memeorandum: Washington Times Features Doctored Photo Of Kagan In A Turban … (Ian M./Think Progress)

10:15 PM ET, June 23, 2010

Top Items:

Obama Says Afghan Policy Won't Change — WASHINGTON — President Obama on Wednesday fired his top Afghanistan war commander after only a brief meeting in the Oval Office, replacing Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal with his boss and mentor, General David H. Petraeus, and sending a clear signal …

Rose Garden / The White House:

Statement by the President in the Rose Garden — THE PRESIDENT: Good afternoon. Today I accepted General Stanley McChrystal's resignation as commander of the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan. I did so with considerable regret, but also with certainty …

Discussion: The Politico, CNN, The Note, The Huffington Post, US News, SFGate, The Moderate Voice, Washington Post, The Swamp, Des Moines Register, Mudville Gazette, JustOneMinute, Guardian and Marbury

Eric Zimmermann / The Hill:

McCain, Graham, Lieberman call for changes to civilian Afghanistan team — The resignation of Gen. Stanley McChrystal should lead the Obama administration to re-evaluate their civilian Afghanistan team as well, three members of the Armed Services Committee said Wednesday.

Discussion: Maggie's Farm

ABCNEWS:

Gen. Petraeus Will Replace Embattled Gen. McChrystal in Afghanistan — The Embattled General Will No Longer Be Leading U.S. Counterinsurgency Efforts — President Obama today relieved embattled Gen. Stanley McChrystal from his position as the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan …

Discussion: National Review, The Daily Beast, Washington Wire, Washington Post, Rolling Stone, White House.gov Blog Feed, The Huffington Post, The TrogloPundit, Right Wing Watch, SFGate, Don Surber, Tuned In, NewsReal Blog, Crooks and Liars, Newshoggers.com, Runnin' Scared and Right Wing News

Thomas E. Ricks / Foreign Policy:

Dave's back — So, for the second time in three years, Gen. David Petraeus is bailing out a president. — Afghanistan 2010 may be an even tougher nut than Iraq 2007. Sure, Iraq looked like a mess back then, but the Americans hadn't tried a lot of good ideas.

Discussion: blogs.telegraph.co.uk, Commentary, Democracy in America and The Daily Dish

Fred Kaplan / Slate:
McChrystal: Gone and Soon Forgotten

Discussion: Politics Daily, New York Times and Newsbroke

Jake Tapper / Political Punch:
McChrystal to Administration Official: 'I've Compromised the Mission'

Discussion: Washington Post, TPMDC, The Daily Beast, CNN, USA Today, ABCNEWS, The Daily Whim, Taylor Marsh, The Moderate Voice, The Daily Dish, Mediaite, Hot Air, This Just In, Firedoglake, New Atlanticist, Jules Crittenden and Wall Street Journal

Jordan Fabian / The Hill:
House Republicans use Obama's selection of Petraeus to jab Democrats

Discussion: The Politico and The Hill

Associated Press:
AP Source: Obama ousts Afghan commander McChrystal

Discussion: Hot Air, Michelle Malkin, Jules Crittenden, Townhall.com, NewsBusters.org, Pajamas Media, The Jawa Report and The Daily Caller

msnbc.com:
Obama relieves McChrystal of command

Discussion: Politics Daily, Associated Press, American Prospect, Mediaite, Raw Story, Danger Room, Guardian, CBS News, Gawker, Newsbroke, TPMDC and CNN

Fox News:
McChrystal Resigns Over Critical Remarks, Obama Names Petraeus as Replacement

Discussion: Politics Daily, Don Surber, AMERICAN DIGEST, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Gateway Pundit, neo-neocon, Washington Post and The Right Scoop

Faiz Shakir / Think Progress:
Obama Replaces McChrystal With Petraeus: 'I Welcome Debate …

Discussion: CBS News, Rolling Stone, The Daily Beast, Washington Wire, Climate Progress and skippy the bush kangaroo

National Enquirer:

