memeorandum: China ‘ready to abandon North Korea’ (Simon Tisdall/Guardian)

1:15 AM ET, November 30, 2010

Top Items:

Sarah Palin / Facebook:

Serious Questions about the Obama Administration's Incompetence in the Wikileaks Fiasco — We all applaud the successful thwarting of the Christmas-Tree Bomber and hope our government continues to do all it can to keep us safe. However, the latest round of publications …

Reuters:

WikiLeaks plans to release a U.S. bank's documents — (Reuters) - The founder of whistle-blower website WikiLeaks plans to release tens of thousands of internal documents from a major U.S. bank early next year, Forbes Magazine reported on Monday. — Julian Assange declined in an interview …

Discussion: Newshoggers.com

blogs.forbes.com:

Andy Greenberg — When will WikiLeaks return to its older model of more frequent leaks of smaller amounts of material? — If you look at the average number of documents we're releasing, we're vastly exceeding what we did last year. These are huge datasets. So it's actually very efficient for us to do that.

Discussion: Gawker and Hullabaloo

Jennifer Epstein / The Politico:

Sarah Palin blasts Obama administration for WikiLeaks ‘fiasco’ — Sarah Palin says the U.S. government's inability to stop the latest WikiLeaks release is all President Barack Obama's fault. — Sunday's document dump of classified State Department cables is the result of the …

Discussion: The Note, Alan Colmes' Liberaland and Wonkette

Andy Greenberg / The Firewall:

An Interview With WikiLeaks' Julian Assange — Admire him or revile him, WikiLeaks' Julian Assange is the prophet of a coming age of involuntary transparency, the leader of an organization devoted to divulging the world's secrets using technology unimagined a generation ago.

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, msnbc.com, Washington Post, Doug Ross, Alastair Campbell, THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS, Newshoggers.com and Wall Street Journal

Andy Greenberg / The Firewall:
WikiLeaks' Julian Assange Wants To Spill Your Corporate Secrets

Discussion: DealBook and The Independent, more at Mediagazer »

New York Times:
Answers to Readers' Questions About State's Secrets

Discussion: Yahoo! News, Spiegel Online, Gothamist, Washington Wire, Salon, This Just In, MiamiHerald.com, Guardian and Ben Smith's Blog

Jon Ward / The Daily Caller:
Rep. Peter King, a New York Republican who is scheduled …

Discussion: Hot Air, theblogprof and Erick's blog

Peter Baker / New York Times:

Amid Deficit Fears, Obama Freezes Pay — WASHINGTON — President Obama on Monday announced a two-year pay freeze for civilian federal workers as he sought to address concerns over high annual deficits and appealed to Republicans to find a common approach to restoring the nation's economic and fiscal health.

Brian Beutler / TPMDC:

Everyone Hates Obama's Pay Freeze Plan... Except Republicans — The early reviews of President Obama's plan to freeze federal worker pay are in — and it gets a resounding “F” from just about everybody outside of GOP leadership. — Michael Linden, a budget expert at the liberal Center …

Discussion: Yglesias, The Monkey Cage, Don Surber, The New Republic, Wonk Room and Daily Kos

Scarecrow / Scarecrow's myFDL diary:

Obama Flunks Economics with Pointless Federal Wage Freeze — The Obama White House just announced details of a two-year federal wage freeze as a means to reduce federal spending and deficits. [David Dayen has more.] The move is obviously political and only symbolic …

Discussion: New York Times, Daily Kos, TalkLeft and Economist's View

The White House:
Fact Sheet: Cutting the Deficit by Freezing Federal Employee Pay

Discussion: The Foundry, Los Angeles Times, Federal Eye, Swampland, White House.gov Blog Feed, Daily Kos, Talking Points Memo, Left Coast Rebel, Weasel Zippers, Ben Smith's Blog, Runnin' Scared, Outside the Beltway, AmSpecBlog, New York Magazine, Gawker and The Agonist

Brian Beutler / TPMDC:
Obama's Federal Worker Pay Freeze Was Blasted By Democrats Months Ago

Discussion: The Atlantic Online

Ed Morrissey / Hot Air:
Obama to freeze federal worker pay, save $5 billion over two years

Discussion: Associated Press and Hit & Run

DEBKAFile:

Nuclear scientist killed in Tehran was Iran's top Stuxnet expert — World Exclusive from DEBKAfile's intelligence sources: — Prof. Majid Shahriari, who died when his car was attacked in North Tehran Monday, Nov. 29, headed the team Iran established for combating the Stuxnet virus rampaging through its nuclear and military networks.

Discussion: Patterico's Pontifications, Pajamas Media, POWIP and Maggie's Farm

Raymond Bonner / The Atlantic Online:
‘By Whatever Means Necessary’: Arab Leaders Want Iran Stopped

Discussion: The Daily Dish, Wonk Room, Solomonia, RubinReports, Israellycool, Yourish.com, Guardian and The Volokh Conspiracy

Andrew Sullivan / The Daily Dish:
The Starr Report Of American Foreign Policy?

