memeorandum: RED ALERT: U.S. Consulate Attacked In Pakistan (STRATFOR)

12:00 PM ET, April 5, 2010

Top Items:

Lydia Saad / Gallup:

Tea Partiers Are Fairly Mainstream in Their Demographics — Skew right politically, but have typical profile by age, education, and employment — PRINCETON, NJ — Tea Party supporters skew right politically; but demographically, they are generally representative of the public at large.

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, Politics Daily, The Atlantic Online, msnbc.com, Weekly Standard, The Swamp, Another Black Conservative, Don Surber, Taylor Marsh, American Power, Hot Air, The Foundry, YID With LID, JammieWearingFool, Political Insider and Pollster.com All Content

Sean J. Miller / The Hill:

Survey: Four in 10 Tea Party members are Dems or independents — Four in 10 Tea Party members are either Democrats or Independents, according to a new national survey. — The findings provide one of the most detailed portraits to date of the grassroots movement that started last year.

Discussion: protein wisdom, The Moderate Voice, Sister Toldjah, The Politico, The Plum Line, Questions and Observations, Scared Monkeys, No More Mister Nice Blog, Outside The Beltway, Below The Beltway, NewsBusters.org and The Lonely Conservative

Rasmussen Reports:

Tea Party 48% Obama 44% — On major issues, 48% of voters say that the average Tea Party member is closer to their views than President Barack Obama. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that 44% hold the opposite view and believe the president's views are closer to their own.

Discussion: Power Line, Hot Air, Gateway Pundit, Beltway Confidential and NewsBusters.org

Andrew Malcolm / Top of the Ticket:
Myth-busting polls: Tea Party members are average Americans …

Discussion: The Winston Group

Chris Cillizza / The Fix:
Republicans plan $50 million independent effort in 2010

Discussion: The Swamp, Ben Smith's Blog, Hotline On Call and Beltway Confidential

Sammy Benoit / YID With LID: Et Tu Gallup? Second Polling Org. …

JammieWearingFool:
Suicide Watch at DNC HQ: Four in 10 Tea Partiers Independents or Democrats

Discussion: The Rhetorican and Doug Ross

ABCNEWS:

EXCLUSIVE: Michael Steele: Obama and I Have Slimmer Margins of Error Because of Race — Embattled Republican Leader Breaks His Silence, Says He Won't Resign — Embattled Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele said he won't resign despite calls for him to step down amid reports …

Discussion: Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Washington Monthly, George's Bottom Line, Associated Press, Hotline On Call, NY Daily News, Taegan Goddard's …, Below The Beltway, The Rachel Maddow Show and Yahoo! News

Jordan Fabian / The Hill:
Steele: Criticism motivated by race

Discussion: Riehl World View

Mark Silva / The Swamp:
Michael Steele's ‘problem: Credit card’

Discussion: CNN, D.C. Now and CBS News

Alex Seitz-Wald / Think Progress:
After Condemning Democrats For Using The ‘Race Card’ …

Discussion: The Hill, Washington Wire and Washington Monthly

Andy Barr / The Politico:
Steele: I'm not going anywhere

Discussion: PoliBlog and Althouse

Paul Krugman / New York Times:

Making Financial Reform Fool-Resistant — The White House is confident that a financial regulatory reform bill will soon pass the Senate. I'm not so sure, given the opposition of Republican leaders to any real reform. But in any case, how good is the legislation on the table …

Discussion: The Corner on National …, The Baseline Scenario, The Note, Rortybomb and Prairie Weather

Noam Scheiber / The New Republic:

Street Fight — Obama can get everything he wants on financial reform—if only he gets tough. — Last week, Alabama Republican Richard Shelby, the ranking member of the Senate Banking Committee, floated a compromise on the consumer financial protection agency that's currently stalled in the Senate.

Discussion: Matthew Yglesias, Ezra Klein, Deal Journal, Talking Points Memo and Balloon Juice

The Politico:
Dems bristle at financial reform deadline

Discussion: Washington Times, Political Punch, The Page and Los Angeles Times

Ed O'Keefe / Federal Eye:

Karl Rove appears in TV ad for Census — Author and former George W. Bush adviser Karl Rove will appear in a new public service announcement from the U.S. Census Bureau designed to convince people to mail back their 2010 census forms by the end of the month.

