memeorandum: Libya may make defense cuts a no-fly zone (Carrie Budoff Brown/The Politico)

8:50 AM ET, March 29, 2011

Top Items:

Obama's Libya speech: Full text as prepared for delivery — Here is the prepared text for President Obama's address on Libya Monday night: — Good evening. Tonight, I'd like to update the American people on the international effort that we have led in Libya - what we've done, what we plan to do, and why this matters to us.

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Althouse, Guardian, Washington Examiner, Betsy's Page, The Caucus, The Atlantic Online, National Review, Doug Ross, New York Times, The Nation, GayPatriot, Pajamas Media, The Gateway Pundit, Connecting.the.Dots and TalkLeft

William Kristol / Weekly Standard:

You've Come a Long Way, Baby — President Obama's unapologetic, freedom-agenda-embracing, not-shrinking-from-the-use-of- force speech. — I knew pretty early on during tonight's speech that President Obama had rejoined—or joined—the historical American foreign policy mainstream.

Discussion: Ben Smith's Blog, Hot Air, American Power, The Other McCain and The Reality-Based Community

Helene Cooper / New York Times:

Obama Cites Limits of U.S. Role in Libya — WASHINGTON — President Obama defended the American-led military assault in Libya on Monday, saying it was in the national interest of the United States to stop a potential massacre that would have “stained the conscience of the world.”

Discussion: FP Passport, The Caucus, Marbury, Prairie Weather and Guardian

People-Press.org:

Modest Support for Libya Airstrikes, No Clear Goal Seen — Little Public Interest in Libyan Mission — After several days of airstrikes on Libya by the United States and its allies, the public has mixed reactions to the military operation. Nearly half of Americans (47%) …

Discussion: Jay Bookman, Washington Post, TPMDC and CNN

Associated Press:

FACT CHECK: How Obama's Libya claims fit the facts — WASHINGTON (AP) — There may be less than meets the eye to President Barack Obama's statements Monday night that NATO is taking over from the U.S. in Libya and that U.S. action is limited to defending people under attack there by Moammar Gadhafi's forces.

Discussion: Washington Post, msnbc.com and RedState

Marc Ambinder / NationalJournal.com:
Why Libya? Because We Could and Our Interests and Values Demanded It

Discussion: The Brody File, Washington Post, AMERICAblog News and The Atlantic Online

Jamie Dupree / Wsb-am Blogs:
Obama Libya Speech

Discussion: Hit & Run, Danger Room and AmSpecBlog

Spencer Ackerman / Danger Room:
U.S. Plan to End Libya War: Hope The Generals Quit

Discussion: CNN, Pajamas Media, Hot Air, RedState, nato.int, cnas.org, The Blaze, RealClearWorld, The Daily Dish and Firedoglake

Glenn Thrush / The Politico:
Obama's Libya speech: Libya is no Iraq

Discussion: Alan Colmes' Liberaland and The Lonely Conservative

Tom Malinowski / The New Republic:
The Timeliness Paradox — Why isn't Obama getting credit for stopping an atrocity?

Discussion: Pirate's Cove, The Politico, Daniel W. Drezner, The only adult in the room and Lawyers, Guns & Money

ABCNEWS:
Obama Libya Speech: U.S. ‘Interests and Values’ at Risk

Discussion: The Politico, The Note, Political Punch and The Democratic Daily

Fox News:
Obama Faces Backlash Abroad Amid Libyan Turmoil

Discussion: PoliPundit.com and Weasel Zippers

Ben Smith / Ben Smith's Blog:

Trump fails to produce birth certificate — Donald Trump made headlines earlier today when he provided what he said was a copy of his birth certificate — but a quick check reveals it's actually not an official document. — The paper that Trump released says “Jamaica Hospital” …

Discussion: Outside the Beltway, Firedoglake, Mediaite, The Moderate Voice, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, AMERICAblog News, Liberal Values and The Huffington Post

NewsMax.com:

Exclusive to Newsmax: Donald Trump's Birth Certificate — More ways to share... Mixx — Stumbled — LinkedIn — Vine — Buzzflash — Newstrust — Technocrati — Forward Article — Donald Trump, who has been making television appearances calling for President Barack Obama …

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, Pundit Press, Weasel Zippers, Ben Smith's Blog, Don Surber, Salon, Taegan Goddard's …, Gawker, Iowa Independent, Outside the Beltway and Wake up America

Ben Smith / Ben Smith's Blog:

Trump's birther play — I asked longtime Donald Trump advisor Roger Stone, who is working on the unofficial “Draft Trump” effort, rather than the attempts at an official campaign, why Trump would embrace discredited theories about Obama's birth. — Stone emails with five reasons:

Discussion: Swampland, Outside the Beltway and The Atlantic Online

The Smoking Gun: What Is Donald Trump, Newborn Birther, Trying To Hide From Us?

