memeorandum: Bush to Warn Cuba on Plan for Transition (Ginger Thompson/New York Times)

1:45 PM ET, October 24, 2007

Top Items:

David Lightman / McClatchy Washington Bureau:

Bush is the biggest spender since LBJ — WASHINGTON — George W. Bush, despite all his recent bravado about being an apostle of small government and budget-slashing, is the biggest spending president since Lyndon B. Johnson. In fact, he's arguably an even bigger spender than LBJ.

Discussion: The Carpetbagger Report, Watching Those We Chose, The Van Der Galiën Gazette, The Swamp, The Gun Toting Liberal™, Balloon Juice, Prairie Weather, The Heretik, Hot Air, Day In, Day Out, On Deadline and Daily Pundit

Ed Morrissey / Captain's Quarters: Big Spender From Out West

Glenn Greenwald / Salon:

Chris Dodd's leadership vs. Clinton and Obama's game playing — (updated below) — Chris Dodd appeared yesterday for a speech and Q&A session sponsored by FireDogLake regarding his commitment to doing everything possible to prevent telecom amnesty. It can be viewed in its entirety here.

Atrios / Eschaton:

Senatorial Mush — Chris Dodd has put out a simple position: he'll do what's in his power to stop any bill which gives telecom companies retroactive immunity for their Bush administration sanctioned law breaking. In contrast, Obama and Clinton have put out mush. — Greenwald:

Discussion: Firedoglake, Hullabaloo, Lawyers, Guns and Money and Election Central

Jonathan Turley / Los Angeles Times:
Mukasey's confirmation: a vote about torture

Discussion: The Reaction

Craig Franklin / Christian Science Monitor:

MEDIA MYTHS ABOUT THE JENA 6 — A local journalist tells the story you haven't heard. — Republish — JENA, LA. - By now, almost everyone in America has heard of Jena, La., because they've all heard the story of the "Jena 6." White students hanging nooses barely punished …

Discussion: Captain's Quarters, The Corner, Never Yet Melted, Sister Toldjah, Media Blog, NewsBusters.org, Bookworm Room, The Sundries Shack, Bill Hobbs and Sadly, No!

Jules Crittenden:

Double-Reverse Chickendove — To paraphrase some Marine wag in Ramadi ... Tom Friedman isn't at war, the Marine Corps is at war. The Army is at war. Tom Friedman's at Neiman Marcus: … Actually, Iraq is more like a tortured, politically traumatized nation of 25 million people desperate …

Discussion: Cold Fury

Thomas L. Friedman / New York Times:

Remember Iraq — Boy, am I glad we finally got out of Iraq. It was so painful waking up every morning and reading the news from there. It's just such a relief to have it out of mind and behind us. — Huh? Say what? You say we're still there? But how could that be — nobody in Washington is talking about it anymore?

Discussion: Weekly Standard, Confederate Yankee, The Atlantic Online, Cato-at-liberty, The Jawa Report and Middle Earth Journal

Fred File:

Democrats' DREAM Act is a Nightmare — Coyotes are the men who prey on illegal aliens, helping illegal immigrants return to the U.S. over our southern border, sometimes after these immigrants have been deported, two, even three or more times. Apparently our Democratic friends in Congress …

Discussion: Captain's Quarters, SCSUScholars, USA Today, The Corner, Neocon News, Daily Pundit, Power Line, cis.org, Day In, Day Out, A Blog For All, The Gun Toting Liberal™ and michellemalkin.com

Rasmussen Reports:

Comedian Colbert Reaches Double Digits As Third-Party Candidate — Comedian Stephen Colbert is not a threat to win the presidency, but the odds are that that his satire will win plenty of laughs and maybe even some votes. — A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that Colbert …

Discussion: Hot Air, Open Left, Rasmussen Reports and Power Line

John Bresnahan / The Politico:

Blue Dogs refuse to pony up for DCCC — A large group of "Blue Dog" Democrats has refused to give money to the party's campaign committee so far this cycle, underscoring simmering tension inside the Caucus and concerns about the caustic language of at least one anti-war Democrat.

Discussion: Weekly Standard, Eschaton and Wake up America

Kevin Drum / Washington Monthly:

RUDY AWAKENING....What would Rudy Giuliani be like as president? In our November issue, Rachel Morris looks for the answer by digging around in the nooks and crannies of his two terms as mayor of New York City. Here's an excerpt: … Choosing the best presidential candidate among the 2008 contenders is a tough job.

Discussion: Corrente, The Washington Note, Lance Mannion and Angry Bear

Rachel Morris / Washington Monthly:
As president, Giuliani would grab even more executive power than Bush and Cheney.

Discussion: The Atlantic Online

Matt / Think Progress:

O'Reilly: J.K. Rowling Is A 'Provocateur' For 'The Gay Agenda' Of 'Indoctrination' — Last Friday, Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling revealed that one of the central characters in the series, Hogwarts headmaster Albus Dumbledore, was gay. Though Rowling says her books are a …

Discussion: The People's Republic …

Ginger Thompson / New York Times:

Bush to Warn Cuba on Plan for Transition — President Bush is planning to issue a stern warning Wednesday that the United States will not accept a political transition in Cuba in which power changes from one Castro brother to another, rather than to the Cuban people.

Discussion: Comments from Left Field, Lawyers, Guns and Money, Washington Post, MSNBC and The Gate

Aljazeera:

Palestinian 'torture widespread' — Amnesty International has accused Hamas and Fatah of widespread human rights abuses, including torture, arbitrary detention and other ill treatment against each other. — The rights watchdog on Wednesday released a report criticising the Palestinian governments …

Discussion: A Blog For All, Israel Matzav and Say Anything

Michael Luo / New York Times:

Romney's Slip of Tongue Blurs Osama and Obama — Senator Barack Obama rallying a global terror movement? Mitt Romney might have still been a bit bleary-eyed on Tuesday morning when he twice confused Mr. Obama with Osama bin Laden when referring to the latter's new recorded message for jihadists to fight in Iraq.

Discussion: Boston Globe, Macsmind, The Atlantic Online and UrbanGrounds

Telegraph:

Sept 11 'not that terrible' says Doris Lessing — Doris Lessing, the Nobel Prize-winning British author, has called the attacks on New York on Sept 11, 2001, "not that terrible", compared to the campaign of terror waged by the IRA in the UK. — Lessing, 88, who won the Nobel Prize …

Discussion: Death and normblog

Los Angeles Times:

Clinton's White House years become a boon — Democratic voters are looking favorably on her experience as first lady, even on her failed healthcare effort, a poll finds. — WASHINGTON — Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton has neutralized the political fallout from some of the most difficult moments …