memeorandum: Jesus Rode A Dinosaur — In Space! [Updated] (Gavin M./Sadly, No!)

1:05 AM ET, December 11, 2007

Top Items:

Security Guard: 'God Guided Me And Protected Me' — Jeanne Assam Stopped Gunman At New Life Church — COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Jeanne Assam appeared before the news media for the first time Monday and said she "did not think for a minute to run away" when a gunman entered the New Life Church …

Discussion: Of Arms and the Law, QandO, No More Mister Nice Blog, KUSA-TV, Vox Popoli, The World Wide Rant, BLACKFIVE, Jules Crittenden, Gateway Pundit, Instapundit.com, The Moderate Voice, Patterico's Pontifications, DBKP and Associated Press

Hindrocket / Power Line:

SPEAKING OF HATE CRIMES... The man who shot up a training center for missionaries and a church in suburban Denver, killing four people and wounding a number of others, has been identified: … It is perhaps worth noting that the toll in Sunday's shootings exceeded the combined total in all …

Discussion: TBogg, Sadly, No! and Right Voices

Tom McGhee / Denver Post:
Church gunman "hated Christians"

Discussion: The Sundries Shack, Hot Air and JammieWearingFool

CNN:
Source: One gunman responsible for Colorado shootings

Discussion: Lone Star Times, KnoxViews and Joe's Crabby Shack

Kieran Nicholson / Denver Post:
Vet lauds female guard who felled gunman

Discussion: Patterico's Pontifications and michellemalkin.com

Alan Gathright / Rocky Mountain News:
Gunman sent 'hate mail' to Arvada missionary center

Discussion: New York Times and TalkLeft

ABCNEWS:

Coming in From the Cold: CIA Spy Calls Waterboarding Necessary But Torture — Former Agent Says the Enhanced Technique Was Used on Al Qaeda Chief Abu Zubaydah — A leader of the CIA team that captured and interrogated the first major al Qaeda figure, Abu Zubaydah, says subjecting him to waterboarding was torture but necessary.

Discussion: Captain's Quarters, Majikthise, AMERICAN FUTURE, Macsmind, Jules Crittenden, Booman Tribune, The Atlantic Online, Hot Air, Daily Kos, The Heretik, TVNewser and TalkLeft

Kevin Drum / Washington Monthly:

TWO STORIES....After the United States captured al-Qaeda operative Abu Zubaydah in the weeks after 9/11, the CIA tortured him in an effort to get him to talk. Here's how Ron Suskind described what happened, starting with what CIA investigators found in Zubaydah's diary:

Discussion: Hullabaloo

Spencer Ackerman / TPMmuckraker:

CIA Interrogator Tells ABC He Supervised 'Necessary' Torture of Abu Zubaydah — Paging Michael Mukasey. The leader of the CIA interrogation team that handled Abu Zubaydah, head of al-Qaeda's military committee, says he had Abu Zubaydah waterboarded — which was torture, and, he says, necessary to prevent "maybe dozens of attacks."

Paul Steinhauser / CNN:

New poll shows big shake-up in GOP race — DES MOINES, Iowa (CNN) — Mike Huckabee's dramatic jump in the polls is going nationwide. The former Arkansas governor is in a virtual tie with Republican presidential front-runner Rudy Giuliani in a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation national poll out Monday.

Discussion: MyDD and TPM Election Central

Byron York / The Corner:

McCain Attacks Romney's Attack on Huckabee — Here's an interesting one. The Romney campaign is set to release the first negative ad of the season in Iowa tomorrow - an attack on Mike Huckabee on the immigration issue. Huckabee will certainly respond - and now, he has help from another candidate, John McCain.

Discussion: Redstate and The Atlantic Online

New York Times:

G.O.P. Voters Are Uninspired by Candidates — Three weeks before the Iowa caucuses, Republicans voters across the country appear uninspired by their field of presidential candidates, with a vast majority saying they have not made a final decision about who to support, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News Poll.

