memeorandum: Gun Sales Up Across Area (Bill Reker/CBS St. Louis)

3:20 PM ET, August 13, 2014

Top Items:

James Bamford / Wired:

PLATON — I am staying at the Hotel Metropol, a whimsical sand-colored monument to pre-revolutionary art nouveau. Built during the time of Czar Nicholas II, it later became the Second House of the Soviets after the Bolsheviks took over in 1917. In the restaurant, Lenin would harangue …

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, Talking Points Memo, Techdirt, The Hill, Politico, Business Insider, Hit & Run, his vorpal sword, Mediaite, The Verge, Yahoo! News and Globe and Mail

Scott Dadich / Wired:
Call Me Ed: A Day With Edward Snowden

Discussion: Guardian, The Daily Caller, The Verge and Mediaite

Roger Simon / Politico:

Hillary Clinton not comfortable in her own skin — Hillary Clinton walks through a paneled doorway and onto the set of “The Colbert Report.” A grin splits her face. She puts her arms out and rocks them up and down as if she were a mechanical toy. — Stephen Colbert is stunned. Shocked.

Discussion: Weekly Standard, The Last Refuge, The Daily Caller, Scared Monkeys, The PJ Tatler, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion and Mediaite

Jennifer Jacobs / Des Moines Register:

Photos of Rand Paul at party in the Hamptons catch Iowans' attention — The Republican potential presidential candidate said he had to miss a Christian conservative event in Iowa because of a family commitment — An Iowa evangelical Christian leader stood on stage and told the 1,200 conservatives …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Real Clear Politics, Business Insider and Mediaite

Amanda Gordon / Bloomberg:

Hamptons Scene: Rand Paul Reads; Motherwell Quonset Huts — Senator Rand Paul hit a fundraiser in East Hampton Saturday night — for the public library, not his own coffers. — “We have some friends up here,” the Kentucky Republican said of his visit to the resort area …

Discussion: Politico and CNN

Maureen Dowd / New York Times:

It's the Loyalty, Stupid — WASHINGTON — I talked to Robin Williams once, about breasts. — In 1993, when he played a prim British nanny in “Mrs. Doubtfire,” I went to interview him at his Pacific Heights house. — “It's great to be this blue-mouthed old lady hitting on somebody,” …

Discussion: Lawyers, Guns & Money, Wonkette, neo-neocon, Taylor Marsh, Talking Points Memo, Hullabaloo, No More Mister Nice Blog, Capitol Report, Betsy's Page, Twitchy, Roger Ailes, NationalJournal.com, Hot Air, Mediaite, Eschaton, Politico and Power Line

Tony Stewart / St. Louis Post-Dispatch:

UNEASY NIGHT: A police shooting, more tear gas in Ferguson — At about 1 a.m., a St. Louis County Police officer shot and critically wounded a man who police said pointed a handgun at the officer near the intersection of West Florissant and Chambers Road. — The shooting happened near Chambers …

Discussion: PoliticusUSA, Daily Kos, Talking Points Memo, Associated Press and National Review

Greg Howard / The Concourse:
America Is Not For Black People

Discussion: Business Insider, Outside the Beltway, addictinginfo.org, Vox, The ToastThe Toast and Firedoglake

Paul Szoldra / Business Insider:
This Is The Terrifying Result Of The Militarization Of Police

Discussion: Shot in the Dark, The ToastThe Toast, Washington Post, BillMoyers.com, The Raw Story, Reuters, Daily RFT, ThinkProgress and msnbc.com

Bill Reker / CBS St. Louis:
Gun Sales Up Across Area

Discussion: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, The Raw Story and Twitchy

Jesse L. Jackson, Sr / USA Today:
Jesse Jackson: There's a ‘Ferguson’ near you

Discussion: Washington Post, Daily RFT, The PJ Tatler, CBS St. Louis and AEIdeas

David Weigel / Slate:

Calling All Sad Clowns — I put a disclaimer at the front of my Robin Williams post today, cautioning that my very quick look at the guy's political comedy was a sidebar of a sidebar. Despite that, I've gotten some irritated email and tweets asking why I wrote a “takedown” of a dead guy and “politicized” his death.

