memeorandum: Spending Cuts Are Great When the Spending Is Stupid (Michael Grunwald/Swampland)

6:25 AM ET, August 25, 2011

Top Items:

Jeffrey M. Jones / Gallup:

Perry Zooms to Front of Pack for 2012 GOP Nomination — Leads Romney by 29% to 17% — PRINCETON, NJ — Shortly after announcing his official candidacy, Texas Gov. Rick Perry has emerged as rank-and-file Republicans' current favorite for their party's 2012 presidential nomination.

Nate Silver / FiveThirtyEight:

Perry Surges in Polls, Testing Romney's Strategy — Primary polls can be erratic, so the rule is not to get too worked up about any one set of numbers. But now there have been five surveys conducted since Rick Perry announced his presidential campaign — one each from Gallup …

Discussion: Booman Tribune, Rasmussen Reports, Washington Post, Weasel Zippers, Balloon Juice and The Hill

Maggie Haberman / The Politico:

Rick Perry/Barack Obama comparison in Twitter picture — David Limbaugh, the conservative author and brother of Rush, tweets an image you're likely to see again. — A spokesman for Rick Perry didn't respond to a request for comment on the photo, the origin of which is unknown.

Discussion: No More Mister Nice Blog, Hullabaloo and National Review

Jason McLure / Reuters:
Humans may not be main climate change source: Romney

Discussion: ThinkProgress

Dan Berman / The Politico:
Romney tweaks climate stance

Discussion: Weasel Zippers, nation.foxnews.com and The Hill

Allahpundit / Hot Air:
Obama team to Texas Democrats: It's time to start attacking Rick Perry

Discussion: Taylor Marsh and Wake up America

Alexander Burns / The Politico:
Rick Perry bids for frontrunner title

Discussion: CNN

Tom Jensen / Public Policy Polling:
Perry leads nationally

Discussion: GOP 12, Outside the Beltway and The New Republic

Todd J. Gillman / Trail Blazers Blog:
Obama team scouts for anti-Perry Texans

Discussion: Campaign 2012

Poornima Gupta / Reuters:

Steve Jobs resigns from Apple, Cook becomes CEO — (Reuters) - Silicon Valley legend Steve Jobs on Wednesday resigned as chief executive of Apple Inc in a stunning move that ended his 14-year reign at the technology giant he co-founded in a garage. — Apple shares dived as much as 7 percent …

Discussion: Moe Lane

msnbc.com:

Apple's Jobs, beset by health issues, resigns — Below: — Silicon Valley legend Steve Jobs, who has been on medical leave for an undisclosed condition since Jan. 17, resigned as chief executive of Apple Wednesday, saying he could “no longer meet” the duties and expectations of the job.

Discussion: Reuters

Business Wire:

Steve Jobs Resigns as CEO of Apple — Tim Cook Named CEO and Jobs Elected Chairman of the Board — CUPERTINO, Calif.—(BUSINESS WIRE)—Apple's Board of Directors today announced that Steve Jobs has resigned as Chief Executive Officer, and the Board has named Tim Cook …

Discussion: Outside the Beltway, The Wire, DealBook, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, The Raw Story, Scared Monkeys and Clusterstock, more at Techmeme »

MG Siegler / TechCrunch:
Steve Jobs Resigns As CEO Of Apple

Discussion: News Desk and Ricochet Conversation Feed

Apple:
Letter from Steve Jobs

Discussion: The Daily What, The Snitch and Winds of Change.NET, more at Techmeme »

Nick Bilton / Bits:
Jobs Steps Down From Chief Executive Post at Apple

Discussion: New York Magazine, Man Are We Screwed and ThinkProgress

Shira Ovide / Deal Journal:
Steve Jobs Resigns as Apple CEO

Discussion: Guardian, Opinion L.A. and Boing Boing

Scott Stump / msnbc.com:

Cheney: My book will have ‘heads exploding’ in D.C. — Revelations include resignation letter kept locked in a safe in case of heart attack or stroke — Below: — updated 2011-08-24T19:33:23 — When former Vice President Dick Cheney releases his memoir early next week …

Discussion: Man Are We Screwed, emptywheel, Washington Post and Juanita Jean's

Charlie Savage / New York Times:

Cheney Says He Urged Bush to Bomb Syria in '07 — WASHINGTON — Former Vice President Dick Cheney says in a new memoir that he urged President George W. Bush to bomb a suspected Syrian nuclear reactor site in June 2007. But, he wrote, Mr. Bush opted for a diplomatic approach after other advisers …

Discussion: Mother Jones and Wonkette

Tim Mak / The Politico:

Cheney kept secret resignation letter — Dick Cheney kept a secret resignation letter locked away in a safe in case he were ever to be incapacitated, the former vice president reveals in his new book. — The letter, which Cheney signed in March of 2001, was written because of the vice president's health.

Discussion: Media Decoder, Mediaite, News Desk and The Note

Travis Waldron / ThinkProgress:

Tea Partier Tells Rep. Lujan, Life-Long American, To ‘Get Out Of Politics And Make Room For An American’ — The Tea Party continues to claim that racism, ethnocentrism, and xenophobia are not driving forces in its movement, but the actions of its members continue to belie those claims.

