memeorandum: What the New Atheists Don't See — To regret religion is to regret Western civilization. (City Journal)

2:35 PM ET, October 29, 2007

Top Items:

Jay Newton-Small / Time:

Huckabee Surges, Edwards Fades — The latest still photo from the slow motion, inter-party electoral horse race known as Iowa is in — and it looks like John Edwards is losing steam on the Democratic side while Mike Huckabee is charging at the GOP frontrunners.

Discussion: Pollster.com, MSNBC, MoJoBlog, Outside The Beltway, The Carpetbagger Report, The Caucus, Liberal Values, MyDD, Donklephant and The Plank

University of Iowa News Services:

UI Hawkeye Poll: Huckabee gaining; Clinton and Obama battling for top spot — Mitt Romney continues to hold a strong lead in Iowa among candidates seeking the Republican presidential nomination. But Mike Huckabee's Iowa numbers — buoyed, perhaps, by growing support among Evangelical Christians …

Discussion: The Swamp, Washington Wire, The Corner, skippy the bush kangaroo, The Page, The Atlantic Online, Pollster.com, The Stump, TIME: Swampland, Boston Globe and Lynn Sweet

Robin Abcarian / Los Angeles Times:

Polls don't reflect Obama's star power — The Democrat creates a stir wherever he goes, but runs far behind Clinton nationally. Some observers are puzzled; others say he's too gentle. — DES MOINES — Hutton Street, a modest, racially mixed working-class neighborhood on the city's east side …

Discussion: Captain's Quarters, PoliBlog (TM), Bookworm Room, The Caucus, The Stump, Outside The Beltway and Cliff Schecter

Hillary Clinton / Journalism.org:

THE INVISIBLE PRIMARY—INVISIBLE NO LONGER — A First Look at Coverage of the 2008 Presidential Campaign — In the early months of the 2008 presidential campaign, the media had already winnowed the race to mostly five candidates and offered Americans relatively little information …

Discussion: New York Times, Taylor Marsh, techPresident, Democratic Strategist, Hot Air, Think On These Things, The Van Der Galiën Gazette and Romenesko

Bluto / The Dread Pundit Bluto:

Full Text of Email Reveals Greenwald Mischaracterizations — Welcome, fellow minions of the lgf New World Odor — Glenn Greenwald, as he had promised in his post at Salon, has forwarded the email he says he received from Colonel Steven A. Boylan, Public Affairs Officer for General Petraeus.

Discussion: The Jawa Report, Salon, Wake up America, Bookworm Room, Take Our Country Back, Little Green Footballs, Wizbang, Classical Values, Ezra Klein, A Second Hand Conjecture, The Atlantic Online and The Van Der Galiën Gazette

Jules Crittenden:
UPDATE MCMLXVIII — The plot has thickened in Boylangate …

Discussion: protein wisdom, Blue Crab Boulevard and Weasel Zippers

M.E. Sprengelmeyer / Rocky Mountain News:

Tancredo says he's leaving Congress — Even if he loses his long-shot bid for the White House, Rep. Tom Tancredo will be leaving the U.S. House of Representatives at the end of 2008. — Tancredo, 61 , waited until after the Colorado Rockies' last out of the World Series on Sunday night …

Discussion: Captain's Quarters, MyDD, The Carpetbagger Report, Reason Magazine, Swing State Project, Redstate, Political Radar, ImmigrationProf Blog, Hot Air, PoliBlog (TM) and Mercury Rising

Club for Growth:

Ron Paul's Record on Economic Issues … Ron Paul: The Perfect as the Enemy of the Good — Taxes … Ron Paul's record on taxes is excellent, epitomized by his rallying cry for phasing out the IRS[1]. A strong believer in the economic benefits of tax cuts, he declared in a 2006 article …

Discussion: Suitably Flip

The Corner:
Ron Paul and Alex Jones

Discussion: Hot Air

Brad Friedman / The BRAD BLOG:

EXCLUSIVE: FBI Whistleblower Sibel Edmonds Will Now Tell All - and Face Charges if Necessary - to Any Major Television Network That Will Let Her — Attention CBS 60 Minutes: we've got a huge scoop for you. If you want it. — Remember the exclusive story you aired on Sibel Edmonds …

Discussion: Booman Tribune, The Agonist, CANNONFIRE and The American Street

Daily Mail:

Record numbers go abroad for health treatment with 70,000 escaping NHS — Record numbers of Britons are travelling abroad for medical treatment to escape the NHS - with 70,000 patients expected to fly out this year. — And by the end of the decade 200,000 "health tourists" …

Discussion: protein wisdom, michellemalkin.com, Captain's Quarters, Weekly Standard, Take Our Country Back, Hot Air, Liberal Values, The Van Der Galiën Gazette, The Newshoggers, Blue Crab Boulevard, Times of London, Right Wing News, Macsmind, BitsBlog, Don Surber, Outside The Beltway, Stop The ACLU and Fausta's blog

Rick Jacobs / The Huffington Post:

Ann Coulter: On the Gay Circuit in West Hollywood — We had dinner last night at Murano, a new West Hollywood restaurant, owned by gay circuit party promoter Jeffrey Sanker, and lesbian night club owners Robin Gans and Sandy Sachs. It's a visually stunning space, straight lines …

Discussion: The Newshoggers, Gawker, Wonkette, DownWithTyranny! and The American Mind

Studs Terkel / New York Times:

The Wiretap This Time — EARLIER this month, the Senate Intelligence Committee and the White House agreed to allow the executive branch to conduct dragnet interceptions of the electronic communications of people in the United States. They also agreed to "immunize" American telephone companies …

Discussion: The Reaction, The American Street and Brian Beutler

John Fund / Opinion Journal:

'Fairness' Is Foul — Liberals vs. the First Amendment. — It wasn't that hard for Indiana's Rep. Mike Pence to build media and congressional support for his Free Flow of Information Act, which would protect the confidentiality of contacts between reporters and sources.

Discussion: The Van Der Galiën Gazette, Blue Crab Boulevard and Overlawyered

John Aravosis / AMERICAblog:

Obama campaign spokesman blasts gays at Gospel concert; white preacher and Obama say nothing — UPDATE: Per the NYT, the anti-gay activist turned the entire final half hour of the concert into an anti-gay harangue: … Surprise, surprise, surprise. Obama's anti-gay religious right activist used …

Discussion: Open Left, The Caucus, MoJoBlog, Norwegianity, Main and Central, CNN Political Ticker, DownWithTyranny!, Shakespeare's Sister, The Van Der Galiën Gazette, Slog and The Stump

Ralph Z. Hallow / Washington Times:

Huckabee stirs up third-party fear — A bitter fight is taking place behind the scenes over Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee. — Influential conservatives are clashing over whether Mr. Huckabee is capable of keeping evangelicals from fleeing the GOP to form a third party …

Discussion: Big Head DC, Associated Press, The Stump, CNN Political Ticker, Dick Polman's American Debate and TIME