memeorandum: Lightning Rod — As Dick Cheney's punch-throwing memoir hits … (Foreign Policy)

7:25 PM ET, September 1, 2011

Top Items:

George Stephanopoulos / Politics:

James Carville: White House ‘Out of Bounds’ Over Speech Flap — Democratic strategist James Carville told me that the White House was in the wrong when it requested that the President address Congress on the same night and time as a Republican presidential debate.

Discussion: Taylor Marsh, Hot Air, Swampland, ABCNEWS, The Politico, Moe Lane, Right Wing Nut House, Outside the Beltway, Fox News and CBS News

Cenk Uygur / The Huffington Post:

Is Obama Playing Rope-a-Dope? — Here was the headline on Yahoo from Wednesday night: Obama bows to Boehner on jobs speech. — I can tell you what any progressive who has been paying attention thought, “Oh boy, here we go again.” — President Obama has now changed the day of his address to Congress to accommodate the Republicans.

Discussion: National Review, Don Surber and The TrogloPundit

Tommy Christopher / Mediaite:

Speaker John Boehner Should Resign For His Unprecedented Insult To The President — The mainstream media, and even some in the liberal opinion media, have completely missed the point of President Obama's dust-up with Speaker John Boehner over the date for Obama's address before a joint session of Congress.

Discussion: Pajamas Media, JammieWearingFool, Fox News and Verum Serum

Roger Simon / The Politico:

W.H. furious over speech delay — It seemed like a trivial matter: On Wednesday, House Republicans forced the president to delay his speech to a joint session of Congress by one day. — Who cares? The White House cares. Very much. — “It is a big deal that the House said ‘no’ to the president …

Discussion: msnbc.com, ABCNEWS, FrumForum and Washington Monthly

Ezra Klein / Bloomberg:

About Ezra Klein — Ezra Klein is a columnist and blogger at The Washington Post and a policy analyst for MSNBC. His work focuses on domestic and economic policy-making, as well as the political system that's constantly screwing it up. — Expect Obama Speech to Yield Lots of Talk, No Action: Ezra Klein

Discussion: Washington Monthly and The New Republic

Matt Negrin / The Politico:
White House: Send us your petitions

Discussion: ThinkProgress and Economist's View

Andrew Taylor / Associated Press: $1.3T Deficit Projected as Economy Cools

Fawn Johnson / The Atlantic Online:

Obama Rolls Out a Jobs Plan That Doesn't Need Congress — The president has asked federal agencies to find solutions on their own. His message to lawmakers: We can do this without you. — President Obama is either fed up with Congress or he's testing his own administration's mettle. Or both.

Discussion: NationalJournal.com, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Smartypants, The Other McCain, Pajamas Media, The Democratic Daily, Washington Post, The Political Carnival, The Lonely Conservative, Prairie Weather and The Mahablog

Rasmussen Reports:

Perry 44% Obama 41%; President Leads Other GOP Hopefuls — For the first time this year, Texas Governor Rick Perry leads President Obama in a national Election 2012 survey. Other Republican candidates trail the president by single digits. — A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone …

Discussion: National Review, Hot Air, Weasel Zippers, Hotline On Call, Pajamas Media, The Gateway Pundit, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, GOP 12, Indecision Forever and Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion

Joshua Green / Associated Press:

Perry can't exploit key weakness for Romney — AS RECENTLY as six months ago, Mitt Romney's bid for the Republican presidential nomination was widely thought to be doomed because, as governor of Massachusetts, he had signed a health care law strikingly similar to the one President Obama signed last year.

Discussion: No More Mister Nice Blog and GOP 12

Quinnipiac University:
Obama Approval Hits All-Time Low, Quinnipiac University National Poll Finds; Economy Is Getting Worse, More Voters Say

Discussion: CNN, Hot Air, Outside the Beltway, The Daily Caller, Washington Wire, Hotline On Call, Campaign 2012, Daily Kos and Wake up America

The Huffington Post:

Pima County Repubs Raffle Glock As Fundraiser; Same Gun Type Used in Tucson Shooting … Talk about a killer gimmick. — An Arizona Republican fundraiser is offering as a prize the same type of gun used in the attempted assassination of Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords.

