memeorandum: Documents: Qwest was targeted (Rocky Mountain News)

3:30 PM ET, October 11, 2007

Top Items:

EXCLUSIVE: E-mail Reveals That McConnell Staffer Propagated Smear Campaign Against Graeme Frost — Yesterday, ThinkProgress reported that there was mounting evidence that a staffer for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) may have been involved in the right-wing campaign to smear Graeme Frost and his family.

Discussion: Eschaton, TalkLeft, The Carpetbagger Report, Balloon Juice, Matt Ortega, Shakespeare's Sister, Firedoglake, CommonDreams.org, WHAS11 Political Blog, The Garlic, Interesting Times, The Liberal Avenger and Whiskey Fire

Faiz / Think Progress:

CNN Pins Blame On Democrats For Right-Wing Smear Of 12-Year Old Boy — This morning, CNN aired its first report on the right-wing smear campaign against 12-year old SCHIP recipient Graeme Frost. CNN pinned the blame on Democrats for assault on the Frost family.

Discussion: The Carpetbagger Report, The Newshoggers, QandO, Townhall.com, Wake up America, Norwegianity, D-Day, Riehl World View, Suburban Guerrilla and Lawyers, Guns and Money

Time:

The Swift-Boating of Graeme Frost — A 12-year-old causes an Internet storm for speaking out in favor of the Children's Health Insurance Program. Says his father: "My family does not deserve this retribution"

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, The Huffington Post, Right Wing Nut House, Macsmind, The Sundries Shack, Cliff Schecter, Grasping Reality …, The American Street, The Carpetbagger Report, The Heretik and TIME: Swampland

Sadly, No!:

Stalkin' Malkin Is Losing It — It's getting funnier and funnier. She's plunged straight off the deep end with this one: … Gad, it's like watching one of the Heathers write in her personal pity diary. All that's missing is angry complaints about Confederate Yankee and Ace turning into Swatch Dogs and Diet Coke Heads.

Discussion: RADAMISTO

Kevin Drum / Washington Monthly:

THE FEVER SWAMP....A plainly disgusted Karen Tumulty recaps Graeme Frost's introduction to the modern conservative fever swamp in Time magazine and concludes with this: … But of course, that's the whole point. The slavering hordes of Malkin-land might or might not have made a difference …

Discussion: Brian Beutler

Michelle Malkin:

My reply to Respectable Liberal Blogger Ezra Klein and his fellow travelers; Plus: Hillary threatens S-CHIP critics — Update 1:35pm Eastern. WHY DO YOU HATE CHILDREN SO MUCH?! — Update 1:00pm Eastern. Snort-worthy blue-on-blue spat of the day: ThinkProgress vs. CNN.

Discussion: Balloon Juice, Ezra Klein, The Newshoggers, Flopping Aces, Sadly, No!, The New Republic, Lean Left, The Mahablog, Bark Bark Woof Woof, Pandagon, All Spin Zone, protein wisdom, TBogg, Wizbang, The Bellows, Rox Populi and Riehl World View

Ezra Klein:
An Answer! — Michelle Malkin replies to my challenge for a debate about S-CHIP.

Discussion: The Moderate Voice and D-Day

Carla Marinucci / SFGate:

UPDATE - Gore cancels appearance at Boxer fundraiser — Sen. Barbara Boxer's office just contacted us to say former Vice President Al Gore has been called "overseas" for a trip related to his work on global warming and has canceled his scheduled appearance Thursday in San Francisco at a fundraiser for Boxer's re-election effort.

Discussion: michellemalkin.com, On Deadline, Blue Crab Boulevard, Hot Air and Taylor Marsh

Paul Steinhauser / CNN:

Will Gore add Nobel to Oscar and Emmy? — WASHINGTON (CNN) — Will Al Gore add a Nobel Peace Prize to his Oscar and Emmy honors? — "An Inconvenient Truth," a documentary featuring the former vice president captured two Academy Awards in February. The film focuses on Gore and his worldwide travels …

Discussion: Times of London, Gates of Vienna, The Democratic Daily, Gateway Pundit, Connecting.the.Dots and Balloon Juice

Chris Cillizza / The Fix:
Movement From the Gore-acle? — As regular Fix readers know …

Discussion: JammieWearingFool

Brian Montopoli / CBS News:
Could Nobel Prize Spur Gore To Run In '08?

