memeorandum: Ad Council Uses Children in Horrific Global Warming Commercials (Noel Sheppard/NewsBusters.org)

7:50 PM ET, March 16, 2008

Top Items:

Obama's church accuses media of character assassination — The Chicago church attended by Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) issued a statement Sunday contending that coverage of his pastor's inflammatory remarks amounted to character assassination and “an attack on ... the history of the African American church.”

Discussion: Gateway Pundit, NewsBusters.org, Hot Air, The Sundries Shack, Political Byline, PoliGazette, Donklephant and Stop The ACLU

Marc Ambinder:

An “Attack” On The Church — CBS News's John Bentley spent Palm Sunday at the United Church of Christ and was handed this press release:

Discussion: TalkLeft and Ben Smith's Blogs

Think Progress:

One Year Later, Market Where McCain Strolled ‘Freely’ Is Controlled By Sadr, Too Unsafe For Americans To Visit — On April 1, 2007, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) strolled through the open-air Shorja market in Baghdad in an effort to prove that Americans are “not getting the full picture” of what's going on in Iraq.

Discussion: Associated Press, Crooks and Liars, The Newshoggers, Hullabaloo and Angry Bear

New York Times:
McCain Visits Iraq to Meet With Officials

Discussion: AMERICAblog

Ed Morrissey / Hot Air:
McCain in Iraq — John McCain took some time off of the campaign trail …

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, Wake up America, The Newshoggers and JustOneMinute

Sweetness & Light:

Pastor Wright Erased From Obama's Website — Just like in the bad old days of the Stalinist Soviet Union, an inconvenient personage has been airbrushed from the Barack Obama campaign's website. — Before, via Google's cache (as retrieved on Mar 8, 2008 20:01:06 GMT): … And the current page:

Discussion: The Jawa Report, JustOneMinute and Stop The ACLU

Little Green Footballs:

Obama Web Site ‘Disappears’ Radical Pastor — The official Barack Obama campaign web site has quietly airbrushed away any mention of Rev. Jeremiah Wright, with no statement or explanation. He was formerly the very first person listed on Obama's “Testimonials” page: Pastor Wright Erased From Obama's Website.

Discussion: Don Surber

Byron York / The Corner:

Axelrod: A “Major” Reason Wright Didn't Speak At Obama's Announcement Was...It Was Too Cold — Top Obama adviser David Axelrod just told reporters that the weather was one of the reasons Rev. Jeremiah Wright did not speak at Obama's presidential candidacy announcement last year in Springfield, Illinois.

Mark Steyn / Orange County Register:
Obama's pastor disaster

Discussion: NO QUARTER, Betsy's Page, Blue Crab Boulevard, Patterico's Pontifications and Pajamas Media

Wall Street Journal:

Bear Stearns Closes in on Deal To Sell Itself to J.P. Morgan — Bear Stearns Cos. was closing in on a deal Sunday afternoon to sell itself to J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., as worries deepened that the financial crisis of confidence could spread if Bear failed to find a buyer by Monday morning.

Discussion: Emptywheel, Grasping Reality … and Reason Magazine

Gretchen Morgenson / New York Times:
Rescue Me: A Fed Bailout Crosses a Line

Discussion: The Huffington Post, The New Republic and Greg Mankiw's Blog

New York Times:

Op-Ed Contributors: Reflections on the Invasion of Iraq — To mark this week's fifth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, the Op-Ed page asked nine experts on military and foreign affairs to assess their previous and current outlook.

Discussion: The Newshoggers, Matthew Yglesias, The Glittering Eye, Right Wing Nut House, The Impolitic, TBogg, toohotfortnr and Once Upon a Time

Ilan Goldenberg / democracyarsenal.org:

It's Not the Execution — The NY Times has its five year retrospective on the Iraq War and I gotta say I'm not impressed. There are nine pieces: Bremer, Perle, Slaughter, Pollack, Pletka, Fick, Eaton, Kagan, and Cordesman. I understand the need to bring in more conservatives for this piece …

Discussion: New York Times and Angry Bear

ABCNEWS:

Bill Clinton: ‘Chill Out,’ Let Voters Decide — Former President Says Most Democrats Like Both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama — Bill Clinton, in an exclusive interview with Robin Roberts, said he thinks Democrats are torn between two candidates they like, and that it's time to “chill out” …

Discussion: TVNewser

Chicago Tribune:

Obama prepares for full assault on Clinton — Contender to take aim at Clinton's ethics — PLAINFIELD, Ind. - Sen. Barack Obama is trying to air his dirty laundry — even some items that might appear just a little wrinkled — as he prepares a full assault on Sen. Hillary Clinton over ethics and transparency.

Discussion: Ben Smith's Blogs and The Swamp

Allahpundit / Hot Air:

Video: Juan Williams lowers the boom on Obama — By special request of Ace, who tells me his commenters were buzzing about it this morning. Williams has never had much patience for grievance culture so this shouldn't surprise. He's juggling a lot of balls here — the “authenticity” …

Discussion: Little Green Footballs

New York Times:

The Intelligence Cover-Up — For more than two years now, Congress, the news media, current and former national security officials, think tanks and academic institutions have been engaged in a profound debate over how to modernize the law governing electronic spying to keep pace with technology.