memeorandum: Venezuela's Chavez on moral crusade (Christopher Toothaker/Associated Press)

10:15 AM ET, October 9, 2007

Top Items:

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 …

Discussion: Firedoglake, The Jawa Report, Hot Air, Think Progress, Captain's Quarters, AMERICAblog, The Liberal Avenger, MyDD, The Van Der Galiën Gazette, PrairiePundit, The American Street, First Draft and Rising Hegemon

Eli Lake / New York Sun:

Qaeda Goes Dark After a U.S. Slip — Enemy Vanishes From Its Web Sites — WASHINGTON — Al Qaeda's Internet communications system has suddenly gone dark to American intelligence after the leak of Osama bin Laden's September 11 speech inadvertently disclosed the fact that we had penetrated the enemy's system.

Discussion: Take Our Country Back and Don Surber

The Big Trunk / Power Line:

AL QAEDA GOES DARK — Eli Lake has the story of the day in today's New York Sun: "Qaeda goes dark after a U.S. slip." Lake reports that the September 7 Osama bin Laden video (the one with the funny looking black beard) was picked up by Rita Katz's SITE Institute and provided to the National Counterterrorism Center:

Opinion Journal:
Tortured Arguments — Giving al Qaeda an interrogation-resistance manual.

Discussion: PrairiePundit

Faiz / Think Progress:

Right Wing Launches Baseless Smear Campaign Against 12 Year Old Recipient Of SCHIP — Two weeks ago, the Democratic radio address was delivered by a 12-year old Maryland boy named Graeme Frost. Graeme told his story of being involved in a severe car accident three years ago …

The Corner:

The new poor — Over the weekend, I posted a couple of things re Graeme Frost, the Democratic Party's 12-year old healthcare spokesman. Michelle Malkin reports that the blogospheric lefties are all steamed about the wingnuts' Swiftboating of sick kids, etc. — Sorry, no sale.

Discussion: Toronto Star, small dead animals, Whiskey Fire, Daily Kos, Red Tory, Blue Crab Boulevard, Sadly, No!, five feet of fury., TBogg and Flopping Aces

Digby / Hullabaloo:
Fetid Compost Where Their Hearts Should Be

Discussion: Crooks and Liars, CBS News, Dependable Renegade, Left in the West and Obsidian Wings

Thers / Whiskey Fire:
Let Them Be and That's the Lesson — Michelle Malkin went …

Discussion: Fact-esque and Pandagon

John Yoo / Opinion Journal:

The Real Clarence Thomas — His fidelity to the Constitution often leads to results liberals like. — Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas again finds himself in the crosshairs of liberals. After 16 years of diligently avoiding the press, he has written a memoir, "My Grandfather's Son …

Discussion: Real Clear Politics, Betsy's Page and Bench Memos

Robert Barnes / Washington Post:

Political Parties, Under Challenge, Seem to Have Justices' Sympathy — There is a place, after all, where political party leaders still get a little respect, and it's called the Supreme Court. — The justices last week heard two cases that challenge the authority of party bosses and the freedom …

New York Times:

Democrats Seem Ready to Extend Wiretap Powers — Two months after insisting that they would roll back broad eavesdropping powers won by the Bush administration, Democrats in Congress appear ready to make concessions that could extend some crucial powers given to the National Security Agency.

Discussion: The Swamp, Outside The Beltway, PoliBlog (TM), Brilliant at Breakfast, Salon, Prairie Weather, Associated Press, QandO, Sister Toldjah, TalkLeft, The Sideshow and The Reaction

Christopher Toothaker / Associated Press:

Venezuela's Chavez on moral crusade — CARACAS, Venezuela - President Hugo Chavez is on a moral crusade in Venezuela, preaching against vices from alcohol to cholesterol, vowing to curb whisky imports and ordering beer trucks off the street. — His government announced increased taxes …

Discussion: Fraters Libertas

Ed Morrissey / Captain's Quarters: Ernesto Is Not A New Man — Hugo Chavez has decided to direct …

Mark Silva / The Swamp:

Looking for the union label: All over the party — Looking for the union label isn't always easy in the campaign for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination. Union rank and file, or at least their leaders, are as split as the party now. — The AFL-CIO's inability to rally early around …

Discussion: CNN Political Ticker

Jesse J. Holland / Associated Press:
SEIU won't endorse for Dem primary

Discussion: The Atlantic Online, The Agonist, MyDD and Taylor Marsh

Frank Newport / Gallup Poll:

Giuliani Still on Top as Republicans Prepare to Debate in Michigan — Latest Gallup Poll shows Thompson in second place, followed by McCain — PRINCETON, NJ — As the Republican presidential candidates square off in the latest in a series of debates — this time in Dearborn, Mich. tonight …

Jane Gross / New York Times:

Aging and Gay, and Facing Prejudice in Twilight — Even now, at 81 and with her memory beginning to fade, Gloria Donadello recalls her painful brush with bigotry at an assisted-living center in Santa Fe, N.M. Sitting with those she considered friends, "people were laughing and making certain kinds …

Discussion: TalkLeft and Bark Bark Woof Woof

Newsday:

British pullout in Iraq leaves Basra in chaos — BY TIMOTHY M. PHELPS.timothy.phelps@newsday.com; This story was supplemented with wire reports. — WASHINGTON - The British troop pullout from Iraq announced yesterday leaves Basra, Iraq's second largest and most strategically important city …

Reuters:

Mexican leader critiques U.S. border fence — WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Mexican President Felipe Calderon criticized the planned U.S. border fence designed to stem illegal immigration, saying countries should be "building bridges, not fences" in an interview broadcast on Monday.

Discussion: PoliPundit.com and QandO

Elizabeth Ames Jones / Washington Post:

Energy Security 101 — Americans burn 490 million gallons of gasoline and diesel every day and import 65 percent of the oil used to make those products. Worldwide energy consumption is expected to increase 40 percent in the next 25 years, and widespread adoption of alternative energy sources is decades away.

Discussion: Blue Crab Boulevard and PrairiePundit

Bret Stephens / Opinion Journal:

So Be It? — The dangers of defining "torture" down. — It all but goes without saying that torture, properly defined and in nearly every circumstance, is wrong. But what do you make of the following statement, from a recent editorial in the Economist: "Dozens of plots may have been foiled …

Discussion: Blue Crab Boulevard