Alex Seitz-Wald / ThinkProgress:
Birther Donald Trump: I'm ‘Really Concerned’ That ‘Obama Was Not Born In This Country’

Discussion: Media Matters for America, News Hounds, The Raw Story, Alan Colmes' Liberaland and Examiner

Alexander Mooney / CNN:
Trump is now ‘really concerned’ about Obama's birthplace

Discussion: Sky Dancing, The Atlantic Online, The Hill, Outside the Beltway, ABCNEWS, Salon, TPMDC, Taylor Marsh, The Moderate Voice and Little Green Footballs

Brian Beutler / TPMDC:

Republicans Prepare To Reject Final White House Budget Offer — It's been almost a week since House Republicans, Senate Democrats and the White House last sat down to hammer out a budget agreement, and the schedule's still blank. Accusations of bad faith are now flying from both sides.

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Washington Post, Zandar Versus The Stupid, American Spectator, Oliver Willis, The Politico, The Hill, The Huffington Post, Firedoglake, Swampland, Outside the Beltway and Mother Jones

Ezra Klein / Washington Post:

It's beginning to look a lot like a shutdown — (Alex Brandon - AP) Brian Beutler has a nice story running down the state of play on the budget negotiations. The takeaway is that Republicans aren't just insisting that Democrats cut as deep as the GOP wants, but that they also cut in the way the GOP wants.

Discussion: TPMDC

Erik Wasson / The Hill:
Reid urges GOP to ditch Tea Party

Discussion: The Politico, Cubachi, CNN, The Gateway Pundit, TPMDC, The TrogloPundit, The Other McCain, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Weasel Zippers and HotAirPundit

Larry O'Connor / Breitbart.tv:

Black Activist Confronts Bill Ayers With Facts — Truth to power! Well done, young lady.

Discussion: UrbanGrounds, Betsy's Page, FREEDOM EDEN and Nice Deb

Bruno Waterfield / Telegraph:

EU to ban cars from cities by 2050 — Cars will be banned from London and all other cities across Europe under a draconian EU masterplan to cut CO2 emissions by 60 per cent over the next 40 years. — The European Commission on Monday unveiled a “single European transport area” …

Discussion: protein wisdom, Watts Up With That?, Weasel Zippers, Babalú Blog and The Lonely Conservative

Matthew Boyle / The Daily Caller:

In an email to The Daily Caller on Monday morning, Huffington Post editor Roy Sekoff alleged that conservative publisher Andrew Breitbart is not telling the truth about discussions they had regarding HuffPo's removal of his blog from its front page. — HuffPo removed Breitbart's blog …

Discussion: STRANAHAN dot COM and Patterico's Pontifications

Erick Stakelbeck / CBN.com:

Iranian Video Says Mahdi is ‘Near’ — New evidence has emerged that the Iranian government sees the current unrest in the Middle East as a signal that the Mahdi—or Islamic messiah—is about to appear. — CBN News has obtained a never-before-seen video produced by the Iranian regime …

Discussion: Chicago Boyz

Jibran Khan / Asianews.it:

Two Christians killed, churches burned: extremists respond to Florida Koran burning — In Hyderabad and Lahore, a mob of Islamic fundamentalists targeted the Christian places of worship. Desecrated several copies of the Bible. Anti-American slogans and demonstrations in different cities of Pakistan.

Discussion: Weasel Zippers, The Jawa Report and Jihad Watch

Bill Carter / Media Decoder:

Before Libya, White House Must Negotiate With ABC — President Obama had a message for the American people Monday night, an explanation of the government's intentions in Libya, one that he believed was important enough to request air time from the broadcast networks as well as the cable news networks.

Discussion: Pundit Press, Salon, Weasel Zippers and Gawker, more at Mediagazer »

JSOnline:

State stops collecting union dues, starts charging more for health care — By Jason Stein and Patrick Marley of the Journal Sentinel — Madison - Gov. Scott Walker's administration is no longer collecting dues on behalf of state unions and as of Sunday began charging employees …

Discussion: TPMDC, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion and The Political Environment

The Huffington Post:

Obama Featured On Chicago Anti-Abortion Billboards Targeting Black South Siders … An anti-abortion group behind a controversial New York billboard targeting African Americans is now taking its message to the South Side of Chicago, in a billboard targeting supporters of President Obama.

Discussion: Susan Campbell and Feministing

Jim Geraghty / National Review:

Obama on Libya: Look, Just Trust Me On This — I'll have more in tomorrow's Morning Jolt, but I feel tonight a lot like the night of Obama's speech announcing the Afghanistan surge to West Point. On paper, I agree with a lot of what Obama is saying. But he's stringing together a lot …

Discussion: RedState