Discussion: The Swamp, Ben Smith's Blog and At-Largely

Naftali Bendavid / Wall Street Journal:
Republicans Worry About Census

Discussion: Gawker, Cynthia Tucker and The Daily Caller

Washington Post:
Karl Rove is no conservative, as his memoir shows

Discussion: NewsBusters.org, Cato @ Liberty, Outside The Beltway, Firedoglake and Beltway Confidential

V. Dion Haynes / Washington Post:

Jobless rate may rise as many are drawn back to labor force — The increase in jobs highlighted in the nation's most recent unemployment report carried the sound of economic promise, but Obama administration officials said Sunday that the public shouldn't expect any dramatic improvement in the jobless rate …

Discussion: Commentary, Beat the Press, The Other McCain, The Washington Independent, Associated Press, Scared Monkeys, The Page and The Hill

Brianna Keilar / CNN:

Unemployment benefits expire for thousands — (CNN) — Extended unemployment benefits will temporarily expire for thousands of Americans on Monday because the Senate went on its spring recess without approving a one-month deadline extension. — The extension, which had bipartisan support …

Discussion: Politics Daily, Guardian and Suburban Guerrilla

Joshua Partlow / Washington Post:

Karzai's defiant stance concerns U.S., other Afghans — KABUL — President Obama's visit to Kabul last week, intended in part to forge a closer working relationship with President Hamid Karzai, has helped produce the opposite: an angry Afghan leader now attacking the West for what he perceives …

Discussion: Taylor Marsh, democracyarsenal.org and The Washington Independent

Jerome Starkey / Times of London:
US special forces ‘tried to cover-up’ botched Khataba raid in Afghanistan

Discussion: New York Times, ISAF Latest, Salon and Rethink Afghanistan War Blog

Richard A. Oppel Jr / New York Times:
U.S. Admits Role in February Killing of Afghan Women

Discussion: ATTACKERMAN and The Washington Independent

David Carr / New York Times:

The Media Equation: Sarah Palin's Lucrative Career in Mainstream Media — When Sarah Palin made her debut as the host of “Real American Stories” on Fox News on Thursday night, she described several triumphs of regular people over insurmountable odds, but she missed an obvious one: her own.

Discussion: Matthew Yglesias, Brendan Nyhan, Israpundit, The Other McCain and Conservatives4Palin.com

Liberty Pundits dot net:

Fake story meant to ensnare bloggers catches NYT instead — And these clowns wonder why they are circling the drain? This lawyer pulled the fake story stunt to entrap us - political bloggers - because “fact checking is not” our “strong suit,” so he claimed. We ignored the story, and the NYT ran with it.

Discussion: New York Personal …, Don Surber and JammieWearingFool

Irwin Stelzer / Wall Street Journal:

Small Bras and the Value-Added Tax — Taxing consumption sounds easy. Wait until government starts to carve out the political exceptions. — So we are to have a European-style value-added tax (VAT). That's the emerging consensus in Washington as people come to recognize the reality …

Discussion: Ezra Klein, protein wisdom and Betsy's Page

David Catanese / The Politico:

Spring forecast: Incivility with a chance of rage — MANCHESTER, N.H. - If the experience of this state's two Democratic House members is any indication, the raw emotion and mistrust emanating from last summer's congressional town halls never really went away.

Discussion: Another Black Conservative, Don Surber and NewsBusters.org

Paul / Power Line:
Why can't they just forgive and forget?

Discussion: Pundit & Pundette

Mark Halperin / Time:

Taking On Obama in 2012: Challenges for Romney, Pawlenty — President Barack Obama waves goodbye after delivering a speech at the Portland Expo Center in Maine on April 1, 2010 — The conventional presidential-campaign wisdom: … Because all these pieces of wisdom are completely false …

Discussion: Ben Smith's Blog, The Swamp, AmSpecBlog, The Page and Marbury

Jess Bravin / Wall Street Journal:

Court Challenge: Replacing Stevens — Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens's latest public musings about retirement highlight the challenge President Barack Obama faces in choosing a successor for the leader of the court's liberal minority. — Whomever Mr. Obama chooses …

Discussion: Ezra Klein, The Note, Beltway Confidential, Washington Post, Law Blog, Politico Live's Blog, Pundit & Pundette and The Hill

Greg Stohr / Bloomberg:
Kagan, Judges Said to Be Considered for Supreme Court Vacancy

Discussion: The Atlantic Online, Below The Beltway, The Confluence, RedState, TalkLeft, Mediaite and Gawker

Jon Ralston / Las Vegas Sun:

Why Sen. Ensign should be worried about possible indictment — In the federal penal code, it is known as “structuring.” — And it is a word Sen. John Ensign should remember because it is very likely to be on any indictment with his name on it. — That's what I am told by a reliable source familiar …