memeorandum: TERROR ON THE TARMAC — If the FBI wants the support … (Annie Jacobsen/Pajamas Media)

5:05 PM ET, November 20, 2007

Top Items:

Marty Griffin / KDKA-TV:

Wounded Soldier: Military Wants Part Of Bonus Back — The U.S. Military is demanding that thousands of wounded service personnel give back signing bonuses because they are unable to serve out their commitments. — To get people to sign up, the military gives enlistment bonuses up to $30,000 in some cases.

Discussion: Shakespeare's Sister, Say Anything, QandO, The Volokh Conspiracy and WTF Is It Now?!?

Carpetbagger / The Carpetbagger Report:

Wounded soldiers asked to return signing bonuses — When Jordan Fox was serving in Iraq, his mother helped organize Operation Pittsburgh Pride, which sends thousands of care packages to U.S. troops from his hometown, which prompted a personal "thank you" from the White House.

Discussion: The Newshoggers, Salon, ECHIDNE OF THE SNAKES, Outside The Beltway, Balloon Juice and Hot Air

Matt / Think Progress: Military demanding bonus pay back from wounded vets.

Mike Allen / The Politico:

McClellan points finger at Bush, Rove — Former White House press secretary Scott McClellan names names in a caustic passage from a forthcoming memoir that accuses President Bush, Karl Rove and Vice President Cheney of being "involved" in his giving the press false information about the CIA leak case.

Discussion: Wonkette, Comments from Left Field and Macsmind

Editor and Publisher:

Scott McClellan's Book Coming in April — Admits Wrongdoing in Clearing Rove and Libby in CIA Leak Case — NEW YORK To no one's surprise in a world where top White House aides with any president eventually write a book about it, former Press Secretary Scott McClellan will be coming out with his volume in April.

Discussion: Firedoglake, The Carpetbagger Report, Booman Tribune, Blog and News Tidbets and The Next Hurrah

Ali / Think Progress:
McClellan's tell-all implicates Bush in Plame scandal.

Discussion: Salon, The Huffington Post, Shakespeare's Sister and Digg

Lyle Denniston / SCOTUSblog:

Court agrees to rule on gun case — After a hiatus of 68 years, the Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to rule on the meaning of the Second Amendment — the hotly contested part of the Constitution that guarantees "a right to keep and bear arms." Not since 1939 has the Court heard …

Discussion: Hot Air, The Volokh Conspiracy, Wizbang, Comments from Left Field, Redstate, A Blog For All, ACSBlog and Daily Kos

David Stout / New York Times:
Justices to Hear Gun Control Case

Discussion: Washington Monthly, The Carpetbagger Report, Betsy's Page and Lone Star Times

Robert Barnes / Washington Post:
High Court to Take D.C. Gun Ban Case

Discussion: Wonkette and Cato-at-liberty

Mark Sherman / Associated Press:
High court to weigh ban on gun ownership

Discussion: michellemalkin.com, Blue Crab Boulevard and Macsmind

Ben Smith / The Politico:

More detail on the controversial Iowa poll — I spoke this morning to a source closely familiar with the details of that Iowa poll that raised eyebrows last week, though he was unable to definitively say who sponsored the poll, and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Discussion: Pollster.com

Big Tent Democrat / TalkLeft:

Why John Edwards Is In Trouble In Iowa — Yesterday, I wrote about John Edwards' slippage in Iowa. Normally, I do not take great stock in polls this far out (yes, it is still too far out to take polls too seriously), especially the famously difficult to poll Iowa Caucus.

Discussion: MyDD, Burnt Orange Report, Daily Kos and Booman Tribune

The Politico:
Rapid response speeds up

Discussion: The Caucus, The Hill, QandO, The Newshoggers, Blue Crab Boulevard, TIME and Washington Post

Gina Kolata / New York Times:

New Stem Cell Method Could Ease Ethical Concerns — Two teams of scientists are reporting today that they turned human skin cells into what appear to be embryonic stem cells without having to make or destroy an embryo — a feat that could quell the ethical debate troubling the field.

