memeorandum: N.J. Rating Cut by S&P as Christie Gets Record Downgrade (Bloomberg)

6:10 PM ET, September 11, 2014

Top Items:

Struggling to Gauge ISIS Threat, Even as U.S. Prepares to Act — WASHINGTON — The violent ambitions of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria have been condemned across the world: in Europe and the Middle East, by Sunni nations and Shiite ones, and by sworn enemies like Israel and Iran.

Matthew Duss / American Prospect:

In Fight Against ISIL, Obama Finds Himself Facing Michael Corleone's Dilemma — If you think that American power and leadership is best demonstrated by our ability to blow things up, this probably wasn't the speech for you. While President Barack Obama laid out a number of steps …

Discussion: BREITBART.COM, Firedoglake, Bloomberg View, AEIdeas, Hullabaloo and The Dish

Geir Moulson / Associated Press:

Britain: Won't take part in airstrikes on Syria — Associated Press 4 hrs ago — BERLIN (AP) — Britain won't participate in any airstrikes on Syria but otherwise is ruling nothing out as it considers how to support President Barack Obama's plan to root out the Islamic State group, the British foreign secretary said Thursday.

Discussion: Hot Air, Washington Post, NO QUARTER USA NET and RedState

Byron York / Washington Examiner:

Five things that could go horribly wrong with Obama's action in Iraq — BELTWAY CONFIDENTIAL BARACK OBAMA IRAQ NATIONAL SECURITY ISIS — If there's one thing America's misadventure in Iraq from 2003 to 2011 taught everyone, it is that things can go terribly wrong when the U.S. intervenes …

Discussion: ABC News

Rajiv Chandrasekaran / Washington Post:
Countering Islamic State will be hard in Iraq and harder in Syria, officials say

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Jerusalem Post, The Atlantic Online, Guardian, Amanda Coyne, Hot Air, The Intercept, Lawyers, Guns & Money, CANNONFIRE and The Moderate Voice

David Frum / The Atlantic Online:
Obama's Speech on ISIS, in Plain English

Discussion: Washington Monthly and New Yorker

Reuters:
Russia says air strikes in Syria would be act of aggression without U.N. vote

Discussion: Hot Air and Weekly Standard

Sarah Palin / Facebook:
War is hell. So go big or go home, Mr. President.

Discussion: Politico, The Immoral Minority, Daily Kos, Hit & Run and The Raw Story

Vali R. Nasr / New York Times:
The Grand Strategy Obama Needs

Discussion: VodkaPundit

Mario Trujillo / The Hill: Cheney points finger at Obama's ‘indifference’ for rise of ISIS

Dylan Scott / Talking Points Memo:

Kansas High Court Rejects Kobach's Request To Transfer Senate Case — The Kansas Supreme Court has decided to hear the lawsuit Democratic Senate nominee Chad Taylor has brought against Secretary of State Kris Kobach, after Kobach argued that the case should be transferred to a lower court.

Discussion: Election Law Blog

New York Times:

Stop the Anti-Obamacare Shenanigans — SO far, opponents of the Affordable Care Act have lost every major battle to repeal or invalidate it. Some of them are now urging the courts to interpret the health reform law in a way that would guarantee its failure.

Richard Wolf / Associated Press:
Supreme Court will consider hearing gay marriage cases

Discussion: Towleroad News #gay and The New Republic

Tristyn Bloom / The Daily Caller:

Ted Cruz Booed Off Stage At Middle East Christian Conference [VIDEO] — Sen. Ted Cruz was booed offstage at a conference for Middle Eastern Christians Wednesday night after saying that “Christians have no greater ally than Israel.” — Cruz, the keynote speaker at the sold-out D.C. dinner gala …

Discussion: Washington Post, Wonkette, Americans Against the …, Mediaite, BillMoyers.com, Politico, The Raw Story, Israel Matzav, Gawker, RedState and Washington Free Beacon

Matthew Boyle / BREITBART.COM:
TED CRUZ: HATRED, BIGOTRY, OPPOSITION TO ISRAEL LED TO ME LEAVING EVENT

Discussion: John Hawkins' Right Wing News, Vox Popoli and National Review

Alana Goodman / Washington Free Beacon:
Cruz Headlines Conference Featuring Hezbollah Supporters

Discussion: Power Line, Lebanon Daily Star, The Daily Caller, Talking Points Memo, Business Insider and The Federalist

Amanda Coyne:

Loose Lips: Hell hath no fury like a Palin family visit. Campaigns gear up. Mayor Dan grabs a Tiger by the tail. — About 65 people showed for the fundraiser for gubernatorial candidate Bill Walker and lt. gov. candidate Byron Mallott on Monday night. It wasn't the usual Dem crowd.

