memeorandum: After Surgery, Surprise $117,000 Medical Bill From Doctor He Didn't Know (Elisabeth Rosenthal/New York Times)

2:50 PM ET, September 22, 2014

Top Items:

Gillibrand's Weight Watcher Revealed, and a Presidential Nominee Is Sunk — Good Monday morning and welcome to the inaugural edition of First Draft, your morning briefing for politics. Today, the White House is reviewing the locks on its doors, 91-year-old Bob Dole hits the campaign trail …

Discussion: BuzzFeed, Politico, Patterico's Pontifications, Washington Monthly and Talking Points Memo, more at Mediagazer »

Alana Goodman / Washington Free Beacon:

The Hillary Letters — NOTE: READ THE HILLARY CLINTON-SAUL ALINSKY LETTERS HERE. — Previously unpublished correspondence between Hillary Clinton and the late left-wing organizer Saul Alinsky reveals new details about her relationship with the controversial Chicago activist and shed light on her early ideological development.

Discussion: CNN, New Hampshire Journal, Fox News, New York Times, Hot Air, Raw Story, The Federalist, The Daily Banter, Weasel Zippers, Liberal Values and The Other McCain

Ashley Parker / New York Times:

Alaska Ad Finds a Target in Begich's Support of Gun Rights — Senator Mark Begich of Alaska was one of just five Democratic senators who voted against a bipartisan gun control bill last year, helping to ensure its failure. — But that hasn't prevented Dan Sullivan, Mr. Begich's Republican opponent …

Discussion: Hot Air, The PJ Tatler, Politico, Daily Kos, Althouse, RedState, Weekly Standard and Twitchy

Stanley Kurtz / National Review:
Why Hillary's Alinsky Letters Matter

Discussion: Taylor Marsh

Rachael Bade / Politico:

Exclusive: Lois Lerner breaks silence — Employers won't hire her. She's been berated with epithets like “dirty Jew.” Federal agents have guarded her house because of death threats. And she's spent hundreds of thousands of dollars defending herself against accusations she orchestrated …

Discussion: Hot Air, Daily Signal, Fox News, Wall Street Journal, Weasel Zippers, The Daily Caller, National Republican …, Scared Monkeys and Instapundit

John Fund / National Review:

The Crumbling Climate-Change Consensus — Extremists' rhetoric heats up as their case falls apart. — Protesters at the People's Climate March in New York City, September 21. (Andrew Burton/Getty Images) — The United Nations Climate Summit will begin in New York this Tuesday, but environmental activists didn't wait.

Noah Rothman / Hot Air:
Reason Magazine actually asked climate protesters what they want to do, and it's hilarious

Discussion: Fox News, American Thinker, John Hawkins' Right Wing News, Power Line, Hit & Run and New York Times

Karoli / Crooks and Liars:
The 300,000-Strong Climate Change March Media Ignored

Discussion: ThinkProgress and Firedoglake

Reason:
What We Saw at the People's Climate March

Discussion: The Daily Caller

msnbc.com:
The largest climate march in history

Discussion: Raw Story, Climate Denial Crock … and Washington Monthly

Ari Phillips / ThinkProgress:
More Than 310,000 People Descend On New York To March For Climate Action

Discussion: USA Today, Feministing, Mother Jones and United Nations

Anchorage Daily News:

KTVA reporter quits on-air, reveals herself as owner of Alaska Cannabis Club — Reporter Charlo Greene quit on-air during KTVA-TV's 10 p.m. newscast Sunday, revealing herself as the owner of the medical marijuana business Alaska Cannabis Club and telling viewers that she would be using …

Discussion: Raw Story, Shakesville, WTVR-TV, Mashable, Hot Air and Twitchy

Dylan Byers / Politico:

Alaska TV reporter quits on-air — Today's viral video comes to us from CBS affiliate KTVA in Anchorage, Alaska, where reporter Charlo Greene revealed on-air that she is the owner of the Alaska Cannabis Club, which connects recreational pot users to medical-marijuana cardholders, and then stated …

Discussion: The Stranger … and Washington Free Beacon

Associated Press:

