shakespeare's Sister, Comments From Left Field, The Impolitic, The Sideshow, Prairie Weather, Eschaton, Washington Monthly, Taylor Marsh, Wampum and BuzzFlash.org

Pajamas Media:

TEHRAN BURNS — VIDEO With virtually no warning, the Islamic Regime declared gas rationing in oil-rich Iran, sparking furious protests across the country — and Pajamas Media has video of the angry crowds setting gas stations on fire. — PJM's Ardeshir Arian who

Discussion: protein wisdom, Guardian, Gateway Pundit, The Spirit of Man, Reuters, Hot Air, Don Surber, The Belmont Club, Kamangir, On Deadline and Blogs for Bush

Ben Quinn / Telegraph:
Protests rage over petrol rationing in Iran

Discussion: Captain's Quarters, QandO and Blue Crab Boulevard

Alexander Bolton / The Hill:

GOP preps for talk radio confrontation — House Republican lawmakers are preparing to fight anticipated Democratic efforts to regulate talk radio by reviving rules requiring stations to balance conservative hosts such as Rush Limbaugh with liberals such as Al Franken.

Discussion: michellemalkin.com, Bluey Blog, Captain's Quarters, Wilshire & Washington, QandO, NewsBusters.org, Ian Schwartz, Power Line, Hot Air, Stubborn Facts and JammieWearingFool

New York Times:

Files on Illegal Spying Show C.I.A. Skeletons From Cold War — Long-secret documents released Tuesday provide new details about how the Central Intelligence Agency illegally spied on Americans decades ago, including trying to bug a Las Vegas hotel room for evidence of infidelity and tracking …

Discussion: Washington Post and Norwegianity

Ed Morrissey / Captain's Quarters:
Working With The Mob: Your Government Dollars At Work

Discussion: Associated Press

Gary Shapiro / New York Sun:

Publishers Abuzz Over Possible Rumsfeld Book — The publishing world is abuzz over the news that a former defense secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, may write a memoir justifying the military strategy for the war in Iraq. While a deal has not yet been struck, Mr. Rumsfeld has toured …

Think Progress:
Rumsfeld Shopping Memoir On Iraq Failures For 'Large Cash Advance'

Discussion: Daily Kos

Bob Lewis / Associated Press:

Giuliani Slams Bill Clinton on Terrorism — VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (AP) - Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani on Tuesday accused former President Clinton of not responding forcefully enough to the 1993 World Trade Center bombing or later terrorist attacks.

Discussion: New York Times, Comments From Left Field, TIME, The Moderate Voice, The Right's Field, Shakespeare's Sister and PoliPundit.com

John Leo / City Journal:

Bowling With Our Own — Robert Putnam's sobering new diversity research scares its author. — Harvard political scientist Robert Putnam, author of Bowling Alone, is very nervous about releasing his new research, and understandably so. His five-year study shows that immigration …

Discussion: Beliefnet, Right Wing Nut House, Lean Left, Dr. Sanity, The American Scene, Outside The Beltway and Maggie's Farm

Jonah Goldberg / Townhall.com:

The Cheney Irony — I'm a longtime member of a pretty select group: the Dick Cheney Fan Club. Chapters gather in phone booths, refrigerator boxes and, at the annual convention, we take up three whole booths in the back of a nearby Arby's. — Why do I like Dick Cheney?

Discussion: Think Progress, Crooks and Liars, National Review and Roger Ailes