memeorandum: The Republican Collapse — Modern conservatism begins with Edmund Burke. (David Brooks/New York Times)

4:10 PM ET, October 5, 2007

Top Items:

Conservatives Are Such Jokers — In 1960, John F. Kennedy, who had been shocked by the hunger he saw in West Virginia, made the fight against hunger a theme of his presidential campaign. After his election he created the modern food stamp program, which today helps millions of Americans get enough to eat.

Discussion: Fausta's blog, ECHIDNE OF THE SNAKES, Norwegianity, Eye on Williamson, Left in the West, NewsBusters.org, The Mahablog, Daily Kos, Gateway Pundit, The Atlantic Online, Eschaton, Lean Left, Brilliant at Breakfast and The Corner

New York Times:

Misleading Spin on Children's Health — Trying to justify his ideologically driven veto of a bill to expand the State Children's Health Insurance Program, President Bush and his staff have fired a barrage of misinformation about this valuable program. Before the House votes on whether …

Discussion: The Van Der Galiën Gazette, The Moderate Voice and Liberty Street

Carpetbagger / The Carpetbagger Report:
GOP contenders back Bush on blocking kids' healthcare

Discussion: Houston Chronicle, Hullabaloo and Think Progress

Patrick Healy / New York Times:
G.O.P. Contenders Endorse Health Insurance Veto

Discussion: Boston Globe, RealClearPolitics, MSNBC, DownWithTyranny!, MyDD, Booman Tribune and AMERICAblog

Eugene Robinson / Washington Post:
Bush's Veto Lies

Discussion: Left in the West

Faiz / Think Progress:

Rockefeller Disputes White House Claim That He Was 'Fully Briefed' On Secret Torture Opinion — Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman John Rockefeller (D-WV) reacted angrily yesterday to the New York Times' revelation that the Bush administration gave the CIA secret approval in 2005 to use harsh interrogation techniques.

Discussion: Liberty Street, At-Largely, The Carpetbagger Report and The Heretik

Associated Press:

Bush: U.S. 'does not torture people' — President responds to report that 2005 memo relaxed interrogation rules — WASHINGTON - President Bush defended his administration's detention and interrogation policies for terrorism suspects on Friday, saying they are both successful and lawful.

Discussion: The Newshoggers, Captain's Quarters, CQ.com, democracyarsenal.org, New York Times, War and Piece and The Caucus

White House:
President Bush Discusses the Economy and Protecting Americans From Terrorism

Discussion: Washington Wire, The Carpetbagger Report, Angry Bear and The Heretik

Brian Faughnan / Weekly Standard:
Gallup: Americans Back White House Plan for Iraq Drawdown

Discussion: Gallup Poll

David Brooks / New York Times:

The Republican Collapse — Modern conservatism begins with Edmund Burke. What Burke articulated was not an ideology or a creed, but a disposition, a reverence for tradition, a suspicion of radical change. — When conservatism came to America, it became creedal.

Discussion: The Atlantic Online, The Corner, Crooked Timber, The Anonymous Liberal, Eunomia, The American Scene, DownWithTyranny!, Beliefnet and Central Sanity

John Cole / Balloon Juice:

The Republican Decline — Long piece by David Brooks in which he attempts to figure out why the Republican party appears to be in shambles: … Hogwash. If you want to know why the Republican party is in shambles, read this: … For starters, people got tired of being associated with these drooling retards.

Discussion: The Young Turks and The Carpetbagger Report

Joe Klein / TIME: Swampland:
Phony Issue of the Day — It probably wasn't the wisest thing …

Discussion: The Caucus, Redstate and NewsBusters.org

Yeas & Nays:

Matthews says Bush administration has "finally been caught in their criminality" — Playing Hardball with the Prez — "Hardball" host Chris Matthews addresses attendees at Thursday night's ten-year anniversary of "Hardball," which took place at the Decatur House in Washington, D.C.

Discussion: Media Blog, Attytood, Moonbattery, Redstate, The Young Turks, Taylor Marsh, Let Freedom Ring, NewsBusters.org, The Carpetbagger Report, National Review, Shakespeare's Sister, mediabistro.com, Connecting.the.Dots, Editor and Publisher and TIME

Andrew Sullivan / The Atlantic Online:

Peggy Noonan's Open Eyes — I've long enjoyed Peggy Noonan's work (except for one dreadful book even she must regret writing). I don't always agree with her, but she represents for me that brand of blue-state conservatism that came of age in the Reagan era, one that was often Catholic …

Peggy Noonan / Opinion Journal:

The Trance — Bush . . . Clinton . . . Bush . . . Clinton . . . Getting very sleepy . . . Barack Obama has a great thinking look. I mean the look he gets on his face when he's thinking, not the look he presents in debate, where they all control their faces knowing they may be in the reaction shot …

Discussion: Blue Crab Boulevard and No More Mister Nice Blog

Simon Perez / KPIX-TV:

Berkeley Marine Center Draws Anti-War Ire — (CBS) BERKELEY Marine Captain Richard Lund recruits college students and graduates as candidates for officer positions in the marines. But carrying out that job in Berkeley is not always an easy task. — He has listened to a variety of complaints …

Discussion: Wizbang and Blue Crab Boulevard

Jose Lambiet / Palm Beach Post:

Limbaugh leaves probation better, richer — No, Sen. Tom Harkin, radio talker Rush Limbaugh isn't back on drugs! — So says the state of Florida. And Limbaugh himself, who told Page Two, as he enters his last month on probation for a narcotics arrest, that he doesn't even miss getting high and now feels like a better person.

Discussion: The Gun Toting Liberal™ and The Huffington Post

Vanderleun / AMERICAN DIGEST:
Rush Limbaugh's Ride and Paycheck

Discussion: Wake up America

Michael Roston / Huffington Post:

Dems Postpone Rollout Of Controversial Wiretapping Bill — Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD), the House Majority Leader, postponed a press conference announcing new reforms of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act after progressive lawmakers banded together and said they would fight any legislation …

Discussion: Open Left, Eschaton, Daily Kos and WorkingForChange

Andrew Sullivan / The Atlantic Online:

Losing A Generation? — The number of young people who do not consider themselves Christians is growing, as is the hostility toward Christianity expressed by the next generation of non-Christians, claims a new book from David Kinnaman of Barna.org. Money quote: … And so the polarization grows.

Discussion: protein wisdom, The Newshoggers and Central Sanity

Danny / Beltway Blogroll:

National Journal's Cover Story On Blogs — Back in January 2006, I authored a cover story on "The Rise Of Blogs" for National Journal magazine. In this week's hot-off-the-presses edition of the magazine, Bara Vaida, a former senior writer for me at Technology Daily, follows up with another cover story titled "Blogging On."

Discussion: INSTAPUTZ

Al Kamen / Washington Post:

In Washington and Beyond, Disclosing a Few of Cheney's Locations — Seems famously secretive Vice President Cheney has been, for most of his tenure, at an undisclosed location, even if he's really just at his office, his residence, Camp David, his house in St. Michaels or the Paul Nelson hunting club in South Dakota.

Discussion: Think Progress, Washington Monthly and The Carpetbagger Report

Brian Faughnan / Weekly Standard:

Netroots Nightmare: O'Hanlon Teams Up with HRC — When Michael O'Hanlon and Kenneth Pollack of the Brookings Institution wrote in the New York TImes that the surge was working, they were widely criticized by the antiwar left, which went to great lengths to undercut their findings.

Discussion: Comments from Left Field, unbossed.com, RealClearPolitics and Riehl World View