memeorandum: THE FATE OF WALL STREET REFORM.... Last week, Senate Majority … (Steve Benen/Washington Monthly)

1:10 PM ET, April 26, 2010

Top Items:

Most back stricter financial reform, advantage Obama — About two-thirds of Americans support stricter regulations on the way banks and other financial institutions conduct their business, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll. — Majorities also back two main components …

Discussion: Mother Jones, Washington Post, Politics Daily, TalkLeft, Taegan Goddard's …, Right Now, TPMDC, The Plum Line, The Page, Daily Kos, Cynthia Tucker, msnbc.com and The Washington Independent

Steve Benen / Washington Monthly:

THE FATE OF WALL STREET REFORM.... Last week, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) scheduled the first procedural vote — the motion to proceed — on Wall Street reform for about 5 p.m. (ET) today. As of yesterday, Republicans were still prepared to voice their unanimous opposition, blocking the debate from getting underway.

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, ABCNEWS, The Huffington Post, The Plum Line, Bob Cesca's Awesome Blog!, Eschaton and The Hill

Michael O'Brien / The Hill:
Shelby: Senate unlikely to get deal Monday on Wall Street reform

Discussion: Firedoglake, The Swamp, CNN, Washington Post and New York Times

Gabriel Sherman / New York Magazine:

The Revolution Will Be Commercialized — Sarah Palin is already president of right-wing America—and it's a position with a very big salary. — On the morning of July 3, 2009, a national holiday, Sarah Palin placed a call to her communications director and told her that she wanted to hold …

Discussion: The Daily Dish, Conservatives4Palin.com, Right Now, Talking Points Memo, Philly.com, NewsBusters.org, The Atlantic Online, The Caucus, The Immoral Minority, Taylor Marsh, Mediaite, National Review, The Page, Townhall.com and TPMMuckraker

Jonathan Martin / Reuters:

‘Nobody wins’ on immigration reform — The Arizona Legislature's passage of a new hard-line anti-immigration law may force both Democrats and Republicans into a place they don't want to be: dealing with the contentious, no-win issue of immigration reform in the midst of an election year.

Discussion: CNN, OpenSecrets.org, Washington Wire, The Political Carnival and The Hill

Frank Sharry / The Huffington Post:
Lindsey Graham and the Real “Cynical Political Ploy” on Immigration

Discussion: No More Mister Nice Blog, About.com US Liberal Politics and Washington Monthly

Juliet Eilperin / Washington Post:
On climate bill, Democrats work to overcome Graham's immigration objections

Discussion: Ezra Klein, Politics Daily, Los Angeles Times, Washington Monthly, Climate Progress, USA Today, CNN, Time, The New Republic, EnviroKnow and Firedoglake

Ross Douthat / New York Times:

Not Even in South Park? — Two months before 9/11, Comedy Central aired an episode of “South Park” entitled “Super Best Friends,” in which the cartoon show's foul-mouthed urchins sought assistance from an unusual team of superheroes. These particular superfriends were all religious figures …

Discussion: TalkLeft, Balloon Juice, Commentary, Vox Popoli, DaTechguy's Blog, Pajamas Media and The Corner on National …

Jimmy Orr / Top of the Ticket:
Creators of ‘Everybody Draw Muhammad Day’ drop gag after everybody gets angry

Discussion: Power Line, Comic Riffs, HazZzMat, Hit & Run, alicublog and Townhall.com

Political Punch:

Anti-Defamation League: National Security Adviser Jones Told “Inappropriate, Stereotypic” Joke About Jewish Merchant — As first noted by the Jewish newspaper The Forward, at an event last week at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy - a pro-Israel think tank …

Discussion: Ben Smith's Blog, The Confluence and AMERICAblog News

Sammy Benoit / YID With LID:

National Security Adviser Jones: Jews Are Greedy Merchants — As the National Security Adviser, General James Jones is not known as a friend of the Jewish State. It was Jones who put together the team of Brent Scowcroft and Zbigniew Brzezinski to meet with the President and advise him to impose a solution on Israel.

Discussion: Power Line, Pajamas Media, Mediaite, Grim's Hall, Gateway Pundit, Riehl World View, DaTechguy's Blog and THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS

John Campbell / Breitbart.tv:
OBAMA'S NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR TELLS JOKE DEPICTING JEWS AS GREEDY MERCHANTS

Discussion: Israel Matzav, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion and Pajamas Media

Paul Krugman / New York Times:

Op-Ed Columnist: Berating the Rating Agencies — Let's hear it for the Senate's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. Its work on the financial crisis is increasingly looking like the 21st-century version of the Pecora hearings, which helped usher in New Deal-era financial regulation.

Discussion: Bloomberg, DailyFinance, TalkLeft, Commentary, Prairie Weather, The Politico, European Tribune and Paul Krugman

Mark Halperin / Time:

Obama Ahead of Election 2010: The Secrets of His Success — Barack Obama's right-wing opponents cast him as a socialist failure. His left-wing hecklers see him as an overcautious hedger. But, critics notwithstanding, the President is on a path to be a huge success by the time of November's midterm elections.

