memeorandum: Answering Jonathan Alter's Challenge (Peter Wehner/Commentary Magazine)

2:50 AM ET, August 27, 2011

Top Items:

Was Hurricane Irene caused by global warming? — Hurricane Irene hadn't even made landfall in the United States before some people figured out what to blame it on. — “Irene's got a middle name, and it's Global Warming,” environmental activist Bill McKibben wrote Thursday night in The Daily Beast.

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, NewsBusters.org blogs, Hot Air and Conservatives4Palin

Jeff Masters / Dr. Jeff Masters' WunderBlog:

Irene's eyewall collapses; further intensification unlikely — Satellite data and measurements from the Hurricane Hunters show that Irene is weakening. A 9:21 am EDT center fix by an Air Force Reserve aircraft found that Irene's eyewall had collapsed, and the central pressure had risen to 946 mb from a low of 942 mb this morning.

Discussion: Gothamist, Dot Earth, The Atlantic Online, The Awl, JustOneMinute, Booman Tribune, Daily Kos, The Moderate Voice, KIKO'S HOUSE and New York Times

Brad Johnson / ThinkProgress:

How Global Warming Is Making Hurricane Irene Worse — Hurricane Irene is bearing down on the Outer Banks of North Carolina as a Category Two storm, and is expected to track a path of destruction up the densely populated Atlantic coast, with New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg ordering …

Discussion: Washington Post, Bloomberg, The Daily Green and The Gateway Pundit

John Seabrook / News Desk:
Irene, Floyd, Katrina, 9/11

Discussion: AlterNet

James Barron / New York Times:
Evacuations Ordered in New York as Hurricane Irene Nears

Discussion: Associated Press, Freakonomics, Real Time Economics, naked capitalism, Bloomberg, The Moderate Voice, Wall Street Journal, Daniel W. Drezner, New York Magazine, FT Alphaville, News Desk, The Raw Story, Dot Earth, Truthdig and Towleroad News #gay

Nate Silver / FiveThirtyEight:
A New York Hurricane Could Be a Multibillion-Dollar Catastrophe

Chris Cassidy / Boston Herald:
President Obama's posse stays put as tourists flee

Discussion: Sense of Events, Althouse, Confederate Yankee and National and Local …

Jonah Goldberg / National Review:

My Rick Perry Problem — and Ours — Texas governor Rick Perry is the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination now, at least in the national polls. Undoubtedly that's the main reason so many East Coast pundits and Beltway wags are making fun of him. He likes guns! He's from Texas!

Discussion: Dr. Melissa Clouthier, Sister Toldjah, Taylor Marsh, Ricochet Conversation Feed, Riehl World View and GOP 12

David Brooks / New York Times:
President Rick Perry?

Discussion: Washington Post, The Reality-Based Community, Daily Kos, Hot Air, The Hill, Swampland, National Review, Pajamas Media, No More Mister Nice Blog, News Desk, The New Republic, The Note, driftglass and Balloon Juice

Jeffrey M. Jones / Gallup:
Tea Party Supporters Backing Perry for GOP Nomination

Discussion: Washington Blade, Little Green Footballs, TPMDC, Hot Air, Ballot Box, The Hill, The Politico, Iowa Independent, Hullabaloo, National Review and Public Policy Polling

Douglas Mackinnon / Investor's Business Daily:
Left And Right Going Nuclear On Rick Perry

Discussion: Campaign 2012 and Patterico's Pontifications

Ross Douthat:
Don't Panic, Mitt Romney!

Discussion: Democratic Strategist, National Review, The New Republic, Prairie Weather and msnbc.com

Danny Yadron / Washington Wire:
Perry Pivots, Signs Anti-Gay-Marriage Pledge

Discussion: Law Blog

Dana Loesch / Big Journalism:

ESPN Moves to Silence Golf Analyst Who Criticized Obama *UPDATED: ESPN Ignores Political Tweets of Other Personalities *UPDATE: More Cherry-Picking — A note for future prospective ESPN employees: You can only cheerlead Obama at ESPN. I'm not joking. — Case in point: The network's golf analyst …

Discussion: Michelle Malkin, nation.foxnews.com, Doug Ross, Top of the Ticket, The Lonely Conservative and Marooned In Marin

Michael McCarthy / USA Today:

ESPN ‘reminds’ Azinger to lay off tweets about President Obama — UPDATE: ESPN is coming down on Paul Azinger for mocking President Barack Obama on Twitter. The golf analyst tweeted Friday that the Commander-in-chief plays more golf than he does — and that Azinger has created more jobs this month than Obama has.

