memeorandum: President Obama's Cairo Appeal (Washington Post)

1:30 PM ET, June 5, 2009

Top Items:

The End of America's Strategic Alliance with Israel? — From an Israeli perspective, Pres. Barack Obama's speech today in Cairo was deeply disturbing. Both rhetorically and programmatically, Obama's speech was a renunciation of America's strategic alliance with Israel.

Discussion: Los Angeles Times, Wake up America, PoliGazette, Taylor Marsh, Gateway Pundit, The Mahablog, Newshoggers.com, Israel Matzav and The Plum Line

Charles Krauthammer / Washington Post:

Barack Obama's Israeli Settlements Canard — President Obama repeatedly insists that American foreign policy be conducted with modesty and humility. Above all, there will be no more “dictating” to other countries. We should “forge partnerships as opposed to simply dictating solutions,” he told the G-20 summit.

Discussion: Matthew Yglesias, American Prospect, The Moderate Voice, CNN, Wonk Room, Middle East Strategy …, Israel Matzav, The Daily Dish, Commentary, Betsy's Page, American Footprints, Clive Crook, The Washington Independent, ATTACKERMAN, Think Progress, The Washington Note, The Cable and American Thinker

Washington Post:
President Obama's Cairo Appeal

Discussion: New York Times, POMED, abu muqawama and MSNBC

New York Times:
Forcing Clarity on Israel

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, Room for Debate and The Daily Dish

Jack Healy / New York Times:

Job Losses Slow; Unemployment at 9.4% — The United States economy lost 345,000 jobs in May, the government reported on Friday, a sharp slowing in the pace of job losses that fueled hopes that the economy was on its way toward a recovery. — The recession continued to take a toll …

Discussion: Economix, Matthew Yglesias, Think Progress, FP Passport, Washington Monthly, Gawker, Los Angeles Times, The Page, TalkLeft, Donklephant, The Agonist, Newsweek Blogs and Time

Bureau of Labor Statistics:
Employment Situation Summary

Discussion: Innocent Bystanders, Outside The Beltway, Calculated Risk, The Hill's Blog Briefing Room, Hot Air, DailyFinance, TIME.com, NewsBusters.org, BizzyBlog, Salon, Real Clear Politics and Conservatives4Palin.com

Felix Salmon:
Unemployment datapoint of the day — Remember the stress tests?

Discussion: Ezra Klein and MoJo Blog Posts

Jeannine Aversa / Associated Press:
Jobless rate hits 9.4 percent in May; layoffs slow

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, MSNBC, Don Surber, Fox News, The Strata-Sphere, Gateway Pundit, Moonbattery and Donklephant

CNBC.com:
Job Losses at 345,000, Less Than Forecast; Rate at 9.4%

Discussion: CNBC Guest Blog

Shobhana Chandra / Bloomberg:
U.S. Economy: Job Losses Slow, Signaling Recession Is Abating

Discussion: The Bellows and FT Alphaville

Jared Allen / The Hill:

Intel firestorm: GOP reveals briefing info — Republicans ignited a firestorm of controversy on Thursday by revealing some of what they had been told at a closed-door Intelligence Committee hearing on the interrogation of terrorism suspects. — Democrats immediately blasted the GOP lawmakers …

Discussion: Emptywheel, TPMMuckraker, PERRspectives, YID With LID, Wake up America, protein wisdom, Raw Story and The Hill's Blog Briefing Room

Faiz Shakir / Think Progress:

Inhofe Rips Obama As ‘Un-American,’ Suggests He's On The Side Of Terrorists — Reacting to President Obama's outreach to the Muslim world yesterday, Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) decried the president's speech as “un-American” and even suggested Obama might be on the side of terrorists:

Discussion: NPR, The Moderate Voice, The Hill's Blog Briefing Room, Christian Science Monitor, Washington Monthly, Blogs and Stories, Wall Street Journal, D-Day, Salon and TPMDC

Mike Allen / The Politico:
Obama takes aim at Osama

Discussion: Washington Monthly, PoliticalBase.com Blog, Crooks and Liars and The Reaction

Wall Street Journal:

Nominee's Criminal Rulings Tilt to Right of Souter — WASHINGTON — While Judge Sonia Sotomayor stands in the liberal mainstream on many issues, her record suggests that the Supreme Court nominee could sometimes rule with the top court's conservatives on questions of criminal justice.

Discussion: New York Times, The Note, Washington Times, USA Today, The Caucus and The Washington Independent

Stuart Taylor / National Journal Online:
Race: Sotomayor And Obama Versus Voters

Discussion: The World Newser, The Ninth Justice, pandagon.net and Power Line

Big Tent Democrat / TalkLeft:
Stuart Taylor: Conservative Roberts Court Is Judicially Activist

Discussion: Lawyers, Guns and Money, The Washington Independent and Lean Left

Paul Krugman / New York Times:

Keeping Them Honest — “I appreciate your efforts, and look forward to working with you so that the Congress can complete health care reform by October.” So declared President Obama in a letter this week to Senators Max Baucus and Edward Kennedy. The big health care push is officially on.

