memeorandum: Top Utah money man leaves Romney campaign (Thomas Burr/Salt Lake Tribune)

1:20 PM ET, September 7, 2007

Top Items:

Brian Ross Reports / The Blotter:

New Videotape From Bin Laden; Al Qaeda's No. 1 Still Alive — Brian Ross Reports: — Intelligence sources tell ABC News they believe the video message from Osama bin Laden is authentic, recently produced and evidence the al Qaeda leader is still alive. — According to government sources …

Discussion: Captain's Quarters, Hot Air, National Review, CNN, The Daily Whim, Riehl World View, QandO, TalkLeft, GINA COBB, The Jawa Report, Wake up America and Stop The ACLU

MSNBC:

U.S. has copy of bin Laden video — Bush administration says it is examining tape for authenticity — WASHINGTON - The White House has obtained a copy of a purported video by Osama bin Laden ahead of the sixth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks and has begun to analyze its contents, a Bush administration official said Friday.

Discussion: The Jawa Report, On Deadline, Gateway Pundit and The Belmont Club

Jurassicpork / Pottersville:

Paul Krugman: Time to Take a Stand — Here's what will definitely happen when Gen. David Petraeus testifies before Congress next week: he'll assert that the surge has reduced violence in Iraq — as long as you don't count Sunnis killed by Sunnis, Shiites killed by Shiites …

Discussion: CNSNews, The Moderate Voice, Comments From Left Field, Left in the West, No More Mister Nice Blog, DownWithTyranny! and Rasmussen Reports

Paul Krugman / New York Times:

[TS] Op-Ed Columnist: Time to Take a Stand — Gen. David Petraeus has a history of making overoptimistic assessments of progress in Iraq that happen to be convenient for his political masters.

Discussion: Prairie Weather, Middle Earth Journal, FP Passport, SWJ Blog, Brian Beutler, The Peking Duck, Connecting.the.Dots, Brilliant at Breakfast, INSTAPUTZ, Time, Bark Bark Woof Woof and The Atlantic Online

Kevin Drum / Washington Monthly:

BURIED LEDE ALERT....Fred Kaplan has a good piece in Slate today about the upcoming Petraeus report and what Congress needs to ask about it. But I was more taken by an astonishing statement at the end of the piece from Stephen Biddle, a member of Petraeus's advisory panel.

Discussion: The Atlantic Online, New York Times, The Next Hurrah, Pacific Views, Donklephant, The Peking Duck, Balloon Juice and Think Progress

Daniel Politi / Slate:
Slow Motion — The New York Times and the Washington Post's …

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, My Left Wing, Salon, The Swamp and On Deadline

Fred Kaplan / Slate:
What Congress Needs To Ask Petraeus and Crocker

Discussion: The Carpetbagger Report, The Newshoggers, The Impolitic, Comments From Left Field, Shakespeare's Sister and Washington Post

Lydia Saad / Gallup Poll:

Gallup Ranks the 2008 Candidates According to a Feeling Thermometer — Obama rated the most positively by Americans; Hillary enjoys broadest partisan support — PRINCETON, NJ — Using a "feeling thermometer" rating scale, Gallup recently tested the public images of several of the Republican …

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, The Swamp, Blue Crab Boulevard, The American Pundit and Pollster.com

Peggy Noonan / Opinion Journal:

Off to the Races — Surprisingly, the Republican presidential campaign comes into focus. — This week the Republican candidates for the presidency tried to make it new again. Summer's over, autumn's here, they're relaunching. I think they pretty much succeeded. Their debate Wednesday night had sparks and fire.

Discussion: Eunomia, The Atlantic Online, No More Mister Nice Blog and GINA COBB

New York Times:
For Thompson, Goal Is to Don Reagan Mantle

Discussion: Boston Globe, Outside The Beltway, Washington Post, Washington Times, Los Angeles Times, MSNBC, The Right's Field and TIME

Washington Times:

Inside the Ring — Gen. Musharraf, a key Washington ally despite the problems, seized power in a bloodless military coup in 1999 that sent Mr. Sharif into exile in Saudi Arabia. — Iraq progress report — A major political event unfolding Monday will be the report to President Bush …

Faiz / Think Progress:

