memeorandum: In Defense of the Establishment — Conor Friedersdorf remarks … (Josh Barro/National Review)

11:55 AM ET, November 2, 2011

Top Items:

Cain Accuser Got a Year's Salary in Severance Pay — WASHINGTON — The National Restaurant Association gave $35,000 — a year's salary — in severance pay to a female staff member in the late 1990s after an encounter with Herman Cain, its chief executive at the time, made her uncomfortable working there …

Jonathan Easley / The Hill:

Attorney says Cain violated deal, allowing accuser to speak — The lawyer for one of the women who accused Herman Cain of sexual harassment said his client may get a chance to speak publicly about the allegations because the GOP presidential candidate violated the confidentiality agreement between the two.

Discussion: Firedoglake and The PJ Tatler

Maureen Dowd / New York Times:

Cain Not Able — We have the starchy guy — tall, handsome, intelligent and rich, with a baronial estate — who's hard to warm up to. And we have the spontaneous guy, who's charming and easy to warm up to — until it turns out that he has an unsavory pattern with young women and a suspect relationship with facts.

Discussion: The Moderate Voice and Prairie Weather

Sandhya Somashekhar / Washington Post:

Herman Cain's accuser wants to tell her side of story, lawyer says — Win McNamee/GETTY IMAGES - Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain speaks at the National Press Club October 31, 2011 in Washington, DC. During a question and answer portion of the program, Cain called the accusations …

The Huffington Post:

Ann Coulter On Herman Cain: ‘Our Blacks Are So Much Better Than Their Blacks’ (VIDEO) … Fox News , Herman Cain , Video , Ann Coulter , Ann Coulter Herman Cain , Ann Coulter Herman Cain Harassment , Ann Coulter Our Blacks , Ann Coulter Sean Hannity , Media News

Discussion: Riehl World View, Hullabaloo and NewsBusters.org blogs

Suzanne Garment / The Politico:
Cain reaction: Not by the book

Discussion: CNN

Associated Press:
Bachmann: GOP can't have nominee with ‘surprises’

Discussion: Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Ballot Box, GOP 12, Iowa Caucuses, The Caucus and Swampland

Gschwarzcnn / CNN:
TRENDING: Cain: ‘Factions’ are out to get me

Discussion: GOP 12 and The Politico

Reid J. Epstein / The Politico:
Iowa yawns at Herman Cain allegations

Discussion: Advancing a Free Society, The Page, ABCNEWS and TBogg

Will Rahn / The Daily Caller:

NYC arrest records: Many Occupy Wall Street protesters live in luxury — Many “Occupy Wall Street” protesters arrested in New York City “occupy” more luxurious homes than their “99 percent” rhetoric might suggest, a Daily Caller investigation has found. — For each of the 984 Occupy Wall …

Discussion: The Jawa Report, New York Post, nation.foxnews.com, Weasel Zippers, No More Mister Nice Blog, americanthinker.com, Betsy's Page, UrbanGrounds, JammieWearingFool, OWS Exposed, Don Surber, Verum Serum and The Lonely Conservative

Reuters: Occupy Wall Street finds money brings problems too

David Jolly / New York Times:

Charlie Hebdo, French Magazine, Firebombed — PARIS — The office of a French satirical magazine here was badly damaged by a firebomb early on Wednesday, the publisher said, after it published a spoof issue “guest edited” by the Prophet Muhammad to salute the victory of an Islamist party in Tunisian elections.

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit, Jihad Watch, The Atlantic Online and www.thetakeaway.org

BBC:
Attack on French satirical paper Charlie Hebdo

Discussion: Harry's Place, The Jawa Report, Biased BBC and americanthinker.com

Henry Samuel / Telegraph:
French satirical newspaper firebombed after prophet Mohammed announcement

Discussion: blogs.telegraph.co.uk, Jihad Watch, Ironic Surrealism and Weasel Zippers

Angelique Chrisafis / Guardian:
French magazine offices petrol-bombed after it prints Muhammad cartoon

Discussion: American Spectator, Israel Matzav and Islam versus Europe

Ace / Ace of Spades HQ:

“Peace Through Strength, And Clarity:” Cain Says He Believes China May Have Nukes One Day In the Future — Update: Wait, Did He Just Misspeak? Did He Mean Nuclear Powered Aircraft Carriers? — I'm sure this is charming, or something. … That's actually cut a bit. The full quote from the PBS transcript:

Discussion: Nature, The Mahablog, Mediaite and Riehl World View

Joel Herrick / Shanghaiist:
GOP Presidential candidate Herman Cain unaware China has nukes

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Washington Monthly, The Huffington Post, The Caucus, Mediaite, RedState, Business Insider, Outside the Beltway, Wonkette and Lawyers, Guns & Money

Boston Herald:

Rick Perry's giddy speech raises eyebrows, questions — FORT WORTH, Texas — A spirited and giggling Texas Gov. Rick Perry showed up to deliver a speech in Manchester, N.H., on Friday and the resulting video became a YouTube hit Monday. — His campaign insists Perry was simply “being passionate …

