memeorandum: Texas Lt. Gov. Calls Police After Relative's Arrest (Erich Schlegel/ABC News)

10:15 AM ET, August 22, 2013

Top Items:

Scott Stump / TODAY.com:

Bradley Manning: I want to live as a woman — Facebook - Twitter - Reddit - Pinterest - Email — Bradley Manning, the Army private sentenced to military prison for leaking classified documents, revealed he intends to live out the remainder of his life as a woman. — “I am Chelsea Manning.

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Wall Street Journal, Towleroad News #gay, his vorpal sword, Gawker, Business Insider, Hot Air, The Week, Outside the Beltway, AMERICAblog News, CBS DC, The Raw Story, Bangor Daily News, NPR, THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS and Washington Post, more at Mediagazer »

Chelsea E. Manning / TODAY.com:

‘I am Chelsea’: Read Manning's full statement — Video: “I am Chelsea Manning. I am female,” explains the Army private via a statement read on TODAY Thursday. Manning was sentenced to 35 years in prison Wednesday for leaking classified government documents.

Discussion: Guardian, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Telegraph, Weasel Zippers, msnbc.com, Mashable, New Orleans Times-Picayune and Gawker

Michael Pearson / CNN:

Bradley Manning says he wants to live as a woman, be called Chelsea — (CNN) — Bradley Manning wants to be a woman. — The U.S. Army soldier sentenced this week to 35 years in prison for leaking 750,000 pages of classified documents to the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks said Thursday …

Discussion: Guardian and KTLA 5, more at Mediagazer »

Tal Kopan / Politico:

Bradley Manning: ‘I am a female’ — Army Pfc. Bradley Manning wants to live as a woman, his lawyer announced Thursday morning. — Manning, who was sentenced on Wednesday to 35 years in prison, asks to be called Chelsea Manning in a statement Manning's lawyer read Thursday morning on the “Today” show on NBC.

Discussion: Courthouse News Service and Feministing

Tom Kludt / Talking Points Memo:

Poll: Louisiana GOPers Unsure If Katrina Response Was Obama's Fault — A significant chunk of Louisiana Republicans evidently believe that President Barack Obama is to blame for the poor response to the hurricane that ravaged their state more than three years before he took office.

Discussion: What Would Jack Do, ThinkProgress, Mediaite, No More Mister Nice Blog, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Hullabaloo, The Moderate Voice, Daily Kos, Joe. My. God., The Impolitic, Wonkette and Liberal Values

Tom Jensen / Public Policy Polling:
Jindal plummets and other notes from Louisiana

Discussion: PoliticusUSA, Real Clear Politics, The Political Carnival and Taegan Goddard's …

Lauren McGaughy / New Orleans Times-Picayune:
Polls show Louisianians disappointed with Jindal, blame Obama for post-Katrina response

Discussion: Taegan Goddard's … and Prairie Weather

Steve Benen / The Rachel Maddow Show:
Forgetting the relevant Katrina detail, eight years later

Discussion: FIRST DRAFT and Washington Monthly

Ellen Nakashima / Washington Post:

NSA gathered thousands of Americans' e-mails before court struck down program — The National Security Agency unlawfully gathered as many as tens of thousands of e-mails and other electronic communications between Americans as part of a now-discontinued collection program, according to a 2011 secret court opinion.

New York Times:
Secret Court Rebuked N.S.A. on Surveillance

Discussion: MiamiHerald.com and TalkLeft

Mark Rumold / Electronic Frontier Foundation:
EFF Victory Results in Release of Secret Court Opinion Finding NSA Surveillance Unconstitutional

Discussion: msnbc.com, Washington Post, The Switch, CBS News, Yahoo! News, Techdirt, Hit & Run, emptywheel, The Hinterland Gazette, Business Insider, Alan Colmes' Liberaland and Boing Boing, more at Mediagazer »

Alex Isenstadt / Politico:

The great Democrat hope: Government shutdown — They'd never say it publicly. But catch many Democrats in an honest moment and they would admit that a Republican-led government shut down this fall might be the best thing — perhaps the only thing — that could revive their fading hopes of capturing the House next year.

Caren Bohan / Reuters:
Republicans weigh using debt limit as leverage on Obamacare

Discussion: Alan Colmes' Liberaland, PoliticusUSA and The Plum Line

CNN:

France calls for ‘force’ if Syria chemical weapons use is proved — Syrian rebels claim pro-government forces used chemical weapons to kill citizens outside Damascus on Wednesday, August 21. People inspect bodies in this photo released by the Syrian opposition Shaam News Network.

Discussion: Foreign Policy, Via Meadia, Hot Air and The Week

New York Times:
France Urges ‘Force’ in Syria if Chemical Attacks Are Confirmed

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Associated Press, Daniel W. Drezner, Wall Street Journal and Duck of Minerva

Jeffrey Goldberg / Bloomberg:
Does Anybody Care If Assad Uses Chemical Weapons Again?

