memeorandum: MCCAIN STUMBLES ON RELIGION — AGAIN (Steve Benen/Talking Points Memo)

1:45 PM ET, September 30, 2007

Top Items:

Thomas L. Friedman / New York Times:

9/11 Is Over — Not long ago, the satirical newspaper The Onion ran a fake news story that began like this: — "At a well-attended rally in front of his new ground zero headquarters Monday, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani officially announced his plan to run for president of 9/11.

Jules Crittenden:

Nation of Stupid — Tom Friedman: "9/11 has made us stupid." — Sure has made some people stupid, no question. Friedman is writing against Giuliani as the "9/11″ candidate, saying we need a 9/12 candidate. Which, as an attempt to be clever, is pretty stupid, too. 9/12, you'll recall, was the day after 9/11.

Discussion: PoliBlog (TM) and BartBlog

Warner Todd Huston / Stop The ACLU:
NYTimes: Thomas Friedman Wants America to Get Over 9/11

Discussion: The Strata-Sphere, Don Surber and JammieWearingFool

Seymour M. Hersh / New Yorker:

SHIFTING TARGETS — The Administration's plan for Iran. … In a series of public statements in recent months, President Bush and members of his Administration have redefined the war in Iraq, to an increasing degree, as a strategic battle between the United States and Iran.

Discussion: Crooks and Liars, Firedoglake, A Tiny Revolution, Bark Bark Woof Woof and New York Times

Faiz / Think Progress:

Hersh: Bush's Case For Hitting Iran Has 'Shifted,' Now Focused On 'Surgical Strikes' As Way To 'Sell' It — Seymour Hersh, The New Yorker's Pulitzer-Prize winning investigative journalist, writes in a new article entitled "Shifting Targets" that there has been "a significant increase …

Discussion: rubber hose

Steve Benen / Talking Points Memo:

MCCAIN STUMBLES ON RELIGION — AGAIN — Perhaps the moral of the story is that Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) would be far better off avoiding religion as a campaign issue. It's been dogging him for years, and his fall from grace continues. — In 2000, the Arizona senator gambled …

Discussion: Eschaton and Shakespeare's Sister

Matt Ortega / The Right's Field:
McCain: Constitution Established U.S. as Christian Nation …

Discussion: Brilliant at Breakfast

Helen Kennedy / NY Daily News:
McCain: No Muslim president, U.S. better with Christian one

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, The Gun Toting Liberal™, The Van Der Galiën Gazette, Jihad Watch, Take Our Country Back, Liberal Values, The Heretik, The American Street, Daily Kos and Little Green Footballs

Frank Rich / New York Times:

Is Hillary Clinton the New Old Al Gore? — THE Democrats can't lose the White House in 2008, can they? — Some 13 months before Election Day, the race's dynamic seems immutable. Americans can't wait to evict the unpopular president and end his disastrous war.

Discussion: TalkLeft, Norwegianity, TIME: Swampland, No More Mister Nice Blog, Ezra Klein and Donklephant

Alexandra Zavis / Los Angeles Times:

Petraeus admits to rise in Iraq violence — The top U.S. commander, back from his trip to Washington, says Sunni Arab militants have carried out a 'Ramadan surge.' But he notes that the level of attacks remains lower than a year ago. — BAGHDAD — Gen. David H. Petraeus …

Discussion: The Newshoggers and DownWithTyranny!

Michael Scherer / Salon:

Religious right may blackball Giuliani — Christian conservative leaders privately consider supporting a third-party, antiabortion candidate should Rudy Giuliani win the GOP nomination. — Rudy Giuliani speaks to the Associated Press Sept. 25, 2007, in New York.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo and The Carpetbagger Report

David Bernstein / The Volokh Conspiracy:

NO HOMOSEXUALS IN THE ARAB WORLD: Recall that at Ahmadinejad's recent speech at Columbia, he responded to a question about Iran's oppression of homosexuals by claiming that "in Iran we don't have homosexuals like in your country." His statement was met with a chorus of boos and catcalls …

Matt / Think Progress:

Kristol's Dark Humor: Bush's 'Heartless Assault On Our Children' Is 'A Good Idea' — On Fox News Sunday this morning, NPR's Mara Liasson said that President Bush's expected veto of an expansion of the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), which passed both the House and Senate …

Discussion: Daily Kos

Kombiz Lavasany / Democratic National Committee:

Romney Hypocrisy on Venezuela and Iran — Mitt Romney has been trying to court Republican voters by attacking the Governments of Venezuela and Iran and, in the case of Iran, urging divestment. It seems that Romney hasn't been as forthcoming about his ties to Hugo Chavez and Venezuela's oil company.

Discussion: Crooks and Liars and Cliff Schecter

Michael Roston / Huffington Post:
Major Romney Donors Lobby For Venezuelan Government-Linked Oil Company

Discussion: Crooks and Liars

Associated Press:

Report: Countrywide CEO Cashed Out — LA Times: Angelo Mozilo Cashed In $138 Million In Options Before Crash — (AP) Countrywide Financial Corp. Chairman and CEO Angelo Mozilo cashed in $138 million in stock options over the last year, switching his trading plans as the mortgage company went …

David Ignatius / Washington Post:

Dangerous Logjam on Surveillance — When a nation can't solve the problems that concern its citizens, it's in trouble. And that's where America now finds itself on nearly every big issue — from immigration to Iraq to health care to anti-terrorism policies.

Discussion: The Sideshow and PrairiePundit

Mark Steyn / Orange County Register:

Democracies talk, tyrannies act — "I'm proud of my university today," Stina Reksten, a 28-year-old Columbia graduate student from Norway, told the New York Times. "I don't want to confuse the very dire human rights situation in Iran with the issue here, which is freedom of speech.

Discussion: Blue Crab Boulevard and PrairiePundit

Maureen Dowd / New York Times:

The Nepotism Tango — Maybe it's fitting that a woman who first sashayed into the national consciousness with an equation — "two for the price of one" — may have her fate determined by the arithmetic of dynasty. — The town is divided into two camps: those who think that …