Discussion: TalkLeft, Blue Mass. Group, Cliff Schecter, TPM Election Central and Prairie Weather

Dalia Sussman / The Caucus:
New NYTimes/CBS Poll: Explain, Don't Attack

Discussion: The Atlantic Online, rubber hose, Taylor Marsh, CNN Political Ticker and TPM Election Central

ABCNEWS:

Victim: Gang-Rape Cover-Up by U.S., Halliburton/KBR — KBR Told Victim She Could Lose Her Job If She Sought Help After Being Raped, She Says — A Houston, Texas woman says she was gang-raped by Halliburton/KBR coworkers in Baghdad, and the company and the U.S. government are covering up the incident.

Discussion: Don Surber, The Carpetbagger Report, Firedoglake, The Reaction, Pandagon, Comments from Left Field, The Atlantic Online, The Mahatma X Files, Crooks and Liars, Liberty Street, All Spin Zone and Hullabaloo

Dr. Rusty Shackleford / The Jawa Report:

The Perfect Victim Meets the Perfect Villains — I know I'm going to take a lot of heat for this, but this story just sound so.... well.... er ... far-fetched. — Not the rape part—rape happens all the time (gang rapes, not so much, but occasionally). Not the cover up part—cover ups happen all the time.

Discussion: Redstate, Flopping Aces, The World Wide Rant, Shakespeare's Sister, Think Progress, Greatscat!, Balloon Juice and The Newshoggers

Michael Fechter / Articles by the Investigative …:

EXCLUSIVE IPT INVESTIGATION UNCOVERS HLF JURY ROOM BULLYING — DALLAS - She felt the men were guilty and tried to explain why to the 11 other jurors. When she finished, one juror spoke up in an angry tone. — "If you're going by the evidence in this room," she recalls him snapping, "then you need to go home."

Discussion: Captain's Quarters, Jihad Watch, Hot Air, PoliGazette and Counterterrorism Blog

CNN Political Ticker:

Gore: I'd only consider White House bid — WASHINGTON (CNN) — Former Vice President Al Gore denied again that there were any campaign plans in his immediate future, but told CNN Monday that he hadn't "ruled out getting back into the political process at some point" — and that if he did return …

Discussion: NewsBusters.org, Jonathan Martin's Blogs, Sister Toldjah, The Reaction, The Carpetbagger Report, The Democratic Daily and Liberal Values

Chris Bowers / Open Left:

What Really Bothers Me About Obama (Updated) — Barack Obama is simultaneously the best and worst Democratic candidate for new progressive media and new progressive institutions. Where his campaign is good, it is very good in this area, especially around media policy and earning support from users of new media.

Discussion: Hullabaloo, Liberal Values, Eschaton, Democratic Strategist and MSNBC

Greg Sargent / TPM Election Central:
Obama Campaign Denies Collecting "Oppo Research" On Progressive Bloggers

Discussion: Open Left

Ben Craw / Talking Points Memo:

RUDY GIGGLIANI! — Ask and ye shall receive... Late Update: The Rudy Giggle: the next Hillary Cackle?

Discussion: The Coffee House, Eschaton, No More Mister Nice Blog and Shakespeare's Sister

Greg Sargent / Horses Mouth:
Pundits Lavish Tons Of Attention On Rudy's "Cackle"

Discussion: Political Machine

MotherJones.com:

Huckabee Hides His Full Gospel? — WASHINGTON DISPATCH: Is Mike Huckabee the presidential candidate shunning Mike Huckabee the preacher? Before entering politics, he was a pastor at two Baptist churches. Now his campaign tells Mother Jones it won't make his sermons available to the media and the public.

Discussion: Hot Air, Think Progress, David Corn, TalkLeft, Riehl World View and Shakespeare's Sister

New York Times:

Lawyers Cleared Destroying Tapes — Lawyers within the clandestine branch of the Central Intelligence Agency gave written approval in advance to the destruction in 2005 of hundreds of hours of videotapes documenting interrogations of two lieutenants from Al Qaeda, according …

Discussion: Corrente

Committee on Oversight and Government Reform:

Report Describes Systematic White House Effort to Manipulate Climate Change Science — For the past 16 months, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee has been investigating allegations of political interference with government climate change science under the Bush Administration.