memeorandum: Kagan Sworn In to Supreme Court (Peter Baker/New York Times)

7:25 PM ET, August 7, 2010

Top Items:

Fareed Zakaria's Letter to the ADL — Five years ago, the ADL honored me with its Hubert Humphrey First Amendment Freedoms Prize. I was delighted and moved to have been chosen for it in good measure because of the high esteem in which I hold the ADL. I have always been impressed by the fact …

Discussion: NO QUARTER, Israel Matzav, Taylor Marsh, Mediaite, Gothamist and The Daily Politics

Fareed Zakaria / ADL:

ADL Letter to Fareed Zakaria — Dear Fareed: — I received your letter today and must say I am not only saddened but stunned and somewhat speechless by your decision to return the ADL Hubert H. Humphrey First Amendment Freedoms Prize, you accepted in 2005.

Discussion: Mediaite, Media Decoder and The Huffington Post

Neda Bolourchi / Washington Post:

A Muslim victim of 9/11: ‘Build your mosque somewhere else’ — I have no grave site to visit, no place to bring my mother her favorite yellow flowers, no spot where I can hold my weary heart close to her. All I have is Ground Zero. — I watched as terrorists slammed United Flight 175 …

Discussion: sisu, Guardian, Jihad Watch, Time and Weasel Zippers

Myglesias / Matthew Yglesias:

Zakaria Returns ADL Prize — Fareed Zakaria is a mensch: … The details of the return aside, just think about the fact that the Anti-Defamation League has traditionally been in the business of doing things like handing out first amendment awards named after Hubert Humphrey to dudes with names like “Fareed Zakaria.”

Greg Sargent / The Plum Line:

ADL: If mosque-builders really wanted to promote reconcilation, they'd move — Via Steve Benen, I see that Fareed Zakaria has decided to return an award betowed on him by the Anti-Defamation League in order to protest the organization's deeply misguided opposition to the Islamic center near Ground Zero.

Discussion: Gothamist and Washington Monthly

David Montalvo / Crain's New York Business:
Museum of Tolerance backer: No to WTC mosque

Discussion: Raw Story, TPMMuckraker, TalkLeft, Think Progress and The Reality-Based Community

Stephen Chernin / Newsweek:
Build the Ground Zero Mosque

Discussion: Financial Times, Think Progress, The Huffington Post, Jihad Watch, xpostfactoid, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Paul Krugman, The Washington Note, The Moderate Voice and Political Byline

Peter Baker / New York Times:

Kagan Sworn In to Supreme Court — WASHINGTON — Elena Kagan was sworn in Saturday as the 112th person and the fourth woman to serve on the Supreme Court, continuing a generational and demographic transformation of the nation's highest bench. — Enlarge This Image

Discussion: The Caucus and Mediaite

Sacramento Bee:

Let gays begin marrying, Schwarzenegger urges — In an extraordinary court filing, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger asked Friday that gay marriages be allowed to resume immediately in California after a federal ruling that the state's voter-approved ban on gay marriage is unconstitutional.

Discussion: Outside the Beltway, Towleroad News #gay, Left Coast Rebel, American Power, The Huffington Post, Joe. My. God., Denver Post and L.A. NOW

Maggie Haberman / The Politico:
GOP avoids gay marriage ruling

Discussion: Outside the Beltway and Hot Air

Paul Elias / Associated Press: Schwarzenegger calls for same-sex weddings

Patrik Jonsson / Christian Science Monitor:

International Assistance Mission slayings: part of Taliban war strategy — The Taliban in Afghanistan are claiming responsibility for the attack on an International Assistance Mission medical team, in which 10 people died. The attack is one of the deadliest for American aid workers since the Afghanistan war began.

Discussion: National Review and The Jawa Report

Scott / Power Line:

Franken most foul — When there is a local angle to a national story, the local press usually has a field day with it. That hasn't proved to be the case with the story regarding Minnesota Senator Al Franken's outrageous behavior in the Senate during Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's speech opposing …

Discussion: Hugh Hewitt's TownHall Blog, Liberty Pundits Blog, alicublog, Minneapolis Star Tribune and Right Wing News

Pat G. / Think Progress:

Dodd: It's Not Worth A Fight To Get Elizabeth Warren Confirmed As CFPB Director — When it first looked like Harvard Law professor Elizabeth Warren might stand a serious chance of getting appointed at the first director of the newly-created Consumer Financial Protection Bureau …

Discussion: The Confluence and The Political Carnival

Ynetnews:

American VIP humiliated at airport — Prof. Donna Shalala, Clinton's secretary of health, arrives in Israel in order to fight academic boycott against Israel, claims she was held at Ben-Gurion Airport just because she has Arab last name — Itamar Eichner — This is not how she imagined her visit to

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, The Washington Note, Chronicle of Higher Education, Mondoweiss and Washington Wire

Serena Chaudhry / Reuters:

Iraq forces take over from last U.S. combat brigade — Iraq (Reuters) - The United States handed over control of all combat duties to Iraqi security forces on Saturday in a further sign its withdrawal is on track despite a political impasse in Iraq and a recent rise in violence.

Discussion: Alan Colmes' Liberaland and Truthdig

Shane D'Aprile / The Hill:

Voinovich: Gas tax hike would pump up the job market, help close deficit — Retiring Sen. George Voinovich (R-Ohio) is pressing his case for an increase in the gas tax as a way to help close the federal budget deficit and create additional jobs. — In a letter to a panel considering changes …

Discussion: Bloomberg