Discussion: Simply Left BehindThe …

Cameron Joseph / Ballot Box:
Perry wasn't drunk at speech, says host

Discussion: ABC News, Taegan Goddard's …, Boston Globe, Gawker, Wonkette and Towleroad News #gay

Steven Shepard / NationalJournal.com:

Obama Gets a Bump in New Quinnipiac Poll — A new Quinnipiac University poll released early Wednesday shows a significant bump over the past month for President Obama and his party, while businessman Herman Cain leads former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney in the Republican primary …

Discussion: Washington Wire, GOP 12, Hot Air, Business Insider and The Political Carnival

Ruth Marcus / Washington Post:
Campaign 2012: Welcome to the slugfest

Discussion: Booman Tribune, Bark Bark Woof Woof and Influence Alley

A.Killough / CNN:
Poll: Cain pulls ahead of Romney

Discussion: nation.foxnews.com, The Politico and The Hill

New York Times:

Mr. Corzine's Big Bet — Why did Jon S. Corzine make the risky bets that have now plunged MF Global Holdings into bankruptcy court? We don't know, but the likely explanations are disturbing. — Over the past year, most investors have been fleeing the sovereign debt of Spain, Italy and other euro-zone basket cases.

Discussion: The Huffington Post, The Confluence, Dealbreaker, Pundit Press and DealBook

Ben White / The Politico:

Industry mind meld: What happened to Corzine? - Top story: Europe races to save rescue plan - Cain fiasco keeps boiling - Bowles floats $2.6 trillion debt deal — By Ben White (bwhite@politico.com; Twitter: @morningmoneyben) — INDUSTRY MIND MELD: WHAT HAPPENED TO CORZINE?

Discussion: ThinkProgress, DealBook, Law Blog and Wall Street Journal

Robert Booth / Guardian:

Julian Assange loses extradition appeal — High court judges rule the WikiLeaks founder should face accusations of rape in Sweden — The WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, has lost his high court appeal against extradition to Sweden to face rape allegations.

Discussion: CNN, New York Times, The Crawdad Hole, World Now, Gawker, americanthinker.com and Balloon Juice, more at Mediagazer »

BBC:
Wikileaks' Julian Assange loses extradition appeal

Discussion: msnbc.com and US Politics

Phil Mattingly / Bloomberg:

Lawmakers to Propose Transaction Tax for Financial Firms Modeled on Europe — Two U.S. lawmakers will introduce measures to impose a transaction tax on financial firms that resembles a proposal released by the European Union. — Senator Tom Harkin, an Iowa Democrat, and Representative Peter DeFazio …

Discussion: MarketBeat, The Enterprise Blog, Shakesville and The Gateway Pundit

Charles P. Pierce / Esquire:

The Case Against David Brooks, Man of the Privileged Few — I don't think it's too strident to demand at this point that David Brooks be hauled up before a jury consisting of everyone else in America and forced to defend himself against several million counts of being an insufferable twat in a public place.

Discussion: blogs.telegraph.co.uk, Grasping Reality …, alicublog, The Huffington Post and Balloon Juice

New York Times:

Greek Cabinet Backs Call for Referendum on Debt Crisis — ATHENS — With the government teetering on the verge of collapse, the Greek cabinet offered its full support early Wednesday to Prime Minister George A. Papandreou for his surprise plan to call a referendum on the Greek financial crisis.

Discussion: Marginal Revolution, www.thetakeaway.org and americanthinker.com

Daniel Hannan / Telegraph:
Financial crisis: Eurocrats are terrified of democracy

Discussion: Mish's Global Economic …, National Review, The Other McCain and blogs.telegraph.co.uk

FBI:

North Georgia Men Arrested, Charged in Plots to Purchase Explosives, Silencer and to Manufacture a Biological Toxin … ATLANTA—Frederick Thomas, 73, of Cleveland, Ga.; Dan Roberts, 67, of Toccoa, Ga.; Ray H. Adams, 65, of Toccoa; and Samuel J. Crump, 68, of Toccoa, were arrested today relating …

Discussion: The Atlantic Online, Associated Press, Political Mojo, New York Times, emptywheel and Nation Now

CNN:
Militia members plotted to kill federal officials, prosecutors say

Discussion: New York Magazine, The Political Carnival and CANNONFIRE

Jim Dwyer / New York Times:

Dismal Tale of Arrest for Tiniest of Crimes — The arresting officer came by the cell, Samantha Zucker said, to make snide remarks about finding her with a friend in Riverside Park after its 1 a.m. closing. — For instance: — “He was telling me that I needed to get a new boyfriend …

Discussion: The Atlantic Online and Prairie Weather

Chris Johnson / Washington Blade:

LGBT groups withhold support from education bill — Several LGBT organizations say they “do not support” the Senate version of education reform legislation as it currently stands due to the lack of protections for LGBT students and what they say is a rollback of federal accountability for schools.

Discussion: Gay Politics and Towleroad News #gay

Dana Milbank / Washington Post:

House Republicans, keeping the faith — Where are the jobs? — God knows. — After preaching for weeks about the urgency of Washington taking action to create jobs, lawmakers decided to put their mammon where their mouths are. And so on Tuesday evening they descended from the mountaintop …

Discussion: Washington Monthly, New York Times, Daily Kos and msnbc.com