memeorandum: Syria crisis: No to war, blow to Cameron (Robert Winnett/Telegraph)

4:50 AM ET, August 30, 2013

Top Items:

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.

Discussion: Guardian, Los Angeles Times, Lawfare, Politico, The Daily Caller, The Volokh Conspiracy, Hullabaloo, The Gateway Pundit, Business Insider, The Hill, NPR, Weasel Zippers, Associated Press, National Review, Telegraph, Scared Monkeys and Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion

BBC:

MPs' vote halts UK action over Syria — MPs have rejected possible UK military action against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government to deter the use of chemical weapons. — David Cameron said he would respect the defeat of a government motion by 285-272, ruling out joining US-led strikes.

Discussion: Guardian, The Volokh Conspiracy, Hot Air, The Daily Caller, Samizdata and Daily Kos

Jim VandeHei / Politico:

The ironic war plan — Imagine Dick Cheney in a “Saturday Night Live” skit fantasizing about Barack Obama handling the pressures of going to war. — Cheney's sitting there, yucking it up with Rummy and the boys, eating yellow cake. He laughs off his own reckless rush to an unwinnable war fought on flawed grounds.

Discussion: Reuters, Hullabaloo, CNN, Washington Monthly and AEIdeas

Associated Press:

UK Prime Minister Cameron loses Syria war vote — LONDON (AP) — British Prime Minister David Cameron lost a vote endorsing military action against Syria by 13 votes Thursday, a stunning defeat for a government which had been poised to join the U.S. in strikes to punish Bashar Assad's regime …

Discussion: McClatchy Washington Bureau, The DiploMad 2.0, The Daily Caller, Scared Monkeys, Ed Driscoll, JustOneMinute and Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion

Karen DeYoung / Washington Post:

British parliament rejects military strike against Syria — British lawmakers on Thursday delivered a stunning rejection of Prime Minister David Cameron's bid to punish the government of Bashar al-Assad for allegedly using chemical weapons, citing skepticism over the misinformation used …

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Outside the Beltway, Wonkblog and Lawfare, more at Mediagazer »

CNN:

British leader loses vote on Syria response — (CNN) — [Breaking news alert, 5:52 p.m. ET] — British Prime Minister David Cameron was dealt a blow Thursday in his push for a strong response, including possible military action, against Syria after the House of Commons voted down the measure.

Discussion: CBS News, The Economic Collapse, AL.com, KDVR.com, Here & Now, NPR, Balloon Juice, ABC News and Guardian

Mike Lillis / The Hill:
Liberals join conservatives in demanding Obama get Congress OK for Syria action

Discussion: Politico

Dylan Byers / Politico:
After Iraq, media skepticism on Syria

Discussion: Reuters and BuzzFeed

Robert Winnett / Telegraph:
Syria crisis: No to war, blow to Cameron

Discussion: Guardian and Power Line

Cassell Bryan-Low / Wall Street Journal:
U.K. Parliament Rejects Syria Action

Discussion: Israel Matzav, Washington Post, Outside the Beltway, Reuters, The Daily Caller, Paper Chase and New York Times

Reid J. Epstein / Reuters:
White House: U.S. could act alone after U.K. rejects action

Discussion: Politico, Business Insider, Weasel Zippers, The Daily Caller and Guardian

Washington Post:

U.S. spy network's successes, failures and objectives detailed in ‘black budget’ summary — U.S. spy agencies have built an intelligence-gathering colossus since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, but remain unable to provide critical information to the president on a range of national security threats …

Washington Post:

Inside the 2013 U.S. intelligence ‘black budget’ — The pages in this document appear in the summary of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence's multivolume FY 2013 Congressional Budget Justification — the U.S. intelligence community's top-secret “black budget.”

Discussion: FP Passport and Business Insider

Washington Post:
To hunt Osama bin Laden, satellites watched over Abbottabad, Pakistan, and Navy SEALs

Discussion: New York Times, The Switch, Lawfare and The Daily Caller

Julian Pecquet / The Hill:
Leaked documents reveal US sees Israel as a spying threat (Video)

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit

Washington Post:
U.S. spy network's successes, failures and objectives detailed in ‘black budget’ summary

Discussion: msnbc.com and NPR

The United States Department of Justice:

Justice Department Announces Update to Marijuana Enforcement Policy — Today, the U.S. Department of Justice announced an update to its federal marijuana enforcement policy in light of recent state ballot initiatives that legalize, under state law, the possession of small amounts of marijuana …

Discussion: Hit & Run, ThinkProgress, The Volokh Conspiracy, msnbc.com, The Verge, The Reality-Based Community, BBC, Firedoglake and TalkLeft

Evan Perez / CNN:
No federal challenge to pot legalization in 2 states

Discussion: New York Times, The Volokh Conspiracy, The Huffington Post and AL.com

Blake Neff / The Hill:
Justice Department eases rules on marijuana enforcement

Discussion: Politico and The Democratic Daily

The White House:

FACT SHEET: New Executive Actions to Reduce Gun Violence — Today, the Obama administration announced two new common-sense executive actions to keep the most dangerous firearms out of the wrong hands and ban almost all re-imports of military surplus firearms to private entities.

