memeorandum: Obamas Share Sacrifice at Pricey Vineyard Restaurant (Keith Koffler/White House Dossier)

12:10 PM ET, August 20, 2011

Top Items:

Reihan Salam / The Daily:

The left's labeling of conservatives as biased is flat-out wrong — The other day, Ed Schultz, host of MSNBC's “The Ed Show,” had a bit of fun at the expense of Rick Perry, the governor of Texas and newly minted Republican presidential candidate. He played a carefully edited clip …

Discussion: Booman Tribune, ThinkProgress, Lawyers, Guns & Money, Grasping Reality … and The New Republic

Howard Fineman / The Huffington Post:

Karl Rove Created Rick Perry — Now Can He Stop Him? … WASHINGTON — Karl Rove won't say it aloud, but he is afraid of Rick Perry: afraid that the smack-talking Texas governor will wreck the GOP's chances of winning the White House and the Senate in 2012. — The Perry-Rove story is shaping …

Discussion: Slate Magazine, The Mahablog, The Moderate Voice and Washington Monthly

Byron York / Campaign 2012:

Rove: Palin will run — Former Bush advisor Karl Rove says he believes former Alaska governor Sarah Palin will enter the Republican presidential race sometime around Labor Day. Appearing on Fox News Saturday morning, Rove said Palin “has a schedule next week that looks like that of a candidate, not a celebrity.”

Jess Bravin / Washington Wire:
Texas Secession Comes to Supreme Court, in a Way

Discussion: How Appealing and The Volokh Conspiracy

CNN:
Texas Gov. Rick Perry: Immigration is a ‘federal responsibility’

Discussion: The Politico, Hot Air, PERRspectives and Daily Kos

Des Moines Register:
Iowa Politics Insider: Palin event switches site to handle crowd

Discussion: The Other McCain

Keith Koffler / White House Dossier:

Obamas Share Sacrifice at Pricey Vineyard Restaurant — President and Mrs. Obama are sharing in the sacrifice tonight at the Beach Plum Restaurant on Martha's Vineyard, which features an array of overpriced selections for the first couple to choose from that could easily bring the bill within range of $200.

Discussion: The Greenroom and Scared Monkeys

Christopher Baxter / New Jersey Online:

Gov. Christie admits climate change is a real problem, that human activity plays a role — TRENTON — In case anyone had any doubts on where Gov. Chris Christie stands on climate change, he made his position crystal clear this afternoon: It's real and it's a problem.

Discussion: Michelle Malkin, Outside the Beltway, The Gateway Pundit, Weasel Zippers and The Politico

Henry Blodget / The Business Insider:

MOODY'S ANALYST BREAKS SILENCE: Says Ratings Agency Rotten To Core With Conflicts — A former senior analyst at Moody's has gone public with his story of how one of the country's most important rating agencies is corrupted to the core. — The analyst, William J. Harrington …

Discussion: Washington Post and Balloon Juice

Ben Farmer / Telegraph:

US troops may stay in Afghanistan until 2024 — America and Afghanistan are close to signing a strategic pact which would allow thousands of United States troops to remain in the country until at least 2024, The Daily Telegraph can disclose. — The agreement would allow not only military trainers …

Discussion: The Greenroom and Alan Colmes' Liberaland

Reid J. Epstein / The Politico:
U.S. forces to stay in Iraq into 2012, says Leon Panetta

Discussion: Stars & Stripes, Outside the Beltway, Mudville Gazette, Hot Air, Alarabiya.net English, The Political Carnival and ThinkProgress

Alexander Bolton / The Hill:

Republicans at home face Tea Party-style protests from liberal, labor groups — House Republicans are facing angry protests at home this month as liberal activists and labor organizers try to replicate the Tea-Party backlash that bit Democrats in August of 2009. — Liberal groups have been planning these protests for months.

Discussion: Connecting.the.Dots and The Gateway Pundit

Arthur Delaney / The Huffington Post:
Paul Ryan's Office Calls Cops On Jobless Protesters

Discussion: Dane101, ThinkProgress, Daily Kos, Booman Tribune and Wisconsin Jobs Now!

Dan Nowicki / Arizona Republic:

Giffords is now aware of who died in massacre — For nearly seven months, U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords was intentionally kept in the dark about the six people who died in the Jan. 8 shooting spree near Tucson. — Although Giffords knew that she had been shot and that six people had died …

Discussion: The Hill

New York Times:

A Study in Judicial Dysfunction — Harsh state judicial campaigns financed by ever larger amounts of special interest money are eating away at public faith in judicial impartiality. There are few places where the spectacle is more shameful than Wisconsin, where over-the-top campaigning …

Discussion: Prairie Weather

Mark Steyn / National Review:

The Imperial Presidency — Rick Perry, governor of Texas, has only been in the presidential race for 20 minutes, but he's already delivered one of the best lines in the campaign: — “I'll work every day to try to make Washington, D.C., as inconsequential in your life as I can.”

John Hinderaker / Power Line:

Darrell Issa Sticks It to the Times — Darrell Issa is a brilliant businessman who made a lot of money the old-fashioned way: he earned it, rather than marrying or inheriting it as so many Democratic politicians do. Which is another way of saying that he is just the kind of man we need in Washington.

Discussion: Hot Air, Congressman Issa and The Daily Caller

Kevin Bogardus / The Hill:

President Obama tells lawmakers in Washington to put country before party — President Obama said that lawmakers in Washington need to set aside their partisan differences and come together to boost the struggling economy. — In his weekly radio address Saturday, Obama …

Discussion: JammieWearingFool

KTAR.com:

Arpaio clarifies stand on Obama birth certificate — PHOENIX — Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio has denied that he “promised” Tea Party leaders in Arizona to investigate the validity of Barack Obama's long-form birth certificate to determine the president's eligibility for the 2012 election ballot.

Discussion: Angry Black Lady Chronicles

WorldNetDaily:
Arizona sheriff promises Obama-eligibility probe

Discussion: Salon, Wonkette and Raw Replay

L. Brent Bozell / CNN:

O'Donnell's reaction to Piers Morgan was ‘downright bizarre’ — Editor's note: L. Brent Bozell is the president of the Media Research Center, a conservative media watchdog organization, and the founder of CNSNews.com, an online news service with an emphasis on investigative journalism.

Discussion: Mediaite and Hot Air

Rene Lynch / Nation Now: Christine O'Donnell: Piers Morgan was sexually harassing me

David Starkey / Telegraph:

UK riots: It's not about criminality and cuts, it's about culture... and this is only the beginning — Condemned as a racist for his comments on ‘Newsnight’ following the riots, the historian David Starkey speaks out against those who tried to silence him for confronting the gangster culture that has ruptured our society.

Discussion: Guardian

Eli Clifton / ThinkProgress:

Funder For Travel To Glenn Beck's Jerusalem Rally Criticized For Speaking To Anti-Semitic Groups — Glenn Beck's upcoming rally to “Restore Courage” has run into a snag after House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) and the House Ethics Committee rejected the request by a number of House members …

Discussion: The Politico