memeorandum: NBC poll: Nearly 80 percent want congressional approval on Syria (Mark Murray/NBCNews)

4:10 PM ET, August 30, 2013

Top Items:

Julian Pecquet / The Hill:

Unclassified Syria briefing exposes rifts among key lawmakers — Thursday night's briefing by top Obama administration officials exposed divisions among key lawmakers on what to do in Syria. — Lawmakers on the unclassified conference call said the officials made it clear that President Obama …

Discussion: Reuters and Politico

Politico:

Nancy Pelosi the hawk tells President Obama to act on Syria — House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi pressed top administration officials Thursday night to take military action to punish Syrian President Bashar Assad in response to reports that he used chemical weapons in his nation's ongoing civil war.

Discussion: CNN, Hit & Run, Guardian, Weasel Zippers, Hullabaloo, ThinkProgress, The PJ Tatler, New York Times, Goppers, Weekly Standard and Reuters

Mark Murray / NBCNews:

NBC poll: Nearly 80 percent want congressional approval on Syria — Nearly 80 percent of Americans believe President Barack Obama should receive congressional approval before using force in Syria, but the nation is divided over the scope of any potential strike, a new NBC News poll shows.

Discussion: Yahoo! News, New York Times, Crooks and Liars, msnbc.com, Talking Points Memo, The Dish, The Moderate Voice, Outside the Beltway, NewsMax.com, The White House, Scared Monkeys, FITSNews, AL.com, National Review, Taegan Goddard's … and Lawfare

Washington Post:

FULL TRANSCRIPT: Secretary of State John Kerry's remarks on Syria on Aug. 30 — Secretary of State John Kerry delivered the following remarks Aug. 30 at the State Department on the alleged use of chemical weapons by the Syrian government. — KERRY: President Obama has spent many days …

Discussion: Firedoglake, ThinkProgress, BBC, Guardian, Hot Air, The Week, NBCNews, Weasel Zippers, All Foreign Affairs Content and Telegraph

Ernesto Londoño / Washington Post:

U.S. military officers have deep doubts about impact, wisdom of a U.S. strike on Syria — The Obama administration's plan to launch a military strike against Syria is being received with serious reservations by many in the U.S. military, which is coping with the scars of two lengthy wars …

Discussion: CBS News, New York Times, Post Politics, Weasel Zippers, The PJ Tatler, Sense of Events, Israel Matzav and Wall Street Journal

Kevin Liptak / CNN:

As Obama considers Syria strikes, Bush and Carter weigh in — (CNN) - Two of President Barack Obama's White House predecessors offered their views of his impending decision on Syria Friday as global support for strikes in the country faltered. — Former President George W. Bush …

Discussion: Politico, Hullabaloo and Washington Monthly

Liam Stack / The Lede:

Facebook Post Said to Be by Assad's Son Dares Americans to Attack — A Facebook post said to be written by the 11-year-old son of the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, and “liked” or commented on by several people who appear to be the children and grandchildren of other senior members …

Discussion: Hot Air, Weasel Zippers, The Daily Caller, Business Insider, Guardian, Gawker, AL.com and FP Passport

Mark Landler / New York Times:

Obama Set for Limited Strike on Syria as British Vote No — WASHINGTON — President Obama is prepared to move ahead with a limited military strike on Syria, administration officials said Thursday, despite a stinging rejection of such action on Thursday by America's stalwart ally Britain and mounting questions from Congress.

Michael D. Shear / New York Times:

Obama and Kerry Press Case for U.S. Action in Syria Attack by Syria — WASHINGTON — The Obama administration on Friday forcefully presented a case for a strike on Syria, as President Obama said he was considering a “limited” attack and Secretary of State John Kerry declared there was “clear” …

Discussion: Hit & Run, Washington Free Beacon, Politico and USA Today

Noah Rothman / Mediaite:
George W. Bush Talks Syria on Fox: ‘I Was Not a Fan of Mr. Assad’

Discussion: The Huffington Post and BizPac Review

Fox News:
Once staunch opponent of Bush Iraq policy, Obama faces similar path on Syria

Discussion: The Reaction

NBCNews:
Kerry calls attack against Syrian civilians ‘crime against humanity’

Discussion: Washington Free Beacon and Red Alert Politics

Matthew Continetti / Washington Free Beacon: Syria and the ‘Lessons’ of Iraq

David E. Sanger / New York Times:
After British Vote, Unusual Isolation for U.S. on Syria

Discussion: NPR

Max Fisher / WorldViews:
9 questions about Syria you were too embarrassed to ask

Discussion: Booman Tribune

Politico:
The lonely president — President Barack Obama had hoped for a quick …

Discussion: Guardian, The New Republic, Weekly Standard, Daily Express, Associated Press, Taegan Goddard's … and Reuters