Discussion: The Immoral Minority, The Huffington Post, Mediaite and The Daily Caller

Rebecca Schoenkopf / Wonkette:
Anchorage PD: Palins Were ‘Present’ At 20-Person Brawl. Fate Of Hos' Weave Unknown

Discussion: Liberaland, The Immoral Minority, The Raw Story and Gawker

Randi Kaye / CNN:

New Michael Brown shooting witnesses describe scene — (CNN) — Two men, shocked at what they saw, describe an unarmed teenager with his hands up in the air as he's gunned down by a police officer. — They were contractors doing construction work in Ferguson, Missouri, on the day Michael Brown was killed.

Discussion: Liberaland, Business Insider, Little Green Footballs, Washington Monthly, Daily Kos, Americans Against the … and Gawker

Agence France-Presse:

Turkey refuses US permission for combat missions against ISIS: official — ANKARA: Turkey will refuse to allow a US-led coalition to attack jihadists in neighbouring Iraq and Syria from its air bases, nor will it take part in combat operations against militants, a government official told AFP Thursday.

Discussion: The Dish, Guardian, The Gateway Pundit, New York Times, Washington Free Beacon and The Atlantic Online

CNN:
Kerry: U.S. not at war with ISIS

Discussion: Hot Air

Eli Lake / The Daily Beast:

Obama's New War on ISIS May Be Illegal — In a stunning turnaround, the Obama administration is arguing that a law authorizing a war on al Qaeda be used to justify strikes on al Qaeda's foes. — President Obama's new war against ISIS is off to a shaky legal start.

Discussion: Business Insider, RealClearPolitics Video Log, Lawfare, Mediaite, Reuters, Hot Air, ThinkProgress, Hit & Run, The Dish, Washington Post and National Review

Jack Goldsmith / TIME:
Obama's Breathtaking Expansion of a President's Power To Make War

Discussion: Lawfare, Opinio Juris, Wall Street Journal and Guardian

Tara Palmeri / Page Six:

Arnold had Shriver scrubbed from portrait — He scrubbed her from his heart! — Arnold Schwarzenegger was so hot to erase any memory of his marriage to Maria Shriver that he had her face scrubbed from his official portrait as governor of California — and he didn't even care …

Discussion: Mediaite, Truth Revolt and Politico

New York Times:

Oscar Pistorius Not Guilty of Murder; Still Faces Lesser Homicide Charge — PRETORIA, South Africa — The judge presiding over the trial of Oscar Pistorius, the Paralympic athlete, cleared him of the two most serious murder charges against him on Thursday, almost certainly sparing him a long prison sentence.

Discussion: ABC News, SBNation.com, Jezebel, Gawker, Robert Littal Presents …, Scared Monkeys, Liberaland and Taylor Marsh

Claire Phipps / Guardian:
Oscar Pistorius verdict live: judge says athlete not guilty of murder

Discussion: Deadspin

Rasmussen Reports:

North Carolina Senate: Hagan (D) 45%, Tillis (R) 39% — Is Kay Hagan's “war on women” strategy beginning to pay off? The embattled incumbent Democrat has now moved ahead of Republican challenger Thom Tillis in North Carolina's U.S. Senate race. — The latest Rasmussen Reports statewide telephone survey …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo

Josh Israel / ThinkProgress:

Georgia Secretary Of State Laments That Democrats Are Registering Minority Voters — Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp (R) — CREDIT: Office of the Secretary of State — A day after the Senior Deputy Whip for the Georgia Senate Republicans vowed to block early voting dates and locations …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Political Insider blog, The Raw Story and WSB-TV

Perry Stein / City Desk:

Some DCPS Students Were Assigned to Compare George W. Bush to Adolf Hitler — Some D.C. Public School seventh-graders were assigned the rather unpatriotic task this week of comparing Adolf Hitler to former President George W. Bush. But now the school district wants you to know that such …

Discussion: Gawker, CBS DC, Truth Revolt, The Gateway Pundit, Business Insider, Mediaite and National Review

Bloomberg:

N.J. Rating Cut by S&P as Christie Gets Record Downgrade — New Jersey had its credit rating cut one step by Standard & Poor's, handing Chris Christie his eighth downgrade, the most ever for a Garden State governor. — The reduction to A, the sixth-highest level, with a stable outlook follows a Sept. 5 downgrade by Fitch Ratings.

Peter Sullivan / The Hill:

Poll gives GOP 23-point lead in keeping US safe — The public thinks Republicans will do a better job keeping the U.S. safe by a wider margin than at any time since 2002, according to a Gallup poll. — The poll finds that 55 percent of adults think Republicans will do a better job protecting …

Discussion: Rush Limbaugh and Fox News