memeorandum: Exclusive: Glenn Beck Launches “News And Opinion” Website, The Blaze (Steve Krakauer/Mediaite)

9:55 AM ET, August 31, 2010

Top Items:

Education secretary urged his employees to attend Sharpton's rally — President Obama's top education official urged government employees to attend a rally that the Rev. Al Sharpton organized to counter a larger conservative event on the Mall. — “ED staff are invited to join Secretary Arne Duncan …

Discussion: Townhall.com, Washington Post, Red Dog Report, Gateway Pundit, Sister Toldjah, Michelle Malkin, The Blaze and Big Government

Steve Krakauer / Mediaite:

Exclusive: Glenn Beck Launches “News And Opinion” Website, The Blaze — Having conquered TV, radio, book publishing and now live events, Glenn Beck is looking to expand his media empire into a new arena - the web (obviously GlennBeck.com is thriving too). — Mediaite has the exclusive details …

Discussion: Philly.com, Outside the Beltway, The Wire, Political Byline, Firedoglake, New York Magazine and News Hounds, more at Mediagazer »

Michelle Boorstein / Washington Post:

Glenn Beck may be unlikely leader for conservative Christians — A few weeks before organizing a massive rally on the Mall that had the feel of a religious revival, Glenn Beck sought the blessing of some of the country's most prominent conservative Christian leaders.

Discussion: Politics Daily, Townhall.com, NewsBusters.org, Democratic Strategist and Crooks and Liars

Joe Schoffstall / The Blast:
Amazing: Aerial Shot of Glenn Beck's ‘Restoring Honor’ …

Discussion: Macsmind and Gateway Pundit

ZIP / Weasel Zippers:
Obama Education Secretary Arne Duncan Urged Gov't Employees …

Discussion: American Glob and msnbc.com

Glenn Beck / The Blaze: A Message From Glenn

Frank Newport / Gallup:

GOP Takes Unprecedented 10-Point Lead on Generic Ballot — Republicans also maintain wide gap in enthusiasm about voting — PRINCETON, NJ — Republicans lead by 51% to 41% among registered voters in Gallup weekly tracking of 2010 congressional voting preferences.

The Politico:

Tidal wave? 10-point poll edge for GOP — Democrats thought things couldn't get much worse on the electoral front — and then they went home to campaign. — A new Gallup poll released Monday shows Republicans with a record 10-point edge over Democrats on the “generic ballot” test …

Discussion: CNN, The Moderate Voice and Hotline On Call

Nate Silver / FiveThirtyEight:

The Democrats' New Normal — I don't usually like to comment on individual polls. Most of the time, when a poll produces an “unusual” result, it simply reflects random noise and the best advice is to wait for the next edition of the poll to come along, when more often than not it will revert to its previous position.

Discussion: The New Republic, Politics Daily, HotAirPundit and National Review

Chris Cillizza / The Fix:

Republicans take 10-point generic ballot lead (and what it means) — 1. The latest weekly tracking poll from Gallup gives Republicans a 10-point edge on the generic ballot, the party's largest lead ever — yes, ever — in the poll's more than six decades of asking the question in midterm elections.

Discussion: PostPartisan, Freedom's Lighthouse, WDSU-TV, msnbc.com and The Politico

The Politico: Democrats seek separation from Nancy Pelosi

ABCNEWS:

ABC NEWS EXCLUSIVE: Two Men on United Flight from Chicago Arrested on ‘Preparation of a Terrorist Attack’ in Amsterdam — Suspects Had Been Cleared Sunday by TSA in Chicago, Birmingham Despite Security Concerns — Two men taken off a Chicago-to-Amsterdam United Airlines flight in the Netherlands …

Allahpundit / Hot Air:
Breaking: Two men arrested in Amsterdam on terror charges …

Discussion: HillBuzz

New York Times:
Airline Passengers Held on Fears of Terrorist Plot

Discussion: Biased BBC

Jennifer Haberkorn / The Politico:

Public sours on health care reform as midterms loom — A new poll shows that public support for health care reform dropped sharply in August - a dagger in Democrats' hopes that their landmark legislation will help them in November's midterm. — The Kaiser Health Tracking Poll has support …

Discussion: New York Magazine, Hot Air and Liberty Pundits Blog

Jay Cost / HorseRaceBlog:

Health Care Reform Has Endangered the Democratic Majority — This Politico piece by Jim VandeHei, Alex Isenstadt, and Mike Allen got a lot of play last week: … There is no mention of health care reform in this piece. The economy is referenced several times. So is the President's inability to control the narrative.

Discussion: National Review, NewsBusters.org and Hullabaloo

The Note:

Sebelius: Time for ‘Reeducation’ on Obama Health Care Law — ABC News' Steven Portnoy reports: — With a number of polls showing a sustained level of opposition to the Democrats' health care reform efforts more than five months after passage, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius …

Discussion: Moe Lane, Macsmind, The New Republic, ourfuture.org/blogs_chrono/*, Weekly Standard, The Caucus, Weasel Zippers and JammieWearingFool

kff.org: Kaiser Health Tracking Poll — August 2010

Gerry Mullany / The Caucus:

Boehner Assails Obama on Iraq — In advance of President Obama's Tuesday night speech on Iraq, Representative John A. Boehner of Ohio, the House Republican leader, was set to remind thousands of veterans attending the national convention of the American Legion that Mr. Obama and other Democrats …

Discussion: The Swamp, The Hill and Gateway Pundit

Anne E. Kornblut / Washington Post:
Obama speech on Iraq has risks

Discussion: New York Times, USA Today, msnbc.com and Politics Daily

Abby Phillip / The Politico:
Obama keeps Iraq promise — will anyone notice?

