memeorandum: Iraq request for U.S.-led Tikrit air strikes ‘imminent’: diplomat (Reuters)

7:55 PM ET, March 24, 2015

Top Items:

Ted Cruz to sign up for government health care — Ted Cruz, one of the loudest critics of Obamacare, will soon be using it for health insurance coverage. — “We will presumably go on the exchange and sign up for health care and we're in the process of transitioning over to do that,” Cruz …

Discussion: Bloomberg Business, Politico, Talking Points Memo, The Moderate Voice, ThinkProgress, US News, Washington Post, The Hill, Addicting Info, ACASignups.net, The Daily Caller, Business Insider, OnPolitics, Bloomberg View, Mediaite, Daily Kos, CNN and Daily Signal

CNN:

Ted Cruz going on Obamacare — Ted Cruz says he will enroll in Obamacare 01:47 — (CNN)Ted Cruz is going on Obamacare. — The newly announced Republican presidential candidate told CNN's Dana Bash on Tuesday that he will sign up for health care coverage through the Affordable Care Act — a law he has been on a crusade to kill.

Discussion: ABC News, Bloomberg Business, EgbertoWillies.com, Political Wire, PoliticusUSA, New York Magazine and Chicago

Charles C. W. Cooke / National Review:

Ted Cruz Should Try Speaking to People Instead of at Them

Discussion: Hot Air, Rush Limbaugh, Talking Points Memo, No More Mister Nice Blog and New York Times

Caleb Bonham / Campus Reform:

Prof: Ted Cruz and Republicans are resurrecting ‘discrimination’ — “Politics of the 1960s to Now” is a class taught by Prof. Chris Hamilton, a two-time Fulbright Scholar at Washburn University. — According to a student, Prof. Hamilton's course claims that Ted Cruz …

Discussion: John Hawkins' Right Wing News and The Gateway Pundit

Wall Street Journal:

The Cruz Candidacy — Ideology aside, the Republican is similar in many ways to Obama. — Can a smart, articulate, 40-something first term Senator trained in constitutional law, who disdains his colleagues and lacks executive experience, make the leap to the White House?

Discussion: Salon, Weekly Standard, Mediaite, Washington Post, National Review, Vox and Bloomberg View

Brendan James / Talking Points Memo:
Ted Cruz: I Started Listening To Country Music Because Of 9/11 (VIDEO)

Discussion: Hit & Run, Slate and Mediaite

Matt Wilstein / Mediaite:
Rep. Peter King Threatens to Jump Off a Bridge if Cruz Gets GOP Nomination

Discussion: The Huffington Post, BREITBART.COM, The Texas Observer, First Reading, US News, American Spectator, Des Moines Register, Progress Pond, Washington Monthly, Bloomberg Business, The Week and New York Times

Catherine Rampell / Washington Post:
Ted Cruz's phenomenally bad idea

Discussion: Christian Science Monitor, The Daily Banter, The Federalist, BarbWire.com, Talking Points Memo, The Hugh Hewitt Show and Bloomberg View

Danny Vinik / The New Republic:
Ted Cruz Cannot Be Serious

Discussion: USA Today, BREITBART.COM, New York Times, Slate and Washington Monthly

Adam Entous / Wall Street Journal:

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.

Scott Wong / The Hill:

Boehner ‘baffled’ by Israeli spying report — Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said Tuesday he was “shocked” and “baffled” by reports the Israeli government had spied on sensitive U.S.-Iran nuclear talks and passed information to members of Congress to whip up opposition to a potential deal.

Discussion: Washington Post, The Times of Israel, Guardian, Hot Air, Addicting Info, Wall Street Journal, Business Insider, Algemeiner.com, Mediaite and The PJ Tatler

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

Discussion: Mediaite, Washington Post, Commentary Magazine, Hot Air, RedState and Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Bret Stephens / Wall Street Journal:
The Orwellian Obama Presidency

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

George Sells / FOX2now.com:

Man kicked off Southwest flight over language on t-shirt … ST. LOUIS, MO. (KTVI) - A New York college student found himself stranded in St. Louis, Monday after being kicked off a Southwest Airlines flight that wasn't even supposed to land here. The conflict raises a classic first amendment debate …

Discussion: WGN-TV, CBS Dallas, Consumerist, Gothamist and Mediaite

Jason Zengerle / GQ:

What If Sarah Palin Were a Brain Surgeon? — Until two years ago, Ben Carson was a mild-mannered neurosurgeon—a hero to black America, the subject of a tender made-for-TV movie. Then he started raving about Nazis and America's demise. Now he's the Tea Party's great White House hope—and the GOP's worst nightmare.

