memeorandum: What Has Bush Done to the Government? (Dan Froomkin/Washington Post)

1:10 AM ET, September 25, 2007

Top Items:

Allahpundit / Hot Air:

Video: There are no gays in Iran, says Ahmadinejad; Update: Photos — Iran executes gays — I've got Bollinger's surprising, much-lauded speech coming up, but enjoy this as a snack. Some rare derisive laughter from the audience greets this little pearl. — Maybe it was a translation error …

Discussion: The Newshoggers, protein wisdom, Captain's Quarters, Cox & Forkum, Stop The ACLU, Blue Crab Boulevard, Little Green Footballs, THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS and IMAO

CNN:

Iran's president on Israel, nukes and gays — NEW YORK (CNN) — Columbia University President Lee Bollinger excoriated Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Monday, going through a long list of documented actions and remarks by the firebrand Iranian leader and his government.

Discussion: Salon, The Reaction, Little Green Footballs, Thought Theater, The Jawa Report, Right Wing Nut House, The Daily Gut, Harry's Place, The Van Der Galiën Gazette, CTron, The American Princess, Connecting.the.Dots, Think Progress, Wonkette, The Democratic Daily, TalkLeft and Jules Crittenden

Matt / Think Progress:

Hunter: I Will Try To 'Cut Off Funds To Columbia University' Because Of Ahmadinejad Speech — Earlier today, Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA) said in a statement that if Columbia University President Lee Bollinger "follows through with this hosting of the leader of Iran, I will move in Congress …

Discussion: 365gay.com, The Atlantic Online, Bloomberg, The Washington Note, Salon, Liberty Street, the talking dog, Hullabaloo, TIME, The Anonymous Liberal, gohunter08.com and Washington Monthly

irna.ir:

IRI President addresses students at Colombia University — Despite entire US media objections, negative propagation and hue and cry in recent days over IRI President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's scheduled address at Colombia University, he gave his lecture and answered students questions here on Monday afternoon.

Discussion: Captain's Quarters, The Corner, Blue Crab Boulevard, QandO, ScrappleFace and Atlas Shrugs

Ezra Klein:

Fearful Nation — I genuinely don't understand the quaking fear over Ahmadinejad's interview at Columbia. When did America become so weak, so insecure, that we mistrust our capacity to converse with potentially hostile world leaders? Do we really believe the president of Columbia …

Discussion: Eunomia, The Atlantic Online, Washington Monthly, The Newshoggers and Unfogged

Mere Rhetoric:

PHOTOGRAPHS TO HELP EXPLAIN WHY THERE ARE NO HOMOSEXUALS IN IRAN [CONTENT WARNING: GRAPHIC PHOTOS] (UPDATED: VIDEO ADDED) — Original: It's because they're trying to kill them all. These are two gay teenagers who were kept in a cage, publicly humiliated, gruesomely hung, and left to dangle in front of the macabre crowd.

T-Steel / The Moderate Voice:

An apology is in order! — Silly, Silly Man! — Those who sharply criticized Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs President Lee C. Bollinger for inviting Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to speak owe him a galaxy sized apology. You know who you are so I'm not naming names/blogs/media outlets.

Discussion: Comments From Left Field and Liberty Street

Catherine Donaldson-Evans / Fox News:

Ahmadinejad Speaks of Love, Kindess, Beauty and God in Speech to National Press Club — Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said during his remarks to the National Press Club Monday that the world needs to build a better future "based on peace and security of all humanity," …

Allahpundit / Hot Air:
Video: Bollinger's rebuke to a "petty and cruel dictator"; Update …

Discussion: Little Green Footballs, Israel Matzav, A Blog For All, Webloggin, Israpundit and Jihad Watch

Sewell Chan / New York Times:
Iranian Leader, Calling Introductory Remarks Insulting, Addresses Columbia

Discussion: Eunomia, The Road to Surfdom, The Atlantic Online, Gothamist, The Washington Note, AMERICAN DIGEST and Take Our Country Back

Vanderleun / AMERICAN DIGEST:
Bollinger Rope-A-Dopes Ahmadinejad and Many Conservative Blogs …

Discussion: Townhall.com, michellemalkin.com, ShrinkWrapped, Riehl World View, The Sundries Shack, NYT, VodkaPundit, A Blog For All, Blue Crab Boulevard and Hot Air

Helene Cooper / New York Times:
Facing Scorn, President of Iran Is Defiant to His Critics

Discussion: Ezra Klein and FP Passport

B. Daniel Blatt / Pajamas Media:
"WE DON'T HAVE HOMOSEXUALS" — During his speech today …

Discussion: Classical Values, WCBS-TV, Telegraph, Betsy's Page and Gay Patriot

Ben Smith / The Politico:

Clinton campaign kills negative story — Early this summer, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign for president learned that the men's magazine GQ was working on a story the campaign was sure to hate: an account of infighting in Hillaryland. — So Clinton's aides pulled a page from the book …

Discussion: Captain's Quarters, Moonbattery, Taylor Marsh, Hot Air, The American Pundit, Macsmind, TPM Election Central and Wizbang

Logan Murphy / Crooks and Liars:

Shuster to Rep. Blackburn: "When was the last time a New York Times ad ever killed somebody?" — Tucker substitute host David Shuster confronts Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) about the blatant hypocrisy of the Republican party when he asks about Rush Limbaugh's Senator Betrayus smear …

Discussion: The Young Turks, Cliff Schecter and Liberty Street

Jon Healey / L.A. Times:

MoveOn.org's thin skin — MoveOn.org's excessively discounted broadside against General David Petraeus in the New York Times two weeks ago won't rank as its most successful tactic. The full-page nastygram appears not only to have solidified Republican opposition in the Senate for proposals …

Discussion: Horses Mouth, Don Surber and The Fix

Joshua Freed / Associated Press:

Prosecutor: Craig is 'politicking' — MINNEAPOLIS - Sen. Larry Craig is only trying to get out of his guilty plea in an airport sex sting because he doesn't like the political consequences, a prosecutor wrote in court papers filed Monday. — Craig, R-Idaho, has asked to withdraw his guilty plea …

Discussion: TalkLeft

The Raw Story:

Chemical weapon disaster 'led to Syria strike' — Israel did not strike a nuclear weapons facility in Syria on Sept. 6, instead striking a cache of North Korean missiles, current and former intelligence officials say. — American intelligence sources familiar with key events leading …

Discussion: Booman Tribune, Hot Air, The Newshoggers, Liberty Pundit and Weasel Zippers

Dan Froomkin / Washington Post:

What Has Bush Done to the Government? — The last two times the Pew Research Center asked people to describe President Bush in a single word, chief among the overwhelmingly negative responses was the word "incompetent." — What makes that particularly fascinating is that it's a realization …

Discussion: Hullabaloo and Corrente

Lisa Schiffren / The Corner:

Eyewitness to Nonsense — Just came from the Columbia campus, where a shocking number of my classmates skipped out on discussion section to go watch the show. In the SIPA lobby I joined a hundred and some other people watching Bollinger on closed circuit TV.

Discussion: bustardblog and Riehl World View

David Paul Kuhn / The Politico:

Podhoretz secretly urged Bush to bomb Iran — President Bush and Karl Rove sat listening to Norman Podhoretz for roughly 45 minutes at the White House as the patriarch of neoconservatism argued that the United States should bomb Iran's nuclear facilities. — The meeting was not on the president's public schedule.