Discussion: CNN, The Politico, TPMDC, ThinkProgress, Balloon Juice, Outside the Beltway, The Raw Story, Wonkette, The Truth About Guns, Hotline On Call, New York Magazine, ImmigrationProf Blog, The Political Carnival and Religion Dispatches

Evan McMorris-Santoro / TPMDC:

Tucson Republican Leader Slams County GOP For Giffords Gun Raffle — Eyebrows shot up all over the country Thursday following news that that the Republican Party in Pima County, AZ — home to Tucson and Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' (D) district — is raffling off a Glock similar to the one used to shoot Giffords in the head in January.

Discussion: Alan Colmes' Liberaland and Politics

Marie Diamond / ThinkProgress:

Florida Republicans Fight To Keep ‘Cohabitation’ Of Unmarried Couples Illegal — Thousands of unmarried couples who are living together in Florida may be surprised to learn that they are actually breaking the law. Under outdated and rarely enforced state laws that have been on the books since …

Discussion: Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Sun-Sentinel and Wonkette

Marie Diamond / ThinkProgress:

Perry Proposed A Bi-National Health Insurance Plan With Mexico In 2001 — Gov. Perry with then-Mexican President Vincente Fox. — The ghosts of Gov. Rick Perry's (R-TX) more moderate past have come back to haunt him in recent days, particularly when it comes to health care.

Discussion: The Atlantic Online, The Raw Story, Trail Blazers Blog and Daily Kos

Sarah Kliff / Washington Post:
Big health premium hikes can get ‘Scarlet U’ starting today

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Healthwatch and Hit & Run

George Bennett / Palm Beach Post:

FEMA'S use of term ‘federal family’ for government expands under Obama — Posted: 6:17 p.m. Wednesday, Augt. 31, 2011 — Don't think of it as the federal government but as your “federal family.” — In a Category 4 torrent of official communications during the approach and aftermath …

Discussion: americanthinker.com, Don Surber, Sister Toldjah, Cafe Hayek, Weasel Zippers, No Left Turns, The Lonely Conservative, Pajamas Media and LewRockwell.com Blog

Foreign Policy:

Lightning Rod — As Dick Cheney's punch-throwing memoir hits store shelves, Foreign Policy hosts a freewheeling debate on the legacy of America's most controversial vice president.

Discussion: emptywheel and The Daily Dish

Arshad Mohammed / Reuters:
Exclusive: Condoleezza Rice fires back at Cheney memoir

Discussion: The Politico, The Hill, Washington Post, Wonkette, New York Magazine, The Moderate Voice and msnbc.com

Mike Rosenberg / Mercury News:

Dude! Free weed lying on San Jose street snatched up by bystanders — It was a pot head's dream: Free marijuana lying on the street for the taking, without a cop in sight. — San Jose police say a truck illegally carrying marijuana crashed and ended up on its side near Oakridge Mall early Wednesday …

Discussion: Associated Press, L.A. NOW and Pajamas Media

Vanity Fair:

The 2011 New Establishment List: And the Top Spot Goes to... This year's New Establishment list identifies the top 50 of an innovative new breed of buccaneering visionaries, engineering prodigies, and entrepreneurs—"The Age of Information gives way to a burgeoning Age of Technology," as Graydon Carter puts it.

Discussion: FishbowlDC and Hullabaloo, more at Mediagazer »

Shelby Steele / Wall Street Journal:

Obama and the Burden of Exceptionalism — Post-'60s liberals, with the president as their standard bearer, seek to make a virtue of decline. — If I've heard it once, I've heard it a hundred times: President Obama is destroying the country. Some say this destructiveness is intended …

Discussion: The New Republic

Carrie Johnson / NPR:

Justice Department Tougher On Abortion Protesters … The Obama Justice Department has been taking a more aggressive approach against people who block access to abortion clinics, using a 1994 law to bring cases in greater numbers than its predecessor. — The numbers are most stark when it comes …

Discussion: The American Independent, Shakesville and ThinkProgress

New York Post:

Deputy mayor quit after being busted for domestic violence — The blizzard didn't bury him — roughing up his wife did. — Former Deputy Mayor Stephen Goldsmith — who drew sharp criticism for bungling the Christmas storm that shut down the city — actually resigned in disgrace after his wife …

Discussion: City Room, The Empire, Metropolis, CBS New York, New York Magazine, Gawker, Gothamist and New York Times

Matthew Yglesias / ThinkProgress:

Is The Great Recession Forcing Graduates Of Elite Colleges Into A Desperate Life Of Rockstardom? — As we saw yesterday, the recession's bite has been broad, including on the earnings of recent college graduates. But this seems to be going a bit far:

Discussion: New York Times and epi.org

Todd J. Gillman / Salt Lake Tribune:

Perry has plenty of ideas on Supreme Court, including term limits — One solution the governor embraces is to end lifetime tenure — a cornerstone of the Constitution, whose drafters worried far less about activist or senile judges than about meddling tyrants and political pressure.

