memeorandum: Report: NSA spied on leaders of Brazil, Mexico (Bradley Brooks/Associated Press)

1:30 PM ET, September 2, 2013

Top Items:

Anthony Bond / Daily Mail:

The image John Kerry WON'T want you to see: U.S. Secretary of State pictured dining with Assad and his wife at Damascus restaurant before war broke out in Syria — This astonishing photograph shows U.S Secretary of State John Kerry having a cosy and intimate dinner with Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad.

Discussion: Alan Colmes' Liberaland, TheBlaze.com and NewsBusters

Chicago Tribune:

Obama blinks — What if Congress says no to a Syria attack? … President Barack Obama bought himself some time Saturday to drum up support, at home and internationally, for a strike against Syria. He did what he needed to do, at considerable risk to his credibility.

Discussion: JustOneMinute and americanthinker.com

Elliott Abrams / Politico:

How not to run a foreign policy — In March 2011, President Obama committed the United States to action in Libya that involved roughly 100 cruise missile firings, 12 U.S. Navy ships in the Mediterranean, and 75 U.S. Air Force and Navy aircraft including B-2 bombers.

Yahoo! News:

Climate science alarming, irrefutable: Kerry — US Secretary of State John Kerry said Monday the evidence for climate change was beyond dispute but it was not too late for international action to prevent its worst impacts. — “The science is clear. It is irrefutable and it is alarming …

Discussion: E2-Wire and Weasel Zippers

David M. Herszenhorn / New York Times:

Russia Rejects U.S. Evidence on Syrian Chemical Attack — MOSCOW — Russia's foreign minister dismissed as unconvincing the evidence presented by Secretary of State John Kerry of chemical weapons use by the Syrian government, saying on Monday that the United States had fallen far short …

Discussion: NBCNews

Jonathan Allen / Politico:
Obama and Congress: ‘Rolling the dice’

Discussion: JustOneMinute

Associated Press:
Assad is like Hitler: Kerry

Discussion: Spectator

Timothy Heritage / Reuters:
Analysis: Putin sees chance to turn tables on Obama at G20

Discussion: Washington Post and Crooks and Liars

CBS News:
Face the Nation transcripts September 1, 2013: Kerry, McCain, Kaine, and Chambliss

Discussion: BREITBART.COM, Taylor Marsh, Weasel Zippers and Jihad Watch

Warner Todd Huston / BREITBART.COM:

CITING OBAMACARE, 40,000 LONGSHOREMEN QUIT THE AFL-CIO — In what is being reported as a surprise move, the 40,000 members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) announced that they have formally ended their association with the AFL-CIO, one of the nation's largest private sector unions.

Discussion: VodkaPundit and Scared Monkeys

Kevin Bogardus / The Hill:

Labor union frustration boils over with president on ObamaCare — Unions are frustrated the Obama administration hasn't responded to their calls for changes to ObamaCare. — Labor has watched with growing annoyance as the White House has backed ObamaCare changes in response to concerns …

Discussion: Hot Air and Weekly Standard

New York Times:

Drug Agents Use Vast Phone Trove, Eclipsing N.S.A.'s — For at least six years, law enforcement officials working on a counternarcotics program have had routine access, using subpoenas, to an enormous AT&T database that contains the records of decades of Americans' phone calls …

Discussion: The Hinterland Gazette, Guardian, Liberal Values, Hit & Run, The Verge, Outside the Beltway, Mashable, Gawker, americanthinker.com, emptywheel, GigaOM, Prairie Weather and Balloon Juice

Paul Krugman / New York Times:

Love for Labor Lost — It wasn't always about the hot dogs. Originally, believe it or not, Labor Day actually had something to do with showing respect for labor. — Here's how it happened: In 1894 Pullman workers, facing wage cuts in the wake of a financial crisis, went on strike …

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Taylor Marsh and Paul Krugman

Ian Swanson / The Hill:

Rangel: 'Of course it's embarassing' — Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) on Monday said “of course it's embarrassing” that President Obama warned Syria of a red line for using chemical weapons but then didn't move forward immediately with a military strike. — Rangel, who opposes a military strike …

Discussion: Politico

Kyle Smith / New York Post:

Why are major media outlets ignoring bestselling writer Mark R. Levin? — Conservative host Mark Levin rules the radio and the bestseller charts because he speaks for people who feel left out of the debate. So, what does the media do? Ignore him. — To read the book reviews in The New York Times …

Cheryl K. Chumley / Washington Times:

CIA finds 1 in 5 flagged job applicants hail from Hamas, Hezbollah, al Qaeda — An estimated one-fifth of a subset of all applicants for Central Intelligence Agency positions had significant ties to the terror groups Hamas, Hezbollah and al Qaeda, a newly released document from the Edward Snowden collection revealed Monday.

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit, americanthinker.com and Jihad Watch

Politico:

Hill briefing: Uphill battle for Obama on Syria — President Barack Obama faces a clear uphill battle in swaying skeptical lawmakers of the merits of military action in Syria, as top officials were dispatched to Capitol Hill Sunday to make the administration's case.