memeorandum: Stephen Hawking: Furore deepens over Israel boycott (Guardian)

10:50 AM ET, May 9, 2013

Top Items:

Official Offers Account From Libya of Benghazi Attack — WASHINGTON — A State Department official presented a minute-by-minute account on Wednesday of what happened during the seige of the diplomatic compound in Benghazi last Sept. 11, offering the first public testimony from an American official …

John Podhoretz / New York Post:

Failings of Bam & Hill laid bare — After a remarkable House hearing yesterday, we can say this with almost complete certainty: The Obama administration knew perfectly well that last year's Sept. 11 attack on Americans and American facilities in Benghazi was a terrorist act …

Discussion: Politico and PJ Media

Tom Bevan / Real Clear Politics:

A Coverup Laid Bare — Thanks to House Republicans, Americans finally got to hear from the State Department officials the Obama administration never wanted to testify. They are now called “whistleblowers,” but that's only because their accounts of what really happened in Libya on Sept. 11 …

Discussion: Washington Times, Washington Free Beacon and PJ Media

Justin SInk / The Hill:

Rubio: Clinton's handling of Benghazi was ‘sad’ — Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) said Thursday that he was saddened by former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's handling of the terrorist attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya. — Rubio said he believed Clinton and others …

Discussion: Politico

Michael Hirsh / NationalJournal.com:
Benghazi: Incompetence, But No Cover-up

Discussion: Daily Mail, Speaker.gov, Outside the Beltway, protein wisdom, The Moderate Voice, National Review, American Power and Most Recent

Washington Post:
Diplomat: Request for Special Ops team in Benghazi denied

Discussion: The Maddow Blog, The Reality-Based Community, americanthinker.com, Mother Jones, BBC, Betsy's Page, Yahoo! News, The Lonely Conservative, Rush Limbaugh, New York Times, Washington Wire, The Week and National Review

Ben Armbruster / ThinkProgress:
Benghazi Review Board Chair Says Notion Of Cover Up Is ‘Pulitzer Prize Fiction’

Discussion: Alan Colmes' Liberaland and democracyarsenal.org

Rosie Gray / BuzzFeed:
Benghazi Investigation Creeps Closer To Hillary Clinton

Discussion: National Review, Wall Street Journal and ThinkProgress

Talking Points Memo:
Top Republican ‘Fairly Satisfied’ With White House's Account Of Benghazi

Discussion: Washington Monthly and PoliticusUSA

Allahpundit / Hot Air:
Hicks: Higher-ups at State told me not to talk to GOP congressman about Benghazi; Update: “Effectively demoted”

Discussion: The Daily Caller, Politico, American Power, CNN, Ed Driscoll and JustOneMinute

Joel Gehrke / Washington Examiner:
Benghazi whistleblower: 'I've been demoted' for challenging Susan Rice's claims

Discussion: Weasel Zippers and Jihad Watch

David Scharfenberg / WBUR:

Markey Edges Gomez In WBUR Senate Poll — BOSTON — A new WBUR poll (PDFs - topline, crosstabs) shows U.S. Rep. Edward Markey leading former Navy SEAL Gabriel Gomez 41 to 35 percent in the Massachusetts U.S. Senate race. — Markey's six-point edge expands to an eight-point margin …

Discussion: Politico, Taegan Goddard's …, Ballot Box and The Reaction

Joshua Miller / Boston Globe:
National Democrats hit Gomez for role with group critical of Obama

Discussion: CNN, Ballot Box and The Reaction

Meghashyam Mali / The Hill:

Census Bureau: Black turnout passed white voters in 2012 — A Census Bureau analysis released Wednesday shows that in the 2012 election black voters surpassed the turnout of white voters for the first time. — According to the report, 66.2 percent of eligible black voters cast their ballots …

Discussion: CNN

Pew Research Center:
Six Take-Aways from the Census Bureau's Voting Report

Discussion: American Prospect

Jonathan Easley / The Hill:

Republican leader rips the media for ‘shoving us in the corner’ — House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) ripped the media in a speech Tuesday to the Ripon Society, arguing press coverage is partly responsible for the GOP's messaging woes. — Cantor, who has tried to recast the image …

