memeorandum: Bubonic plague outbreak feared in central Asia (Alec Luhn/Guardian)

7:10 PM ET, August 27, 2013

Top Items:

Experts to Obama: Here Is What to Do in Syria — A big group of foreign policy experts, from across the ideological spectrum, is calling on President Obama to impose “meaningful consequences on the Assad regime” for their use of chemical weapons. — “At a minimum, the United States …

Discussion: News Desk, American Prospect, Wall Street Journal, Hit & Run, Politico, Booman Tribune, The Daily Caller and New York Times, more at Mediagazer »

Scott Lemieux / Lawyers, Guns & Money:

“Experts” Who Are Always Wrong About Everything Want to Bomb Syria — The Weekly Standard has an open letter explaining that blowing up lots of stuff in Syria is a great idea: … The “other people” include Max Boot, Paul Berman, Dr. Clifford D. May, Marty Peretz, and Danielle Pletka.

Discussion: Balloon Juice and Outside the Beltway

George Packer / News Desk:

Two Minds on Syria — So it looks like we're going to bomb Assad. — Good. — Really? Why good? … Yes, I saw the videos. — And you don't want to pound the s**t out of him? — I want to pound the s**t out of him. — But you think we shouldn't do anything. — I didn't say that.

Discussion: Foreign Policy, The Moderate Voice, Taylor Marsh, The Dish, Truthout Stories, Taegan Goddard's …, Mediaite, his vorpal sword, The Daily Beast and Guardian

Ralph Peters / New York Post:

Obama's third war — The folly of striking Syria — You might as well try to teach a snake to juggle as hope the Obama administration will think strategically. The “peace president” is about to embark on his third military adventure, this time in Syria, without having learned the lessons …

Discussion: neo-neocon and Power Line

Matthew Yglesias / Slate:

Military Strikes Are an Extremely Expensive Way to Help Foreigners — A few months back, I ran into one of the founders of GiveWell, the charity evaluation website, and he thanked me for having talked up GiveDirectly the charity based around helping to fight global poverty by directly transferring money to poor people.

Discussion: Washington Monthly

New York Times:
Pentagon Sees Syrian Military, Not Chemical Sites, as Target

Discussion: Reuters, WorldViews, Daily Kos, Israel Matzav, Associated Press, The Shadow League and National Review

BBC:
Strike against Syria ‘catastrophic’

Discussion: WorldViews, The Agonist, VodkaPundit and Hot Air

Julian Pecquet / The Hill:
Kucinich: Syria strike would turn US into 'al Qaeda's air force'

Discussion: National Review

Justin Sink / The Hill:
White House: We're not seeking ‘regime change’ as goal in Syria

Discussion: Politico, CNN and Outside the Beltway

New York Times:
Responding to Syrian Atrocities

Discussion: Hit & Run, Connecting.the.Dots, Washington Post, Daily Kos, CANNONFIRE, The Week, BillMoyers.com, Right Wing News, msnbc.com, JustOneMinute and National Review

Adam Kredo / Washington Free Beacon:
Iranian Official: Israel to Be ‘First Victim’ of U.S. Attack on Syria

Discussion: CNN, National Review and The Daily Caller

NBCNews:
Military strikes on Syria ‘as early as Thursday,’ US officials say

New York Times:
Blasts in the Night, a Smell, and a Flood of Syrian Victims

Discussion: NBCNews, Reuters, thenation.com/blogs/180, Minneapolis Star Tribune, Lawfare, Guardian, Business Insider, Booman Tribune, The Lede and Wall Street Journal

Chris Lawrence / CNN:
Hagel: 'We're ready to go' if ordered on Syria chemical weapons

Discussion: The Volokh Conspiracy, Global Public Square, The Week, KTLA 5, The Daily Caller and NewsBusters

BBC:
US ready to launch Syria strike, says Chuck Hagel

Discussion: CNN, Politico, Guardian, Daily Kos, Yahoo! News, The Daily Banter, The Week, NBCNews and National Review

Brian Tashman / Right Wing Watch:

Robertson: Gay People Deliberately Spread HIV/AIDS By Cutting People With Special Rings — Today on the 700 Club, Pat Robertson told co-host Terry Meeuwsen that gay men in cities like San Francisco attempt to spread HIV/AIDS to others by cutting them with a special ring when shaking hands.

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, The Atlantic Wire, Crooks and Liars, Gawker, The Hinterland Gazette, Little Green Footballs, Truth Wins Out, Towleroad News #gay, The Raw Story and Joe. My. God.

Fox News:

Ben Bradlee's daughter-in-law reveals (almost) all on Facebook — Ben Bradlee, one of the great men of American journalism, celebrated his 92nd birthday yesterday, and his daughter-in-law paid tribute by posting a photo of them and saying “it is a dream to be part of his family.”