Discussion: The Western Experience, Balkinization, The New Republic, Ben Smith's Blog and Little Green Footballs

Jordy Yager / The Hill:

Lieberman: Obama's concern with offending Muslims hurts war effort — The Obama administration's fear of offending Muslims will hurt the U.S. war against terrorism, Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) said Thursday in a speech blasting the president's new counterterrorism strategy.

Discussion: Washington Monthly

David Weprin / Jewish Press:

TURNER VS. WEPRIN - IN THEIR OWN WORDS — By: … The Jewish Press: You're running in a heavily Democratic district, yet a recent poll showed you ahead by just 6 points. — Weprin: Turner ran [last] November and got 40 percent [against Anthony Weiner] and this latest poll has him at 42 percent - just a two-point increase.

Discussion: Hotline On Call

Sara Horowitz / The Atlantic Online:

The Freelance Surge Is the Industrial Revolution of Our Time — Welcome to the Gig Life. The boom in independent work is changing the way we think about jobs and careers. Does Washington get it? — REUTERS — It's been called the Gig Economy, Freelance Nation, the Rise of the Creative Class …

Discussion: Prairie Weather

CNET News:

Apple loses another unreleased iPhone (exclusive) — Cava22, the San Francisco bar where another unreleased iPhone apparently went missing. — In a bizarre repeat of a high-profile incident last year, an Apple employee once again appears to have lost an unreleased iPhone in a bar, CNET has learned.

Discussion: InvestorPlace, msnbc.com, Digits, Guardian, TPM Idea Lab, GigaOM, Washington Post and New York Magazine

Erik Wasson / The Hill:

White House downgrades 2012 jobs, economic forecasts; cites ‘turbulence’ — The Obama administration downgraded its forecast for economic growth Thursday, predicting turmoil in the economy will likely keep unemployment above 9 percent through next year's election.

Discussion: The Hill and Pajamas Media

Paul Krugman:

Iceland Exits — Iceland is no longer under an IMF program; here's the IMF report (pdf) pronouncing the adjustment program successful. Indeed. Iceland still has high unemployment and is a long way from a full recovery; but it's no longer in crisis, it has regained access to international capital markets …

Discussion: The Agonist

Matthew Schofield / McClatchy Washington Bureau:

WikiLeaks: Iraqi children in U.S. raid shot in head, U.N. says — This cell phone photo was shot by a resident of Ishaqi on March 15, 2006, of bodies Iraqi police said were of children executed by U.S. troops after a night raid there. A State Department cable obtained by WikiLeaks quotes …

Discussion: Firedoglake, ThinkProgress and The Raw Story

Mike Lillis / The Hill:

Liberal House Dems urge ‘bold action’ from Obama on jobs issue — Liberal House Democrats are pressuring President Obama to ignore his conservative critics and take “bold action” to tackle the lingering jobs crisis. — Reps. Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.) and Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) …

Discussion: Weasel Zippers

Andrew Restuccia / The Hill:

Gore urges Obama to block pipeline for ‘dirtiest source of fuel on the planet’ — Former Vice President Gore called on President Obama late Wednesday to reject a pending permit application for a controversial pipeline project, calling the oil that it would carry “the dirtiest fuel on the planet.”

Discussion: Al's Journal, Energy Now, International Business Times, Michelle Malkin and ThinkProgress

Matthew Yglesias / ThinkProgress:

Howard Dean: Right On Foreign Medical Students — Justin Elliott has a kind of exposé piece in Salon about Howard Dean's post-DNC work as a de facto lobbyist and PR man for McKenna Long & Aldridge. Elliott's interest in the topic stems, I believe, from Dean's advocacy on behalf …

Discussion: Salon and Eschaton