Discussion: The New Republic, Political Machine, Hot Air, Buck Naked Politics and The Strata-Sphere

Joseph Bottum / On the Square:
Embryonic Stem Cells and Those Pro-Science Pro-Lifers

Discussion: The Corner, New York Times, The Atlantic Online and Political Machine

Jonah Goldberg / The Corner: The Stem Cell Breakthrough and the "Necessity" of Evil

BBC:
Skin transformed into stem cells

Discussion: The Atlantic Online and Booman Tribune

Martina Stewart / CNN Political Ticker:

Wrestler Ric Flair supporting Mike Huckabee — COLUMBIA, South Carolina (CNN) - In the race for presidential endorsements, Mike Huckabee has the kitschy pop culture celebrity vote on lockdown. — First it was martial arts hero and "Walker, Texas Ranger" star Chuck Norris, who appears with Huckabee in his first TV ad.

Discussion: Washington Post, Galley Slaves, Associated Press, Comments from Left Field, The Hill, The Sundries Shack, Political Machine, The Carpetbagger Report, Wonkette, The American Street, Riehl World View, TPM Election Central, Hotline On Call, Air America Radio and DownWithTyranny!

Jonah Goldberg / Los Angeles Times:

Ron Paul isn't that scary — It's that over-do-gooder Mike Huckabee who should be making conservatives nervous. — As the hopeless but energetic presidential campaign of Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) builds momentum in name recognition, fundraising and cross-ideology appeal, media conservatives are beginning to attack Paul in earnest.

Discussion: Reason Magazine, Publius Endures, TPMCafe blogs and LewRockwell.com Blog

Devin Culclasure / alligator.org:

Protesters arrested at Gonzales speech — In his first appearance at a university since resigning in August, former U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales was met at UF on Monday with a mixture of cheers, boos and scattered interruptions by protesters, two of whom were arrested.

Discussion: St. Petersburg Times, Crooks and Liars, Think Progress, Gateway Pundit, JammieWearingFool, UrbanGrounds, TPMmuckraker, Norwegianity and Weasel Zippers

Jane Hamsher / Firedoglake:
Students Protest Alberto Gonzales At University of Florida Speaking Gig

Discussion: Cliff Schecter

Martina Stewart / CNN Political Ticker:

Poll: Clinton's lead shrinks among New Hampshire Democrats — WASHINGTON (CNN) — Sen. Hillary Clinton's lead among Democratic presidential contenders in New Hampshire has narrowed over the past two months, while New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson bounced back to the low double digits in a CNN/WMUR poll released Tuesday.

Discussion: The Atlantic Online, Taegan Goddard's … and MyDD

Chris Cillizza / The Fix:
Parsing the Polls: Inside the Post/ABC Iowa Survey

Discussion: The Huffington Post, The Mahablog and The Carpetbagger Report

Faiz / Think Progress:

Bush Administration Stokes Fear Of Massive Army Layoffs To Force Congress To Drop Redeployment — The Bush administration is threatening that it will issue furlough notices to up to 150,000 civilian workers at military bases in mid-December if Congress does not approve unrestricted Iraq funding immediately.

Discussion: Firedoglake, Chicago Tribune, The Carpetbagger Report and The American Street

Craig Timberg / Washington Post:

U.N. to Cut Estimate Of AIDS Epidemic — Population With Virus Overstated by Millions — The United Nations' top AIDS scientists plan to acknowledge this week that they have long overestimated both the size and the course of the epidemic, which they now believe has been slowing for nearly a decade …

Discussion: Hot Air, Captain's Quarters, New York Times, Don Surber, NewsBusters.org, All Spin Zone, Blue Crab Boulevard, Say Anything, ScrappleFace, Reason Magazine, Right Voices, Comments from Left Field, BitsBlog, Truthdig and On Deadline

Little Green Footballs:

YouTube: The Jihad-Friendly Video Sharing Network (Update: Convicted Terrorist Opens YouTube Account) — Sheik Faisel Mohammed was convicted of incitement to murder and stirring up racial hatred in Britain, and deported back to his native Jamaica. — And today we've discovered that Yousef al-Khattab …

Discussion: Gateway Pundit and The Jawa Report

Jazz / Middle Earth Journal:

The Mystery Surrounding TSA Systems Radiation Detectors — Note — Jazz will be discussing this with Ed Morrissey on Heading Right Radio. — We've been doing a bit of background research here at MEJ, and a story that started out looking like yet another case of taxpayer dollars …

Discussion: Washington Post, Captain's Quarters, Heading Right, ePluribus Media Community and Sweetness & Light

Michael Calderone / The Politico:

At White House behest, NYT sat on scoop — When the New York Times published a front page story Sunday about the United States' and Pakistan's joint clandestine efforts to protect nuclear weapons, the newspaper offered a glimpse into a "highly classified program" the Bush administration long objected to seeing in print.

Discussion: About.com US Politics