memeorandum @ 6:10 PM ET, January 28, 2011

6:10 PM ET, January 28, 2011

Top Items:

James Cowie / Renesys Blog:

Egypt Leaves the Internet — Thanks to all for great comments and questions. Please see below for latest updates on the ongoing Egyptian Internet blackout. —jim — Confirming what a few have reported this evening: in an action unprecedented in Internet history, the Egyptian government appears …

News: News blog:

Protests in Egypt - live updates — • Officials say US is reviewing $1.5bn aid to Egypt — • Teargas and rubber bullets used in crackdown — • Read a full summary of the latest developments — 10.29pm GMT: Mubarak finally appears on Nile TV.

Al Jazeera Blogs:

Liveblog - Egypt's protests erupt — on January 28th, 2011. … Follow staff tweets on the protests from Egypt and Doha. — Watch Al Jazeera English broadcasting live from Cairo, Suez and Alexandria. — View a gallery of photos from the past four days of protests.

Discussion: This Just In, Crooks and Liars, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Time, Global Voices in English, The Monkey Cage, AOL News, The Daily Beast, The Atlantic Online, CNN, Firedoglake, Newshoggers.com and Minnesota Independent, more at Techmeme »

Guardian:

Egyptian government on last legs, says Mohamed ElBaradei — Exclusive: Mohamed ElBaradei says he is sending a message ‘to the Guardian and to the world’ — The Egyptian dissident Mohamed ElBaradei warned President Hosni Mubarak today that his regime is on its last legs …

Discussion: WSJ Blogs - WSJ, BBC, Associated Press, CNET News, Online NewsHour, New York Times, Firedoglake, The Huffington Post, The Daily Dish, Fausta's Blog, The Blotter, Hot Air, Washington Post, Confederate Yankee, Verum Serum, The Awl, Taylor Marsh and Pajamas Media

Max Fisher / The Atlantic Online:

Liveblogging Egypt: Day 1 — Tracking the ongoing demonstrations and government response in Egypt — 4:43 p.m. EST / 11:43 p.m. Cairo Egyptian Speaker of the Parliament Ahmed Fathi Sorour will be making an “important announcement” on state TV soon, Al Jazeera and other outlets say the government has notified them.

Discussion: Foreign Policy, Associated Press, Firedoglake, Little Green Footballs, Hot Air and Samizdata.net

New York Times:
Egypt Calls In Army as Protests Rage

New York Times:
Seizing a Moment, Al Jazeera Galvanizes Arab Frustration

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, Weekly Standard, Salon, ReadWriteWeb, GigaOM, CFR.org, Washington Post, Big Peace, Wonkette, The Note, No More Mister Nice Blog, RubinReports and msnbc.com, more at Mediagazer »

Elliott Abrams / Washington Post:
Egypt protests show George W. Bush was right about freedom in the Arab world

Discussion: Wonk Room, Commentary and Elliott Abrams

Michelle Malkin:
Uprising in Egypt — An iconic Egyptian protest image reminiscent …

Discussion: CNSNews, Hot Air, CNN, Power Line, The Jawa Report, UrbanGrounds, American Power and Theo Spark

Chris Good / The Atlantic Online:
Egypt's High-Powered D.C. Lobbying Ties

Discussion: The Nation

Nick Baumann / Mother Jones:

The House GOP's Plan to Redefine Rape — Drugged, raped, and pregnant? Too bad. Republicans are pushing to limit rape and incest cases eligible for government abortion funding. — Post Comment — Rape is only really rape if it involves force. So says the new House Republican majority as it now moves to change abortion law.

