memeorandum: What is Mechanism Design? — Explaining the research that won … (Alex Tabarrok/Reason)

1:25 PM ET, October 16, 2007

Top Items:

The Real Iraq We Knew — Today marks five years since the authorization of military force in Iraq, setting Operation Iraqi Freedom in motion. Five years on, the Iraq war is as undermanned and under-resourced as it was from the start. And, five years on, Iraq is in shambles.

Jules Crittenden:

12 Captains — With an alarmingly poor grasp of political and military realities in Iraq and the United States weigh in with the following at the Washington Post: … It would be far quicker, cheaper and less politically traumatic to simple expand the military, and offer financial incentives to boost enlistment.

Discussion: PrairiePundit and RADAMISTO

Looseheadprop / Firedoglake:

Breaking News: Hillary Pledges to End War "Immediately" Upon Taking Office — Every year I go to a fundraiser luncheon sponsored by group called Eleanor Roosevelt's Legacy Committee. It's a group that raises money, recruits and trains Democratic women candidates and give campaign grants to those running in New York.

Discussion: Washington Monthly, The Sideshow and The Jawa Report

Confederate Yankee:
Thanks For the History Lesson

Discussion: Balloon Juice, TBogg and Michael Yon

Ed Morrissey / Captain's Quarters: 'Knew' Being The Operative Word

Barooosk / Talking Radio:

Randi Rhodes is the Victim of a Violent Attack — Updated on October 16 at 8:50 AM PDT. Update set in bold face italics — Randi Rhodes was mugged on Sunday night on 39th Street and Park Ave, nearby her Manhattan apartment, while she was walking her dog Simon.

Joe Gandelman / The Moderate Voice:
Progressive Talk Show Host Randi Rhodes Badly Beaten In Street Attack

Discussion: Crooks and Liars

Greg Sargent / Horses Mouth:

McConnell Aide Acknowledges That He Tried To Spread Bogus Smear Of Graeme Frost — Check this out: An aide to GOP leader Mitch McConnell has acknowledged in an interview with Kentucky's Courier-Journal that he actively sought to alert reporters to the wingnut smearing of 12-year-old SCHIP posterkid Graeme Frost:

Discussion: Think Progress, Firedoglake, Balloon Juice and Daily Kos

James R. Carroll / Courier-Journal:

McConnell aide shared blog tips — WASHINGTON — Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's spokesman acknowledged yesterday that he alerted reporters last week to questions bloggers raised about the financial circumstances of a 12-year-old boy Democrats had used to urge passage of an expanded children's health insurance program.

Discussion: Horses Mouth, Crooks and Liars, Death, Wake up America, USA Today, TIME: Swampland, Washington Post, Balloon Juice and Captain's Quarters

Los Angeles Times:

Retirement season hits GOP hard — PACKING UP: Rep. Ray LaHood, shown in 2005, is to retire next year. "I don't like being in the minority," he said. "It's not that much fun, and the prospects for the future don't look that good." — In 2008, Republicans look certain to be defending …

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Richmond Times-Dispatch, The Reaction, The Democratic Daily, Shakespeare's Sister and Left in the West

David Brooks / New York Times:
A Still, Small Voice

Discussion: skippy the bush kangaroo, The Corner, Brian Beutler, JoeTrippi.com and bustardblog

Bill Schneider / CNN:
Retirements may put House out of GOP's reach

Discussion: DownWithTyranny! and The Newshoggers

Nick Pisa / Daily Mail:

Is this Pope John Paul II waving from beyond the grave? Vatican TV director says yes — This fiery figure is being hailed as Pope John Paul II making an appearance beyond the grave. — The image, said by believers to show the Holy Father with his right hand raised in blessing …

Discussion: Shakespeare's Sister, Cliff Schecter, The World Wide Rant and Truthdig

Jeffrey M. Jones / Gallup Poll:

After Nobel, Support for Gore Presidential Bid Remains Limited — Gore's favorable rating improves to 58% in new poll — PRINCETON, NJ — Former Vice President Al Gore has added the Nobel Peace Prize to the collection of awards he has won this year, which also includes an Academy Award and an Emmy.

Discussion: USA Today, The Swamp and Pollster.com

Cal Thomas / Real Clear Politics:
Global Warming: Conservatives' Opportunity

Discussion: PrairiePundit and She Flies With Her Own Wings

Media Matters for America:

Limbaugh says he told journalist writing story on him: "[W]e're going to find out where your kids go to school" — During the October 15 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show, Rush Limbaugh claimed to have "once" participated in the kind of "destructive reporting and behavior" that, according to him, reporters "dish out."

Thomas Sowell / Real Clear Politics:

Sabotage in Wartime — With all the problems facing this country, both in Iraq and at home, why is Congress spending time trying to pass a resolution condemning the massacre of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire nearly a century ago? — Make no mistake about it, that massacre of hundreds of thousands …

Discussion: Power Line, Hot Air, New York Sun, The Newshoggers, BitsBlog, Gateway Pundit, Dr. Sanity, PrairiePundit, TigerHawk, Middle Earth Journal and The Corner

Ellen Nakashima / Washington Post:

Verizon Says It Turned Over Data Without Court Orders — Firm's Letter to Lawmakers Details Government Requests — Verizon Communications, the nation's second-largest telecom company, told congressional investigators that it has provided customers' telephone records to federal authorities …

Debbie Schlussel / New York Post:

BORDER COP BUNGLES — JULIE Myers, the head of the U.S. Immigration and Cus toms Enforcement agency (ICE), is set to deliver tonight's keynote address in Dearborn, Mich., to a group that honors lax judges - including ones who interfere with enforcement of our immigration laws.

Discussion: Little Green Footballs, michellemalkin.com, Take Our Country Back and Debbie Schlussel

Zuzu / Feministe:

When is rape at gunpoint not rape? When it's "theft of services." — UPDATE 2: Mike in comments has provided a link to the Complaint form for the Pennsylvania Jucidial Conduct Board. Once again, be polite, and be sure to follow the instructions. Thanks.

Discussion: Group News Blog and Shakespeare's Sister

Nicole Belle / Crooks and Liars:

The Wørd: Al Gore's Resource Hogging — Stephen Colbert looks at Al Gore's recent Nobel win and rather ingeniously suggests that all the Gore Derangement Syndrome may be disguising Gore's guilt in hogging the most precious resource of all: good will and the global prizescape.

The Board:

Dianne Feinstein's Vote for a Judge Has Civil Rights Groups Asking "Why?" — Mississippi Judge Leslie Southwick, whose record includes decisions that have been labeled anti-black and anti-gay, is just the sort of Bush judicial nominee everyone thought would be blocked when Democrats retook the Senate.

Discussion: Prairie Weather and ACSBlog