memeorandum: Milbank And Cillizza Record Unfunny “Response Video” … (The Huffington Post)

2:50 AM ET, August 5, 2009

Top Items:

Clinton's Unwise Trip to North Korea — The Obama administration characterized Bill Clinton's unexpected visit to Pyongyang to secure the release of two American reporters, held unjustifiably by North Korea for nearly five months, as a private, humanitarian mission.

Discussion: alicublog, Atlas Shrugs, ATTACKERMAN, Crooks and Liars, BBC, DISSENTING JUSTICE, Sadly, No!, Firedoglake, The Washington Independent, msnbc.com and Israel Matzav

CNN:

U.S. journalists head home from North Korea — (CNN) — Two U.S. journalists who had been detained by North Korea were traveling back to the United States with former President Clinton hours after being pardoned, a Clinton spokesman said. — “They are en route to Los Angeles [California] …

Ben Armbruster / Think Progress:

Even After North Korea Frees American Journalists, Bolton Insists Clinton Trip Was A Mistake — Reports emerged yesterday that President Clinton — along with Center for American Progress President and CEO John Podesta — was traveling to North Korea to negotiate the release of two imprisoned American journalists.

Discussion: TBogg, Josh Gerstein's Blog, The Atlantic Politics Channel, The Washington Note, Washington Monthly, The Lede, Hullabaloo and D-Day

ABCNEWS:
Former President Clinton Headed Home from North Korea with Journalists

Discussion: Booman Tribune, Salon, TVNewser, Los Angeles Times, AMERICAblog News, Taylor Marsh, On Deadline, NO QUARTER and BBC

Robert Mackey / The Lede:
Bill Clinton Leaves North Korea With Two Freed American Journalists

Discussion: Associated Press, msnbc.com, Wizbang, TechCrunch, MoJo Blog Posts, Mediaite, Reuters and Alan Colmes' Liberaland

Paul Richter / Los Angeles Times:
Talks for secret mission to North Korea began once journalists …

Discussion: The Swamp

Fox News:
Mission Accomplished: Clinton, Two Reporters Leave North Korea

Discussion: protein wisdom

The Huffington Post:

Durbin, Schumer: Town Hall Protesters Are “Birthers” “Tea Baggers,” And “Fringe” — The angry-mob style protesters who have infiltrated town halls around the country are the non-organic product of “tea-baggers,” “birthers,” and the conservative fringe, two Senate Democratic leaders said Tuesday.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, American Power, The Plum Line, TPMDC, D-Day and The Swamp

The Note:

Young GOPers Gaga Over Gingrich — ABC News' Devin Dwyer reports: — Before an energetic and enthusiastic young Republican crowd, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich weighed in today on the upcoming Senate confirmation vote for Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor and made predictions for health care reform legislation this fall.

Discussion: GOP 12 and Political Punch

Marc Ambinder / The Atlantic Politics Channel:

White House Strategy: Ridicule The Angry Republicans — The White House and Democratic officials, surprised by the angry words thrown at Democratic lawmakers in their first weekend of August town hall meetings, are scrambling to put together a strategy to minimize the effects …

Discussion: Dennis the Peasant, The Campaign Spot, MoJo Blog Posts and The Opinionator

Pat Bailey / WKTV-TV:
House Majority Leader's high-speed rail talk turns into high-speed ruckus

Discussion: Talking Points Memo and TPMDC

Allahpundit / Hot Air: DNC goes nuclear: Mobs of right-wing extremists are attacking …

Peter Hamby / CNN:
DNC hammers Republican-backed ‘mob rule’

Discussion: Michelle Malkin, Stop The ACLU and The Washington Independent

Brian Dockstader / Blog entry:
Birthers = Health Care Deniers

Discussion: AmSpecBlog, techPresident and TPMDC

Marc Ambinder / The Atlantic Politics Channel:

Shocked. SHOCKED. Astoturfing Exists. ... Now What? — In eight years of writing about politics, nothing gets people angrier than when I try to make the case that most activists and most journalists practice politics differently, have different worldviews, and are both forces for good in the democracy.

Discussion: Taylor Marsh, American Power, American Nihilist and Whiskey Fire

Peter Daou / The Huffington Post: Five Reasons the Health Care Battle Is NOT the Presidential Campaign

Eric Kleefeld / TPMDC:
Gibbs Blasts “Brooks Brothers Brigade” Disruption Of Dems' Town Hall Events

Discussion: The washington times Blogs, Crooks and Liars, AMERICAblog News, Daily Kos and Hullabaloo

Jeremy Scahill / The Nation:

Blackwater Founder Implicated in Murder — A former Blackwater employee and an ex-US Marine who has worked as a security operative for the company have made a series of explosive allegations in sworn statements filed on August 3 in federal court in Virginia.

