memeorandum: Barney Frank on Acorn (Wall Street Journal)

8:05 PM ET, September 23, 2009

Top Items:

Obama's Speech to the United Nations General Assembly — Following is a text of President Obama's speech to the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday, as released by the White House. — Good morning. Mr. President, Mr. Secretary General, fellow delegates, ladies and gentlemen …

Discussion: Associated Press, New York Times, Washington Times, Washington Post, American Power, WhiteHouse.gov Blog, The Nation, MyDD, Taylor Marsh, Flopping Aces, The Washington Note, Commentary, The Huffington Post, TPMCafe, Connecting.the.Dots, The Confluence and FP Passport

Robert Costa / The Corner on National Review Online:

Bolton: ‘A Post-American Speech By Our First Post-American President’ — By: Robert Costa — Former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton tells NRO that President Obama's address to the U.N. was “a post-American speech by our first post-American president.

Discussion: Israel Matzav, Weasel Zippers, MoJo Blog Posts, Hugh Hewitt's TownHall Blog, Stop The ACLU, democracyarsenal.org, TigerHawk and THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS

Nile Gardiner / Telegraph:

The UN loves Barack Obama because he is weak — It is not hard to see why a standing ovation awaits Barack Obama when he addresses the United Nations General Assembly today, writes Nile Gardiner. — Barack Obama's Gallup approval rating of 52 percent may well be lower at this stage …

Discussion: The Politico, Top of the Ticket, Townhall.com, The Hill, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Riehl World View, Right Wing Nut House, Little Green Footballs, Fausta's Blog, Jules Crittenden, Power Line, Atlas Shrugs, QandO, Gateway Pundit and The Corner on National …

Sharon Otterman / New York Times:
Qaddafi Delivers a Rambling Diatribe

Discussion: The New Republic, Below The Beltway, Newsweek Blogs and Jeffrey Goldberg

blogs.telegraph.co.uk: Barack at the UN: Was this Obama's most naïve speech ever?

Paul Haven / Associated Press:
Fidel Castro praises Obama on climate change

Discussion: Commentary, CBS News, Don Surber, Sweetness & Light, 2.0 and New York Times

Jake Sherman / The Politico:

ACORN files suit against filmmakers — ACORN filed suit today in Maryland against conservative filmmakers James O'Keefe, Hannah Giles and conservative Web site Breitbart.com for secretly taping the organization's employees at its Baltimore office. — In the complaint, ACORN alleges …

Discussion: Weekly Standard, Big Government, Sister Toldjah, AmSpecBlog, Pajamas Media and The Volokh Conspiracy

Ben Nuckols / Associated Press:

ACORN sues hidden-camera filmmakers — BALTIMORE — Community activist group ACORN is suing the makers of a hidden-camera video that showed employees of its Baltimore office giving tax advice to a man posing as a pimp and a woman posing as a prostitute. — The liberal group contends …

Discussion: Ben Smith's Blog, The Jawa Report, Hot Air, On Deadline, TPMMuckraker and Wizbang

Ben Nuckols / Associated Press:

APNewsBreak: ACORN Sues Filmmakers — BALTIMORE (AP) ― ACORN and two former employees of its Baltimore office filed a multimillion-dollar lawsuit Wednesday against the makers of a hidden-camera video that showed the employees giving tax advice to a man posing as a pimp and a woman posing as a prostitute.

Discussion: Don Surber

Carol D. Leonnig / Washington Post: ACORN Sues Conservative Filmmakers Over Baltimore Video

Mike Lux / The Huffington Post:

Triggering a Democratic Civil War — Media reports and insider buzz make it increasingly clear that key people at the White House have become obsessed with Olympia Snowe on health care, and are willing to do pretty much whatever she demands in order to get her on board.

Discussion: Daily Kos, The Plum Line, TPMDC, The Huffington Post, Crooks and Liars, NOW! Blog, D-Day, Democratic Strategist, Firedoglake, The Politico, AMERICAblog News and Taylor Marsh

The Huffington Post:
Dems Ramp Up Push For Colleagues To Block Filibuster On Health Care

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Left in the West and New York Times

Mcjoan / Daily Kos:
Snowe's True Colors

Discussion: Bloomberg, TalkLeft, TPMDC, Hullabaloo, Open Left, AMERICAblog News and Donkeylicious

Think Progress:
Bush on visiting a prison ministry program: ‘Everyone was black, of course.’

Discussion: Random House

Washington Wire:

Excerpts of Sarah Palin's Speech to Investors in Hong Kong — Alex Frangos reports from Hong Kong on Sarah Palin's speech. — Sarah Palin, the former Alaska governor and the 2008 GOP vice presidential nominee, delivered her first major international speech outside North America Wednesday in Hong Kong at an investor conference.

Discussion: Hot Air, Taegan Goddard's …, Time, Classical Values, The Swamp, GOP 12, Townhall.com and Reason

Mark McDonald / New York Times:
Palin Speaks to Investors in Hong Kong

Discussion: Bloomberg, Washington Wire, RealClearPolitics Video Log, Taylor Marsh, DailyFinance, Newsweek Blogs, Vanity Fair, Don Surber, Gawker, Classical Values, Conservatives4Palin.com, Think Progress and Riehl World View

Wall Street Journal:
Palin Addresses Asian Investors

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Washington Wire, Real Time Economics, Bloomberg, The Mudflats, FP Passport, AMERICAblog News, TBogg, Wonkette, On Deadline, Think Progress, Indecision Forever, The Caucus, TPM LiveWire, Daily Pundit, James Pethokoukis and Swampland

Associated Press:

Democrats nix putting pre-vote health bill online — WASHINGTON — Senate Finance Committee Democrats have rejected a GOP amendment that would have required a health overhaul bill to be available online for 72 hours before the committee votes. — Republicans argued that transparency is an Obama administration goal.