Discussion: Left Coast Rebel, Balloon Juice, The Hill and The Page

Ben Smith / Ben Smith's Blog:

Obama seeks to ‘reconnect...young people, African-Americans, Latinos, and women’ for 2010 — The Democratic National Committee this morning released this clip of the president rallying the troops, if rather coolly, for 2010. Obama's express goal: “reconnecting” with the voters who voted …

Discussion: Townhall.com, Hot Air, The Plum Line and JOSHUAPUNDIT

Amanda Terkel / Think Progress:

Even Tancredo worries AZ immigration law may go too far: People shouldn't be pulled over for how they look. — Former Colorado Republican congressman Tom Tancredo is known as a far-right ideologue when it comes to immigration, with fellow Republican Dick Armey lamenting that Tancredo is “alienating” Latinos from the GOP.

Discussion: TPM LiveWire

Tammy Vigil / KDVR:
Colorado closely watching Arizona illegal immigrant crackdown

Discussion: Patchwork Nation

Ezra Klein:

How do you measure ‘epistemic closure’? — “Epistemic closure,” Julian Sanchez writes, is the toxic result of “confirmation bias plus a sufficiently large array of multimedia conservative outlets to constitute a complete media counterculture, plus an overbroad ideological justification …

Discussion: JustOneMinute, The Monkey Cage and Prairie Weather

Philip Rucker / Washington Post:

Obama and Democrats appeal to new voters in midterms — President Obama will declare his stake in the November midterm elections for the first time on Monday as his Democratic Party announces an ambitious strategy to appeal to independent voters in its quest to maintain control of Congress.

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Townhall.com, msnbc.com, TPMDC, CNN, The Page and New York Times

Political Punch:
Obama Launches DNC “Vote 2010” Midterm Election Effort

Discussion: Hotline On Call and INSTAPUTZ

Pierre Thomas / ABCNEWS:

Behind the Scenes at Homeland Security — Napolitano Calls Arizona Immigration Law ‘Misguided,’ Wants Reform With Fines, Biometric Registration, Mandatory English — Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said in an exclusive interview she agreed with President Obama's assessment …

Discussion: Feministe

New York Times:
Oil Leaks Could Take Months to Stop

Discussion: Balloon Juice and Online NewsHour

Meredith Traina / WPIX:

Thousands Protest Obama's Stance On Israel — NEW YORK (WPIX) - Thousands of Jews gathered outside the Israeli Consulate Sunday to protest President Obama's position towards Israel. — Organizers said the event supports “Israel's right to build and live in its own country,” …

Discussion: Commentary, Gateway Pundit and Scared Monkeys

Pamela Geller / Atlas Shrugs:
THOUSANDS IN THE POURING RAIN TO SUPPORT ISRAEL AGAINST OBAMA'S ANTI-ISRAEL POLICIES

Discussion: Israel Matzav

Michael Scherer / Swampland:

Dead Girl, Live Boy, Failed Bank: Alex Giannoulias Makes His Play — The Illinois Senate race is playing out like an academic case study in crises management. Imagine this: Your client, a former chief loan officer for a local bank, is a Democrat heading into a Republican election year, in a state long stained by political corruption.

Discussion: Washington Monthly

Wall Street Journal:

ObamaCare Mulligan — About those lower insurance costs we promised . . . . When President Obama signed his health-care reform last month, he declared it will “lower costs for families and for businesses and for the federal government.” So why, barely a month later …

Discussion: Betsy's Page

USA Today:

Economists say recovery looks stronger than expected — The recovery is shaping up to be stronger than expected and there is little risk the economy will slip back into a recession, according to USA TODAY's quarterly survey of 46 leading economists. — Yet most still say the rebound …

Discussion: EdLabor Journal

John O'Connor / The State:

Bauer takes aim at the ‘lazy’ in S.C. — Republican gubernatorial debate held in Spartanburg — SPARTANBURG - Lazy state residents are contributing to the number of illegal immigrants in South Carolina, Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer said during a Republican gubernatorial debate Friday, living off public aid rather than working.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Taegan Goddard's … and TPM LiveWire

Wall Street Journal:

Deal Near on Derivatives — Berkshire Presses Lawmakers to Roll Back Proposed Curbs, Avoiding Potential Hit — WASHINGTON—Democrats took a step toward their goal of overhauling financial regulation, reaching a tentative deal to set restrictions on trading in exotic financial instruments known as derivatives.

Discussion: Washington Wire, ProPublica, Political Punch and DealBook

Foreign Policy:

Farewell — And thanks for reading. — Does the editor of Foreign Policy magazine need to be a U.S. citizen? That was my first question in mid-1996 upon learning that the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the think tank that then owned the magazine, was looking for a new editor.