memeorandum: West strikes deep in Libya, NATO near command deal (Reuters)

10:20 AM ET, March 25, 2011

Top Items:

David Kocieniewski / New York Times:

G.E.'s Strategies Let It Avoid Taxes Altogether — General Electric, the nation's largest corporation, had a very good year in 2010. — The company reported worldwide profits of $14.2 billion, and said $5.1 billion of the total came from its operations in the United States. — Its American tax bill?

Discussion: nancynall.com, Daily Loaf, Outside the Beltway, No More Mister Nice Blog, Weasel Zippers, naked capitalism, The Big Picture, National Review, The Lonely Conservative and Philly.com

James Fallows / The Atlantic Online:

‘Have You No Sense of Decency?’ The Wm. Cronon Story — BEIJING, China. I don't mean to keep butting in and have just a minute to type this out, but I think it's important to direct attention to a new abuse of power underway in Wisconsin. — William Cronon (right), whom I know very slightly …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Scholar as Citizen and Latest Open Salon Blog

Kate Golden / WisconsinWatch.org:

Indiana prosecutor resigns over Walker email — Initially denied encouraging Wisconsin violence — Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism — This is an updated version. Read the Center's original version here. — An Indiana deputy prosecutor and Republican activist resigned Thursday …

Discussion: Washington Monthly, TPMDC, Mother Jones, The Raw Story, Wonkette, ThinkProgress, Crooks and Liars, Sky Dancing, Talking Points Memo, Politicususa and Balloon Juice

New York Times:

Allies Are Split on Goal and Exit Strategy in Libya — WASHINGTON — Having largely succeeded in stopping a rout of Libya's rebels, the inchoate coalition attacking Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi's forces remains divided over the ultimate goal — and exit strategy — of what officials acknowledged Thursday …

Discussion: Swampland, The Foundry, Washington Post and Steve Sailer's iSteve Blog

The Note:
Gingrich Not Alone In No-fly Zone Contradiction

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Alan Colmes' Liberaland and Political Punch

Paul R. Pillar / The National Interest:
The Terrorist Consequences of the Libyan Intervention

Discussion: Big Peace, Balloon Juice and Eunomia

Pete Kasperowicz / The Hill:

CBO: Taxing mileage a ‘practical option’ for revenue enhancement — The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) this week released a report that said taxing people based on how many miles they drive is a possible option for raising new revenues and that these taxes could be used to offset the costs …

Discussion: Don Surber, Weasel Zippers, Questions and Observations, Hot Air, Scared Monkeys, Grim's Hall and Pajamas Media

Steven Hayward / Power Line:

The Libya Farce Goes to 11 — It is getting hard to keep track of the many farcical dimensions of the Libya enterprise without a scorecard. The hypocrisy of our anti-war President and say-anything Vice President set a new land speed record even among politicians.

Discussion: Hot Air, Pundit & Pundette and National Review

Jamison Foser / Media Matters for America:
CNN Contributor Accuses Obama Of “Manufacturing” Libya Crisis To Help Re-Election; Blames “Women Drivers”

Discussion: ECHIDNE of the snakes

The Politico: No plans for Oval Office Libya speech

Jeffrey M. Jones / Gallup:

Huckabee Has Slight Edge, Palin Down, in GOP '12 Preferences — Romney, Palin would tie if Huckabee does not run — PRINCETON, NJ — Mike Huckabee tops a large list of potential GOP presidential candidates in current support for the party's 2012 nomination, with 19% of Republicans saying they are most likely to back him.

Discussion: CNN, Ballot Box and USA Today

Jonathan Martin / The Politico:

Mitt Romney's path: Victory by ‘slog’ — Mitt Romney is sketching a path to the GOP nomination that looks nothing like the one blazed by Republicans before him. — Romney's plan, by necessity, more closely resembles the outline of the epic 2008 Democratic presidential primary than the GOP's recent victory-by-early-knockout design.

Discussion: The Note, msnbc.com, GOP 12 and The Page

Alex Pareene / Salon:

The stupid saga of Andrew Breitbart and the Huffington Post — So! Arianna Huffington — recently put in charge of all the “content” at AOL following the dial-up ISP's acquisition of her former “liberal Drudge” Internet newspaper — gave a blog to her old friend Andrew Breitbart.

Discussion: Capital New York, Big Journalism, Washington Post, The Daily Caller, Hit & Run and STRANAHAN dot COM, more at Mediagazer »

David Weigel / Weigel:

Huffington Post Wimps Out on Breitbart — I'm disappointed and annoyed to see the Huffington Post buckling under a pressure campaign and taking Andrew Breitbart's blog posts off the front page. It's their site; they can do what they want. But this response to the Color of Change's effort to boot Breitbart?