Discussion: Mediaite, Fox News, No More Mister Nice Blog, OnPolitics, Business Insider, Political Wire and Chicago

Helena Andrews / Washington Post:

The White House head florist is gone and rumors are flying about why — When White House chief pastry chef Bill Yosses left the executive mansion last summer, the president publicly mourned the loss of “the crust master's” mysteriously addictive pies. And when the first family's personal chef and pal …

Discussion: American Spectator, Hullabaloo, New York Post, Guardian, Washington Monthly, New York Magazine, Mediaite, Talking Points Memo, The Daily Caller, Business Insider, CBS DC and Politico

New York Times:

U.S. Agrees to Slow Pullout of Troops From Afghanistan — WASHINGTON — The United States will halt the withdrawal of 9,800 troops from Afghanistan, half of whom were scheduled to leave in the months ahead, and instead keep them in the country through the end of 2015.

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, Common Dreams, Outside the Beltway, Political Wire and Reuters

Mary Bruce / ABC News:
President Obama Announces Slowdown of Troop Withdrawal From Afghanistan

Discussion: abc7chicago.com

Philip Ewing / Politico:
Obama to keep 9,800 troops in Afghanistan through 2015

Discussion: The PJ Tatler

Catherine Thompson / Talking Points Memo:

Washington Post Columnist Declares Ferguson Is The ‘Liberal Benghazi’ — Liberals have found an ideological bugaboo on par with Benghazi in the Michael Brown shooting, according to Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen. — “Ferguson has become the liberal Benghazi,” Cohen wrote in a column published Monday night.

Discussion: Progress Pond and Lawyers, Guns & Money

Richard Cohen / Washington Post:
Ferguson and Benghazi's troubling parallels

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Raw Story, Mediaite and Booman Tribune

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: Shakesville, The Atlantic Online, ThinkProgress, KFOR-TV, US News, Fox News Insider, Associated Press, Washington Post, FOX31 Denver, CBS Chicago, Mediaite, CBS New York, Althouse, CBS Los Angeles, NBC News, Reuters, WRIC-TV, Mashable, Gawker, NPR, WGN-TV and abc30.com

Brian Tashman / Right Wing Watch:

Phil Robertson Hypothesizes About Atheist Family Getting Raped And Killed — On Friday, “Trunews” host Rick Wiles aired a speech that Phil Robertson of Duck Dynasty delivered at the Vero Beach Prayer Breakfast earlier that day, in which Robertson offered gruesome details about how an atheist father …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, PoliticusUSA, Friendly Atheist and Raw Story

Rachelle Peterson / The Federalist:

Reporters Explain Why Balance Isn't Needed On Global Warming — Is it morally permissible to allow “climate deniers” to appear in print and televised media? — Columbia University journalism students wrestled with this question recently at a screening of the new documentary, “Merchants of Doubt.”

Discussion: Ed Driscoll and BarbWire.com

BREITBART.COM:

Reports: MSM Reporters Give Hillary Clinton Standing Ovation after She Takes No Questions, Jokes about Email Scandal — On Monday evening, mainstream media reporters reportedly gave Hillary Clinton a standing ovation after she joked about her private email scandal and took no questions …

Discussion: TIME, Politico, John Hawkins' Right Wing News, FishbowlDC and The Gateway Pundit

Emily Schultheis / National Journal:
Hillary Clinton Offers the Media an Olive Branch—and a Lecture

Discussion: Power Line, Fox News and Washington Post

Beka Economopoulos / The Natural History Museum:

An Open Letter to Museums from Members of the Scientific Community — To Museums of Science and Natural History: — As members of the scientific community we devote our lives to understanding the world, and sharing this understanding with the public. We are deeply concerned …

Discussion: Washington Post, Hot Air, New York Times, Bloomberg Business, InsideClimate News and John Hawkins' Right Wing News

Nick Gass / Politico:

Barney Frank: Joe Biden 'can't keep his mouth shut or his hands to himself' — Vice President Joe Biden is his own worst enemy, former Rep. Barney Frank said in a recent interview with Larry King, calling the veep “talented” but also “someone who lacks discipline.”

Discussion: The PJ Tatler

Tom Randall / Bloomberg Business:

Here's How $20 Oil Could Become a Reality If Storage Runs Out — The looming storage crisis explained … There's the makings of a crisis swirling in America's oil-storage tanks, and the next few months will determine whether it's a minor annoyance, or a major blow, to U.S. oil.

Discussion: KFOR-TV

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: FOX31 Denver, USA Today and KFOR-TV

Burgess Everett / Politico:

Senate's old guard just says ‘no’ to pot overhaul — A generational split in the Senate spells trouble for the movement to change marijuana laws. — When it comes to overhauling pot policy in the U.S. Senate, the young pols are running headfirst into the old guard.

Discussion: Althouse and Washington Post

James Hohmann / Politico:

Jeb's South Carolina firewall fails to take shape — His reservoir of support is neither as wide nor as deep as he might have hoped. — GREENVILLE, S.C.— Twice before, South Carolina has delivered for the Bush family. In 1988, it famously served as George H.W. Bush's firewall after he finished third in Iowa.

Discussion: US News