Discussion: Washington Post, The Raw Story, The Dish and Daily Kos

Russell Brand / Guardian:
Robin Williams divine madness will no longer disrupt the sadness of the world

Discussion: NewsBusters, Talking Points Memo, LifeNews.com, CNN, his vorpal sword, The Atlantic Online and The Daily Banter

Matt Wilstein / Mediaite:
Limbaugh Ties Robin Williams Suicide to ‘General Unhappiness’ of the Left

Discussion: No More Mister Nice Blog, Rush Limbaugh, Daily Kos, Politico, The Raw Story, Fox News and Liberaland

New York Times:

U.S. Could Use Ground Troops to Aid Rescue of Iraq Refugees — EDGARTOWN, Mass. — A senior White House official said on Wednesday that the United States would consider using American ground troops to assist Iraqis in rescuing Yazidi refugees if recommended by military advisers assessing the situation.

Discussion: JustOneMinute, Talking Points Memo, TalkLeft, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Business Insider, The Daily Caller and Hot Air

KTLA:

Police Fatally Shoot Man in South L.A.; Family Members Say He Was Lying Down When Shot … Family members said Tuesday that a 25-year-old man was complying with police orders when he was fatally shot by LAPD officers in the Florence neighborhood South Los Angeles.

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Los Angeles Times, The Root, Mediaite, Gawker, The Daily Banter, The Raw Story and Shakesville

Allan J. Lichtman / The Hill:

Who rules America? — A shattering new study by two political science professors has found that ordinary Americans have virtually no impact whatsoever on the making of national policy in our country. The analysts found that rich individuals and business-controlled interest groups largely shape policy outcomes in the United States.

Discussion: Hullabaloo

Enid Nemy / New York Times:

Lauren Bacall Dies at 89; in a Bygone Hollywood, She Purred Every Word — Lauren Bacall, the actress whose provocative glamour elevated her to stardom in Hollywood's golden age and whose lasting mystique put her on a plateau in American culture that few stars reach, died on Tuesday in New York.

Discussion: Feministing, Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Taylor Marsh, CNN, Outside the Beltway, Shakesville, The Daily Caller and Scared Monkeys

WPXI-TV:

Detective: Murder suspect asked Siri how to hide body — GAINESVILLE, Fla. — New evidence presented Tuesday in the trial of a man accused of killing his roommate showed he apparently asked Siri on his iPhone, “I need to hide my roommate.” — Pedro Bravo is accused of killing University …

Discussion: CBS Miami, Gawker, The Raw Story and Mediaite

James Vincent / The Independent:
Florida man accused of killing his roommate asked Siri where to hide the body, court hears

Discussion: The Daily Caller, The Verge and The PJ Tatler

Kevin Drum / Mother Jones:

Childhood Lead Exposure Causes a Lot More Than Just a Rise in Violent Crime — Jessica Wolpaw Reyes has a new paper out that investigates the link between childhood lead exposure—mostly via tailpipe emissions of leaded gasoline—and violent crime. Unsurprisingly, since her previous research …

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Unqualified Offerings and Balloon Juice

Jennifer Jacobs / Des Moines Register:

A charged-up Rick Perry after his Iowa State Fair speech: 'I'm awesome' — Rick Perry admits he's preparing to possibly run for president, even if Iowans haven't forgotten his forgetfulness. — And at the Iowa State Fair today, the Texas governor couldn't walk 10 feet without someone gunning for his attention.

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Politico, Shakesville and Mediaite

Jonathan Chait / New York Magazine:

How Libertarians Snookered The New York Times Magazine — Anatomy of a journalistic train wreck. — Shares — The premise underpinning Robert Draper's New York Times Magazine cover story on the “Libertarian Moment” is that libertarians offer the cure for the Republican Party's political difficulties.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Power Line, EconLog, The Week, Washington Monthly, Hit & Run and Democracy in America

Jeryl Bier / Weekly Standard:

Defense Secretary: ‘The World is Exploding All Over’ — Fresh off a trip to India and Australia, Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel addressed a group of Marines in San Diego, California Tuesday, and may have delivered a line that will show up in Republican campaign ads this election cycle.

Discussion: Power Line and The Daily Caller

Yahoo! News:

Obama's vacations and golf outings, by the numbers Yahoo News 1 hr ago — President Obama's annual family vacation — an escape to tony Martha's Vineyard — has once again served as an inviting target for critics. They ask how he can relax while the world burns, wring their hands about …

Discussion: Outside the Beltway, American Prospect, Mediaite and NewsBusters