Discussion: MoJo Blog Posts, Newshoggers.com, At-Largely, The Moderate Voice, Crooks and Liars, Zandar Versus The Stupid, Raw Story, The Washington Independent and The Impolitic

New York Times:

Russian Subs Patrolling Off East Coast of U.S. — WASHINGTON — A pair of nuclear-powered Russian attack submarines has been patrolling off the eastern seaboard of the United States in recent days, a rare mission that has raised concerns inside the Pentagon and intelligence agencies …

Discussion: Hot Air, Wellsy's World, Atlas Shrugs, Jules Crittenden, Gawker, Little Green Links, THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS and JammieWearingFool

Paul Krugman:

Hey, Mister Postman — Art Laffer (why is he, of all people, on my TV?) asks what it will be like when the government runs Medicare and Medicaid. — But I'd raise a further question: he warns that when the government takes over these, um, government programs, they'll be like the Post Office and the DMV.

Discussion: Washington Monthly, AmSpecBlog, FiveThirtyEight, D-Day, TalkLeft and Grasping Reality …

The Huffington Post:

Milbank And Cillizza Record Unfunny “Response Video” To Outrage Over Last Unfunny Video — Last Friday, WashingtonPost.com consumers were treated to another one of those “Mouthpiece Theatre” videos, in which reporters Dana Milbank and Chris Cillizza smarmily attempt humor and fail.

Discussion: AMERICAblog News, Ta-Nehisi Coates and D-Day

Joe Sudbay / AMERICAblog News:
Two Dudes and a webcam: The new Washington Post

Discussion: Hullabaloo

Martin Ivens / Times of London:

Hezbollah stockpiles 40,000 rockets near Israel border — Richard Beeston on the Israel-Lebanese border and Nicholas Blanford in Beirut — Three years after Israel fought a bloody war in Lebanon against Hezbollah, there are fears that hostilities could erupt again — this time with the militant group better armed than ever.

Discussion: Israpundit, PrairiePundit, Israel Matzav and Little Green Links

The Huffington Post:

Obama's Birthday Cards From Birthers (PICS) — It's the president's birthday! And what better way to celebrate than to give the birther movement even more media attention. Of course, we don't really know that Obama was born on August 4th, because he refuses to show his birth certificate …

Discussion: The Caucus

Jeff Emanuel / Jeff_Emanuel's blog:

Call For Informants: If You Oppose Obamacare, Even in ‘Casual Conversation,’ the White House Wants to Know About It — If you see anybody publicly opposing President Obama's plan to implement a government-centric overhaul of the health care system, the White House wants you to report that person (or persons) ASAP.

Discussion: Wellsy's World, Gateway Pundit, Piece of Work In Progress, Politics Daily, Moe_Lane's blog and Wake up America

Macon Phillips / WhiteHouse.gov Blog:
Facts Are Stubborn Things

Tom Jensen / Public Policy Polling:

McDonnell leads by 14 — Bob McDonnell has opened up a 51-37 lead over Creigh Deeds in the race to be Virginia's next Governor, up from a 49-43 advantage four weeks ago. — The movement in the race likely has more to do with national trends than anything actually going on in Virginia.

Discussion: Philly.com, Real Clear Politics, Commentary, The Campaign Spot, Swing State Project and Moe_Lane's blog

Mike Memoli / Real Clear Politics:
NJ Gov Poll: Point Of No Return For Corzine?

Discussion: Politics Nation, Commentary and AmSpecBlog

United States - Department of The Treasury:

Making Home Affordable Program on Pace to Offer Help to Millions of Homeowners Public Release of Data Provides Transparency on Servicer Performance — WASHINGTON - Today, the Obama Administration released its first monthly Servicer Performance Report detailing the progress to date …

Discussion: New York Times, Felix Salmon, Progress Illinois, naked capitalism, The Atlantic Business Channel and NPR Blogs

Haaretz:

AIPAC slams Obama for honoring ‘anti-Israel’ ex-Irish president — The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) on Tuesday slammed the Obama administration for its decision to give a former Irish president the presidential Medal of Freedom, saying they were “deeply disappointed” by the move.

Discussion: TPMCafe

Political Punch:
Today's Qs for O's WH

Discussion: Commentary and The Campaign Spot

Allahpundit / Hot Air:

Disgrace: Gibbs says Ahmadinejad is the elected leader of Iran — Via Breitbart. He could have dodged this question a dozen ways. He could have said the election's irrelevant from our standpoint since we have to play the cards we're dealt; he could have noted, as Obama's often done in the past …

Discussion: Breitbart.tv, Daily Dose, Mere Rhetoric, Weekly Standard and Babalú Blog

Glenn Greenwald / Salon:

More facts behind the GE/Fox deal and a new Olbermann statement — (updated below - Update II) — On Saturday, I wrote a post under the headline: “GE's silencing of Olbermann and MSNBC's sleazy use of Richard Wolffe.” In it, I wrote: “now we have an example of GE's forcibly silencing …

Discussion: The New Republic, Open Left, Gawker, Firedoglake, NewsBusters.org, D-Day and Daily Dose

Chuck Norris from Creators Syndicate:

What Obama and My Wife Have in Common — Dear Mr. President: — First, happy birthday. I do hope today is an enjoyable day for you and your family. Coincidentally, I also will be celebrating this week the birth of someone dear to me, my beloved wife, Gena, whose birthday is Aug. 9.