memeorandum: Peter Orszag to Wed ABC News Reporter (Jackie Calmes/The Caucus)

10:05 PM ET, December 28, 2009

Top Items:

The JFK Photo That Could Have Changed History — TMZ has obtained a never-before published photograph which appears to show John F. Kennedy on a boat filled with naked women — it's a photo that could have altered world events. — We believe the photo was taken in the mid-1950s.

Discussion: Liberal Values, Gawker, Politics Daily, Mediaite, Little Green Footballs, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Atlas Shrugs, The Daily Dish, Fausta's Blog, Riehl World View and JammieWearingFool

The Smoking Gun:

TMZ Falls For JFK Photo Hoax — Photo that “could have changed history” actually from a Playboy shoot — In a colossal screw-up, the gossip web site TMZ.com today published a photo purporting to show John F. Kennedy frolicking on a yacht with a harem of naked women—except …

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, Runnin' Scared, Vanity Fair and New York Times

TMZ.com:

Man in Photo is Not JFK — TMZ received an email from someone who said the photo we posted showing a man appearing to be John F. Kennedy on a yacht with naked women was actually a photo from a 1967 Playboy photo shoot. — We have contacted Playboy and a rep says the photo did indeed run in one of its 1967 issues.

Discussion: Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, American Power, ArtsBeat, La Figa and Gawker

ABCNEWS:

EXCLUSIVE: Photos of the Northwest Airlines Bomb — Accused Bomber Abdulmutallab's Underwear, Explosive Packet and Detonator — A singed pair of underwear with a packet of powder sewn into the crotch, seen in government photos obtained exclusively by ABC News, is all that remains …

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, American Power, Hot Air, Atlas Shrugs, The Political Carnival and AMERICAblog News

Christopher Hitchens / Slate:

Flying High — Why are we so bad at detecting the guilty and so good at collective punishment of the innocent? — It's getting to the point where the twin news stories more or less write themselves. No sooner is the fanatical and homicidal Muslim arrested than it turns out that he …

Discussion: Washington Monthly, The Confluence, Hit & Run and Israel Matzav

Kenneth Chang / New York Times:
Explosive on Flight 253 Is Among Most Powerful

Discussion: Fausta's Blog, Danger Room, American Power, Hit & Run, National Review Online, PoliBlog, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Townhall.com, The Foundry, Washington Wire and Washington Monthly

ABCNEWS:

Two al Qaeda Leaders Behind Northwest Flight 253 Terror Plot Were Released by U.S. — Former Guantanamo Prisoners Believed Behind Northwest Airlines Bomb Plot; Sent to Saudi Arabia in 2007 — Two of the four leaders allegedly behind the al Qaeda plot to blow up a Northwest Airlines passenger jet …

Discussion: Little Green Footballs, Weekly Standard, At-Largely, TalkLeft, Liberal Values, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Political Punch, Say It Ain't So Already, Hot Air, The Washington Independent, Jihad Watch, THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS, BlogHer, Stop The ACLU, Daily Kos, AMERICAblog News and Riehl World View

New York Times:

Security System Failed, Napolitano Acknowledges — WASHINGTON — Backtracking from a widely criticized assertion over the weekend, the secretary of homeland security, Janet Napolitano, said in a televised interview on Monday that the thwarted bombing of a Detroit-bound airliner …

Discussion: Megan McArdle, Real Clear Politics, Washington Post, Chris Floyd, Gateway Pundit, PERRspectives, Althouse, Mediaite, Bookworm Room, Time, Hit & Run, Swampland, Jeffrey Goldberg, Jules Crittenden, neo-neocon, democracyarsenal.org, Los Angeles Times and Gates of Vienna

Runnin' Scared:

Crotch-Bomber Fails to Blow Up Plane, in Yet Another Disaster for Obama — There are a few ways to look at the case of the thwarted holiday crotch-bomber. On the one hand, we have a deluded fellow who, allegedly assured of eternal glory by jihadists who bade him sew explosive chemicals into his underwear …