Discussion: The Dish, sana.sy, Guardian and FP Passport

Scott Gordon / nbcdfw.com:

Police: Texas Lt. Gov. Dewhurst Asked to Get Relative Out of Jail — In statement, Dewhurst says he acted as “concerned family member” — The Allen Police Department released the full audio of a call Texas Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst made to police to find out what he had to do to get a recently arrested relative out of jail.

Discussion: Taegan Goddard's … and Post Politics

Erich Schlegel / ABC News:

Texas Lt. Gov. Calls Police After Relative's Arrest — Texas Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst called a police station to seek the release of a relative jailed on a shoplifting charge, outraging his rivals who have accused him of abusing his power. — Dewhurst, a Republican who has been in office since 2003 …

Discussion: CNN

Sam Baker / The Hill:

University of Virginia cuts some health benefits, citing ObamaCare costs — The University of Virginia said Wednesday that it will stop offering health insurance to some employees' spouses because of rising costs under ObamaCare. — The university said the Affordable Care Act will add $7.3 million to its healthcare costs next year.

Steven Greenhouse / New York Times:
U.P.S. to End Health Benefits for Spouses of Some Workers

Discussion: Via Meadia

Matt Higgins / CBS DC:
Illinois Offering $9-An-Hour Jobs To Have Workers Sign People Up For ‘Obamacare’

Discussion: Scared Monkeys and Weasel Zippers

jhnewsandguide.com:

Breaking news: Cheney pays $220 for fishing license ticket — Angus M. Thuermer Jr., Jackson Hole News&Guide — U.S. Senate candidate Elizabeth Lynne Cheney posted a $220 bond in Ninth Circuit Court in Teton County on Monday on a charge of making a false statement to procure a fishing license.

Discussion: The Fix, Politico, Taegan Goddard's …, Ballot Box and Alan Colmes' Liberaland

Talking Points Memo:
Liz Cheney Pays Fine For Fishy Fishing License

Discussion: Daily Kos

Eli Stokols / KDVR.com:

Sparks fly after Sen. Marble's ‘chicken’ comment in poverty hearing — DENVER — Democratic lawmakers couldn't believe their ears as they listened to Sen. Vicki Marble, R-Fort Collins, deliver a long soliloquy explaining that more blacks and Hispanics live in poverty, in part, because of fried chicken.

Discussion: ThinkProgress, The Raw Story, Taegan Goddard's … and WTVR-TV

Seth / GLAAD:

Wentworth Miller rejects Russian film festival invitation; ‘As a gay man, I must decline’ — Actor and screenwriter Wentworth Miller today rejected an invitation to attend the St. Petersburg International Film Festival, citing Russia's anti-LGBT laws. In a letter to the Festival's Director …

Discussion: CBS News, BBC, The Moderate Voice, CNN, Gawker, BuzzFeed, Towleroad News #gay, LGBTQ Nation, PinkNews.co.uk, Deadline.com and Good As You

Michael A. Fletcher / Washington Post:

Recession's pain reaching deep into the economic recovery — The buying power of Americans continues to be weaker than it was when the recession ended four years ago, underscoring the lasting damage wrought by the downturn, according to a report released Wednesday.

Discussion: Sense of Events

Jeffrey A. Singer / Wall Street Journal:

Jeffrey Singer: The Man Who Was Treated for $17,000 Less — Bypassing his third-party payer, my patient avoided a high hospital ‘list price.’ — Every so often I have an extraordinary and surprising experience with a patient—the kind that makes us both say, “Wow, we've learned something from this.”

Rich Lowry / Politico:

Ted Cruz, traitor to his class — Henry Adams said that politics is the systematic organization of hatreds. For the left, over the past year it has seemed at times to be the systematic organization of hatred of Ted Cruz. — The freshman senator is not the first Texan to be so honored.

Discussion: National Review, Slate and CNN

Robert Costa / National Review:

Bolton 2016? — How serious is John Bolton about potentially running for president? He's about to start hiring for his political operation. — The former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and conservative star is ready to hit the road, play in the 2014 midterm elections …

Discussion: Taegan Goddard's …

Tamar Lewin / New York Times:

Obama's Plan Aims to Lower Cost of College — President Obama plans to announce a set of ambitious proposals on Thursday aimed at making colleges more accountable and affordable by rating them and ultimately linking those ratings to financial aid. — A draft of the proposal …

Discussion: The Hill, First Read, msnbc.com and Economix

Steven T. Dennis / Roll Call:

Obama Hasn't Evolved on Pot — Yet — President Barack Obama doesn't favor changing marijuana laws “at this point” but he also believes that federal law enforcement resources should not be focused on individual users, White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters Wednesday.

Discussion: JustOneMinute, Takoma Wellness Center and The Huffington Post

Emily Schultheis / Politico:

NSA scandal looms large in German election — ‘Germany is not a nation of surveillance. Germany is a nation of freedom,’ Merkel says. AP Photo — Close — BERLIN — It's election season in Germany and there's one campaign issue that won't go away: the NSA surveillance scandal.