Discussion: The Daily Beast and Ben Smith's Blog

Thomas Erdbrink / Washington Post:
Iranian nuclear scientist killed, another injured in Tehran bombings

Discussion: PostPartisan, Threat Level, Gawker and New York Times

Robert Mackey / The Lede:
Reaction to Leak of U.S. Diplomatic Cables, Day 2

Discussion: New York Times, CNET News, Politics Daily, FP Passport, National Review, alicublog, ACS Blog, Solomonia and Hugh Hewitt's TownHall Blog

New York Times:
Iran Calls Leaked Documents U.S. Plot

Discussion: Tablet Magazine, CNN, Hot Air, Gawker, Big Journalism, JustOneMinute, Telegraph and Guardian

James Fallows / The Atlantic Online:

In Which I Become a Conservative — Ross Douthat, an Atlantic alumnus, contends in the NY Times that the recent controversy over “enhanced” TSA procedures illustrates the dominance of partisan reflex in today's politics. Liberals complained about excessive state power when Bush and Cheney were in charge …

Discussion: The League of Ordinary …, Eunomia, Winds of Change.NET, The Daily Dish, Salon, New York Times and Brilliant at Breakfast

Lori Montgomery / Washington Post:
Democrats warm to tax-cut compromise

Discussion: National Review, The Atlantic Online, RedState, About.com US Liberal Politics, Washington Monthly and The Hill

Brian Stelter / Media Decoder:

Netflix Partner Says Comcast ‘Toll’ Threatens Online Video Delivery — Level 3 Communications, a central partner in the Netflix online movie service, accused Comcast on Monday of charging a new fee that puts Internet video companies at a competitive disadvantage.

Discussion: Zandar Versus The Stupid, Seeing the Forest and Gizmodo, more at Mediagazer »

Penny Starr / CNSNews:

Smithsonian Christmas-Season Exhibit Features Ant-Covered Jesus, Naked Brothers Kissing, Genitalia, and Ellen DeGeneres Grabbing Her Breasts — WARNING: This story contains graphic photographs of items on display in an exhibit at the Smithsonian Institution's National Portrait Gallery.

Discussion: Left Coast Rebel, alicublog, Weasel Zippers and Daily Pundit

Adam Liptak / New York Times:

A Witness Lies, the Court Shrugs and Veterans Are Outraged — Elven J. Swisher wore a replica of a Purple Heart on the witness stand when he testified that the defendant had tried to hire him to kill three federal officials. — Asked about the medal, Mr. Swisher pulled a document …

Simon Tisdall / Guardian:

China ‘ready to abandon North Korea’ — Leaked dispatches show Beijing is frustrated with military actions of ‘spoiled child’ and increasingly favours reunified Korea — China has signalled its readiness to accept Korean reunification and is privately distancing itself from the North Korean regime …

Discussion: Alan Colmes' Liberaland, New York Times, Daniel W. Drezner, Washington Post, YID With LID, Hot Air, New York Magazine, This Just In and CNN

Tom Jensen / Public Policy Polling:

Americans not impressed with Bloomberg — Massive amounts of attention have been given over the last few years to a possible Michael Bloomberg Presidential run in 2012. And a new PPP poll finds that he is indeed a unifier- Democrats, Republicans, and independents all don't like him.

Discussion: Hot Air and Gothamist

Tom Jensen / Public Policy Polling:
Palin not seen as electable

Discussion: Alan Colmes' Liberaland and Outside the Beltway

Bloomberg:

U.S., EU Expect Limited Progress at Climate Talks, No Treaty — U.S. and European Union envoys said they expect progress on forming a $100 billion fund to fight global warming and on protecting forests at climate talks in Cancun, Mexico, though no treaty will be agreed.

Discussion: The Huffington Post and The Gateway Pundit

Louise Gray / Telegraph:
Cancun climate change summit: scientists call for rationing in developed world

Discussion: Weasel Zippers, Watts Up With That?, RedState, blogs.telegraph.co.uk, iOwnTheWorld.com, NewsBusters.org, AmSpecBlog, Michelle Malkin, Guardian and EU Referendum

Josh Rogin / Foreign Policy:

WikiLeaked: John Kerry calls for Israel to cede Golan Heights and East Jerusalem — On a February trip to the Middle East, Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman John Kerry (D-MA) told Qatari leaders that the Golan Heights should be returned to Syria, that a Palestinian capital …

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit, YID With LID, Crooks and Liars, Weasel Zippers, JOSHUAPUNDIT, Commentary and National Review

James C. McKinley Jr / New York Times:

Judge Blocks Oklahoma's Ban on Using Shariah Law in Court — HOUSTON — An Oklahoma constitutional amendment aimed at stopping the use of Islamic law in its courts was dealt a serious blow on Monday when a federal judge temporarily blocked the state from putting it into effect.

Discussion: Atlas Shrugs

CNN:

Justices turn aside another challenge over Obama's citizenship — Washington (CNN) — The Supreme Court has again cast aside an appeal that raised doubts about President Barack Obama's U.S. citizenship, a grass-roots legal issue that has gained little legal or political footing, but continues to persist in the courts.

Discussion: Crooks and Liars, Change of Subject, Zandar Versus The Stupid and Juanita Jean's

Jon Bershad / Mediaite:

Why Nothing Gets Done? Sen. Harry Reid Tells A 5-Minute College Football Story On Senate Floor — This weekend, the University of Nevada won a big upset against Boise State. It was an exciting upset and a great game between conference rivals. Why am I discussing this here and not over at SportsGrid?

Discussion: Breitbart.tv and Hot Air

Scott Keyes / ThinkProgress:

Sen. Joe Lieberman: Fox News ‘Is My Favorite,’ ‘Anything Rupert Murdoch Owns’ — This morning, Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) took to Don Imus's radio show to discuss the Wikileaks story. Lieberman did little to dissuade his critics on the left when he declared that his favorite television channels are …

Discussion: Crooks and Liars and Raw Story

Associated Press:

Chief: 5 hostages released from Wis. high school — MARINETTE, Wis. (AP) — A student armed with a handgun burst into a high school classroom in eastern Wisconsin on Monday, taking nearly two dozen students and a teacher hostage at the end of the school day, authorities said.

Discussion: Fox News, The Gateway Pundit and The Other McCain