Discussion: Washington Monthly and Shakesville

Jonathan Martin / Politico:

Lindsey Graham faces down primary challenge — COLUMBIA, S.C. — If any Senate Republican up for re-election next year would seem ripe for a primary defeat it's Lindsey Graham. — Running in a conservative, Southern state that has proven friendly to insurgents in recent years …

Discussion: ABCNEWS, Red Racing Horses and WJLA-TV

TIME:

Top White House Aide Has A Secret Beer With Rep. Paul Ryan — On April 10, the day President Obama released his 2014 budget, White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough held a secret meeting with House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan at a K Street restaurant, Brasserie Beck, to talk …

Discussion: Politico, Yahoo! News and Post Politics

Lori Montgomery / Washington Post:

Are Republicans really gunning for another debt-limit showdown? — The federal debt limit is set to kick back into effect next weekend after a three-month hiatus, marking the start of a political game of chicken likely to culminate in the fall, when Congress will have to give President Obama a higher limit or risk a federal default.

Discussion: Smartypants, Booman Tribune, Talking Points Memo and The Plum Line

Wesley Lowery / Boston Globe:

Body of Tamerlan Tsarnaev is buried outside Massachusetts, official says — WORCESTER - The body of Tamerlan Tsarnaev has been buried somewhere outside of Massachusetts, according to a funeral home official briefed on the situation. — The official said that the remains …

Brian Beutler / Talking Points Memo:

Meet Democrats' Newest Republican Crush: Ted Cruz?!?! — Starting around the time he launched a bogus attack on then-Defense Secretary nominee Chuck Hagel, Democrats have loved to hate Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX). — They made sure as many as people as possible saw him condescend to Sen. Dianne Feinstein …

Agoldberg / The Smoking Gun:

Cleveland Hero Was A Repeat Domestic Abuser — Charles Ramsey battered his wife, did prison time for three attacks — The Cleveland man credited with helping free female captives from a house of horrors is a convicted felon whose rap sheet includes three separate domestic violence convictions …

Discussion: The Hinterland Gazette, Politic365, Taylor Marsh, AMERICAblog, Mediaite, Gawker, The Raw Story and Slate

TechCrunch:

Microsoft Mulling Nook Media LLC Purchase For $1 Billion — Microsoft is offering to pay $1 billion to buy the digital assets of Nook Media LLC, the digital book and college book joint venture with Barnes & Noble and other investors, according to internal documents we've obtained.

Discussion: Mock, Paper, Scissors, Mashable, VentureBeat, The Verge and Engadget, more at Mediagazer »

Josh Feldman / Mediaite:

Stewart Rips Fox News Over Benghazi Coverage: ‘Denizens Of Bullsh*t Mountain Have Cried Wolf Before’ — Jon Stewart tonight took on today's big Congressional hearing on Benghazi, and specifically on how it's become the latest way Fox News has gone all-out in covering a potential Obama administration scandal …

Discussion: Applesauce, The Raw Story, The Week and Business Insider

Guardian:

Stephen Hawking: Furore deepens over Israel boycott — Political motive revealed after Cambridge University first claimed scientist's non-attendance was on medical grounds — The celebrated physicist Stephen Hawking became embroiled in a deepening furore today over his decision to boycott …

Discussion: Israel Matzav, Informed Comment and Sky Dancing

Gary Langer / ABCNEWS:

Poll Finds Majority Acceptance of Gays From the B-ball Court to the Boy Scouts — A new ABC News/Washington Post poll finds further public acceptance of gay rights in the United States, in areas ranging from the professional basketball court to the Boy Scouts, as well as the institution of marriage.

Discussion: Joe. My. God. and Towleroad News #gay

Hunter / Daily Kos:

We are governed by outright morons: … You gigantic dumbass. Sorry; there's just no other way to put it. The entire purpose of “sequestration” was to be cuts enforced without choice. The mechanism was meant to be so abominable that not even the human clusterf—ks that are our current Congress …

Discussion: The Huffington Post and Eschaton