Obama Concerned Intruder Got in His Family's Home — President Barack Obama is expressing concern that an intruder carrying a knife was able to get into the White House where his family lives. — Obama press secretary Josh Earnest says Obama is “obviously concerned” that a man got through …

Discussion: Politico

Carol D. Leonnig / Washington Post:
Secret Service considers a larger buffer zone around the White House

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, New York Times, The Daily Banter, ABC News, Fox News, The Hill, Yahoo! News and CBS News

CNN:
ISIS war rollout resembles launch of Obamacare site

Discussion: Betsy's Page

Paul Krugman / New York Times:

Those Lazy Jobless — Last week John Boehner, the speaker of the House, explained to an audience at the American Enterprise Institute what's holding back employment in America: laziness. People, he said, have “this idea” that “I really don't have to work. I don't really want to do this.

Discussion: Prairie Weather, Shakesville and Washington Monthly

Washington Post:

Sam Brownback's failed ‘experiment’ puts state on path to penury — GOV. SAM BROWNBACK of Kansas says he has come to regret characterizing his policy agenda as a “real live experiment” that would test the efficacy of deep tax cuts to spur jobs and economic growth. In fact, Mr. Brownback's choice of words was apt.

Discussion: CBS News, Washington Monthly, The Huffington Post and New York Times

Numbers / Pew Research Center's Religion …:

Public Sees Religion's Influence Waning — Growing Appetite for Religion in Politics — Nearly three-quarters of the public (72%) now thinks religion is losing influence in American life, up 5 percentage points from 2010 to the highest level in Pew Research polling over the past decade.

Discussion: American Prospect and CBS DC

New York Post:

Innocent man wrongly jailed for 23 years dies days before lawsuit — Jailed for more than two decades for a crime he did not commit, William Lopez's brief taste of freedom came to a sudden, tragic end Saturday when he died just days before his $124 million lawsuit for false imprisonment was set to start.

Discussion: ABC News

Tim Murphy / Mother Jones:

Will It Take a Keg Stand for Mary Landrieu to Get Reelected? — Tailgating with the most endangered Democrat in the Senate. … It's game day in Baton Rouge, and the bro in the purple shirt wants Mary Landrieu's help doing a keg stand. — Landrieu, elected three times by the narrowest of margins …

Discussion: National Review, Fox News Insider, The Daily Caller, Business Insider, OnPolitics, Roll Call and ABC News

UN Women - Headquarters:

Emma Watson: Gender equality is your issue too — Speech by UN Women Goodwill Ambassador Emma Watson at a special event for the HeForShe campaign, United Nations Headquarters, New York, 20 September 2014 — [Check against delivery.] — Today we are launching a campaign called “HeForShe.”

Discussion: Business Insider, CNN, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Raw Story, ThinkProgress, Stop Street Harassment, Mashable, Feministing and Telegraph

Juan Williams / The Hill:

Obama's October Surprise — Get ready for bombs bursting in air and this election's October Surprise - President Obama's air strikes to “degrade and ultimately destroy” ISIS. — Last week a Fox News poll identified a phenomenon that my friend, pollster Dana Blanton, dubbed “The ISIS effect.”

Yahoo! News:

Official: Some Americans who fought in Syria have returned — Some of the estimated 100 Americans who have tried to get to Syria and join up with groups like the Islamic State have returned to the United States and are under FBI scrutiny, a top official told reporters on Monday.

Discussion: TIME, Click2Houston.com and Hot Air

Jon Feere / The Hill:

Obama's lawless immigration plan is a gift to the 1 percent — Unlike most political issues, immigration is not really a right vs. left or Republican vs. Democrat issue. Instead, immigration is better understood as an elite vs. public issue where the elite in our society tends …

We Ask America:

IL & MI — We continue our polls in Midwestern states today with our home base—Illinois—and races in Michigan. — Illinois: Everything old is new again — Governor Pat Quinn has made a career out of proving those who dismiss his chances in political races wrong.

Discussion: National Review

Maureen Dowd / New York Times:

Willie Nelson Feels Maureen Dowd's Pain — WASHINGTON — WHEN Willie Nelson invites you to get high with him on his bus, you go. — The man is the patron saint of pot, after all, and I'm the poster girl for bad pot trips. — It seemed like a match made in hash heaven.

Discussion: Hit & Run and The Dish