memeorandum: Charles Johnson ‘Breaks’ From the Right (James Joyner/Outside The Beltway)

2:35 PM ET, December 1, 2009

Top Items:

Cheney slams Obama for projecting ‘weakness’ — MCLEAN, Va. — On the eve of the unveiling of the nation's new Afghanistan policy, former Vice President Dick Cheney slammed President Barack Obama for projecting “weakness” to adversaries and warned that more workaday Afghans will side …

New York Times:

Obama Sets Faster Troop Deployment to Afghanistan — WASHINGTON — President Obama has decided to expedite the deployment of 30,000 additional American troops to Afghanistan over the next six months, in an effort to reverse the momentum of Taliban gains and create urgency for the government …

Marc Ambinder / The Atlantic Politics Channel:

The White House Takes On Politico — It's not just Fox News that's become subject of White House derision. The following is an excerpt from a joke e-mail that is circulating among White House staffers. It's a response, of sorts, to the analytical essay that Politico editor …

Discussion: Outside The Beltway, AmSpecBlog and Raw Story

CNN:

Obama wants to end Afghan war in 3 years, officials say — Join the best political team on television for “Decision: Afghanistan” live on CNN.com, CNN TV and your iPhone on Tuesday night starting at 7 ET. President Obama's address begins at 8 ET. — Washington (CNN) …

Discussion: Afghanistan Crossroads, Indecision Forever, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Ben Smith's Blog, Taegan Goddard's …, The Corner on National …, MyDD and FP Passport

Bob / Capitol Ideas with John L. Micek:

The Worst Kind Of Scheduling Conflict. — President Barack Obama ... ... is slated to deliver a prime-time address on Tuesday night in which he'll lay out his plans for the American war in Afghanistan. — The address before the United States Military Academy at West Point on Tuesday night …

Discussion: Townhall.com and Gawker

Spencer Ackerman / The Washington Independent:

Why Would Anyone Think the Bush Administration Botched Afghanistan? — Politico reporters transcribe, you decide: … Right, and why follow that one up? It's not like a high-profile Senate report demonstrated over the weekend that the Bush administration allowed Osama bin Laden to escape …

Steve Benen / Washington Monthly:
CHENEY STENOGRAPHY.... By some accounts, White House aides …

Discussion: The Politico

Jake Sherman / The Politico:
Hoyer lashes back at Cheney

Discussion: The Hill, Commentary and Political Punch

Byron York / Washington Examiner:
Obama keeps his Afghan promise, but Dems crumble

Discussion: Power Line

James Fallows:
In praise of George W. Bush

Discussion: Ben Smith's Blog and Commentary

Bob Herbert / New York Times:
A Tragic Mistake — “I hate war,” said Dwight Eisenhower …

Discussion: Boston Globe and Firedoglake

Sue Sturgis / Facing South:
The campaign cash behind the Afghanistan escalation

Discussion: CNBC.com, Newshoggers.com, DownWithTyranny! and The Agonist

Glenn Greenwald / Salon:
Obama's exceedingly familiar justifications for escalation

Discussion: The Swamp, Guardian, The Huffington Post, TalkLeft, The Nation and The Politico

John F. Harris / The Politico:
7 stories Barack Obama doesn't want told

Discussion: Mediaite and The Atlantic Politics Channel

Washington Post:
Obama to send 34,000 troops, trainers to Afghanistan

Discussion: Newsweek Blogs, TPMDC, The Washington Independent, Guardian and Prairie Weather

ABCNEWS:
Breaking: White House Says ‘Era of Blank Check’ Is Over for Afghan President Karzai

Discussion: The Swamp, The Politico, Top of the Ticket, Informed Comment, Wall Street Journal, Political Punch, TPMDC, Pajamas Media, Mudville Gazette and The Note

Washington Post:
Obama to send 34,000 troops to Afghanistan

Discussion: Bloomberg, msnbc.com, McClatchy Washington Bureau, Wall Street Journal, Politics Daily, Vanity Fair, The Politico, Guardian, Associated Press, Scared Monkeys, BLACKFIVE, Financial Times, The Page and Weekly Standard

Little Green Footballs:

Why I Parted Ways With The Right — 1. Support for fascists, both in America (see: Pat Buchanan, Robert Stacy McCain, etc.) and in Europe (see: Vlaams Belang, BNP, SIOE, Pat Buchanan, etc.) — 2. Support for bigotry, hatred, and white supremacism (see: Pat Buchanan, Ann Coulter, Robert Stacy McCain, Lew Rockwell, etc.)

Jules Crittenden:

Charles Johnson Explains The Crazy Hating — Well, not really. Little Green Footballs on why he flipped from right to left. The explanation is a little thin. It's more an illustration of how he's flipped out, from right to left. But apparently it works like this …

Discussion: JustOneMinute, Stop The ACLU, JammieWearingFool and Althouse

James Joyner / Outside The Beltway:

Charles Johnson ‘Breaks’ From the Right — In a move that has been coming for nearly two years, Charles Johnson has issued a manifesto explaining “Why I Parted Ways With The Right.” For those who don't know, Johnson is the founder and principal author of Little Green Footballs, one of the oldest and most popular blogs.