Discussion: GayPatriot, Michelle Malkin, Weekly Standard, JammieWearingFool and THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS

Faiz Shakir / Think Progress:
Sen. Roberts: We Need To Give Health Insurance Lobbyists 'At Least …

Discussion: Washington Post, Prescriptions, The Hill, msnbc.com, Wonk Room, Washington Monthly, Daily Kos and TPM LiveWire

Carrie Budoff Brown / The Politico:
72-hour delay? Eh, Dems say

Discussion: Firedoglake, AmSpecBlog, The Hill, Pundit & Pundette and RedState

Associated Press:

AP source: Census worker hanged with ‘fed’ on body — The FBI is investigating whether anti-government sentiment led to the hanging death of a U.S. Census worker near a Kentucky cemetery. A law enforcement official told The Associated Press the word 'fed" was scrawled on the dead man's chest.

Discussion: Facing South, Think Progress, The Washington Independent and AMERICAblog News

The Huffington Post:

AP source: Census worker hanged with ‘fed’ on body — WASHINGTON — The FBI is investigating the hanging death of a U.S. Census worker near a Kentucky cemetery. A law enforcement official says the word “fed” was scrawled on his chest. — The body of Bill Sparkman, a 51-year-old Census field worker …

Discussion: Hullabaloo

Jon Walker / Firedoglake:

Carper Publicly Defends Secret PhRMA Pact; Deal Made in Exchange for Support Ads — In a stunning moment during the Senate Finance Committee markup Sen. Tom Carper defended a secret deal that the White House, Baucus, and PhRMA had reached. The White House has long denied the deal.

Discussion: The Washington Independent, Townhall.com, D-Day, Moe Lane and No More Mister Nice Blog

Jim Geraghty / National Review Online:
Did Sen. Tom Carper Just Admit PhRMA and the White House Had a Laws-for-Ads Deal?

Discussion: Hot Air

Ezra Klein:

Kamikaze Obstructionism — You guys like polls, right? … The Republican Party's strategy against health-care reform has been something of a kamikaze mission: destroy the bill through a strategy that also destroys the party, at least in the short-term. The hope is that if they win the war …

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, No More Mister Nice Blog, TalkLeft, The Daily Dish, Hot Air and msnbc.com

Steve Benen / Washington Monthly:
STANDING ATHWART HISTORY.... There are plenty of discouraging …

Discussion: Democratic Strategist, Daily Kos and Washington Post

Wall Street Journal:

Barney Frank on Acorn — He calls for an investigation—of the investigators. — Printer — Friendly — In a letter published nearby, Representative Barney Frank takes us to task for an editorial last week in which we noted his absence from the House's 345-75 vote to defund Acorn …

Glenn Thrush / Glenn Thrush's Blog:
Frank turns against ACORN

Discussion: The Politico

Nate Silver / FiveThirtyEight:

Glenn Beck, Post-Modern Conservative — Buried in the cross-tabs of the new NBC/Wall Street Journal poll is a question that takes a temperature reading of Glenn Beck. Beck actually makes out pretty well. While just 24 percent of Americans have a favorable view of him (13 percent strongly so) …

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, Mediaite, Michael Calderone's Blog, Prairie Weather and CANNONFIRE

Michael Barone / Washington Examiner:

Obama's time warp: The U.S. is still the bad guy — Senior Political Analyst — In the early 1980s, while planning a vacation in Latin America, I went to bookstores to find histories of the region. All I could find were Marxist tracts arguing that “the people” were exploited …

Discussion: The Daily Dish, Washington Times, OpenMarket.org, alicublog, Pundit & Pundette and GayPatriot

Daphne Eviatar / The Washington Independent:

Al Franken Reads the 4th Amendment to Justice Department Official — Just in case he wasn't familiar with it, Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) decided to read the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution to David Kris, assistant attorney general of the Justice Department's National Security Division …

Discussion: MoJo Blog Posts and The Impolitic

Sally Goldenberg / New York Post:

Wife: Gov ‘stunned’ O wants him out — Gov. Paterson's wife — emotionally stunned at President Obama's request that her husband not run for another term — ripped into him today, saying that it's “very unfair” the president asked New York's “first African-American governor” not to seek office.

Discussion: Top of the Ticket, Hot Air, msnbc.com, Weasel Zippers and NY Daily News

Mark Silva / The Swamp:

Kennedy replacement coming: Senate — Ted Kennedy is gone, but one of his dying wishes is coming true: — The governor of Massachusetts will get to appoint a temporary replacement for the late, longtime Democratic “lion” of the Senate who passed away this summer.

Discussion: The Politico, Associated Press and The Page

Matt Viser / Boston Globe:
All eyes turn to Patrick as he mulls appointee for Kennedy seat

Discussion: Salon, Politics Nation, TPMDC, MoJo Blog Posts, Eye on 2010, msnbc.com, The Page and TPM LiveWire

Dr. Sanjay Gupta / CNN:

I went to Afghanistan and all I got was H1N1 — It started as a cough. It wasn't the kind of cough where something is temporarily stuck in your throat. It wasn't the kind of cough where simply clearing your throat would've been adequate. This was the kind of cough that hurts when you do it.

Discussion: TVNewser, Mediaite and On Deadline

David Cay Johnston / Firedoglake:

GOP Favors Public Option for Property, Not People — Atop the front page of the New York Times today is a color photo of Georgia homes flooded up to their rafters, an image that illustrates how when it comes to insurance our Congress applies two standards, separate and unequal, one for property and a lesser one for people.

Discussion: Lean Left