memeorandum: New images indicate moon may be shrinking (David Perlman/San Francisco Chronicle)

10:20 AM ET, August 20, 2010

Top Items:

AP Standards Center issues staff advisory on covering New York City mosque — Associated Press Deputy Managing Editor for Standards and Production Tom Kent sent the following note to the staff about covering the New York City mosque story: — Colleagues,

Charles Krauthammer / Washington Post:

Moral myopia at Ground Zero — It's hard to be an Obama sycophant these days. Your hero delivers a Ramadan speech roundly supporting the building of a mosque and Islamic center near Ground Zero in New York. Your heart swells and you're moved to declare this President Obama's finest hour, his act of greatest courage.

Discussion: Washington Monthly

Pamela Geller / Atlas Shrugs:
Washington Post Headline Incites Violence Against Ground Zero Mosque Opponents

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, No More Mister Nice Blog, American Power, Mondoweiss, Salon and Taylor Marsh

Elise Viebeck / The Hill:
Palin to AP: It's ‘Ground Zero mosque’

Discussion: No More Mister Nice Blog, Weasel Zippers, Macsmind and Gateway Pundit

The Huffington Post:
Ted Olson, Former Bush Solicitor General And Husband Of 9/11 Victim …

Discussion: TPMCafe and Crooks and Liars

Ben Smith / Ben Smith's Blog:

New Dem message: ‘Improve’ health care, don't talk cost — Key White House allies are dramatically shifting their attempts to defend health care legislation, abandoning claims that it will reduce costs and deficit and instead stressing a promise to “improve it.”

Fhardingj / CNN:
Health care legislation remains unpopular, poll says

Discussion: Washington Monthly, ourfuture.org/blogs_chrono/* and Time

New York Times:

U.S. Persuades Israel That Iran's Nuclear Threat Is Not Imminent — WASHINGTON — The Obama administration, citing evidence of continued troubles inside Iran's nuclear program, has persuaded Israel that it would take roughly a year — and perhaps longer — for Iran to complete …

Discussion: Washington Monthly, The Atlantic Online, Commentary, Sweetness & Light, Raw Story and Israel Matzav

Paul Krugman / New York Times:

Appeasing the Bond Gods — As I look at what passes for responsible economic policy these days, there's an analogy that keeps passing through my mind. I know it's over the top, but here it is anyway: the policy elite — central bankers, finance ministers, politicians who pose as defenders …

Discussion: Paul Krugman and Prairie Weather

Jordan Fabian / The Hill:

Dean: ‘Some’ Dems demonizing N.Y. mosque opponents — Former DNC Chairman Howard Dean said Thursday that some members of his party have “demonized” opponents of the Lower Manhattan mosque. — Dean — who surprised many political observers this week by saying that the planners should move …

Discussion: Weasel Zippers

Howard Dean / Salon:
Why I back a mosque compromise

Discussion: Commentary, Right Wing News, pandagon.net, Comments from Left Field and DISSENTING JUSTICE

Glenn Greenwald / Salon:
Video discussion with Gov. Howard Dean

Discussion: Crooks and Liars, The Moderate Voice, The Plum Line, HotAirPundit and Ben Smith's Blog

Mitch Daniels / Economist:

The right stuff — Indiana's governor is a likeable wonk. Can he save the Republicans from themselves and provide a pragmatic alternative to Barack Obama? — CLAY COUNTY — THE governor does not like to keep people waiting. On a recent morning this small man leapt out of a trooper's Toyota …

Discussion: Betsy's Page

Jeremy P. Jacobs / Hotline On Call:

DSCC Planning Ads For Carnahan, Conway — The DSCC has reserved air time in October for KY and MO SEN, sources tell Hotline On Call. The committee is planning to spend $4M in MO for a statewide broadcast ad and $1.3M in KY for a statewide ad campaign. — The ads buys will bolster …

Ryan Alessi / cn|2 Politics:
Rand Paul and Jack Conway locked in tie at 41, new cn|2 Poll shows

Discussion: POLISING, Swing State Project and TPMDC

Byron York / Associated Press:

Obama has himself to blame for Muslim problem — In 1985, Barack Obama had just arrived in Chicago for his new job as a community organizer when he headed to Smitty's Barbershop, a tiny storefront on the South Side. As Smitty cut his hair, Obama listened to the men in the shop talk politics and racial grievance.

Discussion: Think Progress, The Politico, Roll Call, The Other McCain, Talking Points Memo, The Hill, msnbc.com and CNN

Spencer Abraham / The Politico:

Obama's energy meltdown — The decision by congressional Democrats to not try to pass a major energy bill in this Congress, while receiving a modest amount of media attention, actually constitutes one of the sharpest rebukes to a sitting president in recent memory.

