memeorandum: Al Gore to Rick Perry: Climate scientists aren't motivated by money (Ben Geman/The Hill)

12:15 PM ET, August 27, 2011

Top Items:

Locked Up and Left Behind: Hurricane Irene and the Prisoners on New York's Rikers Island — “We are not evacuating Rikers Island,” Mayor Michael Bloomberg said in a news conference this afternoon. Bloomberg annouced a host of extreme measures being taken by New York City in preparation …

Discussion: Mock, Paper, Scissors, TalkLeft and New York Times

Bob King / The Politico:

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: NewsBusters.org blogs, Althouse, The Moderate Voice, Hot Air, Pajamas Media, Dot Earth, Informed Comment, Conservatives4Palin, The Daily Caller, Watts Up With That?, The Daily Beast and Collide-a-scape

msnbc.com:

Hurricane Irene batters N.C., killing 1 — Falling tree limb kills man in Nash County, N.C.; tropical storm conditions extend into Va., Md., Del. — Below: — updated 2011-08-27T15:43:06 — Top developments: — Hurricane Irene battered the North Carolina coast with wind and rain Saturday …

Discussion: Crooks and Liars, The Moderate Voice, CNN, PhotoBlog and ABCNEWS

New York Times:

Core of Hurricane Irene Starts Coming Ashore — NAGS HEAD, N.C. — The eye wall of Hurricane Irene, now a category one storm, is within a hours of making landfall in eastern North Carolina, the first stop in the mainland United States for a storm that is expected to scrape up the East Coast and bring flooding rains to a dozen states.

Discussion: New York Magazine, Gothamist, Politics, Ecocentric, Booman Tribune and PhotoBlog

Jennifer Bendery / The Huffington Post:

Louisiana Congressman: GOP ‘Sinful’ To Tie Disaster Aid To Spending Cuts … WASHINGTON — As East Coasters brace for what some say will be a historic pummel by Hurricane Irene, at least one lawmaker is fuming over a requirement by House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) …

Discussion: Washington Monthly and ThinkProgress

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

Jeff Masters / Dr. Jeff Masters' WunderBlog:
Irene's eyewall collapses; further intensification unlikely

Discussion: Power Line, Wizbang, New York Times, Sky Dancing, Hot Air, Dot Earth, Gothamist, The Atlantic Online, Booman Tribune, The Awl, JustOneMinute, Daily Kos and The Moderate Voice

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, The Lonely Conservative and Sister Toldjah

Ben Geman / The Hill:

Al Gore to Rick Perry: Climate scientists aren't motivated by money — Al Gore on Friday bashed the notion that climate scientists are manipulating data for financial gain, a charge levied by global warming skeptics, including GOP White House hopeful Rick Perry.

Discussion: Don Surber

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

Discussion: Washington Post, Campaign 2012, Patterico's Pontifications and New York Times

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

Michael McCarthy / USA Today:
ESPN ‘reminds’ Azinger to lay off tweets about President Obama

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

Catherine Herridge / Fox News:

State Department: Don't Invade Privacy of Cleric on CIA Kill List — While the New Mexico-born cleric, Anwar al-Awlaki, is the first American on the CIA's kill or capture list, the U.S. State Department refuses to release documents about al-Awlaki citing his right to privacy.

Discussion: Weasel Zippers, Atlas Shrugs, Right Wing News and Jihad Watch

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: Crooks and Liars, Alan Colmes' Liberaland and The Moderate Voice

Latest Stories on Guanabee.com:
Puerto Rican Senator Roberto Arango Caught Posting Nude Pics On Grindr

Discussion: Towleroad News #gay, The Raw Story, Joe. My. God., Box Turtle Bulletin, Wonkette, Mediaite and New York Magazine

BBC:

Algeria suicide bomb attack hits military academy — A suicide bomb attack on a military academy in Algeria has killed 18 people, officials say. — The attack took place in the town of Cherchell, about 100km (60 miles) west of the capital Algiers. — One or two bombers set off …

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 Moderate Voice, The Hill, No More Mister Nice Blog, Reuters and The Politico

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

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

Ben Geman / The Hill:

GOP senator: White House ‘failed miserably’ on economy — Freshman Sen. Dean Heller (R-Nev.) on Saturday bashed President Obama's economic record while calling for a balanced budget amendment and a tax code overhaul that lowers rates. — Heller's GOP weekly address arrives amid of a wave …

Discussion: CNN

Pam Spaulding / Pam's House Blend:

BREAKING: Joe Solmonese to leave HRC in December; official announcement on Tuesday — This is a Pam's House Blend exclusive. — Yes, it's the end of an era. The Blend has learned, from a trusted source in a position to know the details, that Joe Solmonese, President of the Human Rights Campaign …

Discussion: AMERICAblog Gay

Ross Douthat:

Don't Panic, Mitt Romney! — “Right now,” David Brooks writes today, in the wake of Rick Perry's surge to the front of the G.O.P. field, “the Romney camp is passively hoping [Perry] implodes. That seems unlikely ... Sooner or later, Romney is going to have to prove his own toughness by taking Perry on directly.”