Discussion: Weasel Zippers, The Gateway Pundit, Ricochet Conversation Feed and JammieWearingFool

The Note:

Ron Paul: Who Needs FEMA Anyway? — ABC News' Jason Volack reports: — With Hurricane Irene bearing down on the East Coast and taking direct aim at America's biggest city, who needs the Federal Emergency Management Agency anyway? — At least that's the question that presidential candidate …

Discussion: The Politico, Reuters and The Hill

Steve Benen / Washington Monthly:
Ron Paul rejects FEMA role in hurricane response

Discussion: msnbc.com, Salon, Wonkette and Daily Kos

Jennifer Bendery / The Huffington Post:
Louisiana Congressman: GOP ‘Sinful’ To Tie Disaster Aid To Spending Cuts

Discussion: Outside the Beltway

Maureen O'Connor / Gawker:

Republican Politician Naked, Bending Over on Gay Sex Site — Puerto Rico's Anthony Weiner is much more thrilling than ours: Last week, images from Puerto Rican senator and GOP cheerleader Roberto Arango's alleged profile on gay hook-up app Grindr surfaced. When a Puerto Rican TV show confronted him …

Discussion: Mediaite, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Taegan Goddard's …, New York Magazine and The Moderate Voice

Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System:

The Near- and Longer-Term Prospects for the U.S. Economy — Good morning. As always, thanks are due to the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City for organizing this conference. This year's topic, long-term economic growth, is indeed pertinent—as has so often been the case at this symposium in past years.

Binyamin Appelbaum / New York Times:
Bernanke Blames Politics for Financial Upheaval

Discussion: Washington Post, Economix, AMERICAblog News, Calculated Risk, The Business Insider, National Review, Daily Kos and Washington Monthly

Matthew Yglesias / ThinkProgress:
At Jackson Hole, Bernanke Tells The Nation He'll Deliver High Unemployment For Years

Discussion: Guardian, The New Republic, MarketBeat, Ricochet Conversation Feed, Financial Times, Real Time Economics and Eschaton

Eric Felten / Wall Street Journal:

Guitar Frets: Environmental Enforcement Leaves Musicians in Fear — Federal agents swooped in on Gibson Guitar Wednesday, raiding factories and offices in Memphis and Nashville, seizing several pallets of wood, electronic files and guitars. The Feds are keeping mum, but in a statement …

Discussion: Pajamas Media, Obama Fail Blog, theblogprof, Hot Air, The Lonely Conservative, RedState, Right Wing News, Michelle Malkin and Don Surber

TWC / Obama Fail Blog:
Update on Obama's Raid on Gibson Guitar (With Video Transcription)

Discussion: Marooned In Marin, The Gateway Pundit and Verum Serum

Brendan Farrington / Denver Post:

Bachmann says she'd consider minimum wage changes — JACKSONVILLE BEACH, Fla.—Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann said Friday she wouldn't rule out changes to the federal minimum wage as a way to lower the cost of doing business and lure corporations back to the United States.

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, ThinkProgress and Alan Colmes' Liberaland

Jonathan Alter / Bloomberg:

About Jonathan Alter — You Think Obama's Been a Bad President? Prove It: Jonathan Alter — Tell me again why Barack Obama has been such a bad president? I'm not talking here about him as a tactician and communicator. We can agree that he has played some bad poker with Congress.

Discussion: Hot Air, Opinionator, Don Surber, msnbc.com and Democratic Strategist

Peter Wehner / Commentary Magazine: Answering Jonathan Alter's Challenge

Robin Bravender / The Politico:

Gore: Eat less meat to fight warming — Al Gore wants society to ditch meat-heavy diets and go organic to combat global warming. — “Industrial agriculture is a part of the problem,” Gore said Friday during an interview with FearLess Revolution founder Alex Bogusky.

Discussion: Weasel Zippers and The Lonely Conservative

Greg Wilson / NBC Washington:

Indiana College Bans “Too Violent” National Anthem — First it banned the words, now the whole song — The National Anthem is a tradition at sporting events, but it is banned at Goshen College. — Tiny Goshen College in Indiana has banned the “The Star Spangled Banner …

Discussion: Hot Air and The Other McCain

Steve Brown / Fox News:

Seeds of Discontent for Bachmann in Iowa; Told to Cut the ‘Barack Obama Rock Star Crap’ — Not two weeks removed from cheers surrounding her momentous victory at the Iowa GOP's Straw Poll, there is a growing chorus of criticism about the way Rep. Michele Bachmann has been conducting her campaign in the Hawkeye State.

Discussion: Wonkette, Iowa Independent, TBogg and ThinkProgress

New York Times:

U.S. Offers Key Support to Canadian Pipeline — WASHINGTON — The Obama administration gave a crucial green light on Friday to a proposed 1,711-mile pipeline that would carry heavy oil from Canada across the Great Plains to terminals in Oklahoma and the Gulf Coast, saying the project …

Discussion: Firedoglake, The Nation, Grist, ThinkProgress, Switchboard and Booman Tribune

Brian Beutler / TPMDC:
Why Far-Off Canadian Tar Sands Have Become A Make-Or-Break Issue For Obama With Enviros

Discussion: Bloomberg and Via Meadia

Rachel Manteuffel / Washington Post:

Martin Luther King a drum major? If you say so. — The memorial to Martin Luther King Jr. has been a little controversial — but not for the right reason. Someone, somewhere along the line, made a decision that makes King look like something he was not: an arrogant jerk.

Discussion: Weasel Zippers, The Raw Story and Via Meadia