Discussion: The Hill and HotAirPundit

Ian Urbina / New York Times:

BP Settlements Likely to Shield Top Defendants — WASHINGTON — People and businesses seeking a lump-sum settlement from BP's $20 billion oil spill compensation fund will most likely have to waive their right to sue not only BP, but also all the other major defendants involved with the spill …

Discussion: Clusterstock, Modeled Behavior and Suburban Guerrilla

The Politico:

The new battle: What it means to be American — It's a classic case of be careful what you wish for. President Barack Obama wanted to end the baby boomer-era culture wars — and he's done it. — But along the way, Obama has sparked an even more visceral values debate about whether he's moving …

Michelle Malkin:

And now: The stealth Obama ocean grab — For the past few months, I've been spotlighting the Obama administration's War on the West, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar's War on Jobs, — and the White House land lock-up (Part 1, Part 2). Today's column exposes the next Obama environmental power grab — into the sea.

Discussion: Babalú Blog

Nicole Allan / The Atlantic Online:

The Most Sexist Ad, Well, Ever — In an act of shockingly retro, sexist stupidity, a local unit of the Republican Party of Minnesota has broadcast a new reason you should vote Republican: GOP women are hot, and Democratic women are not. — The group has made a web video contrasting photos of attractive …

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Outside the Beltway, Pirate's Cove, Althouse and Big Brass Blog

Andrew Malcolm / Top of the Ticket:

Obama now blames poor job numbers on congressional inaction. Wait! His party runs Congress — Just a few minor things to catch up on for the weekend now that the Fundraiser-in-Chief has gone on another vacation (Don't worry though. White House chef Sam Kass went along, so the first family need not eat ordinary human food.)

Discussion: protein wisdom, The Foundry and Erick's blog

Eugene Robinson / Washington Post:

President Obama's winning streak — This is a radical break from journalistic convention, I realize, but today I'd like to give credit where it's due — specifically, to President Obama. Quiet as it's kept, he's on a genuine winning streak. — It's hard to remember that the inauguration was just 19 months ago.

Discussion: TalkLeft, Daily Kos, The Foundry and The Nation, more at Mediagazer »

David Perlman / San Francisco Chronicle:

New images indicate moon may be shrinking — The moon may be shrinking, scientists say. — But not to worry. It won't disappear anytime soon. — NASA scientists studying images sent back to Earth from a spacecraft orbiting the moon have found curving lines of small cliffs on the surface …

Discussion: Simply Left BehindThe … and Townhall.com

Jordan Fabian / The Hill:

Dems hit at Bush in new cable ad — Democrats again used former President George W. Bush as a foe in their latest TV ad campaign, driving home the point Republicans would restore policies that helped create the economic downturn. — The Democratic National Committee (DNC) …

Discussion: The Swamp and This ain't Hell …

Amanda Terkel / Think Progress:

Media: Maybe Obama Should Go To Church More Publicly So People Know He's Christian — Today, Pew put out a poll showing that 18 percent of the American public believes President Obama is a Muslim. That number includes 31 percent of Republicans. Only 34 percent of the adult public says Obama …

Discussion: Hot Air, Eschaton, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, NewsBusters.org, Washington Wire, The Fix, Philly.com and GayPatriot

Sandhya Somashekhar / Washington Post:

Worried Democrats courting elderly voters as midterm elections near — Rep. Gerald E. Connolly (D-Va.) is no stranger to Greenspring Village, a gated retirement community in Springfield that is a frequent stop for local politicos. It leans Democratic, but that tilt is being tested in a year …

Discussion: The Eye

The Daily Mash:

OUTRAGE OVER PLANS TO BUILD LIBRARY NEXT TO SARAH PALIN — PLANS to build a state-of-the-art library next to Republican catastrophe Sarah Palin are causing outrage across mainstream America. — Campaigners have described the project as insensitive and a deliberate act of provocation by people with brains.

Discussion: Outside the Beltway

Jackie Calmes / New York Times:

At Treasury, Geithner Struggles to Escape a Past He Never Had — WASHINGTON — Timothy F. Geithner has been misidentified as a former Wall Street insider from Goldman Sachs so many times since he became the Treasury secretary that he and his advisers had taken to joking about it. Then the joke backfired.

Discussion: New Economic Perspectives, Federal Eye, Weigel and Gawker

Michael M. Phillips / Wall Street Journal:

An Airline Magazine That Makes Travelers Want to Pull the Rip Cord — Safi Shows the Real Afghanistan, From Dog Fighting to Dry Swimming Pools — KABUL—Safi Airways, a start-up Afghan airline, ventures where few air carriers dare to go: Its in-flight magazine tells the ugly truth about the place where you're about to land.

Discussion: newsfeed.time.com, The AfPak Channel and New York Magazine, more at Mediagazer »

msnbc.com:

Arizona prison escapee, fiancée-cousin caught — Pair on lam since July 30, accused of killing elderly Oklahoma couple — Escaped inmate John McCluskey and his fiancée-cousin Casslyn Welch were captured in the northeast Arizona's Apache County, the U.S. Marshals Office said late Thursday.

Discussion: Mediaite