memeorandum: New Comic to Anchor ‘Update’ on ‘S.N.L.’ (Bill Carter/New York Times)

8:40 AM ET, September 12, 2014

Top Items:

Legal Authority for Fighting ISIS — As the Pentagon gears up to expand its fight against ISIS, a fundamentalist Sunni militant group that controls large areas of Iraq and Syria, Congress appears perfectly willing to abdicate one of its most consequential powers: the authority to declare war.

Discussion: Washington Examiner, Daily Kos, Power Line, Balkinization, Mediaite and Hot Air

Bruce Ackerman / New York Times:

Obama's Betrayal of the Constitution — BERLIN — PRESIDENT OBAMA's declaration of war against the terrorist group known as the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria marks a decisive break in the American constitutional tradition. Nothing attempted by his predecessor, George W. Bush, remotely compares in imperial hubris.

Discussion: Lawfare, Grim's Hall, Betsy's Page, Vox Popoli, Balkinization, Just Security, Reuters, Opinio Juris and TIME

David Frum / The Atlantic Online:

Obama's Speech on ISIS, in Plain English — Qua speech, Barack Obama's address Wednesday on the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria was surprisingly terrible: a disorganized mess, insincere and unconvincing. To appreciate just how bad and bizarre it was, compare the president's speech announcing …

Discussion: Middle East, Washington Monthly, The Dish and American Prospect

Allahpundit / Hot Air:

Question for the State Department: Isn't Obama waging preemptive war in Iraq now? — Via the Free Beacon. I would have phrased the question differently, like, say, “When exactly did President Obama decide that the Bush doctrine is awesome?” Because he has, you know. But we needn't quibble over semantics.

Discussion: Power Line, The Atlantic Online, Washington Free Beacon and Firedoglake

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

Discussion: Firedoglake and Hot Air

Peter Beinart / The Atlantic Online:
How Serious a Threat Is ISIS?

Discussion: Daily Kos, The Intercept, Opinio Juris, Prairie Weather, American Prospect, Washington Post and BillMoyers.com

Jeff Shesol / New Yorker:
Obama's Coalition of the Willing and Unable

Discussion: Hullabaloo, RedState and New York Times

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

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, RealClearDefense, Fox News, Just Security, Guardian, Jerusalem Post, Army Times, ThinkProgress, Amanda Coyne, Hot Air, The Intercept, Agence France-Presse, Lawyers, Guns & Money and New York Times

Ron Bell / Yahoo Global Public Policy:

Shedding Light on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC): Court Findings from Our 2007-2008 Case — Today we are pleased to announce the release of more than 1,500 pages of once-secret papers from Yahoo's 2007-2008 challenge to the expansion of U.S. surveillance laws.

Discussion: The Intercept, Engadget, Gigaom, Guardian, The Hill, Mashable, The Verge, Politico, Hit & Run and VentureBeat

Craig Timberg / Washington Post:

U.S. threatened massive fine to force Yahoo to release data — The U.S. government threatened to fine Yahoo $250,000 a day in 2008 if it failed to comply with a broad demand to hand over user data that the company believed was unconstitutional, according to court documents unsealed Thursday …

Discussion: Prairie Weather, Gawker, Mediaite and The Daily Caller

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: Mediaite, The Immoral Minority, Politicalgates, The Dish, Americans Against the …, The Daily Caller and The Huffington Post

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

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

NY Daily News:

Obama's uncertain trumpet — Again, he halfheartedly leads the nation into battle — In his Islamic State speech, President Obama said many of the right things. Most importantly, he finally got the mission right: degrade and destroy the enemy. — This alone will probably get him a bump …

Discussion: New York Times, LewRockwell and Washington Post

Byron York / Washington Examiner:
Five things that could go horribly wrong with Obama's action in Iraq

Discussion: Slate, Hot Air, New York Times, Foreign Policy and ABC News

Geir Moulson / Associated Press:
Britain: Won't take part in airstrikes on Syria

Discussion: The Dish, RedState, Hot Air, NO QUARTER USA NET and New York Times

Bill Carter / New York Times:

New Comic to Anchor ‘Update’ on ‘S.N.L.’ — The new season of “Saturday Night Live” will have a significant change in its cast and its most prominent segment, “Weekend Update.” — Michael Che, a comic perhaps best known for his role as a correspondent on Comedy Central's “The Daily Show …

Discussion: Politico, The Huffington Post, Mashable, Jezebel and Gawker

CNN:

Obama's strategy: Kill ISIS before they kill us — Obama lays out ISIS strategy … (CNN) — Think that President Barack Obama has done a back flip on Iraq and Syria, gotten that old-time religion and is now a convert to the “let's kill them wherever we find them” approach of his predecessors?

Discussion: Wall Street Journal

Politico:

Democrats' whopper of a strategy flop — President Barack Obama and his Democratic allies hoped to capitalize on the recent wave of companies ditching the U.S. to slice their tax bill as a populist issue to fire up the progressive base and bash Republicans as slaves to corporate interests.

John Eligon / New York Times:

Missouri Enacts 72-Hour Wait for Abortion — KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Republican-controlled Missouri legislature has enacted one of the most stringent waiting periods for women seeking abortions, overriding a veto by the state's Democratic governor, Jay Nixon.

Robert A. Cronkletonthe / Kansas City Star:
FBI investigating vandalism at Cleaver's KC office

Discussion: ABC News and Business Insider

Jonathan Stempel / Reuters:

U.S. seeks up to 16 months in prison for Dinesh D'Souza — (Reuters) - The U.S. government wants conservative author and filmmaker Dinesh D'Souza to be sentenced to as much as 16 months in prison, following his guilty plea to a campaign finance law violation.

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion and Balloon Juice

Ed Payne / CNN:

Convicted high school shooter TJ Lane back in custody after prison escape — (CNN) — T.J. Lane, a remorseless killer who escaped from an Ohio prison where he was serving three life sentences for a school shooting, has been recaptured, a law enforcement official said.

Discussion: The Raw Story, WTVR-TV, Scared Monkeys, Mediaite, myfox8.com, FOX31 Denver and WREG-TV

Don Van Natta Jr / ESPN:

Ray Rice told Goodell he hit fiancee — Ray Rice told NFL commissioner Roger Goodell on June 16 that he punched his then-fiancee in a casino elevator, four sources have told “Outside the Lines,” an assertion that contradicts Goodell's statement this week that “when we met with Ray Rice …

Discussion: ProFootballTalk, ABC News, The Big Lead, 7online.com, SBNation.com, abc7.com, Robert Littal Presents …, Deadspin, The Raw Story and TMZ.com

Josh Gerstein / Politico:

Court won't release costs of Gitmo camp — A federal judge ruled Thursday that the Pentagon need not make public a document detailing the costs associated with a Guantanamo Bay prison camp used to house so-called high-value detainees. — In a ten-page opinion (posted here) …

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: nccivitas.org and Talking Points Memo

Karen Tumulty / Washington Post:

Obama losing the confidence of key parts of the coalition that elected him — Kimberly Cole was part of the coalition that voted in 2008 to make Barack Obama the 44th president and in 2012 gave him another four years to deliver on his promises of hope and change.

Discussion: Wall Street Journal