memeorandum: $69 million in California welfare money drawn out of state (Jack Dolan/Los Angeles Times)

6:20 PM ET, October 4, 2010

Top Items:

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: Chicago Tribune, MyFox DC, HillBuzz, Hot Air, The Politico, 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: Pajamas Media, Weasel Zippers, Politics Daily, The Capitol Fax Blog, Mediaite, Weekly Standard, WLS-AM 890 and Wonkette

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

Daniel Foster / National Review:

Pay-to-Spray Firefighters Watch as Home Burns — Oy, this is bad for the libertarians: … That bolded paragraph is what really gets to me. I have no problem with this kind of opt-in government in principle — especially in rural areas where individual need for government services and available infrastructure vary so widely.

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

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: Politics Daily, The Atlantic Online, Washington Monthly, CNN, New York Magazine, Taegan Goddard's …, Outside the Beltway and msnbc.com

Jordan Fabian / The Hill:
Sen. Franken to stump for Del. Senate nominee Coons

Discussion: Delaware Democratic Party

Slate:

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

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

Discussion: The Plum Line and National Review

Wall Street Journal:
Leahy's Supreme Tie-Breakers

Discussion: Betsy's Page

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

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

Discussion: CNN, Hot Air, Mediaite, Ben Smith's Blog and Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion

Las Vegas Sun Blogs:
Angle: “I'm not sure I can win” …

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

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

Discussion: Weasel Zippers

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

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

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: theblogprof, National Review, Gateway Pundit and HillBuzz

Jeffrey M. Jones / Gallup:
Obama Approval Averages 45% in September

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

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.

Jonathan Karl / ABCNEWS:
Alaska's Joe Miller Wants to Abolish Federal Minimum Wage

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

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, Mediaite, NewsBusters.org and JustOneMinute

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: New York Times, The Daily Weekly, Runnin' Scared and The Awl

Tom Jensen / Public Policy Polling:

Blumenthal up 12 — The race may be closer than it was six months ago but the truth remains: Richard Blumenthal is one of the strongest Democratic Senate candidates in the country, Linda McMahon is one of the weakest Republican ones, and Blumenthal holds a double digit lead.

Discussion: New York Times, A plain blog about politics and Daily Kos

Michael O'Brien / The Hill:
Senate GOP predicts six-seat gain as Republicans offer caution

Discussion: Liberty Pundits Blog

Twitter Blog:

newtwitterceo — By all accounts Twitter is on a roll. We've redesigned our web site to great user feedback. Our user and usage numbers are growing at a rapid clip all around the world. We've launched an early, but successful, monetization effort. And, many top engineers …

Discussion: Hillicon Valley, New York Times, TechCrunch, Fortune, Gawker, BlogPost, Daring Fireball, Mashable! and Engadget, more at Techmeme »

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

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: TalkLeft and Open Left

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

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, The New Republic, Mediaite, Left Coast Rebel, WhoSaidYouSaid, Weasel Zippers, The Huffington Post, Questions and Observations, Wonk Room, Open Congress, The Washington Independent, The Reality-Based Community and Climate Progress

Project Veritas:

Statement regarding CNN — Now that I've had a chance to watch CNN's “Right on the Edge” documentary, I'm happy to comment. I apologize for not saying anything sooner, but don't want to comment until I have all the facts at my disposal. — As you can imagine in our line of work …

Discussion: The Politico, Talking Points Memo, Wonkette and TPMMuckraker

Jack Dolan / Los Angeles Times:

$69 million in California welfare money drawn out of state — Las Vegas tops the list with $11.8 million spent at casinos or taken from ATMs, but transactions in Hawaii, Miami, Guam and elsewhere also raise questions. Officials say budget cuts hinder investigations. — Reporting from Sacramento —

Discussion: MyFox DC, Gateway Pundit and ParaPundit

Sam Youngman / The Hill:

Gibbs won't rule out DNC appointment — White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Monday he loves his job, but he would not rule out a transition to chairman of the Democratic National Committee (DNC). — Reports over the weekend indicated Gibbs was being considered for the DNC post …

Discussion: CNN and HotAirPundit

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