memeorandum: Bartender's Threat against John Boehner Thwarted (Victor Paul Alvarez/Boston Globe)

4:35 PM ET, January 14, 2015

Top Items:

Margaret Sullivan / New York Times:

With New Charlie Hebdo Cover, News Value Should Have Prevailed — Readers responded passionately, and in large numbers, to my post last week about The Times's decision not to publish the now-famous Charlie Hebdo cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad. (In fact, I've never had more comments on a post or column.)

Lori Hinnant / Associated Press:

France cracks down on hate speech, sends carrier to Mideast — PARIS (AP) — France ordered prosecutors around the country to crack down on hate speech, anti-Semitism and glorifying terrorism and announced Wednesday it was sending an aircraft carrier to the Mideast to work more closely …

Discussion: The Intercept, US News, The Dish, neo-neocon, Guardian, Associated Press, Althouse and BizPac Review

Lori Hinnant / Associated Press:
France arrests 54 for defending terror; newspaper sells out

Discussion: The Independent, Bloomberg View, Hot Air, Politico, ABC News, Truth Revolt, abc11.com, The PJ Tatler and Pamela Geller, Atlas Shrugs

Guardian:
Dieudonné arrested over Facebook post on Paris gunman

Discussion: Liberaland, Mediaite, Common Dreams, Techdirt, Talking Points Memo, New York Magazine and The Glittering Eye, more at Mediagazer »

Evan McMurry / Mediaite:
Muslim Groups Urge Peaceful Response to New Charlie Hebdo Cover

Discussion: The Huffington Post, CAIR, NBC News and FOX News Radio

Matt ViserGLOBE / BostonGlobe.com:

Romney crafting a rationale for 2016 run — Focus on poor, foreign policy

Discussion: Washington Monthly, The American Conservative, Talking Points Memo, Washington Post, The Dish, Vox, Tampa Bay Times, The Daily Beast, FreakOutNation, Political Insider blog, Mediaite, TIME, Chicago and Slate

James Carville / The Hill:

Obama's 2015 — As on most NFL Sundays in south Louisiana, I had one too many bowls of gumbo and a few too many bourbons as I sat parked fully reclined in my leather wingback chair watching my fellow New Orleanian Peyton Manning play. And I dozed off ... I had a dream.

Wall Street Journal:

Romney Recycled — Mitt would have to explain why he'd be a better candidate now. — If Mitt Romney is the answer, what is the question? We can think of a few worthy possibilities, though one that doesn't come immediately to mind is who would be the best Republican presidential nominee in 2016.

Discussion: Hot Air, Bloomberg View, National Review and Race 4 2016

Jonathan Martin / New York Times:
Third Chance for Romney? G.O.P. Is Torn

Discussion: The Hill, Washington Post, The Huffington Post, Daily Kos, BostonGlobe.com and Washington Examiner

Reuters:

U.S. House passes security funding bill blocking immigration actions — WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. House Republicans drew a hard line against President Barack Obama's executive immigration initiatives on Wednesday, voting to block them as they passed a Department of Homeland Security spending bill.

Discussion: CNN and National Review

The Hill:
House passes bill to defund Obama's immigration orders

Discussion: American Spectator, Associated Press, Daily Kos and Center for Immigration Studies

National Journal:
House GOP Centrists Push Back on Immigration

Discussion: Weekly Standard and Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion

Victor Paul Alvarez / Boston Globe:

Bartender's Threat against John Boehner Thwarted — The FBI says an Ohio bartender planned to kill House Speaker John Boehner last October by poisoning his drink at a country club. — The question is: Would anyone have noticed? Stories about Boehner's drinking have circulated for years.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Hot Air, National Review, Mediaite, ABC News, Patterico's Pontifications, The Daily Caller, CNN and Politico

Hadas Gold / Politico:
Boston.com's questionable Boehner joke

Discussion: Talking Points Memo and ABC News

Ezra Klein / Vox:

Paul Ryan isn't running for president. He's after something even bigger. — Most politicians who can gin up presidential speculation do (see Gingrich, Newt). It means more reporters covering their speeches, more money for their PAC, more invitations to the Sunday shows.

Discussion: CNN, Slate, Political Wire and relinquishment

CBS News:

Obama's approval rating ticks up in 2015 — Shares - — President Obama's overall job approval rating has risen seven points since last October, although it still remains below 50 percent. Forty-six percent of Americans now approve of the job the president is doing, while just as many disapprove.