Discussion: alicublog, The Hill, The Corner on National …, American Power, Washington Post, Pajamas Media, THE WEEK News & Opinion, AmSpecBlog, CNN, Hot Air, The Mahablog and Guardian

Lovegetspeace / CBS News:
U.S. Failed to Catch Suspect's Active Visa

Discussion: Hot Air, The Washington Independent, Matthew Yglesias and Sister Toldjah

Mark Hosenball / Newsweek Blogs:
What U.S. Intelligence Knew About the Underpants Bomber

Discussion: The Washington Independent

Patrick Gavin / The Politico:

MAX BAUCUS'S SPEECH UNDER CONSERVATIVE FIRE — “DRUNK WITH POWER? TOP DEM SLURS ON SENATE FLOOR...” reads the Drudge Report headline. — Newsbusters.org writes: “How can one explain this incredibly bizarre performance by Max Baucus on the Senate floor?

Discussion: Politics Daily, NewsBusters.org, News Hounds, Left in the West, Scared Monkeys, Instapundit, Runnin' Scared, Riehl World View, The Sundries Shack and Examiner

David Weigel / The Washington Independent:

The ‘Drunk’ Smear — At the end of a slow holiday weekend, Matt Drudge linked to a video posted by YouTube member SocialistsSteal, labeled “Senator Max Baucus Drunk/Intoxicated on Senate Floor.” SocialistsSteal had, ironically, stolen the video from ThinkProgress, which had grabbed the lengthy clip …

Discussion: YID With LID and Say It Ain't So Already

Andrew Malcolm / Top of the Ticket:
Democrat Max Baucus' really, uh, passionate Senate speech …

Discussion: The Washington Independent

Avi Zenilman / The Plum Line:

Tea Partiers To Republicans: You Better Call For Full Repeal of Reform, Or Else — It's now becoming clear that this could be a major issue for Republicans in 2010: the Tea Party movement, as well as high-profile conservatives, are going to demand that candidates call for a full repeal …

Discussion: Page's Page, The Politico, Daily Kos, Hot Air, Stop The ACLU, American Power, Erick's blog, Say It Ain't So Already, Make Them Accountable, Hullabaloo, Think Progress, Top Stories from CQ and DISSENTING JUSTICE

Steve Benen / Washington Monthly:
THE MOST POPULAR ‘MTP’ GUEST OF THE YEAR.... In the previous post …

Discussion: The Plum Line

Steve Benen / Washington Monthly:
THE REPEAL LITMUS TEST.... The question of whether Republicans …

Discussion: RedState, Think Progress and The Reality-Based Community

Washington Post:

Transcript of Obama remarks on airline security and terror watch lists — President Obama's remarks Monday about airline security and this weekend's protests in Iran. The Washington Post maintains a full database of Obama's speeches here. — Good morning, everybody.

Discussion: Weekly Standard, The Sundries Shack, Don Surber, Cold Fury, The Corner on National …, Pajamas Media, Washington Monthly, The Plum Line, Commentary, Jihad Watch and Media Blog on National …

Ben Smith / Ben Smith's Blog:

GOP blame at TSA? — As Republicans seek to put the blame for the widespread perception of ineptness at the Transportation Security Administration on the Obama administration, Democrats are arguing that Republican legislators bear part of the blame and that they're politically vulnerable on the subject.