Mark Murray / First Read:
NBC poll: Americans skeptical of U.S. intervention in Syria

Discussion: Politico, The BRAD BLOG, Weasel Zippers, Hot Air, The Huffington Post, CNN and New York Times

Katie Glueck / Politico:
Bush vets split on Syria

Discussion: Mediaite, Business Insider, NPR, Reuters, The Hill, Lawfare and The Daily Caller

Michael R. Gordon / New York Times:
Aim of U.S. Attack: Restore a ‘Red Line’ That Became Blurred

Discussion: The Daily Caller, Via Meadia and emptywheel

Mackenzie Weinger / Politico:
Rand Paul: Syria ‘objective is stalemate’

Discussion: CNN and Reuters

CNN:
Kerry places blame on Syria

Discussion: PoliticusUSA, AL.com, The Hinterland Gazette, Business Insider and KDVR.com

Devin Dwyer / ABC News:
Obama's Off-the-Cuff ‘Red Line’ Creates Syria Dilemma

Discussion: ABC News, Hot Air, Associated Press and NetRight Daily

David Barrett / Telegraph:

David Miranda was carrying password for secret files on piece of paper — A journalist's partner who was detained carrying thousands of British intelligence documents through Heathrow airport was also holding the password to an encrypted file written on a piece of paper, the government has disclosed.

Discussion: Politico, BuzzFeed, Business Insider, Joe. My. God. and The Verge, more at Mediagazer »

Robert Booth / Guardian:
UK took three weeks to act over data at New York Times, says Guardian

Discussion: The Jawa Report, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion and The Switch, more at Mediagazer »

Lori Montgomery / Washington Post:

White House, Republican senators give up on budget talks — The Obama administration and a group of Republican senators abandoned efforts Thursday to hammer out a budget deal and avoid a showdown over the national debt, saying they had failed to resolve their long-standing dispute over taxes.

Discussion: Washington Monthly, The Heritage Foundation, Hullabaloo and Hot Air

Ben Terris / NationalJournal.com:

Pelosi: I Don't Want to Be Speaker Again — “No, that's not my thing. I did that.” — D.C. is a wait-and-then-hurry-up kind of town. After more than a month away, Congress returns to a full plate. Legislators need to find a way—and quickly—to pass some kind of short-term budget and deal with the debt ceiling.

Discussion: Washington Monthly, The Hill, Yahoo! News, Weasel Zippers and Taegan Goddard's …

Kimberley A. Strassel / Wall Street Journal:
A Test of GOP Resolve on ObamaCare

Discussion: Betsy's Page

Allie Jones / The Atlantic Wire:

Alabama Republican Wants to Ban Toni Morrison's ‘The Bluest Eye’ from Schools — Bowing to Tea Party pressure, Alabama State Senator Bill Holtzclaw said this week that he thinks The Bluest Eye, Nobel Prize-winning author Toni Morrison's novel about a little black girl who wishes for blue eyes, should be banned in schools.

Discussion: ThinkProgress

Washington Post:

What ‘The Butler’ gets wrong about Ronald Reagan and race — Steven F. Hayward, Paul Kengor, Craig Shirley and Kiron K. Skinner are Ronald Reagan historians. — One cold evening in Dixon, Ill., in the early 1930s, a young man known as Dutch Reagan brought home two African American teammates from his Eureka College football team.

Discussion: The Hinterland Gazette, Power Line and Ed Driscoll

IC ON THE RECORD:

DNI Clapper Directs Annual Release of Information Related to Orders Issued to Telecom Providers Under National Security Authorities — August 29, 2013 — In June, President Obama directed the Intelligence Community (IC) to declassify and make public as much information as possible …

Discussion: The Switch, Lawfare, The Verge, Hillicon Valley, AL.com, emptywheel, GigaOM, Techdirt and epic.org, more at Mediagazer »

Washington Post:
NSA paying U.S. companies for access to communications networks

Discussion: Firedoglake, BBC, Prairie Weather, Secrecy News and emptywheel

Bryce Covert / ThinkProgress:

Poverty Has Same Effect On The Brain As Constantly Pulling All Nighters — The mental strain of living in poverty and thinking constantly about tight finances can drop a person's IQ by as much as 13 percent, or about the equivalent of losing a night of sleep, according to a new study.

Discussion: Washington Post, The Impolitic, sciencemag.org, Alan Colmes' Liberaland and Gawker

Paul Krugman / New York Times:

The Unsaved World — The rupiah is falling! Head for the hills! On second thought, keep calm and carry on. — In case you're wondering, the rupiah is the national currency of Indonesia, and, like many other emerging-market currencies, it has fallen a lot over the past few months.

Discussion: Paul Krugman