memeorandum: Senators: Response to tragedy ‘too timid’ (Megan R. Wilson/The Hill)

9:30 AM ET, July 21, 2014

Top Items:

Megan R. Wilson / The Hill:

Senators: Response to tragedy ‘too timid’ — The leaders of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee said on Sunday the U.S. response to the attack on a commercial airliner above eastern Ukraine that killed nearly 300 people has been too weak. — Sens. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) and Bob Corker …

Alexander Burns / Politico:

POLITICO poll: Stay out of Ukraine, Middle East — Amid deepening violence across Eastern Europe and the Middle East, Americans are recoiling from direct engagement overseas and oppose U.S. involvement in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and Ukraine by large margins, according to a POLITICO poll of 2014 battleground voters.

Discussion: Business Insider

Maggie Haberman / Politico:

Dim views of Hillary Clinton's time at State — A majority of voters are unimpressed with Hillary Clinton's performance as secretary of state, according to a new POLITICO poll. — Just 14 percent described her time at State — she served four years ending in February 2013 — as “excellent,” while 28 percent defined it as “good.”

Discussion: Hot Air and Business Insider

The New Republic:

The Explosive, Inside Story of How John Kerry Built an Israel-Palestine Peace Plan—and Watched It Crumble — I. — At around noon on March 20 last year, Air Force One landed at Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion Airport for Barack Obama's first presidential visit to Israel.

Discussion: Booman Tribune

Molly Ball / The Atlantic Online:

How Hobby Lobby Split the Left and Set Back Gay Rights — In the Hobby Lobby decision handed down last month, the Supreme Court was asked to strike a balance between women's rights and religious freedom. But the major conflict that has erupted in the wake of that decision has been between religious freedom and gay rights.

Paul Krugman / New York Times:

An Imaginary Budget and Debt Crisis — For much of the past five years readers of the political and economic news were left in little doubt that budget deficits and rising debt were the most important issue facing America. Serious people constantly issued dire warnings that the United States risked turning …

Discussion: Washington Post and Daily Kos

Thomas Frank / Salon:

Right-wing obstruction could have been fought: An ineffective and gutless presidency's legacy is failure — Yes, we know, the crazy House. But we were promised hope and change on big issues. We got no vision and less action — Predicting the future course of American politics is a lively and flourishing vocation.

Discussion: NewsBusters and Power Line

Siena College:

Cuomo Leads Astorino by 37 Points … Cuomo Leads Astorino by 37 Points Among Likely Voters; Six in Ten Say Cuomo's Made NY Better in Last Four Years — Two-Thirds Say Most Legislators Do What's Best for Them & Their Political Friends; Never Surprised When Another One Gets Indicted

Discussion: Politico and Taegan Goddard's …

Clark S. Judge / Daily Mail:

This weak and timid President talks big... and does nothing: A devastating attack on Obama by a top Washington insider — At a political event in Wilmington, Delaware, on Thursday, President Obama devoted only 40 seconds to the shooting down of the Malaysian airline, his first statement to the world following the news.

Discussion: Hot Air

Catherine Taibi / The Huffington Post:

Sky News Apologizes After Going Through MH17 Luggage On Air — Sky News has apologized after a reporter began digging through the luggage of a passenger killed aboard Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 on air. — The reporter, Colin Brazier, began picking through a victim's suitcase and holding …

Discussion: Mediaite and Washington Monthly

Arthur C. Brooks / New York Times:

Love People, Not Pleasure — ABD AL-RAHMAN III was an emir and caliph of Córdoba in 10th-century Spain. He was an absolute ruler who lived in complete luxury. Here's how he assessed his life: — “I have now reigned above 50 years in victory or peace; beloved by my subjects …

Discussion: The Daily Caller and Wordyard

Kyle Smith / New York Post:

Could the next generation of Republicans already be here? — There's probably never been a time when humanity wasn't collectively in a torment and uproar about what its young folk were up to. (Gur to Urp, 10,000 B.C.: “Can you believe how short the girls are wearing their bearskins these days?")