Discussion: Little Green Footballs, ECHIDNE of the snakes, Gawker, Booman Tribune, The Blotter, The Mahablog, No More Mister Nice Blog, Wonkette, Hullabaloo, Lawyers, Guns & Money, Shakesville, Open Congress, Democratic Strategist, Feministing, Balloon Juice and Daily Kos

Steve Benen / Washington Monthly:

THE ODIOUS GOP PLAN TO REDEFINE RAPE.... Last week, after a rather pointless vote to repeal the entirety of the Affordable Care Act, House Republicans announced their second major initiative: the “No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act.” — It was additional evidence that the new House GOP majority …

Discussion: Outside the Beltway and Balloon Juice

USA Today:

TNT apologizes for Tracy Morgan's lewd comments on Palin — UPDATE: TNT sponsor AutoTrader.com is complaining to the network about being stuck in the middle, literally, of Tracy Morgan's lewd remarks about Sarah Palin on last night's edition of Inside the NBA.

Discussion: PopEater, Salon, iOwnTheWorld.com, The Other McCain, Pajamas Media, AOL News and JammieWearingFool

Jeff Labrecque / Inside TV:
TNT apologizes for Tracy Morgan's crude Sarah Palin remark

Discussion: newsfeed.time.com, Wonkette and Anchorage Daily News

Sarah Palin / Facebook:

On Sputnik vs. Spudnut — Please read this article by the Hoover Institution's Research Fellow Peter Schweizer. Schweizer, who has written extensively on the subject of the decline and fall of the Soviet Union, offers a Washington Post writer an important refresher on the real history of Sputnik …

Discussion: No More Mister Nice Blog, USA Today and TPMDC

Peter Schweizer / Big Peace:
Sarah Palin Schools the Washington Post on History

Discussion: PostPartisan and Conservatives4Palin

Rick Maze / Air Force Times HOME:

Bachmann plan would cut veterans benefits — Tea party favorite Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., has unveiled a plan for cutting $400 billion in federal spending that includes freezing Veterans Affairs Department health care spending and cutting veterans' disability benefits.

Discussion: Raw Story, Washington Monthly, Minnesota Independent and TPMDC

VFW:
VFW WILL DEFEAT BACHMANN PLAN

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Daily Kos and TPMDC

Ben Smith / Ben Smith's Blog:

A careful briefing — Robert Gibbs, like all White House press secretaries, takes great care with his words, but I'm not sure I've ever seen him taking quite this much care, referring to notes from phrase to phrase, as he is in this afternoon's briefing on Egypt.

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Associated Press and The Plum Line

Sam Youngman / The Hill:
Gibbs: Obama still hasn't called Egyptian leader as protests rage

Discussion: CNN and Weasel Zippers

Ezra Klein:

Too young not to work, too old to get a job — Pew's new report on long-term unemployment is sobering stuff: … The interplay between age and unemployment really worries me. On some level, we have a rosy view of “structural unemployment”: It's a guy in Reno, Nev., who has skills better suited …

Discussion: Hullabaloo

Suleiman al-Khalidi / Reuters:

Jordanian protesters demand political reforms — (Reuters) - Islamists, leftists and trade unionists gathered in central Amman Friday for the latest protest to demand political change and wider freedoms. — A crowd of at least 3,000 chanted: “We want change.”

Discussion: Outside the Beltway, The Atlantic Online and Weasel Zippers

Aljazeera:
Thousands protest in Jordan

Discussion: Sky Dancing, Agence France Presse, Swampland and POMED

Kevin Drum / Mother Jones:

Downgrading America — Karl Smith on the possibility that ratings agencies will downgrade U.S. debt from its current AAA rating: … I can't speak for Obama, but I have a feeling that the significance would be: zero. Granted, there's symbolic importance to something like this …

Discussion: Modeled Behavior and The Atlantic Online

Uri Friedman / The Atlantic Wire:
World Grows Jittery About American Debt

Discussion: The Atlantic Online

Rachel Rose Hartman / Yahoo! News:

Biden thinks The Onion's spoofs of him are ‘hilarious’ — A mock photo of Vice President Joe Biden washing a Trans-Am shirtless. Strange? Distasteful? Crossing the line? — Not so, Biden says. — “I think it's hilarious,” Biden told Yahoo! in a wide-ranging interview Thursday.

