memeorandum: Gunman at University of Texas Austin Takes Own Life, Lockdown Lifted (Russell Goldman/ABCNEWS)

3:35 PM ET, September 28, 2010

Top Items:

Jann S. Wenner / Rolling Stone:

Obama in Command: The Rolling Stone Interview — In an Oval Office interview, the president discusses the Tea Party, the war, the economy and what's at stake this November — The following is an article from the October 15, 2010 issue of Rolling Stone. — We arrived at the southwest gate …

Steve Benen / Washington Monthly:

A PASSIONATE PLEA.... President Obama sat down with Rolling Stone's Jann Wenner and Eric Bates two weeks ago, chatting for an hour and a quarter for a new cover story. The discussion covered a lot of ground, and led to some fascinating exchanges on subjects ranging from Fox News to Tea Partiers, health care to global warming.

Discussion: Rolling Stone, Mediaite, TalkLeft, CNN, Frank Chow: Asian and Politics Daily

Alexander Mooney / CNN:

Obama: Fox News is ‘destructive’ to America — (CNN) - President Obama is pulling no punches when it comes to Fox News, declaring the cable news outlet to be “destructive to [America's] long-term growth.” — In a more than 8,000-word interview with Rolling Stone Magazine …

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Weasel Zippers, Pajamas Media, Ben Smith's Blog and GayPatriot

Ben Feller / Associated Press:
Obama: Democratic voter apathy ‘inexcusable’

Discussion: Pajamas Media, The Daily Caller, Politics Daily, Creative Minority Report, Weasel Zippers and Right Wing News

The FOX Nation:
President of the United States Loves Gangsta Rap

Discussion: Gawker, Swampland, The New Republic and Marbury

Laurie Goodstein / New York Times:

Basic Religion Test Stumps Many Americans — Americans are by all measures a deeply religious people, but they are also deeply ignorant about religion. — Researchers from the independent Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life phoned more than 3,400 Americans and asked them 32 questions about the Bible …

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Online NewsHour, CNN, Verum Serum, Gawker, Mediaite, Pharyngula, New York Magazine, Prairie Weather and Crooked Timber

Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life:

U.S. Religious Knowledge Survey — Executive Summary — Atheists and agnostics, Jews and Mormons are among the highest-scoring groups on a new survey of religious knowledge, outperforming evangelical Protestants, mainline Protestants and Catholics on questions about the core teachings …

Discussion: features.pewforum.org, Weasel Zippers, EconLog, Advocate, CNN, Politics Daily, Shakesville, Pam's House Blend, Telegraph, USA Today and Truthdig

Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life:
Nonreligious Knowledge

Discussion: msnbc.com

Mitchell Landsberg / Los Angeles Times:
Atheists, agnostics most knowledgeable about religion, survey says

Discussion: newsfeed.time.com

Manu Raju / The Politico:

DeMint vows roadblock — South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint warned Monday evening that he would block all legislation that has not been cleared by his office in the final days of the pre-election session. — Bret Bernhardt, DeMint's chief of staff, said in an e-mail to GOP aides that his boss …

Discussion: Opinion L.A., Firedoglake, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Ezra Klein, Little Green Footballs, Washington Monthly, Free exchange, Oliver Willis and Outside the Beltway

Ian M. / Think Progress:

DeMint To Trigger The Senate's Doomsday Device — Two weeks ago, the Progress Report warned of a nightmare scenario where a single senator decides to object to virtually every measure being considered by the Senate, a maneuver could effectively bring the entire body to a screeching halt.

Discussion: Matthew Yglesias, Center for American Progress, Weasel Zippers and Blue Gal

Alexander Bolton / The Hill:

Democrats to stuff 20 bills into post-election lame-duck session — Democrats are considering cramming as many as 20 pieces of legislation into the lame-duck session they plan to hold after the Nov. 2 election. — The array of bills competing for floor time shows the sense …

Discussion: Wake up America, Right Wing News, NRSC and AmSpecBlog

Ezra Klein:
Did Jim DeMint just take control of the Senate?

Discussion: Weigel

Quinnipiac University:

Angry Voters Push McMahon Closer In Senate Race, Quinnipiac University Connecticut Poll Finds; But Most Voters Say Her Ads Are Annoying — Propelled by Connecticut likely voters who say they are “angry” with government, former wrestling executive Linda McMahon, the Republican U.S. Senate candidate …

Peter Daou:

How a handful of liberal bloggers are bringing down the Obama presidency — This post was originally written about the frightening case of Anwar al-Aulaqi, a heinous individual who now faces a judge, jury and executioner in President Barack Obama. The body of the post remains the same …

ABCNEWS:

Rahm Emanuel Likely to Leave White House This Week — Final Decision Not Yet Made, White House Chief of Staff All but Certain to Explore Campaign for Mayor of Chicago — Although no final decision has been made because of family considerations, ABC News has learned that White House officials …

Greg Sargent / The Plum Line:
Dear White House: Here's how to handle the left's “whining”