Discussion: Washington Monthly

Robert Stacy McCain / The Other McCain:

Charles Johnson Parts Ways With Reality — UPDATE 9:15 a.m.: Cops have shot and killed Maurice Clemmons, so I must catch up with that breaking story. However, I would be remiss if I did failed to note this by Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch: … Heh. “Question the timing!”

Discussion: Another Black Conservative, Michael Calderone's Blog and Wake up America

Andrew Sullivan / The Daily Dish:
Leaving the Right — It's an odd formulation in some ways as …

Discussion: Joe. My. God.

Wall Street Journal:

Climategate: Follow the Money — Climate change researchers must believe in the reality of global warming just as a priest must believe in the existence of God. — Printer — Friendly — Last year, ExxonMobil donated $7 million to a grab-bag of public policy institutes …

Discussion: Fausta's Blog, QandO, Hot Air, Townhall.com, Betsy's Page, TBR.cc and Sister Toldjah

John Tierney / New York Times:

E-Mail Fracas Shows Peril of Trying to Spin Science — If you have not delved into the thousands of e-mail messages and files hacked from the computers of British climate scientists, let me give you the closest thing to an executive summary. It is taken from a file slugged HARRY_READ_ME …

Discussion: Pajamas Media, Stop The ACLU, AmSpecBlog, Cafe Hayek and Maggie's Farm

Douglas J. Keenan / Pajamas Media:
The Fraud Is Everywhere: SUNY Albany and Queens University Belfast …

Discussion: Watts Up With That? and Clayton Cramer's BLOG

Sharon Theimer / Associated Press:

PROMISES, PROMISES: Friday is still WH ‘trash day’ — WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama entered the White House promising a new era of openness in government, but when it comes to bad news, his administration often uses one of the oldest tricks in the public relations playbook …

Discussion: JammieWearingFool and Alex Conant

Los Angeles Times:
State dinner crashers exchanged e-mails with Pentagon official

Discussion: Swampland, Michelle Malkin, Washington Post, The Hill, Hot Air, Gateway Pundit, The Swamp and American Power

Douglas Elmendorf / Director's Blog:

Estimated Impact of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act on Employment and Economic Output as of September 2009 — Under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA), also known as the economic stimulus package, certain recipients of funds appropriated in ARRA …

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, The Huffington Post, The Hill, Washington Monthly, The Page, Firedoglake, Mouth of the Potomac, TPMDC, Donklephant and Newshoggers.com

Gary Fields / Wall Street Journal:
Job Cuts Loom as Stimulus Fades

Discussion: ProPublica, The New Republic, Paul Krugman and Beat the Press

Seattle Times:

Lakewood police shooting suspect killed by officer in South Seattle early today — Maurice Clemmons, the suspect wanted in the slaying of four Lakewood police officers, was shot and killed in South Seattle early this morning by a Seattle police officer making a routine check of a stolen car.

Discussion: Times of London, The Jawa Report, KING-TV, Weekly Standard, ABCNEWS, Lights & Sirens, Scared Monkeys, The Other McCain, Hot Air, Riehl World View, Another Black Conservative, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Michelle Malkin, The Stranger … and CNN

Alice Schroeder / Bloomberg:

Arming Goldman With Pistols Against Public: Alice Schroeder — Dec. 1 (Bloomberg) — “I just wrote my first reference for a gun permit,” said a friend, who told me of swearing to the good character of a Goldman Sachs Group Inc. banker who applied to the local police for a permit to buy a pistol.

Discussion: naked capitalism, Raw Story, Hullabaloo, DownWithTyranny!, Taibblog, The Impolitic and Gawker

Alexander Bolton / The Hill:

Threat of reconciliation hovers over centrist Democrats on healthcare — Talk about using budget reconciliation to pass healthcare reform in the Senate has faded from public view, but Democratic leaders continue to hang the threat over centrists in private.

Discussion: Washington Post and TalkLeft

Andy Barr / The Politico:

Huck: Political attacks ‘disgusting’ — Under fire for commuting the sentence of suspected cop-killer Maurice Clemmons, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee on Tuesday called some of the criticisms “disgusting” and suggested they were attempts to score political points.

Discussion: The Hill, Wonkette, The Washington Independent and GOP 12

Richard S. Lindzen / Wall Street Journal:

The Climate Science Isn't Settled — Confident predictions of catastrophe are unwarranted. — Printer — Friendly — Is there a reason to be alarmed by the prospect of global warming? Consider that the measurement used, the globally averaged temperature anomaly (GATA), is always changing.

Discussion: Confederate Yankee and J. Bradford DeLong's …

David Brooks / New York Times:

Clear, Hold and Duct Tape — In late 2006, Gen. David Petraeus and Gen. James F. Amos released a brilliant book with a thrilling title. It was called the “Army/Marine Corps Field Manual 3-24.” In its quiet way, this book helped overturn conventional wisdom on modern warfare and gave leaders …

Discussion: Commentary and Prairie Weather