memeorandum: Securing Syria's chemical weapons arsenal would be formidable task, experts say (Washington Post)

1:15 PM ET, September 11, 2013

Top Items:

COLORADO SENATE PRESIDENT JOHN MORSE, STATE SEN. ANGELA GIRON OUSTED — An epic national debate over gun rights in Colorado on Tuesday saw two Democratic state senators ousted for their support for stricter laws, a “ready, aim, fired” message intended to stop other politicians for pushing for firearms restrictions.

Discussion: The Recall Elections Blog, Crooks and Liars, The New Republic, NBCNews, Sister Toldjah, Roll Call, Colorado Peak Politics, Ricochet Conversations Feed, ABC News, msnbc.com, John Lott's Website, Booman Tribune, First Read, The Reaction and Wall Street Journal

Jack Healy / New York Times:

Colorado Lawmakers Ousted in Recall Vote Over Gun Law — COLORADO SPRINGS — Two Colorado Democrats who provided crucial support for a package of state gun laws were voted out of office on Tuesday in special elections seen as a test of whether swing-state voters would accept gun restrictions …

Discussion: JustOneMinute, Denver Post, Hit & Run, The Daily Caller, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Outside the Beltway, Shakesville, The Week, Gawker, Naked Politics, The Plum Line, Michelle Malkin, Hot Air, Joe. My. God., Shot in the Dark, Politico and Southern Beale

New York Times:

De Blasio First in Mayoral Primary; Unclear if He Avoids a Runoff — Bill de Blasio, whose campaign for mayor of New York tapped into a city's deepening unease with income inequality and aggressive police practices, captured far more votes than any of his rivals in the Democratic primary on Tuesday, according to exit poll results.

Discussion: NY Daily News, The Raw Story, Gothamist, Hot Air, Politico, Good As You, Towleroad News #gay, Taylor Marsh, Capital New York, msnbc.com, The Week, Gawker, Politicker, Taegan Goddard's …, The Lonely Conservative and Balloon Juice

Joseph Weber / Fox News:

Colorado state senators recalled over gun control support — FILE: This image shows Colorado Democratic State Senate President John Morse, left, and state Sen. Angela Giron, D-Pueblo.AP — Two Democratic lawmakers in Colorado, including the president of the state senate …

Discussion: Fox News Insider, americanthinker.com and Real Science

David Kopel / The Volokh Conspiracy:

The Colorado Recalls Explained — Yesterday voters in Colorado recalled two State Senators. One result was not a surprise, and the other is a shock. Of course the votes are Second Amendment victories for the right to arms, but more fundamentally, they are Fourteenth Amendment victories for Due Process of Law.

Discussion: Public Policy Polling, Colorado Peak Politics, Twitchy, TheDenverChannel.com, National Review, Power Line, American Spectator, Overlawyered and The Lonely Conservative

Kate Taylor / New York Times:
Stringer Defeats Spitzer in Comptroller Primary

Discussion: New York Post

Denver Post:
COLORADO RECALL ELECTION VOTER TURNOUT MIXED, FIGURES SHOW

Discussion: KDVR.com, BizPac Review and The Recall Elections Blog

Sean Sullivan / The Fix:
The Colorado recalls dealt a serious blow to gun-control advocates. Here's why.

Discussion: The Week

Peter Hamby / CNN:
De Blasio tops NY mayoral primary; Weiner distant fifth

Discussion: Guardian, Business Insider, Yahoo! News and Scared Monkeys

New York Times:

Obama's Remarks on Syria — Following is the complete text of President Obama's speech about Syria from the East Room of the White House on Tuesday, as transcribed by Federal News Service. — MR. OBAMA: My fellow Americans, tonight I want to talk to you about Syria, why it matters and where we go from here.

John F. Harris / Politico:

Obama's Zig vs. Zag — Two weeks of zig-zag foreign policy by President Barack Obama — marching to war one moment, clinging desperately to diplomacy the next — culminated Tuesday night, appropriately enough, in a zig-zag address to the nation that did little to clarify what will come next …

Discussion: TIME, Taegan Goddard's …, Hot Air, Guardian, americanthinker.com, John Lott's Website and The Plum Line

Andrew Sullivan / The Dish:

The President Makes The Case — That was one of the clearest, simplest and most moving presidential speeches to the nation I can imagine. It explained and it argued, point after point. Everything the president said extemporaneously at the post-G20 presser was touched on, made terser, more elegant and more persuasive.

Discussion: Right Turn, Daniel W. Drezner, Prairie Weather, driftglass and The Moderate Voice

Washington Post:

Securing Syria's chemical weapons arsenal would be formidable task, experts say — As diplomats wrangled over competing plans for securing Syria's chemical weapons, arms-control experts warned Tuesday of the formidable challenges involved in carrying out such a complex and risky operation in the midst of a raging civil war.

Discussion: Hit & Run, Wall Street Journal, TIME, emptywheel, WorldViews, Capitol Report, The Fix, Pirate's Cove, Atlas Shrugs, The Hill, Mediaite and National Review

Colum Lynch / Foreign Policy:
Did the World Just Legitimize the Assad Regime It Spent Years Discrediting?