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, Mediaite, Erik Wemple, Gawker, The Huffington Post, The Raw Story, TVNewser and Brad DeLong, more at Mediagazer »

Glenn Thrush / Politico:

Obama, race and class — Martin Luther King and Barack Obama, the two most important black leaders in American history, operated in vastly different eras and political arenas — under a strikingly similar set of ground rules. — King and Obama — born 32 years apart …

Discussion: Weasel Zippers, National Review, Mediaite, NewsBusters and The Hill

Niall Stanage / The Hill:
Conservative blacks irritated with liberal flavor of march anniversary

Discussion: Taylor Marsh, BizPac Review, BuzzFeed, Jammie Wearing Fools and Instapundit

Rene Stutzman / Orlando Sentinel:
O'Mara: George Zimmerman will ask state to cover $200K-$300K of his legal bills

Discussion: Global Grind, Scared Monkeys, PostPartisan, NBCNews, msnbc.com, National Review, AL.com, PoliticusUSA and ABC News

Mackenzie Weinger / Politico:

MSNBC's Karen Finney bails on Hugh Hewitt — MSNBC's Karen Finney on Monday hung up on conservative talker Hugh Hewitt after he repeatedly asked her during an interview on his radio show to say whether Alger Hiss was a communist. — Hewitt had Finney on his program to discuss her statement …

Discussion: Mediaite, National Review, Hot Air, Ed Driscoll and Weasel Zippers

Hugh Hewitt / The Hugh Hewitt Show:
Interviewing Lefties: Karen Finney and Steven Salaita

Discussion: The Raw Story

Washington Post:

New Jersey's Cory Booker: A perfect senator for ‘This Town’? — “That's really a phenomenon of the last two years,” Booker acknowledges, “when people started projecting me, not as this guy working in the inner city, but maybe as somebody who was going somewhere.”

Discussion: Taegan Goddard's …, Joe. My. God., Right Wing Watch and The Raw Story

Jason Horowitz / Washington Post:
New Jersey's Cory Booker: A perfect senator for ‘This Town’?

Discussion: Wonkblog, ABC News, First Read, TheBlaze.com, Towleroad News #gay, Booman Tribune, Taegan Goddard's … and msnbc.com

Dan Popkey / Idaho Statesman:

Boehner visits Boise; vows to succeed with entitlement reform this fall — The House speaker predicts ‘a whale of a fight’ but he says the timing is right. — House Speaker John Boehner said Monday that getting the GOP-controlled House to agree to raising the U.S. debt ceiling will only come …

Discussion: CNBC, PoliticusUSA, msnbc.com, Business Insider, Daily Kos, Washington Wire and Goppers

J.K. Trotter / Gawker:

Brian Lewis Speaks Out: Roger Ailes and Fox News Should Fear Him — Brian Lewis's attorney Judd Burstein just provided this statement to Gawker: … Fox News President Roger Ailes fired Lewis in late July following accusations of “financial irregularities” and “multiple, material and significant breaches of his employment contract.”

Discussion: Politico, The Huffington Post, Business Insider, msnbc.com and TVNewser, more at Mediagazer »

John Shiffman / Reuters:

Holder pressed on U.S. drug agency use of hidden data evidence — (Reuters) - Eight Democratic senators and congressmen have asked Attorney General Eric Holder to answer questions about a Reuters report that the National Security Agency supplies the Drug Enforcement Administration …

Discussion: New York Times, TalkLeft, Questions and Observations, Firedoglake and AL.com

Alex Seitz-Wald / The Plum Line:

Updated: Congressman says he understands DREAMers' plight because he's from Arkansas — California Republican Rep. Gary Miller has earned a reputation as an immigration hardliner, but when confronted by a group of young immigrants Friday at a public event in Rancho Cucamonga (which had a $12 entry fee) …

Discussion: Daily Kos and The Raw Story

Somini Sengupta / NYT Bits:

‘Revenge Porn’ Could Be Criminal Offense in California — On a recent episode of “The Newsroom,” on HBO, the character Sloan Sabbith, a financial reporter, was mortified when an ex-boyfriend posted compromising pictures of her online, which then went viral.

Discussion: The Week, Alan Colmes' Liberaland and Los Angeles Times

Alex Weprin / TVNewser:

Al Jazeera America Launch Ratings — Al Jazeera America launched last week, and we have the ratings from Nielsen Media Research for its first few days. — Not surprisingly given the low-rated channel it replaced (Current TV), and the fact that it lost a few million homes from AT&T before launch …

Discussion: Weasel Zippers, The Huffington Post, Mediaite, Washington Free Beacon and National Review, more at Mediagazer »

Russ Buettner / New York Times:

Officer Is Indicted on Charges of Lying About Photographer's Arrest — A New York City police officer who had arrested a photographer working for The New York Times has been indicted on three felony counts and five misdemeanors accusing him of fabricating the reasons for the arrest, the Bronx district attorney announced on Monday.

Discussion: Business Insider, Hit & Run, PDNPulse, ANIMAL and Poynter, more at Mediagazer »

Jonathan Martin / The Caucus:

Ickes Returns to Democratic Committee's Rules and Bylaws Panel — SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — The Democratic National Committee's summer meeting here late last week was starkly different from the gathering of its Republican counterparts earlier in the month. There were no surefire news-making speakers …

Discussion: Taegan Goddard's …

Perry Chiaramonte / Fox News:

Dem bill would trigger huge new taxes on guns, ammo — Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-N.J.), seen here with Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano during a press conference in Aug. 2011, has recently sponsored a bill that would quadruple the tax on ammunition if it is passed.

Discussion: protein wisdom and Hot Air