memeorandum: Biden: ISIL will reside in hell (Jonathan Topaz/Politico)

3:20 PM ET, September 3, 2014

Top Items:

Dexter Filkins / New Yorker:

The Death of Steven Sotloff — In the final moments before an ISIS executioner beheaded the American journalist Steven Sotloff, the masked man offered up, in an English accent, a message to his viewers: “We take this opportunity to warn those governments that enter this evil alliance of America …

Discussion: neo-neocon, The Dish, No More Mister Nice Blog, PJ Media and Prairie Weather, more at Mediagazer »

Jonathan Topaz / Politico:

Biden: ISIL will reside in hell — Vice President Joe Biden on Wednesday delivered a fiery response to the killing of American journalist Steven Sotloff, telling Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant militants that the U.S. will “follow them to the gates of hell.” — “[W]hen people harm Americans, we don't retreat.

Discussion: No More Mister Nice Blog, National Review and Washington Free Beacon

Josh Rogin / The Daily Beast:
After Steven Sotloff Murder, Congress Demands a Vote on Obama's ISIS War

Discussion: The Hill, New York Times, Weekly Standard and Yahoo! News, more at Mediagazer »

Justin Sink / The Hill:
‘We will not be intimidated’ by ISIS

Discussion: Power Line, BBC, The Moderate Voice and ABC News

Kendall Breitman / Politico:
Geraldo Rivera: Behead the ISIL ‘butchers’

Discussion: Mediaite, Twitchy and The Huffington Post

The Hill:
Lawmakers to Obama: Hit ISIS

Discussion: ABC News, The Daily Caller, Hot Air and The Daily Beast

Jesse Byrnes / The Hill: Kerry calls Sotloff murder a ‘punch to the gut’

Kathleen Hennessey / Los Angeles Times:
Obama: Video of slain journalist is authentic, U.S. won't be intimidated

Discussion: Fox News, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, The Week, Gawker, Hot Air and The New Republic, more at Mediagazer »

Chris Geidner / BuzzFeed:

Louisiana Marriage Ban Is Constitutional, Federal Judge Rules — “The State of Louisiana has a legitimate interest under a rational basis standard of review for addressing the meaning of marriage through the democratic process.” The first federal court ruling upholding a ban in the past year.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, ACS Blog, The Raw Story and Daily Kos

Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry / The Week:

Why so many Christians won't back down on gay marriage — A traditional view of marriage is about much more than today's politics. It's deeply woven into the 2,000-year-old ethic at the heart of our faith. — A majority of Americans already favor same-sex marriage …

Discussion: Lawyers, Guns & Money

Sahil Kapur / Talking Points Memo: Gay Marriage Suffers First Defeat In Federal Court Since SCOTUS Ruling

Chris Cillizza / Washington Post:

Our Senate model is moving in Democrats' direction all of a sudden. Why? — On July 15, Election Lab, WaPo's election model, gave Republicans an 86 percent chance of winning the six seats they needed to take over the Senate majority. Today — 50 days later — it gives Republicans only a 52 percent chance of winning the majority.

Discussion: New York Times, Bloomberg View and Democracy in America

Office of Media Relations:
Economy Will Drive Midterm Elections, GW Battleground Poll Shows

Discussion: Firedoglake, Washington Post, Washington Free Beacon and Taegan Goddard's …

Alexander Bolton / The Hill:

Sen. Coburn: Let's change Constitution — Sen. Tom Coburn is pushing for a national convention to amend the Constitution. — The Oklahoma Republican, who has grown disenchanted with gridlock in Washington, will officially launch his effort after he retires from the Senate in a few months.

