memeorandum: Some Americans Fighting With Terror Groups Have Returned to the U.S., Obama Administration Says (Zeke J Miller/TIME)

5:50 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, Patterico's Pontifications, Talking Points Memo, Washington Monthly and Politico, 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 — Previously unpublished correspondence between Hillary Clinton and the late left-wing organizer Saul Alinsky reveals new details about her relationship with the controversial Chicago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: Washington Monthly, CNN, Bloomberg View, The PJ Tatler, Blazing Cat Fur, The Federalist, New Hampshire Journal, No More Mister Nice Blog, Fox News, Raw Story, New York Times, Hot Air, The Daily Banter, Weasel Zippers, The Other McCain and Liberal Values

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: OnPolitics, The Huffington Post, Hot Air, Daily Kos, Althouse, The PJ Tatler, RedState, Politico, Fox News, Weekly Standard and Twitchy

Stanley Kurtz / National Review:

Why Hillary's Alinsky Letters Matter — Alana Goodman's revelation at the Washington Free Beacon of previously unknown correspondence between Hillary Clinton and Saul Alinsky shows that Clinton has not been honest about her far-left past. The lost Alinsky letters also remind us of what we ought …

Discussion: Ed Driscoll, Taylor Marsh and Washington Free Beacon

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, Liberaland, Daily Signal, Fox News, Weasel Zippers, The Daily Caller, National Republican …, Wall Street Journal, Scared Monkeys and Instapundit

David Harsanyi / The Federalist:

Sorry, Politico, But Lois Lerner Is Not A Victim — Lois Lerner. Hero. Servant. Brownie-baking puppy lover. Sister of the Blessed State. — This is about all a person reading Politico's new exclusive “interview” with the former head of the I.R.S. division that oversees tax-exempt groups, might take away.

Discussion: Hit & Run, Politico and Instapundit

Noah Rothman / Hot Air:

Reason Magazine actually asked climate protesters what they want to do, and it's hilarious — Those in politics who spend much of their time railing about the dangers associated with anthropogenic climate change will often assert that the public largely shares their concerns about catastrophic climate shifts.

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

John Fund / National Review:
The Crumbling Climate-Change Consensus

Discussion: Betsy's Page

Jack Mirkinson / The Huffington Post:
TV News Misses Yet Another Opportunity To Cover Climate Change

Discussion: EcoWatch, The Week, New York Times, Raw Story, The Stranger …, Climate Denial Crock …, Taylor Marsh, skippy the bush kangaroo and New York Magazine

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

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Feministing, United Nations and Firedoglake

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

Discussion: The Daily Caller

New York Times:

White House Intruder Had Weapons and Ammunition in His Car — WASHINGTON — The man who managed to get in the front door of the White House on Friday had a cache of ammunition and weapons in his car at the time of the incident, and he had been arrested by the Virginia State Police in July …

Discussion: Guardian and Washington Post

Associated Press:
Obama Concerned Intruder Got in His Family's Home

Discussion: Politico

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

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

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, The Daily Caller, Washington Post, Towleroad News #gay, CBS DC and Washington Free Beacon

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: addictinginfo.org, Raw Story, WTVR-TV, Mashable, Hot Air, Shakesville and Twitchy

Dylan Byers / Politico:
Alaska TV reporter quits on-air

Discussion: The Stranger … and Washington Free Beacon

Jonah Bromwich / New York Times:

An Article on Shonda Rhimes Rightly Causes a Furor — The article on the television producer Shonda Rhimes hadn't yet appeared in Sunday's paper, but the virtual world was ablaze in protest over it on Friday after it was published online. — Written by the longtime TV critic, Alessandra Stanley …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Inside TV, Guardian, Poynter, Brad DeLong's Grasping Reality and The Huffington Post, more at Mediagazer »

Gerald F. Seib / Wall Street Journal:

Indiana Gov. Mike Pence Draws GOP Presidential Attention — He Helped Found the Tea-Party Caucus in Congress, and Now Leads a State With Booming Economy — With Washington's reputation lurking in used-car-salesmen territory, there will be a wide lane in the 2016 presidential campaign …

Zeke J Miller / TIME:

Some Americans Fighting With Terror Groups Have Returned to the U.S., Obama Administration Says — First official government confirmation that at least some of the Americans fighting alongside ISIS have come home — The Obama Administration believes some Americans who have fought alongside …

Discussion: Click2Houston.com, Pamela Geller, Atlas Shrugs, Weasel Zippers and Hot Air

Yahoo! News:
Official: Some Americans who fought in Syria have returned

Discussion: Hot Air

Justin Kroll / Variety:

Joseph Gordon-Levitt Eyes Edward Snowden Role in Oliver Stone Movie — Oliver Stone seems to have found the man to play NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden in his next pic “The Snowden Files.” — Sources tell Variety that Stone has offered the part to Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and that the actor has agreed to do it.

Discussion: WJLA-TV, The Verge, Guardian and The Daily Caller

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

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.”

Discussion: Washington Monthly

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

Dylan Scott / Talking Points Memo:

If You Listen, Hillary Is Trying To Tell You What Her 2016 Message Will Be — When Hillary Clinton spoke about women's economic issues last week at the Center for American Progress in Washington, the attuned listener might have caught a few phrases that sounded familiar.

Discussion: Hullabaloo

Jessica Schulberg / The New Republic:

Guantánamo Bay Is Crumbling Into Ruins — But guards and prisoners aren't leaving any time soon — In 1995, the U.S. military built a small temporary food preparation station on the Guantánamo Bay Naval Base to feed an influx of Haitian and Cuban refugees.

Discussion: The Dish

Michal Margalit / Ynetnews:

Gay party slammed for ISIS imagery — Gay party organizers publicize party using images inspired by Islamic State group' executions, garnering anger, criticism. — Drek - one of Tel Aviv's most popular gay party organizers - has inspired a massive wave of criticism and anger online …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Guardian and Towleroad News #gay

Marc Morano / Climate Depot:

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Wants To Jail His Political Opponents - Accuses Koch Brothers of ‘Treason’ - ‘They ought to be serving time for it’ — Kennedy Jr. on climate skeptics: 'I wish there were a law you could punish them with. I don't think there is a law that you can punish those politicians under'

Discussion: National Review, Weasel Zippers and Twitchy