memeorandum: Science Foundation Backs Climate-Change Play (New York Times)

4:40 PM ET, October 4, 2010

Top Items:

How the Roberts Court disguises its conservatism. — It's dark and silent. Reporters trickle into the grand ceremonial room from a door on the left; like everyone, they've been instructed that no recording devices of any sort are allowed. A clutch of spectators, some of whom have been waiting for hours, enters at the rear.

Discussion: Firedoglake, Ezra Klein, Althouse, SCOTUSblog, PointOfLaw Forum, Lawyers, Guns & Money and Washington Post

T.W. Farnamand Dan Eggen / Washington Post:

Interest-group spending for midterm up fivefold from 2006; many sources secret — Interest groups are spending five times as much on the 2010 congressional elections as they did on the last midterms, and they are more secretive than ever about where that money is coming from.

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Firedoglake, Democracy in America, Left Coast Rebel, Ballot Box, The BRAD BLOG, Pirate's Cove, Politics Daily, The BLT, The Washington Independent, Mother Jones and New York Times

Slate:
Trick 2: Misdirection — Every great illusionist masters …

Discussion: The Plum Line and National Review

Chris Cillizza / The Fix:
DNC rakes in $16 million in September

Discussion: The Caucus, Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, Washington Monthly, POLISING, CNN, Anchorage Daily News and The Hill

Wall Street Journal:
Leahy's Supreme Tie-Breakers

Discussion: protein wisdom and Betsy's Page

Michael O'Brien / The Hill:
Obama cuts ad for Rep. Cao's challenger

Discussion: Weasel Zippers

New York Times:
First Monday — The Supreme Court enjoys all but free rein …

Discussion: New York Magazine, Prairie Weather and Althouse

Lynn Sweet:

Rahm Emanuel: Experts say not a legal resident of Chicago, cannot run for mayor — BY ABDON M. PALLASCH — CHICAGO—The first question isn't: Can Rahm win? It's: Can Rahm run? — Sunday, Rahm Emanuel announced in a video posted on a website that he is preparing to run for mayor of Chicago.

Discussion: MyFox DC, Chicago Tribune, The Politico, Hot Air, HillBuzz, New York Magazine, The Nation, Right Wing News and Politics Daily

Ben Smith / Ben Smith's Blog:

Emanuel's ‘Glad to be home’ video filmed in Washington — Rahm Emanuel kicked off his campaign for mayor of Chicago with a homecoming video, filmed in front of a bookshelf with a vase and a family photograph. — “I was born here, and my wife Amy and I raised our three children here,” he says.

Discussion: Politics Daily, Pajamas Media, Weasel Zippers, Weekly Standard, Mediaite, Taegan Goddard's …, WLS-AM 890, The Capitol Fax Blog, Wonkette and The Daily Beast

Zaid Jilani / Think Progress:

Tennessee County's Subscription-Based Firefighters Watch As Family Home Burns Down — As ThinkProgress has noted, there are currently two competing visions of governance in the United States. One, the conservative vision, believes in the on-your-own society, and informs a policy agenda …

Discussion: The Huffington Post, The KRMG Morning News Blog, The Sundries Shack, Little Green Footballs, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, National Review, Climate Progress, Daily Kos and The Poor Man Institute

Daniel Foster / National Review:
Pay-to-Spray Firefighters Watch as Home Burns

Discussion: JustOneMinute, Salon, The Volokh Conspiracy and Matthew Yglesias

Las Vegas Sun Blogs:

Angle: “I'm not sure I can win” if Ashjian's in, nat'l GOPers “have lost their principles,” need to “leave me alone” — Team Angle on tape: Shows she is ‘blunt, plain spoken’ leader: Team Reid: ‘supreme hypocrisy’ by trying to make deal — That's just some of what GOP Senate nominee Sharron Angle …

Shira Toeplitz / The Politico:
Tales of the Sharron Angle tape

Discussion: CNN, Hot Air, Mediaite and Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion

Jeremy P. Jacobs / Hotline On Call:
Starting Lineup: The DNC's Dollars

Discussion: TPMDC and The Atlantic Online

The Huffington Post:
Sharron Angle Slams Republicans For Losing 'Their Principles …

Discussion: iOwnTheWorld.com, Mediaite, Ben Smith's Blog, The Blaze and Las Vegas Sun Blogs

Jonathan Karl / ABCNEWS:

Alaska's Joe Miller Wants to Abolish Federal Minimum Wage — GOP Senate Candidate Hopes to Scale Back Federal Government's Power — Alaska's Joe Miller now has the solid support of the Republican establishment, but in an exclusive interview with ABC News, he makes it clear he's determined …

Discussion: Think Progress, msnbc.com, The DSCC, The Note, Hotline On Call, Washington Monthly, The Plum Line, Washington Post and Daily Kos

The Note:

Joe Miller: End Federal Minimum Wage, ‘Defund Certain Components’ of EPA — ABC News' Rick Klein reports: — Alaska Senate candidate Joe Miller was in Washington last week to raise money and meet with some of the same establishment Republicans who supported his opponent in his primary.

Discussion: The Atlantic Online, The Moderate Voice and Joe. My. God.

Andrew Malcolm / Top of the Ticket:

Ominous new Gallup findings for Democrats: Blacks still love Obama, others not so much — The good news for President Obama is his popular support among blacks is holding steady at 91%. — The bad news is no other group of potential voters likes him that much.

