memeorandum: Romney to start airing first general election campaign ad Friday (CNN)

7:40 AM ET, May 18, 2012

Top Items:

Joel B. Pollak / BREITBART.COM:

THE VETTING - EXCLUSIVE - OBAMA'S LITERARY AGENT IN 1991 BOOKLET: ‘BORN IN KENYA AND RAISED IN INDONESIA AND HAWAII’ — Note from Senior Management: — Andrew Breitbart was never a “Birther,” and Breitbart News is a site that has never advocated the narrative of “Birtherism.”

Taegan Goddard's Political Wire:

Literary Agent Says 1991 Booklet was a Mistake — Breitbart News reports on a promotional booklet produced in 1991 by Barack Obama's then-literary agency which describes the author as “born in Kenya and raised in Indonesia and Hawaii.” — Miriam Goderich issued the following statement to Political Wire:

Discussion: ThinkProgress, No More Mister Nice Blog, The Gateway Pundit, Doug Ross, americanthinker.com, The Daily Caller, Campaign 2012 and Business Insider

Ben Shapiro / BREITBART.COM:
OBAMA'S LIT AGENCY USED ‘BORN IN KENYA’ BIO UNTIL 2007

Discussion: Erick's blog and The PJ Tatler

Orlando Sentinel:

Encounter between George Zimmerman and Trayvon Martin ‘avoidable,’ cops said in report — JACKSONVILLE - Newly released evidence in the case against George Zimmerman shows that Sanford Police believed the encounter between Zimmerman and Trayvon Martin was “ultimately avoidable,” if Zimmerman had …

Discussion: msnbc.com, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Taylor Marsh, Daily Kos, JustOneMinute and National Review

Associated Press:

THC found in Martin's blood — ORLANDO, Fla. — Medical examiners found evidence of marijuana in Trayvon Martin's system after he was fatally shot by a neighborhood watch volunteer, an autopsy report released Thursday shows. — The report was included in a large amount of evidence released …

CNN:

Autopsy: Drug THC found in Trayvon Martin's system — (CNN) — Trayvon Martin had drugs in his system when he was fatally shot earlier this year by George Zimmerman in Sanford, Florida, according to autopsy results released Thursday. — Martin's blood contained THC, which is the psychoactive ingredient …

USA Today:

Police report: Trayvon Martin's shooting was “avoidable” — Trayvon Martin's fatal encounter with George Zimmerman was “avoidable,” and the teen was not doing anything criminal at the time of their confrontation on Feb. 26, a report by Sanford, Fla., police says.

Discussion: CANNONFIRE and New York Magazine

Matt Gutman / ABCNEWS:
Trayvon Martin Had Drugs in System, Autopsy Found

Discussion: Weasel Zippers

Fox News:
Autopsy of Trayvon Martin reportedly shows fatal bullet fired from ‘intermediate range’

Discussion: Weasel Zippers

New York Times:

Joe Ricketts Rejects Plan to Finance Anti-Obama Ads — Joe Ricketts, an up-by-the-bootstraps billionaire whose varied holdings include a name-brand brokerage firm in Omaha, a baseball team in Chicago, herds of bison in Wyoming and a start-up news Web site in New York, wanted to be a player in the 2012 election.

Discussion: Bangor Daily News and The Caucus

Aaron Blake / Washington Post:

Rahm Emanuel ‘livid,’ not returning calls from Ricketts family — Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel is not returning calls from the Ricketts family and is “livid” over a New York Times report that Joe Ricketts commissioned a proposal for a multimillion-dollar ad campaign linking President Obama …

Discussion: The Hill, Chicago Business and Chicagoist

Greg Sargent / Washington Post:
GOP struggles to banish ghost of Jeremiah Wright

Discussion: New York Times, Washington Monthly, GOP 12, The Maddow Blog, Campaign 2012, Mother Jones and Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion

Alex Seitz-Wald / ThinkProgress:
Mitt Romney On His Reverend Wright Attack: ‘I Stand By What I Said, Whatever It Was’

Discussion: ABCNEWS, Liberal Values, Zandar Versus The Stupid, The Caucus, Ballot Box, Alan Colmes' Liberaland and The Impolitic

