memeorandum: Exclusive: UK's secret Middle East internet surveillance base revealed in Edward Snowden leaks (The Independent)

9:30 AM ET, August 23, 2013

Top Items:

Alan Silverleib / CNN:

Obama tells CNN key decisions nearing on Syria, Egypt — (CNN) — The time is nearing for a potentially definitive U.S. response to alleged Syrian government atrocities and an increasingly violent military crackdown in Egypt, President Barack Obama said in an exclusive interview broadcast Friday on CNN's “New Day.”

Discussion: Hoover Institution, Washington Wire, NBCNews, Connecting.the.Dots, Voice of America, NPR, Hot Air and The Week

CNN:

Transcript of President Obama's interview on “New Day” — (CNN) — OBAMA: All right. We're ready? OK. — CUOMO: All right. Let's begin with why you're here in Syracuse, why you're doing this particular bus tour what do you believe you can do to help lower the cost of college …

Discussion: Washington Wire, Yahoo! News, The Plum Line, Business Insider and NPR

Julie Pace / ABC News:

Obama: Syria Attack a ‘Big Event of Grave Concern’ — President Barack Obama is calling a possible chemical weapons attack in Syria “big event of grave concern.” — Obama says the U.S. is still seeking confirmation that toxic gases were used in Syria. But he says such actions are …

Discussion: CNN and Associated Press

Paul Mirengoff / Power Line:

Obama's higher ed plan — a power grab, not a shake-up — President Obama has announced a plan that he claims will make “college more affordable, tackle rising costs, and improve value for students and their families.” The key elements of his plan are (1) a federal college-rating system …

Discussion: The Heritage Foundation, National Review and Hot Air

Richard Vedder / Bloomberg:
College Costs Will Keep Rising Under Obama Plan

Discussion: NPR

Associated Press:
What Does Obama Want to Do With College Costs?

Discussion: CNN

The White House:
FACT SHEET on the President's Plan to Make College More Affordable: A Better Bargain for the Middle Class

Discussion: New York Times, The Dish, Inside Higher Ed, Connecting.the.Dots, NPR, ThinkProgress, White House.gov Blog, Daily Kos, Washington Post and Marginal Revolution

Kevin Liptak / CNN:

Preparing to be ‘empty nesters,’ the Obamas turn to Sunny — (CNN) - Even the leader of the free world can't make time stop. And just like every other parent, President Barack Obama is being forced to watch his children grow up. His two daughters, Sasha and Malia, are still years away …

Discussion: Politico

Kyle Balluck / The Hill:
Obama phones Georgia school employee in hostage ordeal

Discussion: CNN and Politico

Andrea Peterson / The Switch:
Obama's ‘outside experts’ for NSA review are former intel and White House staffers

Discussion: Real Clear Politics, TechCrunch, Techdirt, ABC News, The Volokh Conspiracy, ThinkProgress, Hot Air, Firedoglake and Twitchy

Bernie Becker / The Hill:

Boehner ups the ante for a budget showdown in September — Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) told House Republicans on Thursday that he wants to push through a temporary spending measure that incorporates automatic cuts, upping the ante for a September budget showdown.

Discussion: CNN and Politico

Kimberley A. Strassel / Wall Street Journal:

A New Strategy to Take on ObamaCare — A coalition of conservatives believes that ‘delay’ is more likely to succeed than ‘defund.’ — The Republicans determined to defund ObamaCare are getting a little competition in the ideas department. Maybe there's hope for progress against the president's health-care law after all.

Rob Kauder / KXLY-TV:

WWII vet, beaten by teens outside Eagles Lodge, dies — Author: Ian Cull, KXLY4 Multimedia Journalist, ianc@kxly.com — WWII veteran Delbert Belton survived being wounded in action during the Battle of Okinawa only to be beaten and left for dead by two teens at the Eagles Lodge in Spokane on Wednesday evening.

Discussion: Gawker, BizPac Review, Vox Popoli, The Jawa Report, CNN, Fox News, Twitchy, Bearing Arms and Weasel Zippers

David Koenig / Associated Press:

UPS to End Health Coverage for Some Spouses — United Parcel Service Inc. is ending health-insurance benefits for U.S. nonunion employees' spouses who can get coverage elsewhere. It blames the change on the new health-care law. — UPS estimates that 15,000 of the 33,000 spouses it covers …

Karl Rove / Wall Street Journal:
Republicans Do Have Ideas for Health Care

Discussion: Forbes, The Incidental Economist, Washington Monthly and Paul Krugman

Tamara Lush / Associated Press:
Meetings, rallies over health care law in Tampa

Discussion: ThinkProgress, The Political Carnival, Hullabaloo and Alan Colmes' Liberaland

Andrew Kaczynski:

Tom Coburn: Obama “Getting Perilously Close” To The Standard For Impeachment — “If it continues, I think we're going to have another constitutional crisis in our country in terms of the presidency.” — View Video › — Oklahoma Republican Sen. Tom Coburn said Wednesday …

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Mediaite, Taegan Goddard's … and The Impolitic

Jonathan Easley / The Hill:
Sen. Coburn: Obama ‘perilously close’ to impeachment

Discussion: CNN

TMZ.com:

George Zimmerman Shops For Tactical Shotgun — SHOPS FOR TACTICAL SHOTGUN — EXCLUSIVE — George Zimmerman was on the hunt today — for a shotgun ... TMZ has learned. — Zimmerman went to Kel-Tec in Cocoa, Florida ... a gun manufacturing company. We're told he was asking questions …

Discussion: Global Grind, The Raw Story, Gawker, Mediaite and Colorlines

Maggie Haberman / Politico:

Dems watch as Christie rolls — New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has made little secret that he wants a resounding win in his reelection this year as a show of strength for his all-but-assumed 2016 presidential candidacy. — And Democrats appear perfectly willing to comply.

Discussion: CNN and msnbc.com

Josh Peterson / The Daily Caller:

Sources: Koch Industries not buying LA Times, Chicago Tribune — Koch Industries will not be buying the Tribune Company's eight newspapers, which include the Chicago Tribune and the LA Times, The Daily Caller has learned. — Sources with knowledge of the business proceedings told …

Discussion: New York Times, Politico, The Moderate Voice, Power Line, NewsBusters, Poynter, JIMROMENESKO.COM and The Huffington Post, more at Mediagazer »

Alex Seitz-Wald / Salon:

No, Chris Lane is not Trayvon Martin! — The white conservative media thinks it's found its “Trayvon Martin in reverse, only worse.” Are you kidding me? — The white conservative media believes it has its own Trayvon Martin in the case of Chris Lane, an Australian baseball player …

Discussion: theGrio, Wall Street Journal, No More Mister Nice Blog, Gawker, msnbc.com, NewsBusters, New Orleans Times-Picayune, Mediaite and Washington Monthly

Rasmussen Reports:

Rasmussen Reports Announces a Change in Management — For Immediate Release — Asbury Park, NJ, August 22, 2013 — The Rasmussen Reports, LLC Board of Directors today confirmed that founder Scott Rasmussen left the company last month. In part, the move reflects disagreements over company business strategies.

Discussion: Business Insider, Outside the Beltway and Politico

James Taranto / Wall Street Journal:

Al Gore isn't even honest about his own movie. — In case you've forgotten, “Al Gore was vice president of the United States from 1993-2001.” The Washington Post's Ezra Klein delivers that news in setting up an interview with Gore, who is known these days mostly as an alarmist advocate of global warmism.

Discussion: The Equation, Betsy's Page, National Review, Joe. My. God. and The Huffington Post

Susan Donaldson James / ABC News:

Bradley Manning, Now Chelsea, Denied Hormones in Prison … U.S. Army Pfc. Bradley Manning is escorted to a security vehicle outside a courthouse in Fort Meade, Md., after a hearing in his court martial, Aug. 20, 2013; Manning poses wearing a wig and lipstick in a handout photo provided by the U.S. Army.

Discussion: Mediaite, ABC News and Business Insider

Ryan Kearney / The New Republic:
He Is Not Bradley Manning. She Is Chelsea Manning. Deal With It.

Amber Coulter / TheNewsEnterprise.com:

Theater owner won't show ‘Lee Daniels’ The Butler' — Boutwell has policy against showing Fonda movies — Last weekend's top movie for ticket sales isn't coming to Hardin County. — Lee Daniels' The Butler" brought in an estimated $25 million on its opening weekend with its portrayal of Cecil Gaines …

Discussion: Alan Colmes' Liberaland, The Raw Story, BizPac Review and theGrio

The Independent:

Exclusive: UK's secret Middle East internet surveillance base revealed in Edward Snowden leaks — Data-gathering operation is part of a £1bn web project still being assembled by GCHQ — Britain runs a secret internet-monitoring station in the Middle East to intercept and process vast quantities …

Discussion: Guardian, Joshua Foust, BBC and Telegraph, more at Mediagazer »

Bloomberg:

Amazon Is Said to Have Tested a Wireless Network — Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) has tested a new wireless network that would allow customers to connect its devices to the Internet, according to people with knowledge of the matter. — The wireless network, which was tested in Cupertino …

Discussion: Mashable and The Verge

Alexander Bolton / The Hill:

Rand Paul gains strength in Republican debate over aid to Egypt — Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) is gaining momentum in the battle over foreign policy that has roiled the Senate Republican conference for the past year. — Paul, according to Senate aides, thinks he could have the votes to pass …

Discussion: CNN