memeorandum: Utopia's Jailers — From public schools to health care … (Kevin D. Williamson/National Review)

11:15 AM ET, March 24, 2015

Top Items:

Israel Spied on Iran Talks — Ally's snooping upset White House because information was used to lobby Congress to try to sink a deal — Soon after the U.S. and other major powers entered negotiations last year to curtail Iran's nuclear program, senior White House officials learned Israel was spying on the closed-door talks.

Bret Stephens / Wall Street Journal:

The Orwellian Obama Presidency — Under Mr. Obama, friends are enemies, denial is wisdom, capitulation is victory. — The humiliating denouement to America's involvement in Yemen came over the weekend, when U.S. Special Forces were forced to evacuate a base from which they had operated against the local branch of al Qaeda.

Discussion: Jewish World Review, Power Line and Washington Free Beacon

Washington Post:

Report: Israel spied on Iran-U.S. talks and shared information with lawmakers — Israel obtained sensitive information about the nuclear talks between Iran and the United States and turned it over to members of Congress, the Wall Street Journal is reporting.

Discussion: CNN, The Times of Israel and The Gateway Pundit

Edward-Isaac Dovere / Politico:
James Baker blasts Benjamin Netanyahu

Discussion: Washington Post, Mediaite, The Times of Israel, Jerusalem Post and Israel Matzav

Avi Issacharoff / The Times of Israel:
Official: White House was part of bid to oust Netanyahu

Discussion: Israel Matzav, Balloon Juice and The Gateway Pundit

Edward-Isaac Dovere / Politico:
Barack Obama's top aide says Israeli ‘occupation’ must end

Discussion: RedState, Israel Matzav, Associated Press, Mediaite and Jerusalem Post

The White House:
White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough Remarks As Prepared at J Street Annual Conference

Discussion: Weekly Standard, BREITBART.COM, The Huffington Post and Common Dreams

Joel B. Pollak / BREITBART.COM:
Dershowitz Rips Obama on Iran: Couldn't ‘Negotiate a One-month Lease’

Discussion: John Hawkins' Right Wing News, neo-neocon, National Review, Elder Of Ziyon and JP Updates

Matt Wilstein / Mediaite:

Rep. Peter King Threatens to Jump Off a Bridge if Cruz Gets GOP Nomination — Rep. Peter King (R-NY) appeared on CNN's The Situation Room Monday afternoon and when Wolf Blitzer asked him to explain his statement that compared Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) to a “carnival barker,” …

Discussion: Washington Monthly, US News and Progress Pond

Danny Vinik / The New Republic:

Ted Cruz Cannot Be Serious — The big news of the day is that Senator Ted Cruz is officially running for president. Not setting up an exploratory committee or any of that perfunctory foreplay, but actually running. “It is a time for truth. It is a time for liberty,” he said in a 30-minute speech at, yeah, Liberty University.

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Washington Monthly, Slate and New York Times

Kevin Cirilli / The Hill:

Cruz: I'm a natural born American — Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said Monday that despite being born in Canada he is still a natural born citizen by birth and qualified to run for president. — “I was born in Calgary. My parents — as a legal matter, my mother is an American citizen by birth …

Discussion: Bloomberg Business and Business Insider

Niall Stanage / The Hill:

Democrats cheer: Run, Ted, run — The launch of Sen. Ted Cruz's presidential bid Monday has prompted an outpouring of excitement and delight — from Democrats. — To liberal activists, the firebrand Texan is much too far to the right for the nation at large and too extreme to even win the Republican nomination.

Discussion: New York Times, Politico, Vox, John Hawkins' Right Wing News and ABC News

Nate Cohn / New York Times:
Why Ted Cruz Is Such a Long Shot

Jonathan Martin / New York Times:
What Ted Cruz Would Need to Do to Win

Discussion: FiveThirtyEight, Advocate, The Week, Outside the Beltway and The Reaction

Ben Domenech / The Federalist:
3 Reasons Ted Cruz Could Win

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, Real Clear Politics, FiveThirtyEight, National Review and New York Times

Jonathan Topaz / Politico:
Rand Paul, reacting to Ted Cruz, talks ‘winnability’

Discussion: Bloomberg Business

Wilson / Glenn Beck:
Ted Cruz called Glenn over the weekend and revealed something Glenn thinks is really important

Discussion: Rush Limbaugh, John Hawkins' Right Wing News, Politico and TheBlaze.com

David Knowles / Bloomberg Business:
Donald Trump Goes Birther on Canadian-Born Ted Cruz

Discussion: CBS DC, Latest from Crooks and Liars, Talking Points Memo, The Hinterland Gazette, Business Insider, The Moderate Voice, Dallas Morning News and The Daily Caller

Jeff Zeleny / CNN:
Could Ted Cruz pull a Barack Obama?

