memeorandum: Spooks refuse to toe Cheney's line on Iran (Gareth Porter/Asia Times)

12:40 PM ET, November 11, 2007

Top Items:

Musharraf Releases Highest Ranking Taliban Ever Captured — Parvez Musharraf needs more militants to militate against in order to affirm the presence of his totalitarian military in Pakistan's civilian sphere. As I noted in my article Pakistan, Prince of Denmark, this means that Musharraf …

Discussion: The Moderate Voice and Middle Earth Journal

Newsweek.com:

While Pakistan Burns — If you think Musharraf's wrong to free jailed Taliban members while he busts dissidents, wait until you hear who's back on the loose. — Pakistani lawyers, human-rights activists and opposition-party members can scarcely ignore the irony of their situation …

Discussion: The American Street and Macsmind

New York Times:

Obama and Clinton Duel for Iowa Democrats — In back-to-back speeches Saturday before thousands of Iowa Democrats, Senator Barack Obama pointedly suggested that Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton was running a "poll-driven campaign" out of fear of what Republicans might say about her in a general election.

Discussion: The Politico, The Swamp, CNN Political Ticker and Althouse

Ben Smith / The Politico:
Clinton, Obama offer contrasting visions

Discussion: The Caucus, Taylor Marsh and CNN Political Ticker

Marist Poll:
New Hampshire Presidential Primary

Discussion: The Carpetbagger Report, Pollster.com and MyDD

New York Times:

Abdicate and Capitulate — It is extraordinary how President Bush has streamlined the Senate confirmation process. As we have seen most recently with the vote to confirm Michael Mukasey as attorney general, about all that is left of "advice and consent" is the "consent" part.

Discussion: AMERICAblog, Tennessee Guerilla Women, Instapundit.com and The Heretik

Frank Rich / New York Times:

The Coup at Home — AS Gen. Pervez Musharraf arrested judges, lawyers and human-rights activists in Pakistan last week, our Senate was busy demonstrating its own civic mettle. Chuck Schumer and Dianne Feinstein, liberal Democrats from America's two most highly populated blue states …

Discussion: Jules Crittenden, Connecting.the.Dots, JammieWearingFool, Outside The Beltway, Bark Bark Woof Woof, Time, All Spin Zone, The Heretik, The Moderate Voice, Balkinization and Prairie Weather

New York Times:

This Is Your Brain on Politics — This article was written by Marco Iacoboni, Joshua Freedman and Jonas Kaplan of the University of California, Los Angeles, Semel Institute for Neuroscience; Kathleen Hall Jamieson of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania …

Discussion: Donklephant, Prairie Weather and TigerHawk

Paul Krugman:

Innocent mistakes — So there's a campaign on to exonerate Ronald Reagan from the charge that he deliberately made use of Nixon's Southern strategy. When he went to Philadelphia, Mississippi, in 1980, the town where the civil rights workers had been murdered, and declared that …

Discussion: The Carpetbagger Report and bustardblog

Patrick French / Daily Mail:

The surprising truth about Rage Boy, America's hated poster-boy of Islamic radicalism — Don't you hate Islamic Rage Boy? 'MoBlows', writing on the Jihad Watch website, certainly does. — "I just want to put my fist down his throat," he says. The 'boy' in question rose to prominence earlier …

Discussion: Six Meat Buffet and Jihad Watch

Gareth Porter / Asia Times:

Spooks refuse to toe Cheney's line on Iran — WASHINGTON - The US National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Iran has been held up for more than a year in an effort to force the intelligence community to remove dissenting judgments on the Iranian nuclear program.

Discussion: Middle Earth Journal and MoJoBlog

Aaron Bruns / Cameron's Corner:

Another Question Planted by Team Hillary? — From Major Garrett, a Fox News Exclusive: — In a telephone interview with Fox, Geoffrey Mitchell, 32, says he was approached by an operative for the Clinton campaign to ask a planted question about standing up to President Bush on Iraq war funding.

Discussion: Doug Ross, The Strata-Sphere, Don Surber and JammieWearingFool

Eloise Harper / ABCNEWS:
Another Question Planted by Clinton Campaign

Discussion: The Van Der Galiën Gazette, Outside The Beltway, Middle Earth Journal, NewsBusters.org, Captain's Quarters, Don Surber and The Belmont Club

Scott Helman / Boston Globe:

Romney, Clinton ahead, vulnerable in N.H. poll — Race still open, analysts say — Republican Mitt Romney and Democrat Hillary Clinton remain the clear front-runners in the New Hampshire presidential primary, but both have vulnerabilities that could erode their support among voters in the weeks ahead …

Discussion: Pollster.com

Matthew Hickley / Daily Mail:

The uninvited guest: Chinese sub pops up in middle of U.S. Navy exercise, leaving military chiefs red-faced — When the U.S. Navy deploys a battle fleet on exercises, it takes the security of its aircraft carriers very seriously indeed. — At least a dozen warships provide a physical guard …

Discussion: Environmental Republican, The Gun Toting Liberal™, Doug Ross, Hot Air, Never Yet Melted, A Blog For All, The Agonist, Riehl World View, Blue Crab Boulevard, The Liberal Avenger and A NEWT ONE

Annie Jacobsen / The Aviation Nation:

Police Report: American Airlines Flight 590 — Sources inside American Airlines tell me that the airline has no intention of settling last week's lawsuit filed in U.S. district court. David Al-Watan, Talal Cholagh, Ali Alzerej, Hassan Alzerej, Hussein Alsalih and Mohammad Al-Saedy are seeking …

Robert / Jihad Watch:

"Pure Islam" and Michael van der Galiën — Michael van der Galiën is a 23-year-old American Studies student at the Rijksuniversiteit Groningen in the Netherlands, and correspondent in the Netherlands for Pajamas Media. In a post entitled "Islamic Law and Violence," …

Discussion: THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS