memeorandum: Media outlets paying for information in Jaycee Lee Dugard kidnapping case (Carlos Lozano/L.A. Now)

5:45 PM ET, September 1, 2009

Top Items:

Brian Beutler / TPMDC:

51 Vote Rules May Force a Public Option Too Liberal for Some Dems — As Senate leaders begin work on a Democrat-only health care bill, they're finding themselves confronted with an unexpected irony: Though the caucus has reached an uneasy consensus around a public option that's modeled …

Discussion: Crooks and Liars, Hullabaloo, Open Left, TalkLeft, Lawyers, Guns and Money, Talking Points Memo, Liberal Values, Swampland, Open Congress, Left in the West and Daily Kos

Alexander Bolton / The Hill:

GOP readies wave of objections to stall healthcare bill in Senate — Sen. Judd Gregg has hundreds of procedural objections ready for a healthcare plan Democrats want to speed through the Senate. — Gregg (N.H.), the senior Republican on the Budget Committee, told the Hill in a recent interview …

Discussion: Glenn Thrush's Blog, TPMDC, Congress Matters, Washington Monthly, msnbc.com, MyDD and Sunlight Foundation

Myglesias / Matthew Yglesias: Reconciliation May Push Health Reform to the Left

Aimai / No More Mister Nice Blog:

No, Seriously, Dude, Acolyte? — It is fun to wake up and find [edited to remove extra word] yourself accused of joining a cult—the cult of people who like incredibly detailed, footnoted, analytic, legal arguments about abstruse and painful political crimes? The cult of people who follow links?

Discussion: TalkLeft

Joe Klein / Swampland:

Glenn Greenwald — Twice in the past month, my private communications have been splashed about the internet. That such a thing would happen is unfortunate, and dishonorable, but sadly inevitable, I suppose. I ignored the first case, in which a rather pathetic woman acolyte of Greenwald's published …

Discussion: Hullabaloo, Mediaite, Emptywheel, skippy the bush kangaroo, PoliBlog, DISSENTING JUSTICE, Michael Calderone's Blog, The Huffington Post and First Draft

Glenn Greenwald / Salon:
Beltway culture, checks on journalists and secrecy obligations

Discussion: TalkLeft

John Cole / Balloon Juice: You Have to Be Kidding Me — Joe Klein on why Glenn Greenwald is not a serious person:

Tom Maguire / JustOneMinute:
Please, Not In Front Of The Kids (Or The Sockpuppets... Or The Editors)

Discussion: Neptunus Lex

David Brooks / New York Times:

The Obama Slide — Two tides swept over American politics last winter. The first was the Obama tide. Barack Obama came into office with an impressive 70 percent approval rating. The second was the independent tide. Over the first months of this year, the number of people …

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Townhall.com, Wall Street Journal, Kausfiles, Ezra Klein, MoJo Blog Posts, Hot Air, Zogby, Dan_Perrin's blog, The New Republic, Ben Smith's Blog, The Corner on National …, NewsBusters.org, Reason, The Strata-Sphere, Weekly Standard, msnbc.com and JustOneMinute

CNN:

CNN Poll: Independents disapprove of Obama — WASHINGTON (CNN) — A majority of independent voters disapprove of how Barack Obama's handling his job as president, according to a new national poll. — Fifty-three percent of independents questioned in a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation …

Discussion: Taegan Goddard's …, Wake up America and The Page

Marc Ambinder / The Atlantic Politics Channel:

Something New On Health Care: Deal-Breakers From The President — This time, the President is going to be specific. Next week, President Obama is going to give Democrats a health care plan they can begin to sell. — He plans to list specific goals that any health insurance reform plan …

Discussion: Weekly Standard, TalkLeft, AMERICAblog News, QandO and YID With LID

Norman J. Ornstein / Washington Post:
Obama Takes Realistic Approach on Health Care

Discussion: Ezra Klein, Climate Progress, Slate, The Glittering Eye, AMERICAblog News and New York Times

CBS News:
Most Americans Confused by Health Reform

Discussion: Balloon Juice, Washington Monthly, The Plum Line, Liberal Values, Salon and The Page

George F. Will / Washington Post:

Time for the U.S. to Get Out of Afghanistan — “Yesterday,” reads the e-mail from Allen, a Marine in Afghanistan, “I gave blood because a Marine, while out on patrol, stepped on a [mine's] pressure plate and lost both legs.” Then “another Marine with a bullet wound to the head was brought in.

Mike Allen / The Politico:
W.H. fears liberal war pressure

Discussion: McClatchy Washington Bureau, Hot Air, Shadow Government, BLACKFIVE, Exurban League, AMERICAblog News, The Swamp, ABCNEWS, The Caucus and Wake up America

William Kristol / PostPartisan:
No Will, No Way — George Will is dismayed by American casualties …

Discussion: Washington Post and The Corner on National …

Washington Post:

Thesis Thrusts Va. Gubernatorial Candidate's Past Views Into Spotlight — The Virginia governor's race ignited Monday over Republican Robert F. McDonnell's 20-year-old graduate thesis: Democrats assailed him in e-mail blasts and interviews for what he wrote about working women, homosexuals and …

Discussion: Taegan Goddard's …, Power Line, Politics Daily, Virginia Politics, The Note, Atlantic Correspondents, The League of Ordinary …, Salon, The New Republic, The Huffington Post, Below The Beltway and msnbc.com

Michael Barone / Washington Examiner:
Is the Washington Post trying to ‘Macaca’ Bob McDonnell?

Discussion: Washington Post, NewsBusters.org and AMERICAblog News

Tom Jensen / Public Policy Polling:
Virginia Race Tightens Up

Discussion: Scorecard's Blog, Blue Virginia, Below The Beltway and The Politico

Charlie Savage / New York Times:

Justice Dept. to Recharge Enforcement of Civil Rights — WASHINGTON — Seven months after taking office, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. is reshaping the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division by pushing it back into some of the most important areas of American political life …

Discussion: Firedoglake, American Prospect, Washington Monthly, Associated Press, Heritage Foundation, Main Justice and The Corner on National …

Joseph Weber / Washington Times:

EXCLUSIVE: Gonzales defends Holder's decision on CIA — Former U.S. Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales on Tuesday defended the decision of his current successor, Eric H. Holder Jr., to investigate alleged prisoner abuse by CIA interrogators over President Obama's desire to look forward.

Discussion: Front Row Washington, Philly.com and Main Justice

Maggie Haberman / New York Post:

YOU CAN'T KEEP A BAD MAN DOWN — SPITZER IS EYEING A COMEBACK — Disgraced former Gov. Eliot Spitzer has been privately talking with friends about a possible comeback, and is considering a run for statewide office next year, several sources told The Post.

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Truthdig, Moe Lane, Hot Air, Christian Science Monitor, Air America Media blogs, Michelle Malkin, City Room, On Deadline, Gothamist, Top of the Ticket, New York Daily News Blogs, Wonkette and Ben Smith's Blog

Richard Cohen / Washington Post:

Torture's Ugly Dialogue — Call him Ishmael. — Call him a terrorist or a suicide bomber or anything else you want, but understand that he is willing — no, anxious — to give his life for his cause. Call him also a captive, and know that he works with others as part of a team …

Discussion: The Huffington Post, First Draft, JustOneMinute, TalkLeft, Lawyers, Guns and Money, NewsBusters.org and Betsy's Page

Andrew Sullivan / The Daily Dish: What Richard Cohen Omits

Ernest Luning / Colorado Independent:

Bachmann: ‘Slit our wrists, be blood brothers’ to beat health care reform — U.S. Rep. Michelle Bachmann, a Minnesota Republican, chats with a supporter at an Independence Institute fundraiser in Denver on Aug. 31. (Photo/Ernest Luning) — DENVER — In a fiery speech …

Discussion: Minnesota Independent, The Washington Independent, Think Progress, ourfuture.org/blogs_chrono/*, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Alas, a blog, Air America Media blogs and pandagon.net

Boston Globe:

Coakley makes the first move in race for Kennedy seat — Attorney General Martha Coakley this morning picked up nomination papers to run for the Senate seat of Edward M. Kennedy, becoming the first candidate to throw a hat in the ring for what promises to be a fierce five-month-long race.

