memeorandum: To sell Syria, Obama chose political science over scare tactics. That's a big deal. (Max Fisher/WorldViews)

2:55 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 New Republic, The Recall Elections Blog, NBCNews, msnbc.com, Taylor Marsh, Roll Call, Crooks and Liars, Sister Toldjah, Colorado Peak Politics, Yahoo! News, ABC News, TheDenverChannel.com, John Lott's Website, Ricochet Conversations Feed, 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, The Daily Caller, The Week, Hit & Run, The Plum Line, Gawker, Shakesville, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Outside the Beltway, Hot Air, Naked Politics, Joe. My. God., Shot in the Dark, Michelle Malkin, Southern Beale and Politico

Tom Jensen / Public Policy Polling:

Reflecting on the Colorado recalls — We did a poll last weekend in Colorado Senate District 3 and found that voters intended to recall Angela Giron by a 12 point margin, 54/42. In a district that Barack Obama won by almost 20 points I figured there was no way that could be right and made a rare decision not to release the poll.

Discussion: The Hill, Democratic National Committee, Business Insider, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Capitol Report, National Review and The PJ Tatler

David Kopel / The Volokh Conspiracy:
The Colorado Recalls Explained

Discussion: Colorado Peak Politics, National Review, The PJ Tatler, American Spectator, Twitchy, The Lonely Conservative, Power Line and Overlawyered

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

Discussion: Hot Air and The Week

Joseph Weber / Fox News:
Colorado state senators recalled over gun control support

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

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

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

Mark Z. Barabak / Los Angeles Times:
Colorado lawmakers ousted in recall election over strict gun laws

Discussion: Weekly Standard

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: The Raw Story, National Review and American Spectator

Mackenzie Weinger / Politico:

WSJ op-ed writer Elizabeth O'Bagy fired for resume lie — The Syria researcher whose Wall Street Journal op-piece was cited by Secretary of State John Kerry and Sen. John McCain during congressional hearings about the use of force has been fired from the Institute for the Study of War for lying …

Discussion: Real Science and The PJ Tatler

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

The White House:
Remarks by the President in Address to the Nation on Syria

Discussion: Firedoglake, CBS News, Washington Post, Associated Press, The Gateway Pundit, Pirate's Cove, Politico, The American Conservative, Taylor Marsh and White House.gov Blog

Max Fisher / WorldViews:
To sell Syria, Obama chose political science over scare tactics. That's a big deal.

Discussion: Outside the Beltway, Washington Post, The Dish, The Fix and The Hinterland Gazette

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: Connecting.the.Dots, The Week, Mediaite and WorldViews

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

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

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

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

Discussion: The Daily Beast, Right Turn, National Review, Slate, Bloomberg, The Hugh Hewitt Show, American Power and blogs.telegraph.co.uk

Fred Kaplan / Slate:
Obama's speech may not have sounded novel, but the president may have helped his cause in unexpected ways.

Discussion: The Week, Guardian, NBCNews and Weekly Standard

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, CNN, Scared Monkeys, Real Clear Politics, Yahoo! News, Gothamist and Althouse

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

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

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

Dave Jamieson / The Huffington Post:

Trader Joe's To Drop Health Coverage For Part-Time Workers Under Obamacare: Memo — After extending health care coverage to many of its part-time employees for years, Trader Joe's has told workers who log fewer than 30 hours a week that they will need to find insurance on the Obamacare exchanges next year …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, ThinkProgress, BREITBART.COM, The Heritage Foundation and The PJ Tatler

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, National Review, Techdirt, Secrecy News, Gawker, Hot Air, Engadget and The Verge

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, Slate, National Review, NewsBusters, The Week, Wonkblog, AEIdeas and The Raw Story

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

Discussion: Opinionator and Hullabaloo

David Kusnet / CNN:

Obama's speech a model of persuasion — Obama makes his case on Syria … (CNN) — Sixty-one percent of Americans polled, who watched President Obama's prime-time speech, told CNN that they support his policy towards Syria. — Since some surveys showed as much as two-thirds opposition …

Discussion: The Hill, alicublog and Hot Air

Ed Kilgore / Washington Monthly:
Obama's Semi-Moot “War Speech”

Discussion: Booman Tribune and American Spectator

Rich Lowry / National Review:

NR v. Booker — Newark mayor Cory Booker has a very active imagination. Eliana Johnson demonstrated that with her report on Booker's moving, highly detailed accounts of his involvement with “T-Bone,” a hard-luck drug dealer who Booker admitted to a friend is a fiction.

Discussion: Politico, Business Insider and TheBlaze.com, more at Mediagazer »

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: Washington Monthly, ThinkProgress and Alan Colmes' Liberaland

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 …

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

Peter Lauria / BuzzFeed:

Exclusive: IAC And Daily Beast Editor Tina Brown To Part Ways — A source with direct knowledge of the situation says IAC does not plan to renew Tina Brown's contract when it expires in January. A decision has not yet been made on the future of The Daily Beast. — Jason Kempin / FilmMagic

Discussion: Taylor Marsh, Mediaite, Gawker, The Huffington Post and Jezebel, more at Mediagazer »

Nile Gardiner / blogs.telegraph.co.uk:

Barack Obama's Syria speech was an incoherent mess - he is outperforming Jimmy Carter as the most feeble US president of modern times — Billed as a game-changer on Syria, the President's White House address landed with a thud that could be heard as far away as Damascus.

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

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.