Discussion: Tampa Bay Times, Hot Air, Bloomberg Business and The Federalist

Andrew Harnik / Washington Post:
Transcript: Ted Cruz's speech at Liberty University

Discussion: The Hugh Hewitt Show, The Federalist, BarbWire.com, ThinkProgress, Daily Kos, Common Dreams, Politico, Bloomberg View, Daily Signal, Washington Monthly, National Journal, PoliticusUSA, New York Magazine and The Liberty Champion

Katie Pavlich / The Hill:

America isn't better with ObamaCare — It's been five years since the Affordable Care Act, better known as ObamaCare, was passed and signed into law. This week, the White House is touting the legislation as a huge success and claiming the country is better off.

Helena Andrews / Washington Post:
The White House head florist is gone and rumors are flying about why

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Business Insider and The Daily Caller

Jordan Fabian / The Hill: After Cruz pledge to repeal ObamaCare, White House asks: Remember Romney?

Edward-Isaac Dovere / Politico:
Hillary Clinton meets Barack Obama at the White House

Discussion: Bloomberg Business and New York Magazine

Angelina Jolie Pitt / New York Times:

Diary of a Surgery — LOS ANGELES — TWO years ago I wrote about my choice to have a preventive double mastectomy. A simple blood test had revealed that I carried a mutation in the BRCA1 gene. It gave me an estimated 87 percent risk of breast cancer and a 50 percent risk of ovarian cancer.

Discussion: KFOR-TV, FOX31 Denver, Reuters, Althouse, CBS New York, NBC News, Mashable, Gawker, WGN-TV, NPR, CBS Los Angeles and abc30.com

Jean-Francois Rosnoblet / Reuters:

Germanwings plane crashes in France, up to 150 feared dead — (Reuters) - An Airbus plane operated by Lufthansa's Germanwings budget airline crashed in southern France on Tuesday en route from Barcelona to Duesseldorf, police and aviation officials said. — French Prime Minister Manuel Valls …

Discussion: The Atlantic Online, Associated Press, Scared Monkeys and The Week

Fox News:

No survivors expected after plane carrying 150 crashes in French Alps — DEVELOPING: No survivors are expected among the 150 people aboard a passenger plane that went down in the French Alps Tuesday morning, said the French president, who called the crash “a tragedy that has occurred on our land.”

Discussion: New York Times, Telegraph, Algemeiner.com, Fox News Insider, The Gateway Pundit and New York Magazine

Walter Russell Mead / The American Interest:

The Wrong Time to Coddle — Our classrooms have become more and more like cocoons just as the real world has become harsher. A piece in the NYT this weekend highlighted how sensitive students have become to anything that challenges their beliefs or makes them uncomfortable—and how far colleges have gone to accommodate them.

Discussion: Power Line and CBS Boston

Michael Shnayerson / Politico:

He coulda been a contender — The rise and fall of Andrew Cuomo. — Lead image by AP Photo. — Close up, Andrew Cuomo had his flaws. But as a newcomer to the national stage, he looked a big winner—and he was. In just two years, the New York governor had whipped the country's worst-run capital …

Craig Giammona / Bloomberg Business:

Taco Bell Introduces Breakfast Biscuits in Bid for Morning Sales — (Bloomberg) — Taco Bell is sticking with the playbook that helped it muscle into the breakfast business last year: Take a breakfast sandwich, and put it in a taco. — The fast-food chain will introduce a new line of Biscuit Tacos …

Discussion: KFOR-TV and USA Today

Nicole Flatow / ThinkProgress:

Supreme Court Justices Implore Congress To Reform The Criminal Justice System — 'It's Not Humane' — Justices Stephen Breyer and Anthony Kennedy during a congressional hearing Monday, March 23. — CREDIT: Screenshot from C-SPAN — The prisons are one of the most misunderstood institutions of government.

Discussion: Eschaton

Ayo and Iken:

An Interview With George Zimmerman - March 2015 — In an interview conducted in Orlando by Howard Iken, George Zimmerman discusses his viewpoint on events now that the Justice Department has declined to file charges against him — Duplication without prior permission prohibited.