Top Items:
Peggy Noonan / Wall Street Journal:
Why America Is Saying ‘No’ — Syria and Obama: Wrong time, wrong place, wrong plan, wrong man. — It is hard, if you've got a head and a heart, to come down against a strong U.S. response to Syria's use of chemical weapons against its civilian population.
Discussion:
alicublog, Mock Paper Scissors and No More Mister Nice Blog
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Dan Nowicki / Arizona Republic:
Critics of Syria intervention blast McCain during Phoenix town hall — FONT: — Sen. John McCain felt the heat of opposition to U.S. military intervention in Syria on Thursday during a town-hall meeting in Phoenix that exposed the emotions and ethic and religious tensions connected to crisis in the Middle East.
Discussion:
Weasel Zippers
Tom Kludt / Talking Points Memo:
McCain Berated Over Syria At Arizona Town Halls (VIDEO) — Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) was grilled at a pair of town halls Thursday in Arizona by constituents who expressed strident opposition to military intervention in Syria. — McCain, one of the most vocal oppoents for military action in Syria …
Discussion:
Hit & Run
Matt Higgins / CBS DC:
McCain: ‘There Would Be An Impeachment’ Of Obama If He Put Boots On Ground — WASHINGTON (CBSDC/AP) — Sen. John McCain warns President Barack Obama could face impeachment if he decides to put “boots on the ground” in Syria. — The Republican Arizona senator made the comments …
Terry Tang / Associated Press:
Crowd at McCain Town Hall Opposes Syria Action
Crowd at McCain Town Hall Opposes Syria Action
Discussion:
Associated Press, Michelle Malkin, National Review, Washington Times and Nice Deb
Kevin Liptak / CNN:
McCain gets an earful from voters on Syria
McCain gets an earful from voters on Syria
Discussion:
Mediaite, Scared Monkeys, Washington Examiner, Hot Air and Jammie Wearing Fools
Politico:
President Obama could lose big on Syria in House — If the House voted today on a resolution to attack Syria, President Barack Obama would lose — and lose big. — That's the private assessment of House Republican and Democratic lawmakers and aides who are closely involved in the process.
Discussion:
First Read, CNN, Firedoglake, Business Insider, Sister Toldjah, Scared Monkeys, Outside the Beltway, Reuters, The Huffington Post, The Week, The Hill, Marginal Revolution, Taylor Marsh, BuzzFeed, Michelle Malkin, National Review, The Other McCain, The Plum Line, Sense of Events, The Hill, ABC News and Weekly Standard
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Justin Sink / The Hill:
No Syria breakthrough in Obama-Putin chat on G-20 summit sidelines — President Obama met with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the G20 summit in St. Petersburg on Friday, the White House said. — Speaking with reporters, Putin confirmed the 20-minute long meeting …
Manu Raju / Politico:
AIPAC to go all-out on Syria
AIPAC to go all-out on Syria
Discussion:
BuzzFeed, Mondoweiss, MJ Rosenberg, First Read and The Huffington Post
Yahoo! News:
Obama to make case for Syria strikes in prime-time speech Tuesday, won't say if he'll act without Congress' OK
Obama to make case for Syria strikes in prime-time speech Tuesday, won't say if he'll act without Congress' OK
Discussion:
NPR and Taegan Goddard's …
Charles C. Johnson / The Daily Caller:
Woman informing Kerry, McCain's opinions on Syria also an advocate for Syrian rebels
Woman informing Kerry, McCain's opinions on Syria also an advocate for Syrian rebels
Discussion:
AMERICAblog News, Jammie Wearing Fools, The PJ Tatler and Pressing Issues
Justin Sink / The Hill:
Obama to address nation Tuesday on need for Syria strike
Obama to address nation Tuesday on need for Syria strike
Discussion:
Taegan Goddard's …
Noah Rothman / Mediaite:
Will Democrats Forgive Obama for Blowing His Second Term?
Will Democrats Forgive Obama for Blowing His Second Term?
Discussion:
Right Turn and Daily Kos
New York Times:
Pentagon Is Ordered to Expand Potential Targets in Syria With a Focus on Forces — WASHINGTON — President Obama has directed the Pentagon to develop an expanded list of potential targets in Syria in response to intelligence suggesting that the government of President Bashar al-Assad …
Wall Street Journal:
Iran Plots Revenge, U.S. Says — Officials Say Intercepted Message to Militants Orders Reprisals in Iraq if Syria Hit — WASHINGTON—The U.S. has intercepted an order from Iran to militants in Iraq to attack the U.S. Embassy and other American interests in Baghdad in the event of a strike on Syria …
Discussion:
Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Reuters, Hot Air, Foreign Policy, Telegraph, NPR, Right Wing News, Algemeiner.com, Weasel Zippers, Capitol Report, Joe. My. God., The Raw Story and The Week
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Jodi Rudoren / New York Times:
Israel Backs Limited Strike Against Syria
Israel Backs Limited Strike Against Syria
Discussion:
rubber hose, The Dish and National Review
Steven Nelson / US News:
Rep. Alan Grayson: Syria Intelligence Manipulated — Rep. Alan Grayson, D-Fla., who is aggressively lobbying against a military strike on Syria, says the Obama administration has manipulated intelligence to push its case for U.S. involvement in the country's two-year civil war.
