memeorandum: TAX FOLLIES....As a blogger, here's one of my problems. (Kevin Drum/Washington Monthly)

12:25 PM 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 …

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: Hot Air, Riehl World View, Right Wing News and At-Largely

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: Don Surber, NewsBusters.org, Macsmind, Take Our Country Back, Gateway Pundit and Reuters

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:

Discussion: Martini Revolution

Paul Kiel / TPMmuckraker:

Today's Must Read — Call it a deal with the devil, but the House Democrats are set to offer compromise legislation that would allow the administration to conduct warrantless surveillance. The trade-off seems clear. — The bill would allow so-called "umbrella" warrants from the FISA Court …

Discussion: CANNONFIRE

Will / Attytood:

Betrayal: How Bush's Iraq politics ruined our spying on bin Laden — Back at the time this happened — Sept. 7, 2007, a date that should live in infamy — this struck us as quite odd indeed. There were rumblings in the news that Osama bin Laden had made his first videotape in three years …

Discussion: Comments from Left Field

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

Discussion: PrairiePundit

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, The American Street and Bench Memos

Lyle Denniston / SCOTUSblog:

Court grants no new cases, turns down CIA case — The Supreme Court granted no new cases Tuesday and, in a major action, refused to reopen the question of the government's power to limit or scuttle lawsuits by claiming that "state secrets" have to be protected.

Discussion: TalkLeft, ACLU, Reuters, ACSBlog and The Heretik

Robert Barnes / Washington Post: Political Parties, Under Challenge, Seem to Have Justices' Sympathy

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: Think Progress, Crooks and Liars, The Sideshow, At-Largely, Wake up America, The Opinion Mill, Comments from Left Field, Dependable Renegade, The Mahablog and The Democratic Daily

Salon:

Greenwald takes a closer look at FISA revisions — What FISA capitulations are Democrats planning next? — An article in this morning's NYT reports what many have long been expecting — that Congressional Democrats are ready to capitulate to the White House again on warrantless eavesdropping …

Discussion: Firedoglake, TalkLeft, New York Times, The Heretik, Shakespeare's Sister and JammieWearingFool

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, Wake up America, Brilliant at Breakfast, Outside The Beltway, Daily Kos, PoliBlog (TM), The Huffington Post, Sister Toldjah, Prairie Weather, QandO, The Politico, The Reaction, The Sideshow, Macsmind, TalkLeft, PrairiePundit and Jules Crittenden

Lydia Saad / Gallup Poll:

Bush's Approval Rating Returns to Low 30s — Matches his average rating since July — PRINCETON, NJ — According to a new Gallup Poll, conducted Oct. 4-7, 2007, President George W. Bush's job approval rating from the American public is an anemic 32%. That is slightly below his previous reading …

Discussion: Think Progress

Brian Faughnan / Weekly Standard:

Mahmood: U R SO KEWL!!!!! — Who would have imagined that the march of technology would eventually force Mahmood Ahmadinejad to confront trolls on his blog. Nevertheless, a lively debate has broken out among the commenters—you might even call it a flamewar. — There are the critics:

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 …

Discussion: Middle Earth Journal