Discussion: Washington Wire, Taylor Marsh, Pundits Blog, The Democratic Daily, The Hill and No More Mister Nice Blog

Juliette Jowit / Guardian:

Lomborg wants $100bn climate fund — Exclusive ‘Sceptical environmentalist’ and critic of climate scientists to declare global warming a chief concern facing world — • Climate change voice who changed his tune — • Rajendra Pachauri under pressure to stand aside

Discussion: Grist, Telegraph, EU Referendum and Firedoglake

Donna Bowater / Daily Express:
CLIMATE CHANGE LIES ARE EXPOSED

Discussion: Fox News, Right Wing News and JammieWearingFool

Alex Seitz-Wald / Think Progress:

Palin's Speaking Demands Confirmed: $75K, SUVs, Deluxe Hotel Suites, Bendable Straws, And No Public Access — In April, two students at Cal State Stanislaus found a partial copy of a speaker's contract for former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. The partial copy revealed that Palin …

Discussion: News Hounds, The Daily Hurricane and The Reid Report

The Huffington Post:

Christine O'Donnell, Delaware's Tea Party Candidate, Has GOP Spooked — WHAT'S YOUR REACTION? — The results have not even been finalized in the quirky Alaska Republican Senate primary and already the political world is bracing itself for another instance in which an out-of-nowhere Tea …

Discussion: Washington Monthly, WSJ Blogs - WSJ, NewsBusters.org, Michelle Malkin and Ballot Box

John Fund / Wall Street Journal:
Obama Builds a Big Tent . . . for Conservatives

Discussion: Hot Air, Chicago Boyz and New York Times

Carl Campanile / New York Post:

Seven in 10 NYers want mosque moved — Tweet — Move the mosque! — Seven in ten New Yorkers say the proposed mosque/Islamic community center near Ground Zero should be relocated because of opposition from 9/11 families — and an equal number want state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo …

Discussion: Commentary, The Local, The Blaze, JammieWearingFool and thenational.ae

Honest Reporting:

EXCLUSIVE VIDEO: Dramatic Reunion Ten Years After The Photo That Started It All — Exclusive: Tuvia Grossman Interviewed by HonestReporting … HonestReporting: How have things changed for you since your picture appeared in the NY Times? — Tuvia Grossman: Ten years ago …

Discussion: Israpundit and Israel Matzav

Ed Morrissey / Hot Air:

Bill Press: Talking about God not appropriate for “sacred” spot — Greg Hengler captures the moment in which “incoherence” is defined, during CNN's “Reliable Sources” yesterday. Howard Kurtz notes that libtalker Bill Press had spent the last several weeks crusading against Glenn Beck's Restoring Honor rally …

Discussion: Pajamas Media, NewsReal Blog and Don Surber

Allahpundit / Hot Air:
Are you ready for President John Bolton?

Discussion: ThreatsWatch, Wonkette, The Blaze and Ben Smith's Blog

Alex Seitz-Wald / Think Progress:

Sen. Orrin Hatch: 'I'd Be The First To Stand Up For Their Rights' To Build A Mosque Near Ground Zero — While virtually every Republican and conservative leader has come out strongly against the construction of the proposed Park 51 Islamic community center near Ground Zero in New York City …

Discussion: Washington Monthly and Alan Colmes' Liberaland

Justin Elliott / Salon:
Bigot starts ground zero church: Where's the outrage?

Discussion: The Onion, The Lede, The Plum Line and Washington Monthly

The Hill:

Wealthy lawmakers increased their riches as economy sputtered in '09 — The wealthiest members of Congress grew richer in 2009 even as the economy struggled to recover from a deep recession. — The 50 wealthiest lawmakers were worth almost $1.4 billion in 2009, about $85.1 million …

Discussion: JammieWearingFool and Prairie Weather

Fox News:

CBO: Eight Years of Iraq War Cost Less Than Stimulus Act — As President Obama prepares to tie a bow on U.S. combat operations in Iraq, Congressional Budget Office numbers show that the total cost of the eight-year war was less than the stimulus bill passed by the Democratic-led Congress in 2009.

Discussion: Brain Rage and Gateway Pundit

Stephen Hadley / Wall Street Journal:

Why We Fought and What We Achieved — Saddam had launched multiple wars, used weapons of mass destruction and aided global terrorism. Now Iraq's government is an ally and represents all the Iraqi people. — The U.S. effort in Iraq is not over. Some 50,000 U.S. troops …

Discussion: Commentary

Little Green Footballs:

Palin: Babies - Guns - Jesus — Here's another photo from the Glenn Beck Restoration Minstrel Show; the rally's organizers banned signs, so the audience brought t-shirts. — SanFranciscoZionist :: 5 seconds ago — Tags: Glenn Beck, Kooks, Far Right, Extremism, Tea Party, Racism, Bad Craziness, Sarah Palin