EXCLUSIVE: GORE SEX SCANDAL — ENQUIRER WORLD EXCLUSIVE: AL GORE has been accused of sexually attacking a masseuse in Portland, Oregon - and is named in the official police report about the alleged assault, The ENQUIRER has learned exclusively! — The bombshell story will appear …

Discussion: Pajamas Media, Don Surber, Gawker, The Jawa Report and Beltway Confidential

Maxine Bernstein / Oregonian:

Prosecutor: Al Gore was focus of sex crime inquiry in Portland — The Multnomah County District Attorney's Office confirmed today that a woman who alleged unwanted sexual contact by Al Gore reported it to police in 2006, and the prosecutor's office was briefed by the Portland Police Bureau in late 2006 and January 2007.

Discussion: Ben Smith's Blog

National Enquirer:
PORTLAND DA: CRIMINAL PROSECUTION POSSIBLE IN THE AL GORE SEX SCANDAL

Discussion: Politics Daily

David Weigel / Right Now:

‘Joe Barton was right,’ Joe Barton tweets — Hours after getting a respite from House Republicans, Rep. Joe Barton (R-Tex.) has cheekily responded to criticism over his “apology to BP” by tweeting a link to an American Spectator article titled “Joe Barton was right.”

Tom Jensen / Public Policy Polling:

Texans Down on Barton — Texans think that Barack Obama's right and Joe Barton's wrong when it comes to BP's responsibility for cleaning up the oil spill, and a plurality of voters in the state think Barton should lose his leadership post on the Energy and Commerce Committee.

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, Politics Daily, The Washington Independent, The Eye and TPMDC

Peter Hannaford / American Spectator:
Joe Barton Was Right

Discussion: TPMDC, The Plum Line, The Hill, The Speakers Lobby, The Atlantic Online, American Power and msnbc.com

Allahpundit / Hot Air:

Video: Cops arrest Christians for handing out gospel at Dearborn Arab festival? Update: Pushback — Via Powerline, so insane is this that I'm paranoid there's a key detail missing somewhere that might explain the whole thing. Could the Christians have been trespassing on private property, maybe?

Discussion: The Right Scoop and Gateway Pundit

John / Power Line:

Sharia Comes to Michigan — Under Sharia law, it is forbidden to proselytize to Muslims, and no Muslim can leave the faith. Dearborn, Michigan, is home to a substantial Muslim population, and there is strong evidence that local authorities now enforce sharia in preference to the Constitution of the United States.

Discussion: Patterico's Pontifications, RedState, Wake up America and Liberty Pundits Blog

Wall Street Journal:

Confidence Waning in Obama, U.S. Outlook — Americans are more pessimistic about the state of the country and less confident in President Barack Obama's leadership than at any point since Mr. Obama entered the White House, according to a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll.

Discussion: Hot Air and The Page

Susan Davis / Washington Wire: WSJ/NBC Poll: Voters Support GOP Takeover of Congress

Mark Murray / msnbc.com:
Poll: Spill drags Obama's rating down

Discussion: NewsBusters.org

Guy Busby / Breaking News from the Press-Register:

Coroner: Charter captain working oil spill killed himself; former co-worker 'surprised something like this hasn't already happened' — FORT MORGAN, Ala. — An Orange Beach, Ala., charter boat captain shot and killed himself this morning just before his vessel was scheduled to set out to take part …

Discussion: Hullabaloo and The Nation

Geoff Mohan / LA Times Environment Blog:
Gulf oil spill: Boat captain, despondent over spill, commits suicide

Discussion: The Moderate Voice and Firedoglake

WDSU-TV:

Federal Gov't Halts Sand Berm Dredging — Nungesser Pleads With President To Allow Work To Continue — NEW ORLEANS — The federal government is shutting down the dredging that was being done to create protective sand berms in the Gulf of Mexico. — The berms are meant to protect the Louisiana coastline from oil.

