memeorandum: Many Texas consumers feel competition in the state's energy markets … (Houston Chronicle)

3:18 AM ET, October 8, 2007

Top Items:

Chuck Todd / MSNBC:

Clinton gets snippy with Iowan over Iran — From NBC/NJ's Athena Jones — NEW HAMPTON, Iowa — At a campaign stop here, Hillary Clinton sparred verbally for several minutes with a man who pressed her on her recent vote to call Iran's army a terrorist organization.

Discussion: Taylor Marsh, About.com Liberal Politics, The Atlantic Online and MyDD

Hillary Rodham Clinton / The Trail:

Clinton's Iran Vote Prompts A Harsh Back-and-Forth — Randall Rolph said he came to New Hampton, Iowa, on Sunday to see Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) with an open mind about whether to support her candidacy. After a tough exchange over Iran, he left saying he had ruled her out.

Discussion: Unfogged

Geoffrey Wheatcroft / Washington Post:

Who Made Hillary Queen? — Among so much about American politics that can impress or depress a friendly transatlantic observer, there's nothing more astonishing than this: Why on Earth should Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton be the front-runner for the presidency?

Discussion: The Reaction, The American Street, The Gun Toting Liberal™, The Atlantic Online and Blue Crab Boulevard

Andrew Sullivan / The Atlantic Online:

Is America Now South Asia? — No developed country in the world actually bestows political office on women because they were once the wives of presidents. It has tended to happen in South Asia - Sri Lanka, India, the Philippines - but certainly not in modern, developed, Western societies.

Discussion: Washington Post and Unqualified Offerings

Don Surber:

3,000 square foot home, but cannot 'afford' health insurance? — Remember the Frost family of Baltimore? They had a bad traffic accident 3 years ago. Their medical bills were paid by the taxpayer-subsidized SCHIP. Democrats trotted out Graeme Frost, 12, to call the president mean …

Discussion: Brutally Honest, Instapundit.com, The Corner, Miss Beth's Victory Dance, Macsmind and TBogg

Free Republic:

The "Not So Poor" 12 Year Old Who Rebutted Bush on SCHIP Veto — Graeme Frost, who gave the democrat rebuttal to George Bush's reasons for vetoing the SCHIP Bill, is a middle school student at the exclusive$20,000 per year Park School in Baltimore, MD. — Graeme was in a severe car accident …

Discussion: The Shotgun, Whiskey Fire, Tapscott's Copy Desk, Democracy Project, Wake up America and Wizbang

The Atlantic Online:
Class Warfare — More dispatches from the continuing conservative war …

Discussion: Whiskey Fire

Mark Steyn / The Corner:
Brother, can you spare a CHIP?

Discussion: Sister Toldjah, Blue Crab Boulevard, Doug Ross, PrairiePundit, NewsBusters.org, protein wisdom, Power Line, Gateway Pundit and Wake up America

Nathaniel R. Helms / warchronicle.com:

Al Qaeda in Haditha: The battle the media ignored — Buried in the mountain of exhibits attached to the once secret Haditha, Iraq murder inquiry prepared by US Army Maj. Gen. Eldon A. Bargewell is an obscure Marine Corps intelligence summary (see pdf) that says the deadly encounter …

Discussion: Stop The ACLU, PrairiePundit, Hot Air, Wake up America, Gateway Pundit and The Sundries Shack

Michelle Malkin:

Al Qaeda and Haditha bombshell: What the MSM didn't tell you — You won't hear about this from John Murtha, but you'll read it first on the Internet. Nathaniel Helms at Defend our Marines has an exclusive report on the battle in Haditha that the media ignored:

Discussion: Power Line

Bluto / The Jawa Report:
Report: Haditha 'Massacre' Planned by al Qaeda

Discussion: protein wisdom

Noel Sheppard / NewsBusters.org:

'Journalists' Tell Howard Kurtz Why Good News from Iraq Shouldn't Get Reported (updated w/video) — As CNN's Howard Kurtz accurately pointed out on Sunday's "Reliable Sources," few media outlets seemed at all interested in giving much attention to the great news out of Iraq last week regarding September's sharp decline in casualties.

Discussion: CNN, The Right Coast, Wake up America, The Jawa Report, Ed Driscoll.com, INSTAPUTZ, The Sundries Shack and Riehl World View

Peterhamby / CNN Political Ticker:

Obama: GOP doesn't own faith and values — GREENVILLE, South Carolina (CNN) — After speaking to an evangelical church on Sunday in this traditionally conservative South Carolina city, Sen. Barack Obama said that Republicans no longer have a firm grip on religion in political discourse.

Discussion: Punditry and Stop The ACLU

Eric Lipton / New York Times:

Dangerous Sealer Stayed on Shelves After Recall — DENVILLE, N.J. — Walter E. Friedel's plans to waterproof the tile floors of his hot tub room using Stand 'n Seal, a do-it-yourself product sold at his local Home Depot, promised to be a quick weekend project, one he could wrap up in time to catch …

Discussion: Obsidian Wings

Rick Moran / American Thinker:

Novak Dispels Some Plame Myths — Robert Novak, who wrote the column that exposed the Plame connection to Joe Wilson's trip to Niger, has been trying unsuccessfully to set the record straight regarding the "outing" of Wilson's wife for a long time. — Novak's problem has been that the Plame narrative …

Discussion: The Hill, protein wisdom and PrairiePundit

Josh Marshall / Talking Points Memo:

Beauchamp Update — If you've been following the Scott Thomas Beauchamp Affair, I strongly recommend reading the latest update from The New Republic. The short version is that the Army's investigation of the case appears to be confined to a) releasing no information about their investigation …

Discussion: QandO, The Sundries Shack, protein wisdom and Riehl World View

Deacon / Power Line:

IT'S SHOWTIME, FOLKS — Fred Thompson may not have impressed certain "inside-the-beltway" pundits in the run-up to his entry into the presidential race, but so far he seems to be doing fairly well among Republican voters. The latest Rasmussen survey has him in a statistical dead-heat with Rudy Giuliani.

Orin Kerr / The Volokh Conspiracy:

FRANK RICH, CLARENCE THOMAS, AND THE MISSOURI ASSISTANT ATTORNEY GENERAL: In today's New York Times, Frank Rich has a rather nasty essay that purports to catch Justice Thomas misrepresenting his past. The specific example is Justice Thomas's first job out of law school in the Missouri Attorney General's Office.

Discussion: Right Voices, Sister Toldjah, QandO, Althouse and PrairiePundit

Frank Rich / New York Times:
Nobody Knows the Lynchings He's Seen

Discussion: The Right Coast, The Volokh Conspiracy, protein wisdom, Norwegianity and Bark Bark Woof Woof

Glenn Greenwald / Salon:

The remaining GOP base — the 30%'ers and the Broder/Ignatius pundit — David Broder and David Ignatius both have excellent Op-Eds in this morning's Washington Post — excellent because of how vividly they illustrate the shallowness and dishonesty for our opinion-making elite.