memeorandum: Edwards has clear vision for America (valleynewstoday.com)

3:20 PM ET, December 7, 2007

Top Items:

Faith vs. the Faithless — Jon Meacham is the editor of Newsweek and the author of "American Gospel," which describes the history of religious liberty in the United States. Richard John Neuhaus is the editor in chief of First Things and the author of "The Naked Public Square," …

Discussion: Washington Post, The Atlantic Online, ECHIDNE OF THE SNAKES, Outside The Beltway, Redstate, No More Mister Nice Blog, MyDD, Unfogged, The Corner, The New Republic, The RBC, Balloon Juice and Middle Earth Journal

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: The Huffington Post, The New Republic, Washington Monthly and CNN

Peggy Noonan / Opinion Journal:

Mormon in America — How Mitt Romney came to give The Speech—and how he did. — Did Mitt Romney have to give a speech on religion? Yes. When you're in a race so close you could lose due to one issue, your Mormonism, you must address the issue of your Mormonism.

Discussion: Firedoglake, Captain's Quarters, Des Moines Register, Townhall.com, National Review, The Carpetbagger Report, Liberal Values, Sadly, No! and Los Angeles Times

E. J. Dionne Jr / Washington Post:
Boldness, Watered Down — It's not easy being a politician …

Discussion: New York Times, Time, Boston Globe, New York Times, democracyarsenal.org, Stumper, Liberal Values, Vox Popoli and Real Clear Politics

Washington Post:
No Freedom Without Religion?

Discussion: Scholars and Rogues, National Review, TIME and The Corner

The Atlantic Online:

Start Snitchin' — How, you wonder, does the CIA get away with something like destroying video evidence of illegal activity? Surely there's some congressional oversight. Well, as it turns out, there sort of is: Senator Jay Rockefeller and Rep. Jane Harman knew some of what was going on …

Discussion: TPMmuckraker, Corrente and Balkinization

Ed Morrissey / Captain's Quarters:
CIA Channels Rose Mary Woods (Updated & Bumped)

Discussion: Power Line, Washington Post, Think Progress, The Moderate Voice, The Blotter, TIME: Swampland, A Blog For All, Right Voices, Outside The Beltway, Right Wing Nut House and Prairie Weather

Spencer Ackerman / TPMmuckraker:
Harman Was Told of Torture Tapes in 2003, Gives No Specifics

Discussion: Prairie Weather and Ezra Klein

Faiz / Think Progress:
Hayden: Destruction Of Tapes Was 'In Line With The Law' Because …

Discussion: CNN Political Ticker, The Huffington Post, New York Times and The Reaction

Michelle Malkin:
The CIA's destroyed interrogation videos, what the Dems knew, and when

Discussion: Hot Air, The Atlantic Online, Sister Toldjah, Sadly, No!, The Sundries Shack, Comments from Left Field, Harper's, The Carpetbagger Report, Shakespeare's Sister and Macsmind

Marty Lederman / Balkinization:
Where's Rose Mary Woods When You Need Her?

Discussion: TPMmuckraker, Salon, Emptywheel, Associated Press, JustOneMinute, The Opinionator, War in Context and the talking dog

Yaakov Katz / Jerusalem Post:

IDF to show US nuclear data on Iran — Disappointed after failing to make their case on Iran and influence the outcome of the United States's National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) released this week, Military Intelligence will present its hard core evidence on the Islamic Republic's nuclear program …

Discussion: Early Warning, The Strata-Sphere and Israel Matzav

Yossi Klein Halevi / The New Republic:

An Insult to Intelligence — The Israeli defense community responds to the NIE. — Since the early 1990s, when Israel first began preparing for a possible military strike against Iran's nuclear program, its security establishment has been divided not about the threat Iran posed …

Discussion: TPMmuckraker, The Atlantic Online and normblog

Guardian:

Their own worst enemies — When Muslim groups try to silence the press, they live up to the most negative prejudices about Islam — Nothing sets back the eradication of Islamophobia more than Muslim groups' crying wolf against inaccurate punditry. — The latest instance of this is in Canada.

Discussion: The Corner and Dean's World

The Corner:
Steynophobia — Late yesterday I stumbled across an article about a …

Discussion: lfpress.ca and DBKP

NY Daily News:

Judith Nathan got security earlier — Judith Nathan got taxpayer-funded chauffeur services from the NYPD earlier than previously disclosed - even before her affair with then-Mayor Rudy Giuliani was revealed, witnesses and sources tell the Daily News. — "It went on for months before the affair …

Discussion: TPMmuckraker, Talking Points Memo, New York Sun, Jonathan Martin's Blogs, TalkLeft, Boston Globe, Spin Cycle, The Rude Pundit, The Carpetbagger Report, PoliBlog (TM), Raw Story Breaking News and Betsy's Page

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: PoliGazette, Little Green Footballs, ShrinkWrapped and A Blog For All

Washington Post:

Senate Waives Pledge, Approves Tax Bill — Eleven months after adopting stringent new rules aimed at reining in the federal deficit, the Senate last night shrugged off its pledge of fiscal rectitude and overwhelmingly approved a measure to spare millions of families from the growing reach …

Discussion: New York Times, Middle Earth Journal, NewsBusters.org, Heading Right, Wake up America, Redstate, The Carpetbagger Report, Blue Crab Boulevard, Captain's Quarters and Firedoglake

Kevin Drum / Washington Monthly:
THE GREAT AMT DEBATE....Over at The Corner, David Freddoso writes:

Discussion: The Corner, Associated Press and Ezra Klein

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 …

The Washington Post / The Trail:

For Some, Negative Turn is a Turn-Off — DES MOINES — Once, Garry Thomas counted himself a Hillary Clinton supporter — even signing up to be one of her 25 co-chairs in Iowa alongside with former Iowa First Lady Christie Vilsack. — But Thomas now says he felt obliged to switch sides in recent weeks.

Discussion: The New Republic, The Carpetbagger Report, Riehl World View, Blue Crab Boulevard, Ben Smith's Blogs and TIME: Swampland

Tom Tancredo / MiamiHerald.com:

Why I won't do Spanish debate — I declined the invitation to participate in the Spanish-language Republican presidential debate on Sunday because I do not want to endorse the further Balkanization of American political life. — The debate is being sponsored by Univisión …

Discussion: The Corner, Booman Tribune, UrbanGrounds, Outside The Beltway and rubber hose

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: Blue Crab Boulevard

valleynewstoday.com:

Edwards has clear vision for America — Over the next few months, newspapers all over the country will offer their arguments about which political candidates deserve your support and why. With the war in Iraq still raging and domestic problems like health care and poverty now at the forefront …

Discussion: Washington Wire, John Edwards for President and Boston Globe

Media Matters for America:

"Media Matters"; by Jamison Foser — Every so often, a political reporter will lament the sorry state of the profession and its proclivity toward shallow, substance-free news reports that devote more attention to the horse race than to health care. — These lamentations often share certain …

Alan Fram / Associated Press:

Huckabee Second in National GOP Race — WASHINGTON (AP) — Mike Huckabee has vaulted from nowhere into second place in the Republican presidential race, riding a burst of support from evangelicals, Southerners and conservatives, a poll showed Friday. — The upsurge by the former Arkansas governor …

Discussion: USA Today, Ben Smith's Blogs, Outside The Beltway, Wall Street Journal and Pollster.com