memeorandum: The Petraeus Curve — Serious success in Iraq is not being recognised as it should be (Alice Miles/Times of London)

1:30 PM ET, November 3, 2007

Top Items:

Musharraf Declares State of Emergency — The Pakistani leader, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, declared a state of emergency tonight, suspending the country's constitution, blacking out all independent television news reports and filling the streets of the capital with hundreds of police and soldiers.

Discussion: Hot Air, The Long War Journal, Eschaton, THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS, The American Street, Prairie Weather, Seeing the Forest and Mercury Rising

Matthew Pennington / Associated Press:

Musharraf declares emergency in Pakistan — ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Gen. Pervez Musharraf declared a state of emergency in Pakistan on Saturday, suspending the constitution, replacing the chief justice before a crucial Supreme Court ruling on his future as president, and cutting communications in the capital.

Discussion: The Newshoggers, TPMCafe blogs, Stop The ACLU, Macsmind, Pajamas Media, New York Times and alphabet city

Ed Morrissey / Captain's Quarters:

Musharraf Declares State Of Emergency — Pervez Musharraf has declared a state of emergency in Pakistan, apparently not content to wait for the Supreme Court decision on his presidential election victory last month. So far, he has given no reason for the declaration, although the military activity …

CNN:

Musharraf declares state of emergency — LAHORE, Pakistan (CNN) — Faced with increasing violence and unrest, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf on Saturday declared a state of emergency, government sources told CNN. — Musharraf issued a provisional constitutional order proclaiming …

Discussion: TalkLeft and The Carpetbagger Report

Washington Post:

Musharraf Declares Emergency Rule in Pakistan — Provisional Constitution Instituted, Leader Expected to Address Nation Saturday — Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf declared emergency rule Saturday, suspending the constitution amid a heavy security presence including armored personnel carriers on the streets of the capital.

Discussion: The Van Der Galiën Gazette and Shakespeare's Sister

ABCNEWS:

Bush Administration Blocked Waterboarding Critic — Former DOJ Official Tested the Method Himself, in Effort to Form Torture Policy — A senior Justice Department official, charged with reworking the administration's legal position on torture in 2004 became so concerned …

Discussion: Think Progress, Crooks and Liars, Baltimore Sun, NION, Macsmind, The Heretik, Harper's and The Blotter

National Review:

The Toughest, Most Effective Web Ad I've Seen This Campaign So Far — It's very rare that I find myself in total agreement with Markos Moulitsas, creator of Daily Kos. But he calls John Edwards' response to Hillary Clinton's "pile-on" video "devastating," and I have to agree.

Discussion: Scared Monkeys, THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS, BitsBlog, Blue Crab Boulevard, Riehl World View, The Jawa Report and Rasmussen Reports

The Big Blog:

Video: Clinton takes on Russert, says letter was no cover-up — "Breathtakingly" misleading. That's what former president Bill Clinton called a question Tim Russert asked his wife at this week's Democratic presidential candidates' debate. And boy was he mad.

Discussion: The Sideshow, The Strata-Sphere, Spin Cycle, Taylor Marsh, Neptunus Lex, Riehl World View and The Corner

Ben Smith / The Politico:
HRC White House papers will go public in 08

Discussion: Captain's Quarters, The Caucus, Let Freedom Ring, New York Times and Washington Post

Alice Miles / Times of London:

The Petraeus Curve — Serious success in Iraq is not being recognised as it should be — Is no news good news or bad news? In Iraq, it seems good news is deemed no news. There has been striking success in the past few months in the attempt to improve security, defeat al-Qaeda sympathisers …

Discussion: Captain's Quarters, Jules Crittenden, Say Anything, The Strata-Sphere, Wake up America, neo-neocon, Don Surber, SWJ Blog, NewsBusters.org, Secular Blasphemy and alphabet city

Michael Powell / New York Times:

Loyal to Kerik, Giuliani Missed Warning Signs — If the rise of Bernard B. Kerik under the mentorship of Rudolph W. Giuliani was meteoric, the speed of his fall was breathtaking. — In December 2004, President Bush nominated Mr. Kerik, a former New York police commissioner, to head the federal Department of Homeland Security.

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, Kiko's House, KnoxViews, The Right's Field, TalkLeft, DownWithTyranny!, rubber hose, MSNBC, Suburban Guerrilla and The Democratic Daily

Gateway Pundit:

Al Qaeda Threatens American Poodle... Libyan leader Gadhafi(?) — Al Qaeda lost in Iraq... Now they've lost their minds. — This image from video released by IntelCenter on Saturday, Nov. 3, 2007 shows a photo of Ayman al-Zawahri as part of an audiotaped speech harshly criticizing Libyan …

Maggie Michael / Associated Press:
Al-Qaida's No. 2 threatens Libya

Discussion: The Jawa Report and Argghhh!

Matt Stoller / Open Left:

The Religious Left Runs Against Porn — I like Tom Perriollo, though I find this diatribe on the common good very annoying. … There's lots of stuff that undermines women's rights, sexual health and 'the common good', from legal economic penalties to cultural norms to the sick gender bias …

Discussion: Eschaton and BitsBlog

Tom Perriello / The Coffee House: Our Culture War on Greed

Josh Marshall / Talking Points Memo:

Dean on Mukasey — Friend of TPM and former Nixon White House Counsel John Dean knows a few things about lawless presidents. He just sent us his thoughts on the now certain confirmation of Judge Mukasey ...

Discussion: the talking dog

Rich Lowry / Real Clear Politics:
The Campaign Against Mukasey

Discussion: The Atlantic Online

New York Times:
Senator Schumer's Statement

Discussion: Los Angeles Times, The Swamp, Balkinization, Democrats.com, The Democratic Daily, Daily Kos, The Washington Note, No More Mister Nice Blog, On Deadline, The Heretik, At-Largely, Wake up America and CNN

Mike Dorning / The Swamp:

Obama: A Clinton-led ticket at best "barely" wins — Barack Obama said Saturday that a ticket led by Sen. Hillary Clinton would be destined to largely repeat the disappointing Democratic performances of 2000 and 2004 and could aspire only to eke out a victory.

Discussion: CNN Political Ticker

kucinich.house.gov:

Kucinich Will Introduce Privileged Resolution To Force Up Or Down Vote On Cheney Impeachment — Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) announced today that he will be offering a privileged resolution on the House floor next week that will bring articles of impeachment against the Vice President, Richard B. Cheney.

Discussion: Booman Tribune, The Impolitic, Middle Earth Journal, Oliver Willis, The Gun Toting Liberal™, The Sleuth, The Influence Peddler, Weasel Zippers, Blue Crab Boulevard, Say Anything, Jules Crittenden and Big Head DC

Michelle Malkin:
Kucinich leads the impeachment circus: Introducing a Cheney …

Discussion: Don Surber

Joshua Keating / FP Passport:

It's official: Putin has just stopped pretending — It's safe to say that no one really expects this December's Russian elections to be a fair contest. All the same, the Kremlin's decision to cut the number of international observers invited by two thirds is a particularly brazen demonstration …

Discussion: Reuters and A Chequer-Board of Nights …