Discussion: The Politico, Crooks and Liars, MyDD, Coop's Corner, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, TalkLeft, msnbc.com, Little Green Footballs and The Political Carnival

Spencer S. Hsu / Washington Post:
Equipment to detect explosives is available

Discussion: Time, The Moderate Voice, Commentary and The Caucus

Lydia Saad / Gallup:

“Political Winners” Circle Filled by Figures Close to Obama — Americans divided in labeling Sarah Palin as a political winner or loser — PRINCETON, NJ — In Americans' estimation, the top three political winners of 2009 are all women closely linked with the Obama administration …

Discussion: Boston Globe, D.C. Now, Politics Daily, The Hill, The Politico, The Swamp, Real Clear Politics and The Political Carnival

Andrew Malcolm / Top of the Ticket:
Now, Michelle Obama too is sliding in the polls

Discussion: Townhall.com

The Huffington Post:

Andy Martin, GOP Senate Candidate, Accuses Opponent Mark Kirk Of Homosexuality — WHAT'S YOUR REACTION? — If there was any question whether or not the 2010 election season was heating up, it was dispelled on Monday morning when a Republican Senate candidate from Illinois released …

WBBM780.com:
PHOTOS RELATED TO THIS STORY - CLICK HERE

Discussion: Little Green Footballs, WBBM-TV and Raw Story

Jackie Calmes / The Caucus:

Peter Orszag to Wed ABC News Reporter — Rahm Emanuel once said of Peter R. Orszag, the bespectacled economist who is President Obama's budget director, “He's made nerdy sexy.” So perhaps the White House chief of staff won't be surprised to learn that Mr. Orszag got engaged over lunch …

Discussion: ABCNEWS, Mediaite, TVNewser, Gawker and Wonkette

The Sun:

Bomb plotter: ‘More like me’ — FAILED plane bomber Umar Abdulmutallab has bragged to FBI agents that there are more young men plotting to launch attacks on the West. — The 23-year-old Nigerian has told security chiefs of a sinister network in Yemen who are ready and waiting to strike.

Discussion: protein wisdom, Hot Air, New York Post, Guardian, Classical Values, Associated Press and JammieWearingFool

Reuters:
Dutch probe claims of Nigerian bomber accomplice

Discussion: Associated Press, New York Times, Hot Air, Mediaite, NPR Blogs, Political Byline, Classical Values, Pajamas Media and Gateway Pundit

Jeffrey Goldberg:

Andrew Sullivan, Hannah Rosenthal and Neocons — Andrew Sullivan writes, in reference my charge that Hannah Rosenthal, the State Department's anti-anti-Semitism czar, made as her “first target” of criticism Israel's ambassador to the U.S., Michael Oren, for refusing to speak at the J Street conference:

Discussion: Political Byline and THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS

Myglesias / Matthew Yglesias:

Development is Important — I'm used to bad Washington Post editorials, but this one really breaks new ground in terms of red baiting and absurdity: … This is really insane. The Soviet Bloc used to argue a lot of things. They argued, for example, that achieving a high material standard …

Discussion: ATTACKERMAN, Cato @ Liberty, Lawyers, Guns and Money, J. Bradford DeLong's … and Power Line

Peter Baker / The Caucus:

Son of Obama's Friend Injured in Hawaii — Updated | 5:37 p.m. President Obama was rushed away unexpectedly from a Hawaii golf course on Monday and brought back to the beachfront compound where he has been staying because the son of one of his friends was hurt and needed stitches.

Discussion: Confederate Yankee, Ben Smith's Blog and Gawker

Peter J. Wallison / The Enterprise Blog:

Administration Won't Estimate Total Losses of Fannie and Freddie — It's a favorite government trick to announce bad news on a Friday afternoon, so it appears in Saturday's paper, the least likely edition to be read. By Sunday and Monday, it's old news. The Obama Treasury just went one better …

Jim Hoft / Gateway Pundit:

Krauthammer Rips Obama's “Flaccid, Meaningless” Words On Iranian Freedom Protests (Video) — “This is a moment in history, and he's missing it.” — On Special Report tonight Charles Krauthammer ripped President Obama for his “flaccid, meaningless” words on the Iranian freedom protests.

Marc Ambinder / The Atlantic Politics Channel:

10 Questions About Terrorism, Obama and the Christmas Day Plot — The fast-moving story raises many questions, political, procedural and existential. Here are some of them: — (1) If, as ABC News reports, the plotters of the Christmas Day attack were released from Guantanamo Bay to Saudi Arabia in 2007 …