memeorandum: Chilling letters from ‘The Watcher’ force NJ family to flee $1.3M dream home (Jeremy Tanner/New York's PIX11)

11:20 PM ET, June 24, 2015

Top Items:

Jim Webb / Facebook:

This is an emotional time and we all need to think through these issues with a care that recognizes the need for change but also respects the complicated history of the Civil War. The Confederate Battle Flag has wrongly been used for racist and other purposes in recent decades.

Discussion: Raw Story, No More Mister Nice Blog, Mother Jones, Washington Post, Hot Air, Politico, Washington Monthly, BuzzFeed, New York Times, Real Clear Politics, Business Insider, Bearing Drift, Hullabaloo, The Daily Caller, Bloomberg Business, Talking Points Memo, Mediaite and Washington Times

Kevin D. Williamson / National Review:

We Have Officially Reached Peak Leftism

Discussion: USA Today, Washington Monthly, Raw Story, Bloomberg Business, BizPac Review and Politico

Josh Marshall / Talking Points Memo:

The Righteous Logic of the Neo-Confederate Watershed — I think this is the third post I've started with some version of this incredulity. But I still cannot believe the Charleston Massacre has triggered quite this total a collapse of support, not just for flying the Confederate battle flag …

Discussion: Fox News, Hot Air, Mediaite, Progress Pond, New York Times and Bloomberg Business

Charles J. Dean / al.com:

Alabama Gov. Bentley removes Confederate flags from Capitol grounds — On the order of Gov. Robert Bentley, the Confederate battle flag which stands at the foot of the confederate memorial on the state Capitol grounds was taken down this morning. — Two workers came out of the Capitol building …

Kristina Wong / The Hill:

No plans to rename US bases named after Confederate officers — The Pentagon said Wednesday that there is currently “no discussion” on renaming U.S. military bases that honor Confederate officers. — “As of now, there's no discussion of adjusting our current naming policies,” said Army Col. Steve Warren, a Pentagon spokesman.

Discussion: Business Insider and Daily Kos

Rich Lowry / National Review:
Yet More on the Confederate Battle Flag

Discussion: alicublog and Brad DeLong's Grasping Reality

Bradley Engle / BobbyJindal.com:

A Special Announcement From Bobby Jindal — My name is Bobby Jindal, and I am running for President of the United States of America. There were three people I think you would agree my wife Supriya and I had to tell first. … Puppy — My daughter Selia cut to the chase: she wanted a puppy.

McKay Coppins / BuzzFeed:

Bobby Jindal's Plan To Stop Being A Punchline And Actually Win — NEW ORLEANS — The most viral headline this year with the Louisiana governor's name in it was published in The Onion: “Bobby Jindal Not Sure He Willing To Put Family Through 2-Month Presidential Campaign.”

Discussion: Religion News Service, Politico, Balloon Juice, Business Insider and The Federalist

Eli Stokols / Politico:

Bobby Jindal hits Jeb Bush, hard, as he announces White House run — The Louisiana governor, the 13th Republican to enter the race, goes on the attack in a bid to break through. — KENNER, La. — Bobby Jindal went there. As the 13th Republican candidate to enter the presidential race …

Discussion: Bloomberg Business, ABC News, The Atlantic, New York Times, The PJ Tatler and Shakesville

Ben Domenech / The Federalist: Why Bobby Jindal Is Very Problematic

Ed Kilgore / Washington Monthly:
Jindal Launches His Doomed Candidacy

Discussion: FiveThirtyEight, New Orleans Times-Picayune, Associated Press, Outside the Beltway, Bloomberg View, Bloomberg Business and Dealbreaker

Manny Fernandez / New York Times:
Bobby Jindal Enters Presidential Race, Saying ‘It Is Time for a Doer’

Discussion: Advocate, Campaign for America's Future, American Spectator, Yahoo Politics and Vox

Jeremy Tanner / New York's PIX11:

Chilling letters from ‘The Watcher’ force NJ family to flee $1.3M dream home — WESTFIELD, N.J. - It was a million-dollar dream home for one New Jersey family, located in picturesque Westfield, New Jersey — until the letters started showing up. — The threatening notes were signed …

ABC News:

Obama Tosses Heckler From LGBT Event: 'You're In My House' … President Obama had a heckler tossed from a White House reception in celebration of LGBT pride month after the woman refused to stop interrupting the president. — “Listen, you're in my house,” Obama said, to the applause of the crowd …

Discussion: Bloomberg Business

#Not1More Deportation:
Undocumented Transgender Woman Who Interrupted President at White House Pride Event Calls to End Deportation

Discussion: Patterico's Pontifications, Advocate and NPR

Fox News:
White House unveils hostage policy review, takes heat for opening door to terror ransoms

Discussion: American Spectator, The Last Tradition and Washington Free Beacon

Tom Jackman / Washington Post:

Anesthesiologist trashes sedated patient — and it ends up costing her — These audio clips are excerpts from conversations between a gastroenterologist, an anesthesiologist and a medical assistant during a colonoscopy. This was entered as evidence in a lawsuit filed by the patient for defamation and medical malpractice.