Greg Sargent / Washington Post:
Mitt Romney stands by invocation of Rev. Wright

Discussion: ABCNEWS, BuzzFeed, Hullabaloo and The Stranger …

Guy Benson / Townhall.com:
EXCLUSIVE: Romney ‘Repudiates’ Conservative Group's Planned Rev. Wright Attacks

Dylan Byers / Politico:
Statement: Ricketts rejects ‘Ricketts plan’

Discussion: Advocate, Gothamist, Daily Kos, Washington Post, Business Insider, New York Times, The Reaction, CBS Chicago and New York Magazine

Maggie Haberman / Politico:
Romney invoked Wright with Hannity in the primary

Discussion: The New Republic, Business Insider, ABCNEWS, New York Magazine and Talking Points Memo

Sam Baker / The Hill:

Boehner: Keeping any parts of Obama health law ‘unacceptable’ — House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) reiterated Thursday that he wants to repeal all of President Obama's healthcare law if the Supreme Court doesn't toss out the entire statute. — “We voted to fully repeal the president's healthcare law …

Discussion: New York Magazine, Politico, CNN, Ezra Klein, Associated Press, protein wisdom and Hot Air

Philip Klein / Campaign 2012:
Ryan: GOP won't offer Obamacare substitute in 2012

Discussion: Swampland, Speaker.gov, Politico, The New Republic, Balloon Juice, The Apothecary, ThinkProgress, National Review, Hit & Run, New York Magazine, Washington Post and Daily Kos

Democracy Now: “End This Depression Now”: Paul Krugman Urges Public Spending, Not Deficit Hysteria, to Save Economy

TMZ.com:

Donna Summer Dead — Disco Legend Dies After Battle with Lung Cancer — DEAD AT 63 — EXCLUSIVE — 9:27 AM PST- TMZ has learned ... Donna died from lung cancer. Several sources are telling us Donna believed she contracted it by inhaling toxic particles after the 9/11 attack in New York City.

Discussion: Los Angeles Times, Mediaite, The Huffington Post, GLAAD, Mashable!, National Review, Runnin' Scared, Towleroad News #gay, Althouse and The Moderate Voice

Rolling Stone:
Donna Summer Dead at 63

Discussion: Lippmann's Ghost and Boing Boing

Lizette Alvarez / New York Times:

Florida Tries to Clear Illegal Voters From Rolls — MIAMI — In an attempt to clear the voter rolls of noncitizens, a move that had set off criticism and a threatened lawsuit, Florida election officials decided on Thursday to use information from a federal database to check a list of 182,000 voters …

Caitlin McDevitt / Politico:

Ben Stein: Obama's not very smart — Is President Obama smart? Ben Stein wouldn't put his money on it. — During an appearance on Fox News, the economist and actor said he doesn't consider the president to be very intelligent. — “Barack Obama is a smart man, you would say that, right?” host Bill O'Reilly asked.

Discussion: The Reaction, The Raw Story and The Huffington Post

TEDChris:

TED and inequality: The real story — Today TED was subject to a story so misleading it would be funny... except it successfully launched an aggressive online campaign against us. — The National Journal alleged we had censored a talk because we considered the issue of inequality “too hot to handle.”

Discussion: Restoration Roundtable, The Mahablog, The Stranger …, Firedoglake, Business Insider, Taylor Marsh, NationalJournal.com, The Orbital, Hullabaloo, Ezra Klein and Mother Jones

DealBook:

Facebook Raises $16 Billion in I.P.O. — Facebook pulled it off. — As investors raced to get shares, the sprawling social network raised $16 billion on Thursday, in an initial public offering that valued Facebook at $104 billion. — The I.P.O. signals a rapid evolution for the company.

Discussion: PR Newswire, Truthdig, New York Magazine and American Spectator

Paul Krugman / New York Times:

Apocalypse Fairly Soon — Suddenly, it has become easy to see how the euro — that grand, flawed experiment in monetary union without political union — could come apart at the seams. We're not talking about a distant prospect, either. Things could fall apart with stunning speed, in a matter of months, not years.

Discussion: Prairie Weather