Discussion: Daily Kos

Catherine Thompson / Talking Points Memo:

Phil Robertson's Plan For Combating ISIS: ‘Convert Them Or Kill Them’ — “Duck Dynasty” patriarch Phil Robertson put forward a strategy Tuesday for combating militants with the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria: “convert them or kill them.” — Robertson was asked to opine on Fox News' …

Discussion: American Prospect, ThinkProgress, Daily Kos and Gawker

Josh Feldman / Mediaite:
Phil Robertson Tells Hannity How He'd Combat ISIS: ‘Convert Them or Kill Them’

Discussion: Politico, John Hawkins' Right Wing News and The Huffington Post

Tom Lyden / myfoxtwincities.com:

EXCLUSIVE: ISIS fighter worked at Minneapolis airport — He was the second known American killed while fighting for ISIS in Syria, and the second from Minnesota — and a Fox 9 exclusive uncovering his employment history is raising a few eyebrows. — An airport is probably the last place anyone …

Discussion: Power Line, Hot Air, Weekly Standard, No More Mister Nice Blog, The Blotter, Business Insider and Mediaite

Jessica Roy / New York Magazine:

Columbia Student Will Carry a Mattress Everywhere Until Her Alleged Rapist Is Expelled — Emma Sulkowicz staged the piece of performance art as a protest against Columbia's handling of her sexual-assault case. — 1.9k — Shares — 1.8k — Emma Sulkowicz says she was raped …

Discussion: TIME, Columbia Daily Spectator, ThinkProgress, Gothamist, The Daily Caller, Jezebel, The Raw Story, Guardian and Inside Higher Ed

James Hohmann / Politico:

Senate control 'on knife's edge' — Some $400 million has already been spent in the battle for the Senate. Yet the record-shattering early money has hardly budged the half-dozen races that will decide the fate of the upper chamber, and two months out from Election Day …

Discussion: Roll Call and Liberal Values

James Hohmann / Politico:
The 5 sleeper Senate races

Discussion: Washington Post, Campaign for America's Future and National Review

Ron Christie / The Daily Beast:
Democrats' Midterm Wish: The Government Shutdown That Won't Happen

Discussion: The New Republic

Scott Clement / Washington Post:

New poll says large majority of Americans believe Redskins should not change name — (Post Sports Live/The Washington Post) — A large but shrinking majority of Americans say the Washington Redskins should not change their team's name, according to a poll released Tuesday finding …

Discussion: Weekly Standard, his vorpal sword, National Review, NewsBusters, ESPN, ABC News, Washington Free Beacon, Hot Air and Booman Tribune

Michael Brown / St. Louis Post-Dispatch:

Juvenile court: Michael Brown had no serious felony convictions, did not face felony charges — • By Jeremy Kohler jkohler@post-dispatch.com 314-340-8337 — Updated with more details. — CLAYTON • Michael Brown was never found delinquent of the juvenile equivalents …

Discussion: Little Green Footballs, The Gateway Pundit and Daily Kos

Thomas L. Friedman / New York Times:

Ready, Aim, Fire. Not Fire, Ready, Aim. — President Obama has been excoriated for declaring that “we don't have a strategy yet” for effectively confronting the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or ISIS. In criticizing Obama for taking too much time, Representative Mike Rogers …

Discussion: NationalJournal.com, Gawker and JustOneMinute

Pew Research Center:

Who runs for office? A profile of the 2% — There are 90,107 government units in the U.S. — everything from county governments (3,031) to independent school district governments (12,880), according to 2012 Census Bureau data. Some governments have appointed officials …

Discussion: Washington Post

TIME:

5 Feminist Myths That Will Not Die — If we're genuinely committed to improving the circumstances of women, we need to get the facts straight — Much of what we hear about the plight of American women is false. Some faux facts have been repeated so often they are almost beyond the reach of critical analysis.

Discussion: The Other McCain

Kaitlin Stack Whitney / The Atlantic Online:

The Secret Pot-Growing Operations in America's Cornfields — On any given weekday in the summer, you will find me walking through fields counting bugs. In fact, it's my job: I'm an ecologist studying the communities of insects that live in agricultural landscapes.

Glenn Kessler / Washington Post:

Spinning Obama's reference to Islamic State as a ‘JV’ team — Question: “Did the president underestimate ISIS [the terrorist group Islamic State of Iraq and Syria] when he referred to them in an interview only a couple months ago as a JV squad and making a reference to National Basketball Association basketball teams like the Lakers?”

Discussion: Fox News, Bloomberg View, The Daily Caller and Hot Air