Discussion: BizPac Review, The Week, The Daily Caller, PoliticusUSA, AL.com and NPR

Josh Lederman / Associated Press:
OBAMA OFFERS NEW GUN CONTROL STEPS

Discussion: Associated Press, Weekly Standard, Daily Kos, The Truth About Guns, msnbc.com, BuzzFeed, Global Grind, BizzyBlog, UrbanGrounds and The Raw Story

U.S. Department of the Treasury:

All Legal Same-Sex Marriages Will Be Recognized for Federal Tax Purposes — Ruling Provides Certainty, Benefits and Protections Under Federal Tax Law for Same-Sex Married Couples — WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of the Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) …

Tommy Christopher / Mediaite:

Senator Tim Scott Turned Down Invitation to 50th Anniversary of MLK Event — One of the controversies surrounding the 50th anniversary celebration of the March on Washington and Dr. Martin Luther King's “I Have A Dream” speech has been the absence of Republicans at the event, despite many of them having been invited.

Discussion: Joe. My. God., theGrio and PoliticusUSA

Emma Dumain / The World's Greatest Deliberative Body:
Tim Scott Declined Invite to Attend MLK March as Spectator

Discussion: The Hinterland Gazette, Talking Points Memo, The Week, theGrio, The Spectacle Blog, The Reality-Based Community, Washington Examiner, Washington Wire and Washington Post

Rush Limbaugh:

Minimum Wage: How Much is Too Much? — RUSH: Let's go to San Diego. We'll start with Sean. Great to have you on the EIB Network. Hello, sir. — CALLER: (Unintelligible) tell (unintelligible) — RUSH: Shh. Shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh. Hang on, folks.

Discussion: PoliticusUSA

Allison Benedikt / Slate:

If You Send Your Kid to Private School, You Are a Bad Person — A manifesto. — You are a bad person if you send your children to private school. Not bad like murderer bad—but bad like ruining-one-of-our-nation's-most- essential-institutions-in-order-to-get- what's-best-for-your-kid bad.

Discussion: minx.cc, his vorpal sword, AEIdeas, Weasel Zippers, The Week, The Daily Caller, The PJ Tatler, National Review, Hot Air, FITSNews, The Other McCain, Business Insider, NewsBusters, protein wisdom, TheBlaze.com, JustOneMinute, BizzyBlog and Overlawyered

Eliana Johnson / National Review:

Cory Booker's Imaginary Friend — Go back and listen to Cory Booker's stump speeches over the years, and, as in those of any politician, you'll hear many of the same stories. But Booker's are more dramatic and heart-rending than most. They draw heavily on his experiences in Newark, N.J. …

Discussion: Twitchy, The PJ Tatler, TheBlaze.com, Weasel Zippers, Gawker, Real Clear Politics, Ed Driscoll, Hot Air, Jammie Wearing Fools, Taegan Goddard's …, The Daily Caller and Post Politics

GOV.UK:

Chemical weapon use by Syrian regime: UK government legal position — This note sets out the UK government's position regarding the legality of military action in Syria following the chemical weapons attack in Eastern Damascus on 21 August 2013. — The use of chemical weapons by the Syrian regime …

Discussion: BBC, Guardian, ThinkProgress, Business Insider, Amnesty's global human …, News Desk and Telegraph

Josh Rogin / The Daily Beast:
Exclusive: Obama Refused to Send Gas Masks to Syrian Opposition for Over a Year

Discussion: NewsBusters, Yahoo! News and Post Politics

Atossa Araxia Abrahamian / Reuters:

U.S. fast-food workers protest, demand a ‘living wage’ — (Reuters) - Fast-food workers went on strike and protested outside McDonald's, Burger King and other restaurants in 60 U.S. cities on Thursday, in the largest protest of an almost year-long campaign to raise service sector wages.

Discussion: Agence France Presse, Gawker, The Atlantic Online, NPR and Balloon Juice

Alana Semuels / Los Angeles Times:
National fast-food wage protests kick off in New York

Discussion: Power Line, The PJ Tatler and TheBlaze.com

Sarah Jones / PoliticusUSA:

Shellie Zimmerman Reveals She Had Left George The Night Before the Shooting — In an interview with ABC, Shellie Zimmerman said that she had left her husband George the night before the shooting. If you don't know anything about domestic violence statistics, this might not have set off any alarms.

Discussion: ABC News, Crooks and Liars and Alan Colmes' Liberaland

Seni Tienabeso / ABC News:
George Zimmerman's Wife ‘Very Much Alone’ When He Didn't Go to Court With Her

Discussion: Scared Monkeys and TalkLeft

Stephen Lurie / The Atlantic Online:

How the Senate Exploits Unpaid Interns — Barely a third of U.S. senators pay their interns — and embarrassingly for Democrats, a party focused on workplace welfare, most of them are Republicans. — If you walk into any of the 100 Senate offices spread across Capitol Hill, there is one consistent element.