Discussion: The Reaction

Chuck Slothower / Farmington Daily Times:
Face time: Tea Party protesters greet Lujan

Discussion: Alan Colmes' Liberaland

Josh Gerstein / The Politico:

Norman Rockwell painting sends rare White House message on race — President Barack Obama has taken a decidedly low-key approach to racial issues since he became America's first black president two years ago. But in a hallway outside the Oval Office he has placed a head-turning painting depicting …

Discussion: Salon, The Greenroom, The Lonely Conservative, CNN, Hullabaloo, Weasel Zippers, Booman Tribune and Gallup

Matt Lewis / The Daily Caller:

Despite my hopes, Sen. Marco Rubio will not run for president in 2012. But that doesn't mean he won't soon be within a heartbeat of the presidency. As the New Yorker's Ryan Liza asked on Twitter: “Is it time to rename GOP primaries 'the contest to become Marco Rubio's running mate'?”

Discussion: Fox News, RedState and Washington Post

Igor Volsky / ThinkProgress:
Marco Rubio: Medicare, Social Security ‘Weakened Us As People’, Made Us Lazy

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, TPMDC, No More Mister Nice Blog, Daily Kos and Daily Mail

Terence P. Jeffrey / CNSNews:

Terry Jeffrey: Biden's Obsequious Bow to Beijing — Vice President Joe Biden's talent for using many words to say little or nothing — or worse — was never more conspicuously displayed than during his trip to China. — At Sichuan University on Sunday, after Biden delivered a 4,600-word speech …

Discussion: Washington Times and Michelle Malkin

Ed Morrissey / Hot Air:
So much for “pro-choice” — Gaffe (n): The accidental telling …

Discussion: The Other McCain, National Review, Pundit & Pundette and Townhall.com

nationalzoo.si.edu:

National Zoo Animals React to the Earthquake … Great Apes — The earthquake hit the Great Ape House and Think Tank Exhibit during afternoon feeding time. — About five to ten seconds before the quake, many of the apes, including Kyle (an orangutan) and Kojo (a Western lowland gorilla) …

Discussion: News Desk and New York Magazine

Tamara Abraham / Daily Mail:

Expensive massages, top shelf vodka and five-star hotels: First Lady accused of spending $10m in public money on her vacations — The Obamas' summer break in Martha's Vineyard has already been branded a PR disaster after the couple arrived four hours apart on separate government jets.

Discussion: Pajamas Media, Proof Positive, Weasel Zippers, The Gateway Pundit, Power Line, The Lonely Conservative and UrbanGrounds

Wall Street Journal:

Expect a Third-Party Candidate in 2012 — Ross Perot in 1992 and John Anderson in 1980 garnered exceptionally high levels of support. — The United States is in the midst of what we would both call a prerevolutionary moment, and there is widespread support for fundamental change in the system.

Discussion: Hot Air and Patterico's Pontifications

Telegraph:

Libya: SAS leads hunt for Gaddafi — British special forces are on the ground in Libya helping to spearhead the hunt for Col Muammar Gaddafi, The Daily Telegraph can disclose. — Jomana Karadsheh and Matthew Chance from CNN are evacuated by the International Red Cross from the Rixos hotel in Tripoli

Discussion: New York Times and Guardian

Matt Cover / CNSNews:

Flashback: Obama in 2008: Adding $4 Trillion to National Debt ‘Unpatriotic’ — (CNSNews.com) - Although the national debt under President Barack Obama has increased $4 trillion since he took office in 2009, as a presidential candidate in 2008 Obama criticized then-President George W. Bush …

Discussion: Sister Toldjah and Pajamas Media

Ambrose Evans-Pritchard / Telegraph:

Germany fires cannon shot across Europe's bows — German President Christian Wulff has accused the European Central Bank of violating its treaty mandate with the mass purchase of southern European bonds. — There is widespread concerns in Germany that ECB intervention in the Italian …

Discussion: Biased BBC

Speaker:

Obama White House Must Back Its Backpedaling With Action on “One-Child” Policy — It's welcome news that a White House spokesman has clarified that the Vice President opposes China's repugnant “one-child” policy, as Speaker Boehner said Monday he hoped the White House would.

Discussion: Washington Times, National Review, The Daily Caller and Pundit & Pundette

Mark Benjamin / Swampland:

Perry Compared Homosexuality to Alcoholism in 2008 Book — The origin of homosexuality has become something of a political litmus test for presidential candidates, almost akin to their stance on abortion. Candidates are now expected to explain whether or not they believe homosexuality is a hard-wired predisposition.

Discussion: Wonkette, Opinion L.A., Washington Post, Washington Monthly, ThinkProgress, Juanita Jean's, Towleroad News #gay and New York Magazine

Keach Hagey / The Politico:

Slate lays off four, including Jack Shafer — In the occasionally prickly world of media reporting, it's hard to find anyone who does not love, respect and, yes, slightly fear Jack Shafer. — So widespread is the love that American Journalism Review published a valentine to him earlier today …

Discussion: Adweek, M.JOSEPH SHEPPARD'S … and Poynter, more at Mediagazer »