memeorandum: Steynophobia: The Logical Extension of Libel Tourism (Andy McCarthy/The Corner)

9:15 PM ET, December 7, 2007

Top Items:

Whitehouse Reveals Smoking Gun of White House Claiming Not to Be Bound by Any Law — Damn, I love me some Sheldon Whitehouse. He, like, actually knows the law. And he, like, is willing to actually read the stuff he is exercising oversight over. — Which is why this speech he gave today …

Discussion: The Newshoggers, The Reaction, Taylor Marsh, The Atlantic Online, The Carpetbagger Report, Publius Endures, The Heretik and DownWithTyranny!

whitehouse.senate.gov:

In FISA Speech, Whitehouse Sharply Criticizes Bush Administration's Assertion of Executive Power — Washington — , D.C. - U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), a member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, delivered the following remarks on the floor of the U.S. Senate today:

Discussion: MoJoBlog, Threat Level, Crunchy Con and A Tiny Revolution

Faiz / Think Progress:

Sen. Whitehouse Reveals Secret DoJ Legal Memos: Bush Determines What Is Constitutional — This morning, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) delivered an impassioned floor speech to help frame the debate over FISA reform. Using his privilege as a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee …

Discussion: TPMmuckraker and Emptywheel

Michael Hirsh / Newsweek:

Huckabee Surges, Obama Gains in Iowa — The new NEWSWEEK poll shows the former Arkansas governor now has a two-to-one lead over Romney, while Barack improves against Hillary. — Yana Paskova / Getty Images — Looking Up: Huckabee now seems unstoppable in the Iowa caucuses

Discussion: CNN Political Ticker, TPM Election Central, MyDD, The Atlantic Online, Taegan Goddard's …, Democratic Strategist, Boston Globe, Taylor Marsh, Hotline On Call, Political Machine, GreenMountainPolitics1, MSNBC, Mike Huckabee for President, Obama HQ and Open Left

Greg Sargent / TPM Election Central: Edwards Campaign Internal Poll Finds Statistical Tie In Iowa

Mark Mazzetti / New York Times:

Democrats Call for Inquiry in Destruction of Tapes by C.I.A. — Angry Democratic lawmakers called for investigations today into the Central Intelligence Agency's destruction in 2005 of at least two videotapes documenting the interrogation of two Qaeda operatives in the agency's custody.

Discussion: The Atlantic Online, TPMmuckraker, Washington Post, michellemalkin.com, Captain's Quarters, QandO, Democrats.com, Daily Kos, Cheat Seeking Missiles, CNN Political Ticker, Balkinization, The Heretik, Truthdig and JustOneMinute

White House:
Press Briefing by Dana Perino

Discussion: TPMmuckraker, Think Progress, JURIST, Wonkette and New York Times

Mike Allen / The Politico:
House rejects CIA tape-destruction claim

Discussion: Captain's Quarters, TPMmuckraker, The Caucus, The Lede and Salon

Jesse Lee / The Gavel:
Chairman Conyers, Reps. Scott, Delahunt and Nadler Write to Mukasey …

Discussion: Think Progress, kennedy.senate.gov, The Carpetbagger Report, Emptywheel and Associated Press

Eric Kleefeld / TPM Election Central:

Romney Spokesman Won't Say If Atheists Have Place In America — A spokesman for the Mitt Romney campaign is thus far refusing to say whether Romney sees any positive role in America for atheists and other non-believers, after Election Central inquired about the topic yesterday

Discussion: New York Times, Washington Post, Comments from Left Field, Balkinization, MyDD, Outside The Beltway, ECHIDNE OF THE SNAKES, The RBC, The Atlantic Online, The Huffington Post, Scholars and Rogues, Redstate, Washington Monthly, The New Republic, Shakespeare's Sister, The Corner and CNN

Blue Texan / Firedoglake:

Peggy Noonan Admits GOP Is Controlled By Fundies, "Idiots" — Nooner, who's apparently been in a coma for the past 30 years, is shocked, shocked! to find that the GOP's base is a bunch of [flat-earther homophobic] religious bigots. … And why would that be? … You don't say! Goodness, who let them in?

