memeorandum: US to evacuate Baghdad embassy staff (Yahoo! News)

11:25 PM ET, June 15, 2014

Top Items:

Thomas L. Friedman / New York Times:

5 Principles for Iraq — THE disintegration of Iraq and Syria is upending an order that has defined the Middle East for a century. It is a huge event, and we as a country need to think very carefully about how to respond. Having just returned from Iraq two weeks ago …

Discussion: The Moderate Voice

New York Times:

Militants Claim Mass Execution of Iraqi Forces — BAGHDAD — Wielding the threat of sectarian slaughter, Sunni Islamist militants claimed on Sunday that they had massacred hundreds of captive Shiite members of Iraq's security forces, posting grisly pictures of a mass execution in Tikrit as evidence and warning of more killing to come.

Discussion: BuzzFeed, The Dish, Mashable, Mediaite, The Long War Journal and Gawker

David Atkins / Washington Monthly:

The brutal neoconservative legacy in Iraq — When we take stock of American policy in Iraq and its effects over the last decade, reasonable and humane people tend to focus on the devastating toll in blood, treasure and reputation. Hundreds of thousands dead, even more injured …

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, The Mahablog and Booman Tribune

Mark Townsend / Guardian:

Tony Blair: west must intervene in Iraq — Ex-PM says allies should consider military options short of sending troops after denying 2003 invasion led to Isis crisis — Tony Blair has urged western governments to recognise that it needs to take an active role in the Middle East …

Discussion: skippy the bush kangaroo, Lawyers, Guns & Money and The Week

The Office of Tony Blair:

Iraq, Syria and the Middle East - An essay by Tony Blair — The civil war in Syria with its attendant disintegration is having its predictable and malign effect. Iraq is now in mortal danger. The whole of the Middle East is under threat. — We will have to re-think our strategy towards Syria …

Discussion: New York Times, Telegraph, CANNONFIRE, Guardian, Hot Air, Mediaite and Washington Post

New York Times:

U.S. Plans to Evacuate Many Embassy Workers — ERBIL, Iraq — The American Embassy in Baghdad plans to evacuate a substantial number of its personnel this week in the face of a militant advance that rapidly swept from the north toward the capital, the State Department announced on Sunday.

Discussion: Blazing Cat Fur, Gawker, Mediaite, The Moderate Voice and Guardian

Yahoo! News:

US to evacuate Baghdad embassy staff — The US embassy in Baghdad is evacuating personnel and increasing military security after militants captured vast swathes of territory and advanced toward the capital, officials said Sunday. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said the staff would only be …

Discussion: Scared Monkeys and Business Insider

Paul Steinhauser / CNN:

How enthusiastic are Democrats about Clinton as nominee? — Washington (CNN) - Most Democrats say they'd support Hillary Clinton if she wins their party's nomination, but a new national survey indicates only a minority are excited about that prospect. — The CNN/ORC International poll released Sunday …

Discussion: Hinterland Gazette

Des Moines Register:
Last Slide — Rand Paul told Iowans today that change is needed …

Discussion: The Week

Alexander Bolton / The Hill:
Paul: Clinton not fit to be president

Discussion: BuzzFeed and PoliticusUSA

Dana Davidsen / CNN: Cantor reflects on primary loss, says ‘of course’ he'll vote for Brat in November

Rick Klein / ABC News:
Five Stories You'll Care About In Politics This Week

Discussion: CNN and Politico

Variety:

Casey Kasem, Shaggy on ‘Scooby-Doo,’ Voice of ‘American Top 40,’ Dies at 82 — Casey Kasem, the resonant voice of Top 40 radio and a vocal fixture on cartoon programs for the past 40 years, has died, according to his daughter. He was 82. — Kasem died Sunday of Lewy body disease, a common form of progressive dementia.

Discussion: Scared Monkeys, New York Times, Outside the Beltway, his vorpal sword, Liberal Values and The Verge

David Hinckley / NY Daily News:
Casey Kasem dead at 82

Discussion: Liberaland, The Huffington Post and BuzzFeed

Spokesman.com:

Idaho's GOP convention adjourns without electing chairman, setting platform — Idaho's state Republican Party convention degenerated into a fiasco Saturday after attempts to disqualify up to a third of the delegates attending appeared to be succeeding - and the convention adjourned without electing …

Discussion: Liberaland, The Raw Story and Talking Points Memo

Josh Gerstein / Politico:

Joe Biden to discuss child migrants in Latin America — Vice President Joe Biden is extending a planned trip to Latin America this week in order to convene a high-level meeting in the region to address a massive surge in children crossing the border into the U.S. through Mexico.

Discussion: CNN

Timothy P. Carney / Washington Examiner:

Eric Cantor loss gives Republicans chance to become people's party — REPUBLICAN PARTY CAMPAIGN FINANCE ERIC CANTOR WALL STREET DAVE BRAT — Eric Cantor's single largest source of campaign contributions was Blackstone Group, the high-rolling financial titan in Midtown Manhattan.

Discussion: No More Mister Nice Blog and Conservatives4Palin

New York Times:
A Cantor Effect for Businesses and the G.O.P.

Discussion: Balloon Juice, Hot Air and Business Insider

New York Times:

Tim Cook, Making Apple His Own — Tim Cook, Apple's chief executive, was an adolescent boy in a small Alabama town in the early 1970s when he saw something he couldn't forget. — Bicycling home on a new 10-speed, he passed a large cross in flames in front of a house — one that he knew belonged to a black family.

Discussion: The Verge

Greg Miller / Washington Post:

U.S. officials scrambled to nab Snowden, hoping he would take a wrong step. He didn't. — While Edward Snowden was trapped in the transit zone of Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport last year, U.S. officials were confronting their own dearth of options in the White House Situation Room.

Discussion: The Talking Dog, Business Insider, Prairie Weather and Althouse