Discussion: Political Wire, PoliticusUSA and Washington Post

Numbers / Pew Research Center for the People …:
Obama Job Rating Ticks Higher, Views of Nation's Economy Turn More Positive

Discussion: Politico and Real Clear Politics

Numbers / Pew Research Center's Social …:

Women and Leadership — Public Says Women are Equally Qualified, but Barriers Persist — According to the majority of Americans, women are every bit as capable of being good political leaders as men. The same can be said of their ability to dominate the corporate boardroom.

Discussion: Taylor Marsh, OnPolitics, Jezebel, Politico, Washington Post and Wall Street Journal

Jon Offredo / delawareonline:

NASCAR's Busch says ex is ‘assassin’; hearing concludes — It could be weeks before the court issues a final decision on a protection order filed against NASCAR's Kurt Busch, after a four-day hearing ended Tuesday afternoon. Testimony has covered everything from the assassinations of drug lords …

Discussion: The Daily Caller, NBCSports.com, myfox8.com and JIMROMENESKO.COM

Randall Chase / Associated Press:
NASCAR driver accused of abuse says ex is trained assassin

Discussion: Moe Lane, NPR, Mashable, Associated Press and New York Magazine

TMZ.com:

Jimmy Carter — Huckabee's Wrong on Everything ... Not Just Obamas' Parenting Skills — HUCKABEE'S WRONG ON EVERYTHING — Not Just Obamas' Parenting Skills — EXCLUSIVE — Jimmy Carter slammed Mike Huckabee Tuesday for criticizing the Obamas' parenting skills.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Adweek, Truth Revolt and The Huffington Post

Judy Kurtz / The Hill:

Ashley Judd: ‘I might run some day’ — Ashley Judd says voters shouldn't count her out of the political arena just yet. — “I might run some day,” she tells ITK, “I don't know.” — The “Divergent” actress famously flirted with a Kentucky Senate bid against Sen. Mitch McConnell (R).

Discussion: OnPolitics and The Huffington Post

Hugh Son / Bloomberg:

JPMorgan CEO Dimon Says Banks ‘Under Assault’ by U.S. Regulators — Jamie Dimon, grappling with multibillion-dollar legal costs and rising capital requirements at JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM), lashed out at U.S. regulators for putting his bank “under assault.”

Discussion: Forbes, The Huffington Post, Balloon Juice and Booman Tribune

Commentary Magazine:

The Existential Necessity of Zionism After Paris: A COMMENTARY Editorial — I. — The jihadist siege of a kosher grocery store in eastern Paris on January 9 was not the beginning of a new threat to French Jews and the Jews of Europe. Rather, it was the culmination of a decade of crisis.

Discussion: The Federalist

Reid J. Epstein / Wall Street Journal:

Howard Dean's Advice to White House Hopefuls: Look the Part — Howard Dean knew his 2004 presidential campaign was in big trouble weeks before he punctuated a third-place Iowa caucus finish with the infamous “scream speech.” — By that point Mr. Dean, then the Vermont governor who went …

Discussion: Political Wire

John DiStaso / New Hampshire Journal:

Updated: Paul says Romney was right, ‘somebody new’ should lead GOP in 2016 — “When you do the same thing and expect a different result, it's sort of what Einstein said, that the definition of insanity is to do the same thing over and over again and expect a different result.”

Discussion: Political Wire, Mediaite, Chicago and Politico

Thomas L. Friedman / New York Times:

We Need Another Giant Protest — President Obama was criticized for failing to attend, or send a proper surrogate to, the giant antiterrorism march in Paris on Sunday. That criticism was right. But it is typical of American politics today that we focus on this and not what would have …

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

Terrence McCoy / Washington Post:

Former highest-ranking U.S. cardinal blames ‘feminization’ for the Catholic Church's problems — Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke is a man with a lot of enemies. The former archbishop of St. Louis, who once said supporters of abortion rights shouldn't receive communion, became the highest-ranking American …

Discussion: Shakesville

Cahal Milmo / The Independent:

The new anti-Semitism: Majority of British Jews feel they have no future in UK, says new study — More than half of British Jewish people fear Jews have no future in the UK, according to a new study which also reveals that antisemitic sentiments are more prevalent than widely believed.

Discussion: Spectator and Vox Popoli