memeorandum: L.A.'s hottest day ever (Los Angeles Times)

3:50 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 …

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, The Politico, Weasel Zippers, Pajamas Media, Ben Smith's Blog and GayPatriot

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, Wonk Room, Frank Chow: Asian and CNN

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., Open Congress, Firedoglake, Ezra Klein, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, 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, Wonkette, 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 …

Discussion: Crooks and Liars, Pajamas Media, MyDD, New York Times, Taylor Marsh, Shakesville, New York Magazine, Suburban Guerrilla, The Confluence, Firedoglake, No More Mister Nice Blog, Indecision Forever, Althouse, The Politico, The Sundries Shack, Comments from Left Field, Right Wing News and Another Black Conservative

ABCNEWS:
Rahm Emanuel Likely to Leave White House This Week

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

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: Weasel Zippers

The Note: Another Democrat Against Speaker Pelosi

Stuart Elliott / Media Decoder: Pelosi to Zucker: Democrats Will Prevail

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, TalkLeft 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 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

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

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, Weekly Standard, The Hill, The Fix and NRSC

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

William Yardley / New York Times:

A Dark Horse Emerges in Alaska: The Incumbent — JUNEAU, Alaska — The night Lisa Murkowski announced she would mount a write-in campaign to retain her Senate seat, she acknowledged to a crowd of supporters that her odds were slim. Then she prompted a defiant roar: invoking Native Alaskan culture …

Discussion: The Atlantic Online, The New Republic and The Page

Chris Stirewalt / Fox News:

Fox News Polls: Democrats Face Tough Job Building Senate Firewall — When President Obama arrives in Wisconsin for a campus rally on Tuesday, he'll be visiting a state where his party and his policies are in big trouble with voters. — Democrats are hoping to build a firewall with cash infusions …

Discussion: FoxNews.com, The Spot, Taegan Goddard's … and TPMDC

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.