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Mediaite, The Gateway Pundit, STRANAHAN dot COM, Verum Serum, The Daily Caller, Da Techguy's Blog, Big Journalism, AMERICAblog News and Washington Post

Byron York / Washington Examiner:

Obama fails to grasp the gravity of going to war — Chief Political Correspondent Follow Him @ByronYork — “I see Obama's visiting the United States,” said Rush Limbaugh on Thursday, the president's first full day back in Washington after a spring break diplomatic tour of Latin America.

Discussion: Hot Air and The Hill

Washington Post:
Pressure building on Obama to clarify mission in Libya

Discussion: The Page, msnbc.com, RedState, Swampland and Danger Room

Associated Press:
US pressures allies to command Libya mission

Discussion: Patterico's Pontifications, Weasel Zippers and Outside the Beltway

Mark Hosenball / Reuters:

Gaddafi's entourage sends out secret peace feelers — (Reuters) - Members of Muammar Gaddafi's entourage are putting out feelers to seek a ceasefire or safe passage from Libya, according to U.S. and European officials and a businessman close to the Libyan leadership.

Discussion: Hullabaloo

BBC:
Nato takes over Libya no-fly zone

Discussion: Agence France Presse, The Daily Dish, Danger Room and Truthdig

Paul Krugman / New York Times:

The Austerity Delusion — Portugal's government has just fallen in a dispute over austerity proposals. Irish bond yields have topped 10 percent for the first time. And the British government has just marked its economic forecast down and its deficit forecast up. — What do these events have in common?

Discussion: Sky Dancing, Prairie Weather and Clusterstock

Jeffrey Goldberg / The Atlantic Online:

And While We're on the Subject of Reuters... This is from a just-released Reuters news analysis of President Obama's alleged travails: … This, of course, is wildly inaccurate and misleading. Say what you will about the second Iraq war, but George W. Bush made partnerships with many nations …

Discussion: PoliPundit.com

New York Times:

Japan Quietly Evacuating a Wider Radius From Reactors — TOKYO — Japanese officials on Friday began quietly encouraging people to evacuate a larger swath of territory around the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, a sign that they hold little hope that the crippled facility will soon be brought under control.

Discussion: Latest Open Salon Blog and The Page

Kyodo News:
High radiation leak suggests damage to No. 3 reactor vessel: agency

Discussion: The Jawa Report and Clusterstock

Sarah Palin / Facebook:

Lamestream Media: Reload or White Flag? — “Let's keep pivoting around media bias, and not get distracted with the vulgar personal shots. Call out lies and set the record straight, but always keep the ball moving. No one ever won a game only playing defense.”

Discussion: Ballot Box, Big Journalism and The Gateway Pundit

David Weigel / Weigel:

Donald Trump Wants to See Barack Obama's Long-Form Birth Certificate — I keep trying to get out... they keep pulling me back in. I'm not a regular watcher of the View, so I originally missed the lengthy, mind-boggling discussion that its hosts had with Donald Trump over Trump's belief …

Discussion: AMERICAblog News, The New Republic, Washington Post, The Impolitic, A plain blog about politics and CNN

Steve Kornacki / Salon:
Introducing the $184.27 Donald J. Trump Challenge

Discussion: The Atlantic Online

Jonathan Martin / The Politico:

Michele Bachmann bid could shake up GOP field — It's easy to dismiss Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) as bomb-throwing back-bencher who is eying a presidential run largely because her attempt to secure a post in the House leadership was stymied. There's a long history of camera-hungry House …

Discussion: Taylor Marsh and Wall Street Journal

Adam Sorensen / Swampland:
Bachmann 2012: Good for the Media, Bad for the GOP

Discussion: Washington Post and Little Green Footballs

Chris Brown / Media Matters for America:

John Lott's Mysteriously Changing Blog Post — John Lott has taken to his website to respond to a recent post of mine pointing out two misleading claims he made about the Obama Administration. Lott now accuses me of misquoting what he wrote in a March 18 Big Government post.

Discussion: Brad DeLong's Grasping Reality …

Greg Hengler / Townhall.com:

Krauthammer: Obama's “Working On Language That Will Disguise A Failure” In Libya — Obama may be the first American President who has refused the title, “Leader of the Free World.” He is not interested in being Commander in Chief. These traditional presidential roles are all a distraction for him.

Discussion: Flopping Aces