memeorandum: Obama urges OSU graduates to celebrate ‘citizenship’ and reject cynicism (Justin Sink/The Hill)

2:25 PM ET, May 5, 2013

Top Items:

Obama's Vow on Chemical Weapons Puts Him in Tough Spot — WASHINGTON — Confronted with evidence that chemical weapons have been used in Syria, President Obama now finds himself in a geopolitical box, his credibility at stake with frustratingly few good options.

Discussion: Hot Air, Weasel Zippers, Wake up America, msnbc.com, Israel Matzav, The Lonely Conservative, Twitchy, The Gateway Pundit, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, FP Passport, National Review, Via Meadia and TheTower.org

The Commentator:

Assad “to declare war” on Israel following fresh airstrikes — Reports suggest that Syria's embattled dictator, Bashar al-Assad, is shortly set to declare war on Israel after interventions against the regime — Following evidence of chemical warfare and an increasinly reticent US position …

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, The Other McCain, Israel Matzav and Hot Air

Reuters:

Israel strikes Syria again, rocking Damascus — (Reuters) - Israel carried out its second air strike in days on Syria early on Sunday, a Western intelligence source said, in an attack that shook Damascus with a series of powerful blasts and drove columns of fire into the night sky.

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, The Hill, americanthinker.com, The Long War Journal and FP Passport

Associated Press:

Israeli warplanes continue to pound Damascus — Israeli warplanes struck areas in and around the Syrian capital Sunday, setting off a series of explosions as they targeted a shipment of highly accurate, Iranian-made guided missiles believed to be bound for Lebanon's Hezbollah militant group, officials and activists said.

Discussion: Wake up America and Politico

Daniel Halper / Weekly Standard:
Obama Aide On Syria's Assad: 'If He Drops Sarin On His Own People, What's That Got Do Do With Us?'

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit and Israel Matzav

Daniel Byman / New York Times:
Mr. Obama, Don't Draw That Line

Discussion: JustOneMinute

BBC:
Damascus hit ‘by Israeli strikes’

Discussion: The Moderate Voice and New York Times

Kathleen Geier / Washington Monthly:

How wrong is Kathleen Parker about Plan B birth control? Let me count the ways! — Kathleen Parker's column in today's Washington Post, which is about over-the-counter sales of Plan B birth control, is a small masterpiece of sophistry. It's a virtual greatest hits collection …

Discussion: Balloon Juice

Kathleen Parker / Washington Post:
Prude or prudent? The debate over access to Plan B

Discussion: Wake up America, Althouse and Booman Tribune

Justin Sink / The Hill:

King: ‘Very difficult to believe’ Boston bombing suspects acted alone — Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.), the former chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, said Sunday that he did not believe the suspects in last month's Boston Marathon bombings acted alone.

Alexander Abad-Santos / The Atlantic Wire:

China Is Censoring Jokes About Its Propaganda Machine's Penis-Shaped HQ — The People's Daily is the main state-owned newspaper of China's communist party, and everyone was pretty psyched about the paper's new Beijing headquarters. The building is massive, imposing, and, uh, currently shaped like a colossal penis.

Lindsey Boerma / CBS News:

Official: We knew Benghazi was a terrorist attack “from the get-go” — (CBS News) “Everybody in the mission” in Benghazi, Libya, thought the attack on a U.S. consulate there last Sept. 11 was an act of terror “from the get-go,” according to excerpts of an interview investigators conducted …

Discussion: protein wisdom, Right Turn, Weekly Standard, Weasel Zippers, The Strata-Sphere, National Review, Wake up America and Wizbang

Justin Sink / The Hill:

Obama urges OSU graduates to celebrate ‘citizenship’ and reject cynicism — President Obama urged graduates at The Ohio State University to celebrate “citizenship” and reject cynicism in a commencement speech to tens of thousands of graduates, family members and friends at Ohio Stadium in Columbus on Sunday.

Discussion: Politico

Washington Post:

Poll: Cuccinelli has early lead over McAuliffe in Virginia governor's race — Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli II has an early lead over businessman Terry McAuliffe in their race for governor, a new Washington Post poll shows, even as most voters in the commonwealth have yet to engage in the nationally watched contest.

Discussion: Outside the Beltway and Taegan Goddard's …

Benjamin Bell / ABCNEWS:

Jim DeMint: Immigration Reform Will Cost U.S. Trillions — Former South Carolina Republican senator and current Heritage Foundation president Jim DeMint argued that implementing immigration reform as proposed by the so-called “Gang of Eight” would “cost Americans trillions of dollars,” …

Discussion: The PJ Tatler and americanthinker.com

Jonathan Martin / Politico:

Democratic South Carolina chair defends Nikki Haley barb — COLUMBIA, S.C. - South Carolina Democratic Chairman Dick Harpootlian, imploring party activists Friday night to defeat this state's Indian-American governor, predicted next year's Democratic standard-bearer would “send Nikki Haley back to wherever the hell she came from.”

Discussion: Mediaite, No More Mister Nice Blog, BizzyBlog, Althouse, Power Line, Daily Mail and BuzzFeed

Matthew DeLuca / U.S. News:

NRA's LaPierre: ‘We will never surrender our guns’ — NBC's Kasie Hunt reports from Houston, Texas on what's been said at this year's National Rifle Association convention. — In a fiery speech Saturday before cheering supporters, the National Rifle Association's Wayne LaPierre took …

Discussion: Crooks and Liars