Discussion: Commentary, TPMDC, Incertus, AMERICAblog News, Prairie Weather, Washington Post, Blog entry, The Washington Independent, The Caucus, Ezra Klein and The Note

Greg Mankiw / Greg Mankiw's Blog:
What's the point of a public option?

Discussion: Obsidian Wings and Marginal Revolution

Seth Stern / Legal Beat:

Sotomayor Repeatedly Referenced ‘Wise Woman’ in Speeches — Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor is greeted by Sen. Arlen Specter before a meeting on Capitol Hill Thursday. (Getty) — Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor delivered multiple speeches between 1994 and 2003 in which she suggested …

Discussion: CBS News, Roll Call, Omaha World-Herald, Hot Air, Commentary, Flopping Aces, Fox News, Washington Post, Outside The Beltway and 24Ahead

Michael Doyle / McClatchy Washington Bureau:
Sotomayor's finances look a lot like the average person's

Discussion: CBS News and Washington Post

Wall Street Journal:

FDIC Pushes Purge at Citi — Bair Wants to Shake Up Management, Sought to Cut Rating of Bank's Health — WASHINGTON — The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. is pushing for a shake-up of Citigroup Inc.'s top management, imperiling Chief Executive Vikram Pandit, people familiar with the matter said.

Discussion: Washington Post, New York Times, The New Republic, The Foundry, Felix Salmon, DailyFinance, naked capitalism, Wonk Room and Dealbreaker

Yalman Onaran / Bloomberg:
Bank Profits From Accounting Rules Masking Looming Loan Losses

Discussion: The Reaction, ProPublica and Balloon Juice

Deborah Solomon / Wall Street Journal:

White House Set to Appoint a Pay Czar — WASHINGTON — The Obama administration plans to appoint a “Special Master for Compensation” to ensure that companies receiving federal bailout funds are abiding by executive-pay guidelines, according to people familiar with the matter.

Discussion: Fox News, Dealbreaker, Salon, Blog entry, Scared Monkeys, ProfessorBainbridge.com, PoliBlog, ScrappleFace, QandO, The Page and THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS

Stephen Gutowski / NewsBusters.org blogs:

Liberal Writer Fired By AOL News For Reporting Vile Playboy List — Editor's Note/Update below: AOL editor's email revealed. — AOL News has been bending over backwards lately to make sure that they do not cover the controversy surrounding Playboy.com writer Guy Cimbalo's vile attack on conservative women.

Discussion: Townhall.com, Hot Air, Michelle Malkin, Don Surber, Flopping Aces, YID With LID, Riehl World View and five feet of fury.

Nicholas Kulish / New York Times:

Rift With Germany Is Next on Diplomatic Agenda — DRESDEN, Germany — After mending fences with the Muslim world in Cairo on Thursday, President Obama might want to keep his diplomatic tools handy for his stopover here, to repair his increasingly strained relationship with Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Discussion: RedState and Don Surber

Washington Wire:
Remarks From Obama, Merkel News Conference

Discussion: Weekly Standard

Lydia Saad / Gallup:

Cheney and Pelosi Have Poor Ratings in Common — Pelosi's ratings down, while Cheney's improved from record low — PRINCETON, NJ — Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and former Vice President Dick Cheney have little in common politically, but they receive almost identical image ratings from the American public.

Discussion: Weekly Standard, Fox News, Glenn Thrush's Blog, Commentary, The Plum Line, The Hill's Blog Briefing Room, The New Argument, Townhall.com, Brendan Nyhan, NewsBusters.org and Don Surber

Greg Sargent / The Plum Line:

MSNBC Shrugs About Liz Cheney's Over-Exposure: “Liz Is A Great Guest” — MSNBC is shrugging off the growing criticism of the extensive airtime the network has granted Liz Cheney to mount a political defense of her father and a political offensive against the Obama administration …

Discussion: Daily Kos, Eschaton, Washington Monthly, The Political Carnival and Talking Points Memo

P.J. Gladnick / NewsBusters.org blogs:

NASA Study Makes ‘Amazing’ Discovery: Sun Heats Earth — A NASA study reported by Daily Tech has come to an “amazing” conclusion that is sure to cause depression among Al Gore and much of the mainstream media: the sun heats the earth. Yes, as astounding as that sounds …

Discussion: protein wisdom

Michael Andrews / DailyTech:
NASA Study Acknowledges Solar Cycle, Not Man, Responsible for Past Warming

Discussion: Cold Fury and Watts Up With That?

Amanda Terkel / Think Progress:

Rove: ‘Who Cares’ Whether Muslims ‘Approve Or Like The President Of The United States’? — Last night, Karl Rove went on Fox News and lambasted President Obama's speech in Cairo, saying that he would give him a grade of “D minus” on the “important parts of the speech.”

Discussion: INSTAPUTZ and Wonk Room

Sarah Posner / American Prospect:

ABORTION FOE TO LEAD HHS FAITH-BASED OFFICE. — President Obama has appointed Alexia Kelley, executive director of Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good (CACG), to head the Center for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships at the Department of Health and Human Services.

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Raw Story, Feministing and Feministe