memeorandum: As Much News As They Can, While Still Making Money (Ezra Klein)

6:25 PM ET, October 9, 2007

Top Items:

Christy Hardin Smith / Firedoglake:

What Is Wrong With You?!? — The difference between the far right wing and the far left wing: the far right will do anything — anything — so long as the ends justifies the means. The far left folks have ethical boundaries that they try very hard not to cross: things like attacking …

Discussion: Washington Monthly, The Huffington Post, protein wisdom, Chuck Adkins, Daily Kos, bustardblog, Orcinus, DownWithTyranny!, Fausta's blog, The Sideshow, The Democratic Daily, Kiko's House and Dependable Renegade

John Cole / Balloon Juice:

When Rhetoric Meets Reality — I was talking to Tim via AOL IM, and I decided it was probably worthwhile to bring this up for everyone. One of the things that is so surprising (for me, at least) about the whole Graeme Frost episode is that rather than make their case against this program …

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, Sadly, No!, Ezra Klein, The Strata-Sphere, The Anonymous Liberal, The Democratic Daily and PrairiePundit

Faiz / Think Progress:

Rush Smears 12-Yr Old: 'They Filled His Head With Lies Just As They Have Some Of These Soldiers' — Yesterday, ThinkProgress noted the right wing has been orchestrating a coordinated effort to smear a 12 year old recipient of SCHIP. These conservatives have been propagating baseless "facts" …

Discussion: Riehl World View, Hullabaloo, Macsmind, The Carpetbagger Report, Corrente, No More Mister Nice Blog and RushLimbaugh.com Home

Ezra Klein:
What Has Happened To The Right? — Something has gone wrong on the Right.

Discussion: Sadly, No!, protein wisdom and Wake up America

Jamie Holly / Crooks and Liars:
Graeme Frost: What Would You Do If This Was Snooping Around Your House?

Discussion: Corrente, The Moderate Voice, At-Largely and The Opinion Mill

Peter Baker / The Trail:

Bartlett Unleashed: On Flip-Flops, a "Dud" and the Guy With the Funny Name — Dan Bartlett, formerly one of the closest advisers to President Bush, has been offering a tough analysis of the GOP field. (White House Photo Office). — One of President Bush's closest advisers …

Discussion: The Corner, Telegraph Blogs, TIME: Swampland, Conservative Belle, MSNBC, Daily Pundit and eyeon08.com

Katharine Q. Seelye / The Caucus:

Live-Blogging the Republican Debate — The Candidate Who Isn't There | 5:12 p.m.: Mr. Giuliani and Mr. Romney are thinking of their possible general election opponent. Mr. Giuliani gleefully evoked Hillary Rodham Clinton, criticizing her for having failed to say whether she would take military action against Iran.

Discussion: Fred File and Political Radar

Mark Silva / The Swamp:
Spin room open: Thompson's debut, GOP's debate

Discussion: CNN Political Ticker, VodkaPundit and Wake up America

Kelly P. Kissel / Associated Press: Huckabee: Rivals Might Consider Suicide

Rusty / The Jawa Report:

Uh, About that "Leak" That Burned Our al Qaeda Intel — I know what the NY Sun and Washington Post are saying about a major source of intel being burned by a leak, but it just isn't so. Rita Katz and the SITE Institute do a great job, but attributing the interception of this video to them is just false.