Discussion: Fox News Insider, US News, Mashable, Boing Boing, The Daily Caller, CBS DC, NOLA River, Hullabaloo, New York's PIX11, WGN-TV, Raw Story, myfox8.com, fox8.com and Eschaton

Jack Shafer / Politico:

Sarah Palin is the REO Speedwagon of Politics — Sarah Palin in a few short years has gone from a telegenic and slightly charismatic speaker (when reading from a tight script), to a TV commentator who never meets a run-on sentence she can't out-run. — So it's perhaps no surprise …

Mike Allen / Politico:

Fox dumps Sarah Palin — Fox News will not renew its contract with Sarah Palin, whose bombastic appearances have been a cable staple since the former Alaska governor's failed run on John McCain's ticket in the 2008 presidential election cycle. When asked for comment, a Fox News spokesperson confirmed …

Daily Mail:

Harvard professor who covered up Ben Affleck's slave roots could be dropped from PBS after he is slammed by broadcaster for ‘breaching standards’ — The Harvard professor who covered up Ben Affleck's slave-owning ancestors has been condemned for breaching a broadcaster's standards and his future with PBS thrown into doubt.

Discussion: Instapundit, Althouse and American Power

Timothy Cama / The Hill:

Judge blocks federal fracking rule — A federal judge in Wyoming has temporarily blocked implementation of the Obama administration's regulations for hydraulic fracturing on federal land, hours before they were set to take effect. — The late Tuesday decision in the U.S. District Court …

Discussion: Hot Air and The Dickinson Press

Benjamin Storrow / Casper Star-Tribune:
Federal judge issues stay on BLM fracking rule

Discussion: Denver Post and ThinkProgress

Lou Lumenick / New York Post:

‘Gone with the Wind’ should go the way of the Confederate flag — If the Confederate flag is finally going to be consigned to museums as an ugly symbol of racism, what about the beloved film offering the most iconic glimpse of that flag in American culture?

Discussion: BREITBART.COM, Hot Air and Instapundit

Meghan Keneally / ABC News:

Small Ohio Town Is Focus of FBI Probe After Strange Deaths and Disappearances … The FBI is now helping to investigate a string of disappearances and murders that have taken place in a small Ohio town over the past 13 months. — Six women have vanished in the town of Chillicothe since …

Discussion: fox8.com

Lydia Warren For / Associated Press:

'I am sorry for the lives that I've taken': Boston bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev stuns court as he APOLOGIZES to his victims as he is sentenced to death — Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was today formally sentenced to death for the 2013 attacks in federal court in Boston

Discussion: Instapundit

CNN:
Victim's mother to Boston bomber: ‘The choices that you made were despicable’

Discussion: Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion and Crime and Consequences Blog

Wall Street Journal:

Supreme Court Guide: Six Big Decisions Remain — The Supreme Court is scheduled to issue decisions Thursday, with six major cases remaining on the docket, and is expected to release opinions again on Friday and perhaps next week. Still to be decided are the health-law subsidies and gay-marriage cases …

Amy Howe / SCOTUSblog:
And then there were seven: The remaining cases, in Plain English

Discussion: Towleroad, Washington Monthly, The Hill and Wall Street Journal

Robert Behre / Post and Courier:

Rep. William Chumley ‘regrets’ self-defense comment — An Upstate lawmaker opposed to removing the Confederate battle flag from the Statehouse has apologized for seeming to question why the victims of last week's Emanuel AME Church attack did not do more to defend themselves.

Discussion: Daily Kos and Talking Points Memo

CNN:
State Rep.: Charleston victims ‘waited to be shot’ - CNN Video

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Mediaite, Talking Points Memo, theGrio and CNNMoney

Josef Adalian / Vulture:

The Controversy Over the Confederate Flag Has Reached Hazzard County — The studio behind the classic TV show won’t license any images of the General Lee with the Stars and Bars. — 6.6k — Shares — 6.2k — The studio behind The Dukes of Hazzard has become the latest corporate giant …

Discussion: TIME, Mediaite, UPROXX, Hot Air, Mashable, The Stranger …, CNN, Reuters, The Verge and BuzzFeed

Justin HydeManaging / Yahoo Autos:
General Lee From “Dukes of Hazzard” Losing Its Confederate Flag

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

Catherine Thompson / Talking Points Memo:

Lindsey Graham: Charleston Shooter Showed ‘Mideast Hate’ (VIDEO) — Republican presidential candidate and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) on Wednesday appeared to compare the white gunman who killed nine people last week at a historic black church in Charleston, South Carolina with Islamic radicals.

Discussion: Raw Story and Hullabaloo

Dana Blanton / Fox News:

Fox News Poll: Bush, Trump score post-announcement bumps — There's been a lineup change in the race for the GOP nomination, as businessman Donald Trump moves up after declaring his candidacy. He's now second in the order after former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who also got an uptick in support after his formal announcement.

Discussion: Washington Post, Political Wire and Oliver Willis