New Twist In Saga Over 'Petraeus Report': There Will Be No Report — In the latest twist to the ongoing saga over the White House report, a senior military official tells the Washington Times today that there will actually be no report at all: … To recap, first the public was incorrectly led …

Discussion: TPMmuckraker

Michael Goldfarb / Weekly Standard:
'The Bush Report' — Via the Corner, this email from an …

Discussion: Horses Mouth and Captain's Quarters

San Francisco Chronicle:

Fugitive fundraiser Hsu captured in Colorado — (09-06) 20:52 PDT SAN FRANCISCO — Fugitive political fundraiser Norman Hsu, who skipped out on San Mateo County authorities this week rather than face sentencing for a 1992 fraud conviction, was apprehended Thursday night by federal and local lawmen in Grand Junction, Colo.

Discussion: Los Angeles Times, Power Line, The Detroit Times, Washington Post, Right Wing Nut House, Classical Values, Macsmind, Captain's Quarters, Don Surber, JammieWearingFool, TalkLeft, Sister Toldjah, Gateway Pundit, Wizbang and The American Pundit

Allahpundit / Hot Air:
Breaking: Norman Hsu captured in Colorado; Update: Hospitalized …

Jim Moore / Seattle Post-Intelligencer:

Go 2 Guy: Seahawks duo blitzed by Bush backlash — KIRKLAND — Are you still fans of Matt Hasselbeck and Mack Strong after they visited President Bush last week in Bellevue? Or have their political leanings turned you against them? — The Seahawks quarterback and fullback gave …

Discussion: Don Surber, Sister Toldjah, Gateway Pundit, Outside The Beltway, QandO and Blue Crab Boulevard

Catherine Donaldson-Evans / Fox News:

G.I. Joe to Become Global Task Force in Movie — Say it ain't so, G.I. Joe. — The popular all-American comic-book military man and action figure dating back to the 1940s is undergoing a significant transformation for the Paramount Pictures-distributed "G.I. Joe" film …

Discussion: BLACKFIVE, protein wisdom, Stop The ACLU, Sister Toldjah and NewsBusters.org

Andrew Norfolk / Times of London:

Hardline takeover of British mosques — Almost half of Britain's mosques are under the control of a hardline Islamic sect whose leading preacher loathes Western values and has called on Muslims to "shed blood" for Allah, an investigation by The Times has found.

Discussion: Power Line, Heading Right, Captain's Quarters, Hot Air, The Glittering Eye, Weasel Zippers, Jihad Watch, Little Green Footballs, Theo Spark and Telegraph

Jeremy W. Peters / New York Times:

4-Year Growth in Jobs Ends; Dow Off 200 — Employers eliminated 4,000 jobs in August, the Labor Department said today, bringing an end to four years of uninterrupted job growth. — Economists said the report provides the Federal Reserve with ample justification to lower interest rates at least a quarter point when it meets Sept. 18.

Discussion: Norwegianity and Hoffmania!

Washington Post:
Employers Cut 4,000 Jobs in August

Discussion: Debsweb, Corrente and The American Street

Rob / Say Anything:

More On Ed Schultz's Bar Fight — Earlier this evening I wrote a post about North Dakota and national radio personality (and Democrat mouthpiece) Ed Schultz getting into an altercation with Kevin Nagle. Upon first hearing of the story, something just didn't seem right.

Discussion: NewsBusters.org and Riehl World View

The Big Trunk / Power Line:
HATE TALK FROM THE HEARTLAND

Discussion: IN-FORUM and Captain's Quarters

Thomas Burr / Salt Lake Tribune:

Top Utah money man leaves Romney campaign — WASHINGTON - A top Utah fund-raiser for Mitt Romney's presidential campaign - who has links to an organization facing a civil lawsuit alleging child abuse - is no longer part of Romney's state finance team. — Robert Lichfield of La Verkin …

Discussion: DownWithTyranny!, Liberty Street and Democrats.com

Times of London:

German terror suspect 'met 9/11 hijacker' — The prime suspect in the alleged German terror plot to blow up hundreds of people may have had contact with Mohammed Atta, the suicide pilot who smashed a hijacked plane into the Twin Towers. — German police reports are vague about the encounter …

Discussion: The American Pundit, A Blog For All and Counterterrorism Blog