memeorandum: Primary Status: Huntsman camp confirms firing of NH campaign manager (John DiStaso/unionleader.com)

4:25 PM ET, September 1, 2011

Top Items:

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, Pajamas Media, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, The Other McCain, The Political Carnival, Prairie Weather and The Mahablog

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: Don Surber and National Review

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: ABCNEWS, The Politico, Moe Lane, Outside the Beltway, Fox News, Michelle Malkin and CBS News

New York Times:

Obama Moves Jobs Speech After Skirmish With Boehner — WASHINGTON — Any hopes that a kinder, gentler bipartisan Washington would surface once Congress returns after Labor Day were summarily dashed on Wednesday when President Obama and Speaker John A. Boehner clashed over, of all things …

James Downie / Washington Post:

Obama-Boehner speech spat should worry Democrats — When you thought Washington couldn't get any lower, now the two parties are squabbling over when the president can speak to Congress. The White House asked if President Obama could address a joint session on Sept. 7 at 8:00 p.m. …

Discussion: Mediaite, Althouse, Outside the Beltway, Mad Kane's Political Madness, Scared Monkeys and Sense of Events

Tommy Christopher / Mediaite:
Speaker John Boehner Should Resign For His Unprecedented Insult To The President

Discussion: Fox News, Verum Serum and JammieWearingFool

Andrew Malcolm / Top of the Ticket:
Minutes after his Sept. 8 address to Congress is set, Obama bashes both houses

Discussion: NY Daily News, Wizbang and Betsy's Page

E.J. Dionne Jr / Washington Post:
Obama's paradox problem

Discussion: Robert Reich, NewsBusters.org blogs and Daily Kos

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: Weasel Zippers, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Pajamas Media, The Gateway Pundit, 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

Marie Diamond / ThinkProgress:
Perry Proposed A Bi-National Health Insurance Plan With Mexico In 2001

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

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

Tim Mak / The Politico: Ariz. GOP raffling off Glock gun

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: Michelle Malkin, Al's Journal, ThinkProgress, International Business Times and Corrente

Andrew Restuccia / The Hill:
Chu signals support for proposed oil pipeline

Discussion: Firedoglake, Energy Now and The American Independent

Quinnipiac University:

Obama Approval Hits All-Time Low, Quinnipiac University National Poll Finds; Economy Is Getting Worse, More Voters Say — President Barack Obama's overall job approval rating has sunk to an all-time low, as American voters disapprove 52 - 42 percent, compared to 47 - 46 percent approval in July …

Discussion: Washington Wire, The Daily Caller, Hot Air, Hotline On Call and Daily Kos

CNN:
New CNN Poll: 65% give Obama thumbs down on economy

Discussion: The Politico, Outside the Beltway, Questions and Observations, The Strata-Sphere, ourfuture.org/blogs_chrono/*, americanthinker.com and Wake up America

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: Cafe Hayek, Weasel Zippers, No Left Turns, LewRockwell.com Blog and Pajamas Media

Arshad Mohammed / Reuters:

Exclusive: Condoleezza Rice fires back at Cheney memoir — (Reuters) - Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Wednesday she resented what she viewed as an attack on her integrity by former Vice President Dick Cheney in his just-published memoir. — Speaking in an interview with Reuters …

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

John DiStaso / unionleader.com:

Primary Status: Huntsman camp confirms firing of NH campaign manager — THURSDAY, SEPT. 1 UPDATE: FIRING CONFIRMED. The Huntsman campaign has just confirmed our report below that state campaign manager Ethan Eilon has been fired and that Sarah Crawford Stewart will take over many aspects of the job.

Discussion: The Politico, The Caucus, TPMDC and msnbc.com

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

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 and The Raw Story

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: Shakesville, The American Independent, Little Green Footballs and ThinkProgress

Brian Beutler / TPMDC:

White House: Unemployment Will Average 9 Percent In Election Year — President Obama's mid-session budget review confirms what most private and government projections have recently concluded — that the economy is considerably weaker than earlier forecasts held, and won't fully recover from the Great Recession for years.

Discussion: Outside the Beltway

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

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

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 »

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: TalkLeft and The Agonist

Zaid Jilani / ThinkProgress:

Another Republican Rebukes Cantor: Chris Christie Demands Hurricane Aid Without Offsetting Cuts — Last week, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) shockingly said that Congress should not approve emergency aid to states battered by Hurricane Irene unless it makes offsetting budget cuts elsewhere first.

Discussion: New Jersey Online, Pennsylvania Ave., Outside the Beltway and Daily Kos

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

Matthew J. Slaughter / Fort Worth Star-Telegram:

The crucial connection between potholes and U.S. jobs — Have more to add? News tip? Tell us — Today in Dallas, the President's Council on Jobs and Competitiveness will convene a Listening and Action Session with local businesses. This session will focus on how American infrastructure supports American jobs.

Discussion: ThinkProgress and MyDD

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: Digits, Guardian, TPM Idea Lab, GigaOM, Washington Post and New York Magazine, more at Techmeme »

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

Rick Maze / Army Times:

Hunter seeks to protect straight troops' rights — A California congressman strongly opposed to allowing gays to serve openly in the military is drafting legislation to protect the rights of straight service members who object to the presence of gays. — The draft bill prepared by Rep. Duncan Hunter …

Discussion: Alan Colmes' Liberaland, ThinkProgress, Washington Monthly and Equality Matters