Discussion: Hot Air, Liberty Pundits Blog, And So it Goes in Shreveport, The Foundry, Questions and Observations, Another Black Conservative and The Daily Caller

Telegraph:

Remains of 72 people found at World Trade Center site — New York City officials say a renewed search this year of debris in and around the World Trade Center site has recovered 72 human remains. — The sifting of more than 800 cubic yards (612 cubic meters) of debris recovered from ground zero …

Discussion: The Jawa Report and Atlas Shrugs

ZIP / Weasel Zippers:

MoveOn Scrubs “General Betray Us” Page From Website . . . Update: Flashback to 2007, Obama Skipped Senate Vote to Condemn MoveOn . . . Update 2: Rationale Page Also Flushed. . . It was there the last time Google cache took a screen shot of it (June 18th), so it was scrubbed sometime between then and today.

Discussion: The Jawa Report, Instapundit, The Other McCain, The Daily Caller, Hot Air, Power Line, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion and iOwnTheWorld.com

Tom Schaller / FiveThirtyEight:

The Emerging Republican Minority — The Center for American Politics' Ruy Teixeira, one of the top political demographers in the country, has a new paper out in which he examines the two major party coalitions, with a focus on the current and future prospects of the Republican Party.

Discussion: The Reality-Based Community

John Fritze / ABCNEWS:

First Female Governor Possible in Eight States — Numerous Female Candidates Seek Statewide Office — As she begins her general election race for South Carolina's top statehouse job, Republican Nikki Haley is part of a group of candidates this year who are simultaneously pursuing another goal …

Discussion: CNN, Commentary, Taylor Marsh and Outside the Beltway

Amy Gardner / Washington Post:
Nikki Haley, Tim Scott win Republican primaries in South Carolina

Discussion: Sepia Mutiny, The Fix, Ben Smith's Blog, TigerHawk, Cynthia Tucker, Moonbattery, Weekly Standard and Associated Press

Reuters:

Gillard becomes Australia's first female PM — (Reuters) - Julia Gillard became Australia's first female prime minister on Thursday when Kevin Rudd stepped down, as the Labor government sought to avoid election defeat later this year by changing leaders. — Gillard is expected to present …

Discussion: Weekly Standard, The Daily Dish and Feministe

Megan McArdle / The Atlantic Online:

The Last Ironing Board to Die for a Mistake — Yesterday, The Washington Post told the sad story of the last ironing board factory in the United States. To protect the jobs of 200 workers, imported Chinese ironing boards are hit with tariffs from 70 to 150 percent.

Discussion: Managerial Econ

Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System:

For immediate release — Information received since the Federal Open Market Committee met in April suggests that the economic recovery is proceeding and that the labor market is improving gradually. Household spending is increasing but remains constrained by high unemployment …

Discussion: Calculated Risk, Matthew Yglesias, The Atlantic Online, Real Time Economics, Money & Company, The Washington Independent and Economist's View

CNN:

Spitzer, Parker to host primetime CNN show — CNN announced Wednesday that Kathleen Parker and Eliot Spitzer will host its new 8 p.m. program. — Washington (CNN) - Former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer and 2010 Pulitzer Prize winning columnist Kathleen Parker will co-host …

Discussion: TalkLeft, The Politico, Politics Daily, Mediaite, Hot Air, The Awl and New Deal 2.0

Mike Huckabee / Huck PAC:

THE ICK FACTOR... The reaction over a reported quote from my most recent interview with the New Yorker has gained a lot of attention on the blogs and Internet. — Let me set the record straight. — My exact quote was this: — “I do believe that God created male and female and intended …

Discussion: Wonk Room, Think Progress, Talking Points Memo, Pam's House Blend and TPM LiveWire

Ian M. / Think Progress:

Washington Times Features Doctored Photo Of Kagan In A Turban To Claim She's Subservient To Shariah Law — Six days ago, after Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) absurdly tried to link Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan to “oppressive tenets of Shari'a-type law,” The Wonk Room's Matt Duss jokingly predicted …