Discussion: The Fix, Associated Press, Scorecard's Blog, Christian Science Monitor, The Confluence and The Caucus

Jeremy Jacobs / Politics Magazine:
Sources: Meehan Won't Run for Teddy's Seat

Discussion: Hotline On Call and Taegan Goddard's …

Matt Corley / Think Progress:

Grassley: The ‘Only Way To Get A Bipartisan Agreement Is To Defeat A Democratic Proposal On The First Hand’ — Over the August recess, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), one of the three Republicans engaged in the “Gang of Six” health care negotiations, has repeatedly made public statements …

Discussion: Washington Monthly, The Plum Line, Wonk Room, Prescriptions, The Moderate Voice and The Washington Independent

Mike Glover / Associated Press:
Sen. Grassley: No public option in health reform

Discussion: Hot Air and Radio Iowa

Rory Cooper / The Foundry:

Obama's Team Crosses the Rhetorical Line — (Update: The website cited below has been suspended by barackobama.com. The screenshot to the right is the original page, but the embedded links will no longer work. Click on the picture to the right for a full-screen view.)

Discussion: RedState and NewsBusters.org

Gateway Pundit:

CAUGHT ON TAPE: Obama HCAN Organizer Instructs Supporters How to Shout Down Opponents & Take Over Meetings — More Hope and Change— A Health Care for America Now (HCAN) organizer is caught on tape outside the meeting instructing supporters on how to shout down opponents who get up to ask …

Discussion: Instapundit, Sense of Events and Founding Bloggers

Megan McArdle:

Does High Speed Rail Have a Future? — Forgive me for talking about high speed rail even though Ryan Avent says I'm not allowed to. I just can't control myself, I'm afraid. — As libertarians go, I'm a big fan of high-speed rail. I think it would be very nice if we had some in the …

Discussion: FiveThirtyEight, Conventional Folly, The Glittering Eye and Green Sheet

Vincent Fernando / Clusterstock:

Hong Kong Broker Pulling A “Borat” On Sarah Palin — Hopefully Sarah Palin realizes she's been invited to Hong Kong as a practical joke. — CLSA, the Asia-focused broker who invited Mrs. Palin as keynote speaker for an Asian investment conference, is well known for their cheeky takes on investment research.

Discussion: The Huffington Post and The Mudflats

Amanda Terkel / Think Progress:

Jindal uses taxpayer money for a helicopter to shuttle him to church. — A report by The Advocate in Louisiana finds that state taxpayers have been paying for Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) to go to church...in a helicopter: … Last week, Jindal said that he “visits a church when he receives an invitation” …

Discussion: WBRZ-TV

Rasmussen Reports:

Republican Voters Say GOP Reps in Congress Still Out of Touch — Seventy-four percent (74%) of Republican voters say their party's representatives in Congress have lost touch with GOP voters nationwide over the past several years. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds …

Discussion: Hot Air, Pundit & Pundette, Front Row Washington and Townhall.com

Tim Nudd / AdFreak:

WWF condemns 9/11 print ad by DDB Brazil — [NOTE: The WWF says it never approved this ad and is condemning it. See the updates below.] Just in time for the anniversary of 9/11 comes this tasteless, nightmarish print ad for the World Wildlife Fund, showing dozens of planes headed for lower Manhattan.

Discussion: Weekly Standard, Michelle Malkin, Gothamist, The Corner on National …, City Room and Gawker

Andrew Sullivan / The Daily Dish:

The Gestapo Precedent for “EITs” — Marc Ambinder addresses the subject of torture today. Ambers poses the following analogy: … But that is the wrong analogy. The sadism and murder of Jews and gypsies in Nazi Germany do not fall under a torture category.

Lawrence M. Krauss / New York Times:

A One-Way Ticket to Mars — NOW that the hype surrounding the 40th anniversary of the Moon landings has come and gone, we are faced with the grim reality that if we want to send humans back to the Moon the investment is likely to run in excess of $150 billion.

Discussion: The Moderate Voice and Marginal Revolution