memeorandum: Why the $#&@! Did Your Airline Cancel Your Flight Today? They Had a Very Good Reason. (Amy Cohn/The New Republic)

1:35 PM ET, August 30, 2014

Top Items:

Justin Sink / The Hill:

Obama: Media makes you think ‘world is falling apart’ — President Obama on Friday said social media and the nightly news are partly to blame for the sense that “the world is falling apart.” — “I can see why a lot of folks are troubled,” Obama told a group of donors gathered …

Discussion: Power Line, protein wisdom, Independent Journal Review, Hot Air, The PJ Tatler and Mediaite

John Kerry / New York Times:

The Threat of ISIS Demands a Global Coalition — IN a polarized region and a complicated world, the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria presents a unifying threat to a broad array of countries, including the United States. What's needed to confront its nihilistic vision and genocidal agenda …

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, Guardian, Newsweek, CNN and The Huffington Post

Tom Maguire / JustOneMinute:

Save It For The Funny Papers, Or, The Long Slow Flip-Flop Into Light — John Kerry gets guest space in the NY Times on the Saturday of Labor Day weekend - geez, I guess whatever it is couldn't wait until the day after Thanksgiving. — Kerry is exhorting the world to rally itself …

Washington Post:

President Obama needs to focus on how the United States can meet global challenges — PRESIDENT OBAMA'S acknowledgment that “we don't have a strategy yet” in Syria understandably attracted the most attention after his perplexing meeting with reporters Thursday.

Discussion: JustOneMinute, Mashable, Taylor Marsh, Hot Air, New York Times, John Hawkins' Right Wing News, Guardian, The Moderate Voice and The Reaction

New York Times:

John McCain and Lindsey Graham: Confront ISIS Now — AFTER more than three years, almost 200,000 dead in Syria, the near collapse of Iraq, and the rise of the world's most sinister terrorist army — the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, which has conquered vast swaths of both countries …

Discussion: emptywheel, ParaPundit, Politico, The Huffington Post and Lawfare

Martin Matishak / The Hill:
GOP senators: Obama needs to respond faster to ISIS threat

Discussion: Liberaland

Carol Anderson / Washington Post:

Ferguson isn't about black rage against cops. It's white rage against progress. — Carol Anderson is an associate professor of African American studies and history at Emory University and a public voices fellow with the Op-Ed Project. She is the author of “Bourgeois Radicals …

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit and Prairie Weather

Courier-Journal:

McConnell campaign chief resigns amid scandal — Jesse Benton resigned as Sen. Mitch McConnell's campaign manager Friday following reports that he had emerged as a figure in an endorsement scandal during the 2012 Iowa presidential caucus. — In an emailed statement Friday evening …

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Associated Press, The Daily Caller and Americans Against the …

Anne Applebaum / Washington Post:

War in Europe is not a hysterical idea — Over and over again — throughout the entirety of my adult life, or so it feels — I have been shown Polish photographs from the beautiful summer of 1939: The children playing in the sunshine, the fashionable women on Krakow streets.

Discussion: The PJ Tatler, CNN, National Review, Telegraph, Instapundit and The Dish

Allie Rasmus / KTVU-TV:

Walnut Creek officer accused of beating woman with bat — A man who'd been in charge of upholding the law for three decades is now accused of breaking it. Richmond police arrested an off-duty Walnut Creek Police Officer for allegedly donning a mask and beating a woman with a baseball bat on August 16.

Discussion: The Raw Story and Liberaland

Amy Cohn / The New Republic:

Why the $#&@! Did Your Airline Cancel Your Flight Today? They Had a Very Good Reason. — An airline-industry expert explains why you get screwed over—and how to avoid it — Comedian Louis CK has absolutely no patience for the complaints of airline passengers, as he explains in one very funny, albeit profanity-laced bit.

John Hinderaker / Power Line:

Advice on Strategy From Dilbert — President Obama can't come up with a strategy to deal with ISIS. It's just so...complicated. Here's an idea: how about if we kill them? — I don't suppose Obama will go with that one. But hey: even Dilbert has a better grasp of strategy than our clueless president:

Agence France-Presse:

EU's Barroso warns Ukraine crisis near ‘point of no return’ AFP 1 hr ago — Brussels (AFP) - EU Commission head Jose Manual Barroso warned on Saturday that the crisis in Ukraine was reaching the point of no return, after reports Russian troops were fighting in the east of the country.

Discussion: Business Insider