memeorandum: Send the National Guard to ‘Chiraq’ (Roland S. Martin/The Daily Beast)

10:10 AM ET, July 9, 2014

Top Items:

Cameron Joseph / The Hill:

Untamed Cruz refuses to play nice with GOP campaign arm — GOP hopes of corralling Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) during the 2014 primary season are officially dead. — The defiant Republican's brutal criticism of Sen. Thad Cochran's (R-Miss.) reelection campaign on Tuesday …

Discussion: Instapundit and The PJ Tatler

Washington Post:

The tea party's embrace of martyrdom — Hiroo Onoda, the last imperial Japanese soldier to surrender after World War II, hid out in a jungle in the Philippines for 29 years, refusing to believe that the war was over. He finally turned himself in, wearing his sword, cap and patched uniform, in 1974.

Discussion: BuzzFeed, NBC News, Roll Call and Outside the Beltway

Cameron Joseph / The Hill:

Cochran gets lost on way to Senate lunch — Sen. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) is back with his colleagues in Washington, D.C., after winning his hard-fought primary runoff — but he had a bit of trouble finding Senate Republicans' weekly luncheon on Tuesday. — Cochran, while talking with The Hill …

Geoff Pender / The Clarion-Ledger:
Cochran camp says it ‘screwed up’ cash accounting

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, RedState and The Gateway Pundit

Daniel Strauss / Talking Points Memo: Hometown Editorial: McDaniel Isn't A Racist Because He Played Basketball

USA Today:

Exclusive: Clooney responds to ‘Daily Mail’ report — I want to speak to the irresponsibility of Monday's Daily Mail report. I seldom respond to tabloids, unless it involves someone else and their safety or well being. The Daily Mail has printed a completely fabricated story …

Discussion: WJLA-TV, Globe and Mail, Guardian, The Raw Story, The Huffington Post and Mashable, more at Mediagazer »

Daily Mail:

EXCLUSIVE - ‘She can do better’: Amal Alamuddin's mother ‘is unimpressed with George Clooney and wants daughter to marry within their strict Lebanese religious sect’ — Baria Alamuddin has been ‘telling half of Beirut’ that she wanted daughter to marry within the Druze sect

Discussion: Guardian, USA Today, Poynter and The Huffington Post

New York Times:

Faith Groups Seek Exclusion From Bias Rule — WASHINGTON — After a setback in the Supreme Court in the Hobby Lobby case, President Obama is facing mounting pressure from religious groups demanding to be excluded from his long-promised executive order that would bar discrimination against gay men …

Ed O'Keefe / Washington Post:

Gay rights groups withdraw support of ENDA after Hobby Lobby decision — Several major gay rights groups withdrew support Tuesday for the Employment Non-Discrimination Act that would bolster gay and transgender rights in the workplace, saying they fear that broad religious exemptions included …

Discussion: Hot Air and Talking Points Memo

Sahil Kapur / Talking Points Memo:
Senate Dems Ready To Unveil Bill Reversing Hobby Lobby Ruling

Discussion: National Review

Rea Carey / Advocate:
Op-ed: Why One of the Biggest LGBT Orgs Has Stopped Supporting ENDA

Discussion: Metro Weekly, Daily Kos and ThinkProgress

Robert Pear / New York Times:
Democrats Push Bill to Reverse Supreme Court Ruling on Contraceptives

Discussion: The Huffington Post, addictinginfo.org, ThinkProgress, Hot Air and The Hill

The Intercept:

Meet the Muslim-American Leaders the FBI and NSA Have Been Spying On — The National Security Agency and FBI have covertly monitored the emails of prominent Muslim-Americans—including a political candidate and several civil rights activists, academics, and lawyers—under secretive procedures intended …

Discussion: The Hill, emptywheel, Mashable, Lawfare, The Verge, PandoDaily, RT and Hit & Run

Byron Tau / Politico:

Why the GOP is holding its convention early — Republicans will hold their 2016 national convention more than a month earlier than their 2012 event for one simple reason: money. — Two years ago, Mitt Romney raised $1 billion but found himself out of cash that August due to campaign finance laws …

Discussion: Washington Post and Balloon Juice

Patrick Howley / The Daily Caller:
Rick Perry Admirably Refuses To Shake Obama's Hand At Airport

Discussion: Politico and Power Line

Ashton Davis / GOP.com:
RNC Site Selection Committee Recommends Cleveland for 2016

Discussion: NBC News, Businessweek, Red Alert Politics, Washington Monthly and FishbowlDC

New York Times:

Spying Case Left Obama in Dark, U.S. Officials Say — WASHINGTON — When President Obama placed a call to Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany last Thursday, he had a busy agenda: to consult with a close ally and to mobilize wavering Europeans to put more pressure on Russia to end its covert incursions in Ukraine.

Discussion: Prairie Weather

NationalJournal.com:
Why Isn't Obama Going to the Border?

Discussion: Washington Post, Hot Air, The New Republic, Politico, Red Alert Politics, Conservatives4Palin, National Review, New York Times and OnPolitics

Meredith Shiner / Yahoo! News:

Joni Ernst: ‘Impeachment’ of Obama should be on the table Yahoo News 29 mins ago — Sarah Palin might have called for the impeachment of President Barack Obama Tuesday, but Iowa Republican Senate candidate Joni Ernst actually beat her to the punch by six months.

Discussion: The Huffington Post, PoliticusUSA, Taylor Marsh, ThinkProgress, Daily Kos and Talking Points Memo

Aaron Blake / Washington Post:
Sarah Palin just joined the ‘impeach Obama’ crowd. That's bad news for the GOP.

Discussion: Fox News, No More Mister Nice Blog, Politico, Bloomberg View and Hot Air

Sarah Palin / BREITBART.COM:
EXCLUSIVE—SARAH PALIN: 'IT'S TIME TO IMPEACH' PRESIDENT OBAMA

John Hinderaker / Power Line:

A Window Opens Onto the Left-Wing Conspiracy — The Democracy Alliance is not a famous organization, but it deserves to be. The Alliance consists of approximately 100 rich liberals who have taken upon themselves the task of coordinating America's many left-wing organizations to promote a single radical agenda.

James Carville / The Hill:

Four good reasons to watch Louisiana race this season — Lately it seems like every time I look around, the political news I am seeing is five myths about blank, five reasons for this and five things we learned about that. God knows why there are never four or six — five seems to be the preferred number.

Jonathan Topaz / Politico:

The Bear meets a horse — The bear was on the loose on Tuesday evening — this time in Colorado. — President Barack Obama greeted supporters on a walk following dinner in downtown Denver, a night that resulted in shaking hands with a man in a horse mask, and shooting pool and drinking beers during …

Discussion: Outside the Beltway

Roland S. Martin / The Daily Beast:

Send the National Guard to ‘Chiraq’ — To save the Windy City, we have to use everything at our disposal. — A major American city is quickly being lost to guns, gangs, drugs and hopelessness, and political and business leaders are giving lip service to the problem.

Discussion: Hot Air

Katie Pavlich / Townhall.com:

Violent MS-13 Gang Members Leave Graffiti on Bathroom Walls of Nogales Border Patrol Processing Center — 4.6K — SHARES — An internal Border Patrol executive summary obtained by Townhall confirms that at least 16 unaccompanied illegal minors (those under the age of 18 …

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit, Althouse, The Lonely Conservative and protein wisdom