Discussion: Power Line, Hot Air, Martini Revolution, Right Wing News, Danger Room, Weekly Standard, The Strata-Sphere and Riehl World View

Joby Warrick / Washington Post:

Leak Severed a Link to Al-Qaeda's Secrets — Firm Says Administration's Handling of Video Ruined Its Spying Efforts — A small private intelligence company that monitors Islamic terrorist groups obtained a new Osama bin Laden video ahead of its official release last month …

Associated Press:

Court nixes suit claiming CIA torture — Justices throw out German's challenge to alleged abduction by U.S. agents — WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court on Tuesday terminated a lawsuit from a man who claims he was abducted and tortured by the CIA, effectively endorsing Bush administration arguments …

Discussion: ACLU, Stop The ACLU and Macsmind

Kevin Drum / Washington Monthly:
STATE SECRETS....Khaled el-Masri, who was mistakenly abducted …

Discussion: Washington Post, New York Times, The Carpetbagger Report and Comments from Left Field

Atrios / Eschaton:

Fake News Event of the Day — CNN's programming is really pretty weird. I generally don't catch any of the morning show, but between that and the Situation Room it seems that every day is dominated by some fake news event - a school lockdown, a missing child, a truck accident …

Discussion: Kiko's House and Outside The Beltway

Ezra Klein:
As Much News As They Can, While Still Making Money

Discussion: The Atlantic Online, Eschaton and Brian Beutler

John Tierney / New York Times:

Diet and Fat: A Severe Case of Mistaken Consensus — In 1988, the surgeon general, C. Everett Koop, proclaimed ice cream to a be public-health menace right up there with cigarettes. Alluding to his office's famous 1964 report on the perils of smoking, Dr. Koop announced that the American diet …

Discussion: Dean's World, Transterrestrial Musings and Chicago Boyz

Patrick Healy / New York Times:

Clinton Unveils Her Retirement Savings Plan — Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York unveiled the second biggest domestic policy idea of her Democratic presidential campaign today, proposing to spend $20 billion to $25 billion a year to create 401(k)-style retirement accounts for all Americans …

Discussion: TalkLeft

HillaryClinton.com:
Hillary Clinton's American Retirement Accounts Plan: A 401(k) Plan For All Americans

Discussion: The Swamp and TIME: Swampland

Patrick / mediabistro.com:

Matthews on Matthews — On today's "Morning Joe," Joe Scarborough asked Chris Matthews if Republican candidates would try to get a "cheap applause line" tonight by pointing to his recent controversial comments. — Said Matthews: — I've been thinking about that....It's not my stage tonight.

Discussion: Power Line, Moonbattery, Macsmind and Suitably Flip

Paul Kiel / TPMmuckraker:

DoJ Vote Chief Argues Voter ID Laws Discriminate against Whites — When Justice Department lawyers and analysts found in 2005 that a Georgia law requiring voters to have photo ID would disproportionately discriminate against African-Americans, they were overruled by John Tanner …

Discussion: The BRAD BLOG, The Carpetbagger Report, The Debate Link and Paul Krugman

Little Green Footballs:

Phony 'Satirical' Anti-Muslim Posters Circulated at GWU — At George Washington University, another outrageous action by the Saudi-funded radical Islamic front group calling itself the Muslim Student Association, as they circulate flyers purporting to be from a conservative campus group …

Discussion: media.www.gwhatchet.com, Harry's Place and Jihad Watch

Detroit Free Press:

Obama, Edwards, Richardson, Biden out of state primary — Four of the leading Democratic presidential nominees have removed their names from the Jan. 15 Michigan presidential primary. — U.S. Sen. Barack Obama and former Sen. John Edwards both earlier today filed paperwork …

Discussion: TIME: Swampland, Taegan Goddard's …, MSNBC and The Democratic Daily

David Nather / CQPolitics.com:

Anti-War Movement Stuck in a Quagmire — Over the summer, a coalition of anti-war activists racked up plenty of statistics in their drive to end the occupation of Iraq. They held 1,100 press events, by their count, planted more than 30,000 yard signs, posted 265 videos on YouTube …

Discussion: Booman Tribune, Right Wing Nut House, democracyarsenal.org and The Corner

Mike Soraghan / The Hill:

Wilson hopes Novak 'is going to confession, because otherwise he's going to hell' — Ambassador Joe Wilson said he objected to columnist Robert Novak naming his wife as a CIA operative even before Novak wrote a 2003 column that later launched a federal investigation.