Discussion: If I Ran the Zoo, MSNBC, Attytood and Sister Toldjah

Brent Budowsky / The Hill:
Al Gore for President

Discussion: The Swamp, The Huffington Post and Make Them Accountable

Editor and Publisher:

Ann Coulter on CNBC Show: Jews Need 'Perfecting' — NEW YORK Appearing on Donny Deutsch's CNBC show, "The Big Idea," on Monday night, columnist/author Ann Coulter suggested that the U.S. would be a better place if there weren't any Jewish people and that they had "perfected" themselves into — Christians.

Discussion: The Atlantic Online, The Huffington Post, Eschaton, Roger L. Simon, The Anchoress, Air America Radio, Israellycool and Cliff Schecter

Rocky Mountain News:

Documents: Qwest was targeted — 'Classified info' was not allowed at ex-CEO's trial — The National Security Agency and other government agencies retaliated against Qwest because the Denver telco refused to go along with a phone spying program, documents released Wednesday suggest.

Discussion: TalkLeft, The Next Hurrah and The Carpetbagger Report

Marcella Bombardieri / Boston Globe:

Clinton vows to check executive power — Would curb use of signing statements — Senator Hillary Clinton said yesterday that if she is elected president, she intends to roll back President Bush's expansion of executive authority, including his use of presidential signing statements to put …

Discussion: Washington Wire, TigerHawk, Moonbattery, MSNBC and Reason Magazine

FactCheck.org:

Fred's Facts Check Out; Rudy's Don't — Thompson avoids error at his GOP debate debut. But Giuliani commits multiple gaffes. — Former Sen. Fred Thompson got the facts straight for his GOP debate debut Oct. 9. But former Mayor Rudy Giuliani added to a lengthening string of exaggerations and misstatements:

Discussion: Fred File and Liberal Values

David S. Broder / Washington Post:
Another Voice in the Choir

Discussion: Boston Globe, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, The Garlic, The Moderate Voice, MSNBC, The Politico, PrairiePundit and Redstate

C. Onur Ant / Associated Press:

Turkey recalls US ambassador for talks — ANKARA, Turkey - Turkey ordered its ambassador in Washington to return to Turkey for consultations over a U.S. House panel's approval of a bill describing the World War I-era mass killings of Armenians as genocide, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said Thursday.

Discussion: New York Times, PoliBlog (TM), The Young Turks, The Glittering Eye, Outside The Beltway and Central Sanity

Hugh Naylor / New York Times:

Syria Tells Journalists Israeli Raid Did Not Occur — Foreign journalists perused the rows of corn and the groves of date palms pregnant with low-hanging fruit here this week, while agents of Syria's ever-present security services stood in the background, watching closely, almost nervously.

Discussion: Early Warning, Israel Matzav, Yourish.com, Jules Crittenden and QandO

WorldNetDaily:

Giuliani 'doesn't deserve to live' — Terrorists threaten presidential candidate, cite Rudy's war stance, Arafat treatment — Saying Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani "doesn't deserve to live," Palestinian terror leaders are threatening to harm the former New York mayor …

Discussion: Comments from Left Field, The Newshoggers, Israel Matzav, The Van Der Galiën Gazette and PrairiePundit

Brian Faughnan / Weekly Standard:

Four House Democrats No Longer Support the War — Anti-war activists are excited that nearly 90 House Democrats (and Ron Paul) are writing to President Bush to inform him that they will no longer support the war. Actually, that's an exaggeration. FOUR House Democrats have written …

Discussion: Conservative Belle

Glenn Greenwald / Salon:

GLENN GREENWALD: Warrantless eavesdropping and telecom amnesty — There is a lot of debate about what accounts for the decrepit state of our political press, but often overlooked is the sheer sloth and ignorance of journalists, who repeat what they are told without having any idea what they are talking about.

Discussion: TalkLeft