Discussion: NPR, Politico, Business Insider, Weasel Zippers and CNN

Reza Kahlili / The Daily Caller:
Iran threatens widespread retaliation against U.S. and allies

Discussion: Jihad Watch

Washington Post:
Stumbling toward a solution on Syria

Discussion: The Week, Mediaite, WorldViews and Atlas Shrugs

New York Times:
Chemical Disarmament Hard Even in Peacetime

Discussion: Hot Air, White House Dossier and ThinkProgress

CNN:
Transcript: Obama's address on Syria

Discussion: Hot Air, Politico, Questions and Observations, The Week, The Glittering Eye, Gawker and The Hill

Steve Peoples / Associated Press:
President Barack Obama has ordered the U.S. military to maintain …

Discussion: Washington Times, Politico and CNN

Maureen Dowd / New York Times:

Who Do You Trust? — WASHINGTON — Vladimir Putin, who keeps Edward Snowden on a leash and lets members of a riotous girl band rot in jail, has thrown President Obama a lifeline. — The Russian president had coldly brushed back Obama on Snowden and Syria, and only last week called John Kerry a liar.

Discussion: Right Turn, Power Line and Mediaite

Wall Street Journal:
The President lets Putin outmaneuver him on Syrian chemical arms.

Discussion: The Daily Beast, Right Turn, National Review, Bloomberg, The Hugh Hewitt Show and American Power

Nile Gardiner / blogs.telegraph.co.uk:
Barack Obama's Syria speech was an incoherent mess …

Discussion: JustOneMinute, New York Times, Yahoo! News, Telegraph and NewsBusters

James Taranto / Wall Street Journal:
A new error in U.S. foreign policy.

Discussion: Sense of Events, The Gateway Pundit, CNN and American Spectator

William J. Dobson / Slate:
If your foreign policy has to be rescued by a dictator, you are doing it wrong.

Discussion: The Huffington Post and Hot Air

Mara Gay / NY Daily News:

Sydney Leathers, former sexting partner of Anthony Weiner, attempts to crash his election night party — The 23-year-old, clad in a tight red dress and platform heels, said that she wanted to finally meet the man who ‘manipulated’ her into a months-long relationship.

Discussion: New York Post, Yahoo! News, Real Clear Politics and Gothamist

Business Insider:
VIDEO: Anthony Weiner Sprinted Through A McDonald's So The Press Wouldn't See Him Talk To Sydney Leathers

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Jezebel and Ed Driscoll

NY Daily News:
Anthony Weiner concedes in Democratic mayoral primary race

Discussion: msnbc.com, Capital New York and Patterico's Pontifications

Katie Glueck / Politico:
Sydney Leathers shows up at Anthony Weiner election party

Discussion: CNN, Reuters, Business Insider, Weasel Zippers, The Huffington Post, NPR, Mediaite and Gawker

Pete Kasperowicz / The Hill:

GOP bill blocks food stamp users from buying junk food — Rep. Phil Roe (R-Tenn.) on Tuesday proposed legislation that would require people using federal food stamps to buy only healthy food. — The Healthy Food Choices Act, H.R. 3073, reflects a long-standing criticism …

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Washington Monthly and Alan Colmes' Liberaland

Annie Lowrey / Economix:

The Rich Get Richer Through the Recovery — An updated study by the prominent economists Emmanuel Saez and Thomas Piketty shows that the top 1 percent of earners took more than one-fifth of the country's total income in 2012, one of the highest levels recorded in the century that the government has collected the relevant data.

Discussion: Washington Monthly, AEIdeas, Wonkblog and The Raw Story

Matt Krantz / USA Today:
Top 1% take biggest income slice on record

Discussion: Opinionator and Hullabaloo

Stanley Kurtz / National Review:

This Was a Samantha Power Speech — America still doesn't quite grasp the novelty of what Obama is doing in Syria. This is an intervention driven primarily by humanitarian concerns. There is no chance we'd have reached this point without those chemical attacks.

Discussion: Reuters, Washington Wire and Power Line

Thomas L. Friedman / New York Times: Threaten to Threaten — If you're an average American …

Guardian:

NSA shares raw intelligence with Israel — • Secret deal places no legal limits on use of data by Israelis — • Only official US government communications protected — • Agency insists it complies with rules governing privacy — • Read the NSA and Israel's ‘memorandum of understanding’

Discussion: Hillicon Valley, Secrecy News, Gawker, Hot Air, The Verge, Engadget and ODNI Newsroom Feed, more at Mediagazer »

Susannah George / BuzzFeed:

Controversial Syria Researcher Fired Over Doctorate Claim — Elizabeth O'Bagy's ties to the Syrian opposition had become an issue. — A young researcher whose opinions on Syria were cited by both Senator McCain and Secretary of State John Kerry in congressional testimony last week …

Discussion: American Spectator

Judd Legum / ThinkProgress:

Florida Police Chief: Either George Zimmerman Or His Lawyer Is Not Telling The Truth — George Zimmerman on Monday, shortly before being handcuffed — The Florida police chief that is actively investigating a confrontation between George Zimmerman, his wife and his father in law says someone is lying …

Discussion: ABC News and Washington Post

Tom Junod / Esquire:

THE FALLING MAN — Do you remember this photograph? In the United States, people have taken pains to banish it from the record of September 11, 2001. The story behind it, though, and the search for the man pictured in it, are our most intimate connection to the horror of that day. — SPECIAL OFFER

Discussion: Poynter, Mediaite and The Huffington Post

Paul Steinhauser / CNN:

CNN Instant Poll: Did Obama move the needle on Syria? — Washington (CNN) - A majority of Americans who watched President Barack Obama's prime time address to the nation on Tuesday said they favor the approach to Syria that the president spelled out in his speech, according to an instant poll.