Discussion: RADAMISTO and Liberal Values

Peggy Noonan / Opinion Journal:
Mormon in America — How Mitt Romney came to give The Speech—and how he did.

Discussion: New York Times, Washington Post, The Right's Field, Des Moines Register, TPM Election Central, The American Scene, The Mahablog, Left in the West, Liberal Values, No More Mister Nice Blog, TBogg, Captain's Quarters, Middle Earth Journal, Townhall.com, PoliGazette, The Carpetbagger Report, Sadly, No! and National Review

Lee Harris / TCS Daily:

How and Why Romney Bombed — The Reuters headline said: "Mitt Romney Vows Mormon Church Will Not Run White House." Unfortunately, this time Reuters got its story right. In his long-awaited speech designed to win over conservative evangelicals, Romney actually did say something to this effect …

Discussion: Article VI Blog and Real Clear Politics

Jonathan Martin / Jonathan Martin's Blogs:
The Speech: How is it playing in Iowa?

Discussion: Redstate, New York Times, TownHall Blog and The Fix

Mike Allen / The Politico:

Pelosi calls Cheney swipe undignified — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) says a swipe that Vice President Cheney took at Democratic House leaders is "beneath the dignity of his office." — Capitol Hill was abuzz Thursday with discussion of the vice president's assertion in an interview …

Discussion: Wake up America, Sister Toldjah, The Carpetbagger Report and The Swamp

Satyam / Think Progress:

O'Reilly: Progressive blog readers = 'devil worshippers.' — On Fox News yesterday, Bill O'Reilly let loose on "far-left websites" like DailyKos, stating, "If you read these far-left websites, you're a devil worshipper. You are." O'Reilly's ombudsman responded, "As a journalist, you know better than that."

Discussion: The Newshoggers, Daily Kos and My Two Sense

Ayaan Hirsi Ali / New York Times:

Islam's Silent Moderates — The woman and the man guilty of adultery or fornication, flog each of them with 100 stripes: Let no compassion move you in their case, in a matter prescribed by Allah, if you believe in Allah and the Last Day. (Koran 24:2) — IN the last few weeks …

Discussion: ShrinkWrapped, The Sundries Shack, PoliGazette and A Blog For All

Pamela Bone / The Australian:
Why we stay mute on Islamic sex apartheid

Discussion: The Belmont Club

The Corner: Feminist fatalist — Pamela Bone to Germaine Greer in Melbourne last week:

Mesh / Harvard:

Iran NIE and a prediction — From Stephen Peter Rosen — For the most part, the arguments about the National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Iran have been and will be a debate, not about intelligence, but about Bush foreign policy. But the NIE also provides an opportunity to assess …

Discussion: Los Angeles Times and The Belmont Club

Yaakov Katz / Jerusalem Post:
IDF to show US nuclear data on Iran

Discussion: Guardian, Hot Air, JOSHUAPUNDIT, The Newshoggers, Early Warning, The Strata-Sphere and Israel Matzav

John Distaso / New Hampshire Union Leader:

Site of Barack-Oprah event isn't unionized — MANCHESTER - Barack Obama's presidential campaign deeply concerned organized labor by booking its big rally Sunday with superstar Oprah Winfrey at the Verizon Wireless Arena. — A union representing organized stage hands have been trying unsuccessfully …

Discussion: TalkLeft, ABCNEWS, The Atlantic Online, TPM Election Central and The State

Katharine Q. Seelye / The Caucus:
Not Feeling the Oprah Love

Discussion: The Fix and Don Surber

Daily Mail:

Imam's daughter in hiding after her conversion to Christianity sparked death threats — The daughter of a British imam is living under police protection after receiving death threats from her father for converting to Christianity. — The 31-year-old, whose father is the leader of a mosque in Lancashire …

Discussion: michellemalkin.com, Wolf Howling and Blue Crab Boulevard

KNTV-TV:

Penn Endorses Kucinich For President In SF — Sr. Advisor Confirms Endorsement To NBC11 — Academy Award-winning actor Sean Penn endorsed Dennis Kucinich for president in San Francisco Friday. — Penn made what had been billed as a "major political statement" at San Francisco State University.

Discussion: Little Green Footballs