Discussion: Gateway Pundit and HillBuzz

Jeffrey M. Jones / Gallup:

Obama Approval Averages 45% in September — Blacks, Democrats, liberals show greatest support for Obama — PRINCETON, NJ — President Barack Obama's job approval ratings remain below 50%, with an average 45% job approval score for the president in September. That is a slight improvement from his term-low 44% average in August.

Discussion: Beltway Confidential, The Plum Line, Ezra Klein, Liberty Pundits Blog, Politics Daily, YID With LID and Weasel Zippers

Paul Krugman / New York Times:

Fear and Favor — A note to Tea Party activists: This is not the movie you think it is. You probably imagine that you're starring in “The Birth of a Nation,” but you're actually just extras in a remake of “Citizen Kane.” — True, there have been some changes in the plot.

Discussion: AMERICAblog News, The Sundries Shack, Weasel Zippers, The Sideshow, No More Mister Nice Blog, Obsidian Wings, The Confluence, National Review, Creative Minority Report, Guardian, Balloon Juice, Prairie Weather and Daily Kos

Ryan Lizza / New Yorker:

AS THE WORLD BURNS — How the Senate and the White House missed their best chance to deal with climate change. — On April 20, 2010, Senators John Kerry, Lindsey Graham, and Joseph Lieberman, along with three aides, visited Rahm Emanuel, President Obama's chief of staff, at the White House.

Discussion: The Daily Caller, Left Coast Rebel, Mediaite, Weasel Zippers, The Huffington Post, Questions and Observations, Open Congress, The Washington Independent, The Reality-Based Community and Climate Progress

Jonathan Weisman / Wall Street Journal:
Obama Likely to Scale Back Legislative Plans

Discussion: Think Progress, And So it Goes in Shreveport, Wonk Room and Daily Kos

Kieran Crowley / New York Post:

Gay skydive teach axed for ‘gal grope’ — Tweet — A skydiving instructor who joked with a female student that he couldn't be falling for her because he's gay has filed a discrimination suit, claiming he was cut loose from his job because of the quip. — Donald Zarda was strapped tightly …

Discussion: MyFox DC, Left Coast Rebel, The Other McCain, JammieWearingFool, Gawker, New York Magazine and The Awl

Brian Alexander / msnbc.com:

Pretzel nation: Americans have sex in 41 combinations — We aren't as bland as we might think, new study shows — Americans are often portrayed as being bland sexual mopes, compared to say, the French. But according to a new study, we actually routinely choose from more spicy combinations …

Discussion: The Daily Weekly, The Awl and Runnin' Scared

Roni Caryn Rabin / New York Times:
Condom Use Is Highest for Young, Study Finds

Discussion: culturekitchen and Feministing

Gabriel Sherman / New York Magazine:

Chasing Fox — The loud, cartoonish blood sport that's engorged MSNBC, exhausted CNN—and is making our body politic delirious. — In the spring of 2006, a year and a half after he was hired to run CNN/U.S., Jonathan Klein went to his boss Jim Walton with an idea. CNN was in trouble.

Discussion: Washington Post, NewsBusters.org, Mediaite and JustOneMinute

Ben Evans / Associated Press:

O'Donnell said China plotting to take over US — WASHINGTON — Republican Senate nominee Christine O'Donnell of Delaware said in a 2006 debate that China was plotting to take over America and claimed to have classified information about the country that she couldn't divulge.

Discussion: Washington Monthly, CNN, Taegan Goddard's …, msnbc.com and Outside the Beltway

Robert Barnes / Washington Post:

Kagan's recusals take her out of action in many of the Supreme Court's cases — Elena Kagan begins hearing cases as the Supreme Court's 112th justice Monday morning. But anyone who wants to see her in action needs to be sharp. — Kagan will hear the first case argued before the court …

Discussion: iOwnTheWorld.com, CNN, Politics Daily, The Caucus, USA Today and Associated Press

Ambarish Kenghe / Google TV Blog:

Here comes Google TV — It's been almost five months since we introduced Google TV to the world at Google I/O, and today we're happy to give you an update on our progress. For those who haven't yet heard of it, Google TV is a new way to think about TV: it's a platform that combines …

Discussion: Hillicon Valley, ReadWriteWeb, New York Times, The Consumerist, Engadget and TechCrunch, more at Techmeme »

Jonathan Martin / The Politico:

Democrats seize on signs of hope — Once-despondent Democrats now believe that they may be able to avert a total midterm wipeout, as a series of important states now appears to be trending in their direction or growing more competitive. — The bad news: In a sign of how hostile …

Discussion: Salon, CNN, Hot Air and Washington Monthly

BBC:

‘German militants’ killed in Pakistan drone attack — US drone attacks have increased during the past month — At least eight al-Qaeda militants - some of whom were German nationals - have been killed in a drone attack in Pakistan, officials have told the BBC.

Discussion: The Jawa Report and Gateway Pundit

Bruce Drake / Politics Daily:

Jerry Brown Gains in Poll on Heels of Meg Whitman's Maid Controversy … Democrat Jerry Brown's margin over Republican Meg Whitman in the California governor's race moved up a notch in a poll conducted following disclosures that Whitman had employed an illegal immigrant as a maid for nearly a decade.

Discussion: Cynthia Tucker and Immigration Chronicles

DownWithTyranny!:

Could Congressional Progressives Come Out Of The Midterms In A Stronger Position? — There's the roll-up-your-sleaves-and-get-to- work way to win elections and then there's the Inside-the-Beltway conventional wisdom about what candidates are supposed to do. Inside the Beltway it's …

Discussion: Open Left