Discussion: Political Punch, Fox News, Indecision Forever, Gawker and Washington Post

Jonathan Martin / The Politico:

A big warning sign for Mitt Romney — An array of Republican heavyweights who backed Mitt Romney's 2008 presidential bid are not yet committed to - and in some cases, downright skeptical of - the former Massachusetts governor's all-but-certain 2012 campaign.

Discussion: Daily Kos, Commentary, Conservatives4Palin and FrumForum

Lbentzterp / CNN:

Bush takes swing at former press secretary — Washington (CNN) - Former President George W. Bush is landing a stinging jab at his former longtime aide and press secretary, Scott McClellan, saying the man who served as the public face of his administration for three years was irrelevant.

Discussion: The Political Carnival

Jonathan Allen / The Politico:

Republicans terrified of tea — When Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann was named to the House Intelligence Committee earlier this year, one of her Republican colleagues responded this way: “Is that a punchline?” Another simply said, “Jumbo shrimp. Oxymoron.” — Neither dared to attach his name to his comment.

Discussion: Washington Monthly, CNN, Grim's Hall, The Blotter, The New Republic and FrumForum

Natasha Mozgovaya / Haaretz:

U.S. Democrats and pro-Israel lobbies slam Republican Senator's call to halt Israel aid — Tea Party representative Rand Paul tells CNN's Wolf Blitzer he has a lot of respect for Israel but he doesn't believe the U.S. should be funding the Mideast arms race during financial crisis.

Discussion: Right Turn, Mondoweiss, AmSpecBlog and Israpundit

Kathleen Hennessey / Los Angeles Times:
‘Tea party’ gathering a tepid draw among senators

Discussion: Crooks and Liars and Mother Jones

Elizabethe Holland / St. Louis Post-Dispatch:

Furor at Washington U. nixes Bristol Palin appearance — Anger over a decision to pay Bristol Palin several thousand dollars in student fees to talk to Washington University students about abstinence led to a decision Thursday night to nix Palin's appearance on a panel here next month.

Discussion: The Atlantic Online, Student Life, The Gateway Pundit, Wonkette and Right Wing News

Jim Geraghty / National Review:

Why Would an American President Tout Mubarak's Regime? — Two weekends ago, I was at a wedding, and another guest mentioned that he was being “good,” and honoring his wife's request that he not check his Blackberry or Twitter feed. Knowing that the Ravens-Steelers NFL Playoff game was underway …

Discussion: Outside the Beltway

Associated Press:

Fla. rep failed to explain thousands in expenses — MIAMI (AP) — Freshman U.S. Rep. David Rivera, who is facing a state criminal investigation of his finances, paid himself more than $60,000 in unexplained campaign reimbursements over the eight years he served in the state legislature …

Discussion: Ballot Box and Taegan Goddard's …

David Harsanyi / Real Clear Politics:

Who Are We in This ‘Sputnik Moment’? — One of the difficulties progressives face is trying to make centralized planning sound like a good idea. Even the president, with all his rhetorical genius and majestic vagueness, can struggle with the task. So from time to time …

Discussion: alicublog

Reuters:

FACTBOX-Deepwater rigs moved out of the Gulf of Mexico — Some of the 30-plus deepwater rigs that were in the Gulf of Mexico have moved to other markets, first because of a U.S. halt called last May after BP Plc's (BP.L: Quote) well blowout, and then because of the lack of permits once the moratorium was lifted.

Discussion: Hot Air and Pajamas Media

Paul Krugman / New York Times:

Their Own Private Europe — President Obama's State of the Union address was a ho-hum affair. But the official Republican response, from Representative Paul Ryan, was really interesting. And I don't mean that in a good way. — Mr. Ryan made highly dubious assertions about employment, health care and more.

Discussion: ourfuture.org/blogs_chrono/*, Alan Colmes' Liberaland and Prairie Weather

John Bresnahan / The Politico:

House Dems call for gun hearings — House Democrats are calling for hearings on gun safety in the wake of the Jan. 8 massacre in Arizona, with the focus on high-capacity ammunition clips and preventing those with a history of mental illness or drug abuse from buying guns.

Discussion: The Note, Weasel Zippers and Hot Air