Discussion:
Nice Deb, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, American Prospect and The Atlantic Online
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John Hudson / Foreign Policy:
Congressional Black Caucus Instructed to Hold Tongue on Syria
Congressional Black Caucus Instructed to Hold Tongue on Syria
Discussion:
Washington Times, The Last Refuge, The Right Scoop, Naked DC, Weasel Zippers, Jammie Wearing Fools and The Hill
Mike Lillis / The Hill:
Black lawmakers won't be rubber stamp for Obama on Syria strike
Black lawmakers won't be rubber stamp for Obama on Syria strike
Discussion:
Politico, Weasel Zippers, Prairie Weather and gopthedailydose.com
Paul Krugman / New York Times:
Years of Tragic Waste — In a few days, we'll reach the fifth anniversary of the fall of Lehman Brothers — the moment when a recession, which was bad enough, turned into something much scarier. Suddenly, we were looking at the real possibility of economic catastrophe. — And the catastrophe came.
Discussion:
Power Line and Daily Kos
James Taranto / Wall Street Journal:
Did Obama even have a war plan for Capitol Hill? — The Senate Foreign Relations Committee yesterday voted 10-7 to approve President Obama's request for an authorization to use military force in Syria. The Boston Globe reports the vote gives “more momentum to the White House plan.”
Discussion:
Bloomberg, Althouse, Boston Globe, ABC News, National Review and New York Times
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William Kristol / Weekly Standard:
The Right Vote — The statesmanlike case for voting Yes on the congressional resolution to use force against the Assad regime has been made widely and well by conservative foreign policy thinkers. At the end, the case boils down to this: As a policy matter, a Yes vote may be problematic in all kinds of ways.
Discussion:
ThinkProgress, Wall Street Journal, Mediaite and The Hugh Hewitt Show
New York Times:
N.S.A. Able to Foil Basic Safeguards of Privacy on Web — The National Security Agency is winning its long-running secret war on encryption, using supercomputers, technical trickery, court orders and behind-the-scenes persuasion to undermine the major tools protecting the privacy …
Discussion:
The Public Editor's Journal, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Daily Kos, NYT Bits, The Verge, Lawfare, Guardian, ProPublica, The Switch, Poynter, VentureBeat, Balloon Juice, Blazing Cat Fur, BBC, Hit & Run, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Hot Air, TechCrunch, The Agonist, Obsidian Wings, Los Angeles Times, Prairie Weather, National Review, RT, Business Insider, Gawker, Discourse.net, The Raw Story, Hullabaloo, Schneier on Security, Little Green Footballs, The Huffington Post, The Week, Boing Boing, Yahoo! News, NPR, Hillicon Valley, Making Light and emptywheel, more at Mediagazer »
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Bruce Schneier / Guardian:
NSA surveillance: how to stay secure
NSA surveillance: how to stay secure
Discussion:
Wired, io9, Boing Boing, ProPublica, The Verge and protein wisdom, more at Mediagazer »
Trip Gabriel / New York Times:
New Inquiry for Bachmann on Her Presidential Race — Representative Michele Bachmann's presidential hopes ended 20 months ago, but her brief and chaotic campaign continues to be the focus of ethics investigations. — The latest is a federal inquiry into whether an outside “super PAC” …
Discussion:
The Hill
Ronald Brownstein / NationalJournal.com:
Bad Bet: Why Republicans Can't Win With Whites Alone — Obama lost key groups of white voters by the largest margins since the 1980s, but that doesn't mean Republicans can rely on whites to retake the White House. — This much is undisputed: In 2012, President Obama lost white voters …
Discussion:
Quad City Times
Matthew Yglesias / Slate:
Jobs Day: Tapering Is Still Insane — For reasons that are a bit unknown to me there was a surge of enthusiasm this week about the likely state of the American labor market, a surge that's been popped by today's mildly disappointing jobs report that shows a continuation of the long-term trend …
Discussion:
Washington Monthly, Hot Air, Free exchange, Colorlines and Taegan Goddard's Wonk Wire
Daniel Halper / Weekly Standard:
Obama: I'm Bypassing the ‘Hocus Pocus’ of the United Nations — President Obama said that the U.S. talk of military action in Syria is bypassing the “hocus pocus” of the U.N.: — “Frankly, if we weren't talking about the need for an international response right now, this wouldn't be what everybody …
Discussion:
Hot Air, Naked DC and Jammie Wearing Fools
Timothy Egan / Opinionator:
The Bush Burden — He's there in every corner of Congress where a microphone fronts a politician, there in Russia and the British Parliament and the Vatican. You may think George W. Bush is at home in his bathtub, painting pictures of his toenails, but in fact he's the biggest presence in the debate over what to do in Syria.
Discussion:
New York Times, Booman Tribune, The Other McCain and The Mahablog