Discussion: Ezra Klein, Pam's House Blend and Eschaton

Greg Sargent / The Plum Line:

Another Christine O'Donnell embellishment: She misleadingly claims she studied at Oxford — In another move that will raise further questions about Christine O'Donnell's embellishment of her education record, she claims she studied at the University of Oxford — but a look at her actual record shows …

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Little Green Footballs, Outside the Beltway, Wonkette, New York Magazine and msnbc.com

FactCheck.org:

Rep. Grayson Lowers the Bar — The Florida Democrat manipulates video to make his opponent seem to urge wives to ‘submit’ to husbands. He didn't. — We thought Democratic Rep. Alan Grayson of Florida reached a low point when he falsely accused his opponent of being a draft dodger during the Vietnam War …

Andy Barr / The Politico:
Rep. Alan Grayson's ‘Taliban’ ad backfires

Discussion: Hullabaloo and iOwnTheWorld.com

Felicia R. Lee / New York Times:

MacArthur Foundation Honors 23 — The creator of the television series “The Wire,” about drugs, poverty and corruption in Baltimore; a historian who traced the lives of a slave family connected to Thomas Jefferson; and an economist who helped calculate the worth of a standout kindergarten teacher …

Discussion: The Reality-Based Community and The Awl, more at Mediagazer »

Associated Press:
List of 2010 MacArthur Foundation grant recipients

Discussion: Outside the Beltway, Guardian, Ò" and Matthew Yglesias

Michael O'Brien / The Hill:

Pelosi: ‘I fully expect to be speaker of the House five weeks from now’ — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said she still expects to have her job in five weeks after voters head to the polls. — Pelosi, the top Democrat in the House, whose job as speaker makes her third in line to the presidency …

Discussion: Media Decoder and Weasel Zippers

The Note: Another Democrat Against Speaker Pelosi

Michael Sneed / Chicago Sun Times:

Rahm Emanuel kept out of Chicago home by tenant? — It's Chicago politics at its best. — Sneed hears an effort by Chicago mayoral hopeful Rahm Emanuel to move back into his North Side home next month was axed by the man who leased it. — • The kicker: Sneed also hears rumbles …

Discussion: Politics Daily, Michelle Malkin, Lynn Sweet and Mediaite

The Politico:
Insider likely to replace Rahm Emanuel

Discussion: Gawker, The Daily Beast, New York Times, Wonkette, New York Magazine, Washington Wire, Mock, Paper, Scissors, The Caucus and Conservatives4Palin.com

Richard Cohen / Washington Post:

Obama demands more than Israel can give — Every so often, the sayings of Casey Stengel come to mind. The longtime manager of the New York Yankees, accustomed to a Prussian professionalism in the hitting and fielding of baseballs, moved over to the astonishingly hapless New York Mets in 1962 and …

Discussion: Commentary, Tablet Magazine and Israel Matzav

Jeffrey Goldberg / The Atlantic Online:
J Street Loses

Discussion: Weekly Standard, The Politico and Commentary

TechCrunch:

Tim Armstrong: We Got TechCrunch! — I'm very pleased to announce that we have acquired TechCrunch. Details are in the press release below, and I'm sure founder Michael Arrington will have a few words to say as well. This is a great complement to our continued investment in world class content.

Discussion: Hillicon Valley, Runnin' Scared, GigaOM, Silicon Alley Insider and BlogPost, more at Mediagazer »

Timothy Noah / Slate:

Why income distribution can't be crowd-sourced. — Earlier this month I published a 10-part Slate series (PDF; serial version; slide show) about the 30-year rise in income inequality that Princeton's Paul Krugman has dubbed “The Great Divergence.” In the first installment, I noted that in 1915 …

Discussion: Matthew Yglesias, ourfuture.org/blogs_chrono/* and The Atlantic Online

Annys Shin / Story Lab:

Charges dismissed against Md. man who taped traffic stop — A Harford County Circuit Court judge Monday dismissed wiretapping charges against Anthony Graber, a motorcyclist who was jailed briefly after he taped a Maryland state trooper who stopped him for speeding on I-95.

Discussion: Instapundit and The Agonist

Frank Newport / Gallup:

Midterm Election Landscape Still Points to Republican Gains — A summary of Gallup's key indicators to date — PRINCETON, NJ — Gallup's analysis of key indicators relating to the 2010 congressional midterm elections continues to suggest that the Republican Party will make significant seat gains.

Discussion: Firedoglake, The Moderate Voice, The Hill, Weekly Standard, The Fix and NRSC

Russell Goldman / ABCNEWS:

Gunman at University of Texas Austin Takes Own Life, Lockdown Lifted — Eyewitness: Gunman Was Wearing Ski Mask and Carrying Assault Rifle. — A gunman wearing a ski mask and brandishing a rifle entered a library at the University of Texas at Austin today and fired several shots before taking …

Discussion: Alan Colmes' Liberaland, pandagon.net and Right Wing Watch