memeorandum: Schumer: Obama will act on immigration if GOP doesn't (Alexander Bolton/The Hill)

8:20 AM ET, May 23, 2014

Top Items:

Not long ago, the left raved about the VA. — The unfolding scandal at the Veterans Health Administration was enough to drive the earnest liberals at Vox.com to mild profanity, and in a headline no less: “What the Hell Is Happening at the VA?” Here's the answer: … Damn.

Discussion: Liberal Values, American Spectator, Mediaite, Power Line, BuzzFeed, Politico, CNN, Real Clear Politics, American Prospect and Washington Post

Edward-Isaac Dovere / Politico:

Barack Obama's early VA response: Executive inaction — President Barack Obama wants to talk about flexing his administrative and executive power to do more. Instead, he got stuck talking about a clear administrative and executive failure that, at least so far, he hasn't done much about.

Discussion: Hot Air, CNN and The Hill

Gregg Zoroya / USA Today:

Shinseki pledges to fix VA's problems — WASHINGTON — VA Secretary Eric Shinseki issued a message to veterans Thursday defending his leadership and promising to fix delays in care that have rocked his agency and the Obama administration in recent days. — The 71-year-old head of the Department …

Discussion: National Review, The Heritage Foundation, Hot Air and Politico

Jake Sherman / Politico:
Kevin McCarthy calls on Eric Shinseki to resign

Discussion: CNN

The Clarion-Ledger:

MS Tea Party vice chairman arrested in Cochran case — UPDATED: Madison city court officials say that Mark Mayfield will appear before a judge today. — Also, attorney Kevin Camp, who represents Clayton Kelly, said two more arrests either have been or will be made in addition to Mayfield.

Discussion: The Other McCain, Roll Call, The Hill, Talking Points Memo, The Daily Beast, The Raw Story, NPR, Wall Street Journal, Right Wing Watch, Outside the Beltway, Business Insider, The Daily Caller, Washington Post, Politico and Mediaite

Scott Simmons / WAPT Channel 16:

2 more face charges in Cochran photo case — Kelly to appear in court — There have been more arrests in a case involving pictures taken without permission of U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran's wife. — 16 WAPT's Scott Simmons has learned that two people are facing charges in connection with the case.

Discussion: Scared Monkeys, Washington Post, Talking Points Memo, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion and RedState

New York Times:

A Surveillance Bill That Falls Short — A year ago, it would have been unimaginable for the House to pass a bill to curtail the government's abusive surveillance practices. The documents leaked by Edward Snowden, however, finally shocked lawmakers from both parties into action …

Discussion: Washington Post, Daily Kos, Re/code and The Verge

Dustin Volz / NationalJournal.com:
Google, Facebook Warn NSA Bill Wouldn't Stop Mass Surveillance

Discussion: Washington Post, Techdirt, Engadget, Booman Tribune and Guardian

Spencer Ackerman / Guardian:
NSA reform bill loses backing from privacy advocates after major revisions

Discussion: Mother Jones, Justin Amash, Daily Kos, Hit & Run, TalkLeft, The Daily Caller, Mashable, Los Angeles Times and Sunlight Foundation Blog

Julian Hattem / The Hill:
House reformers claim victory over NSA

Discussion: Politico

New York Times:
House Passes Restraints on Bulk Data Collection

Discussion: NPR

Alexander Bolton / The Hill:

Schumer: Obama will act on immigration if GOP doesn't — Senate Democratic leaders say President Obama will act unilaterally to reform the nation's immigration system if House Republicans fail to pass legislation by the end of July. — “They have about a six-week window …

Discussion: CBS News and The Moderate Voice

Seung Min Kim / Politico:
Reid: Immigration may belong to W.H.

Discussion: Hot Air

Kate Nocera / BuzzFeed:
Senate Democrats Will Probably Block Military DREAMers Measure From Defense Bill

Discussion: Hot Air

Seung Min Kim / Politico:
Eric Cantor stresses support for legalization measure

Discussion: CNN, Hot Air, The Daily Caller and Washington Post

Jason Leopold / Guardian:

Pentagon report: scope of intelligence compromised by Snowden ‘staggering’ — A top-secret Pentagon report to assess the damage to national security from the leak of classified National Security Agency documents by Edward Snowden concluded that “the scope of the compromised knowledge related …

Discussion: Prairie Weather, Firedoglake, emptywheel and Hot Air

Michael Kinsley / New York Times:

‘No Place to Hide,’ by Glenn Greenwald — “My position was straightforward,” Glenn Greenwald writes. “By ordering illegal eavesdropping, the president had committed crimes and should be held accountable for them.” You break the law, you pay the price: It's that simple.

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, Firedoglake, Washington Post, Scripting News, Hit & Run, Gawker, Talking Points Memo and Instapundit, more at Mediagazer »

Erik Wemple / Washington Post:
NBC News's Brian Williams interviews Snowden, Greenwald

Discussion: The Huffington Post

Tom Kludt / Talking Points Memo:
NBC News To Sit Down With Snowden For First American TV Interview

Discussion: The Week and The Huffington Post

Jonathan Karl / ABC News:

White House Contacted YouTube During Benghazi Attack, Darrell Issa Says — A still-classified State Department e-mail says that one of the first responses from the White House to the Benghazi attack was to contact YouTube to warn of the “ramifications” of allowing the posting of an anti-Islamic video …

Discussion: PoliticusUSA, The Gateway Pundit, Hot Air, Liberaland and The PJ Tatler

Mike Hudack / Facebook:

Please allow me to rant for a moment about the state of the media. — It's well known that CNN has gone from the network of Bernie Shaw, John Holliman, and Peter Arnett reporting live from Baghdad in 1991 to the network of kidnapped white girls. Our nation's newspapers have …

Discussion: Balloon Juice, Mashable, Mediaite, Washington Post, Gawker, The Huffington Post, Poynter, Gigaom and Unfogged, more at Mediagazer »

CNN:

Las Vegas, Cincinnati out of the mix for 2016 GOP convention — (CNN) - Las Vegas and Cincinnati withdrew bids to host the 2016 GOP convention, the Republican National Committee announced Thursday. — Cleveland, Dallas, Denver, and Kansas City are still in contention to host the convention …

Discussion: Politico

Cincinnati.com:
Cincinnati out for 2016 GOP convention

Discussion: OnPolitics, New York Times and ABC News

ThinkProgress:

Republicans' Attempt To Woo Women At Gubernatorial Debate Fails Miserably — Mike Kopp, Scott Gessler, and Bob Beauprez at an April debate for Colorado governor. — CREDIT: AP Photo/Brennan Linsley — Three of the four GOP candidates for Colorado governor took part in a debate Tuesday …

Discussion: The Colorado Independent, Shakesville and Daily Kos

Noemie Emery / Weekly Standard:

They Had a Dream — Rule by experts comes a cropper — They had a dream. For almost a hundred years now, the famed academic-artistic-and-punditry industrial complex has dreamed of a government run by their kind of people (i.e., nature's noblemen), whose intelligence, wit, and refined sensibilities would bring us a heaven on earth.

Discussion: The Other McCain and Roger L. Simon