memeorandum: John King to take over Dobbs's slot at CNN (Howard Kurtz/Washington Post)

12:25 PM ET, November 12, 2009

Top Items:

Official: Obama rejects war options — President seeks clarity on turnover to Afghan government, official says — WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama does not plan to accept any of the Afghanistan war options presented by his national security team, pushing instead for revisions to clarify …

Spencer Ackerman / The Washington Independent:

Inside This Morning's White House Afghanistan Meeting: Anger With Eikenberry, ‘Beef’ With McChrystal — It was a tense meeting this morning at the White House, as Ambassador Karl Eikenberry addressed the National Security Council by teleconference from Kabul just hours after the media got hold …

Discussion: Washington Post, Matthew Yglesias, ATTACKERMAN and Newshoggers.com

Siun / Firedoglake:

McChrystal Reported “Fuming” over Eikenberry's Afghanistan Warnings — In the ongoing leak war surrounding Obama's decision on a new or new-new Afghanistan strategy, the McChrystal team apparently has competition. Last night, we learned of the leak of a cable from US Ambassador …

Discussion: Laura Rozen's Blog, BBC, Eschaton and Raw Story

Washington Post:

U.S. envoy resists troop increase, cites Karzai as problem — Cables sent as Obama weighs deployment options — The U.S. ambassador in Kabul sent two classified cables to Washington in the past week expressing deep concerns about sending more U.S. troops to Afghanistan until President …

New York Times:
U.S. Afghan Envoy Urges Caution on Troop Increase

Discussion: New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Washington Monthly, Democracy in America, Guardian, Boston Globe, OpEdNews, The Hill, Taylor Marsh, Telegraph, THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS, Newshoggers.com, The Washington Independent, democracyarsenal.org and Towleroad News #gay

The Huffington Post:
Official: Obama Does Not Plan To Accept Afghan War Options, Wants Handover Details

Discussion: Times of London, Power Line, Telegraph, American Power and Bark Bark Woof Woof

Jeffrey M. Jones / Gallup:
Americans Split on Afghanistan Troop Increase vs. Decrease

Discussion: Politics Daily, D.C. Now and The Swamp

Media Decoder:

Lou Dobbs to Quit CNN — Lou Dobbs, the longtime CNN anchor whose anti-immigration views have made him a TV lightning rod, said Wednesday that he is leaving the cable news channel effective immediately. — Sitting before an image of an American flag on his studio set, he said …

New York Times:

Lou Dobbs Abruptly Quits CNN — Months ago the president of CNN/U.S., Jonathan Klein, offered a choice to Lou Dobbs, the channel's most outspoken anchor. Mr. Dobbs could vent his opinions on radio and anchor an objective newscast on television, or he could leave CNN.

Discussion: Media Decoder, The Plum Line, Little Green Footballs, The Moderate Voice, Washington Monthly, DailyFinance, The Media Consortium, The Washington Independent, The Daily Voice, Guardian and alicublog

Howard Kurtz / Washington Post:
John King to take over Dobbs's slot at CNN

Discussion: NewsBusters.org

CNN:
Lou Dobbs leaving CNN

Discussion: TPM LiveWire, Speakeasy, City Desk, Scared Monkeys, The Reaction, Politics Daily, NewsBusters.org, NewsReal Blog, Left Coast Rebel, The Swamp, AmSpecBlog and Macsmind

Howard Kurtz / Washington Post:
Anchor Lou Dobbs resigns from CNN

Discussion: THE WEEK News & Opinion

Brian Stelter / Media Decoder:
Dobbs Explains Decision to Leave CNN

Discussion: culturekitchen, The Nation, Mediaite, Political Byline, Silicon Alley Insider, The Huffington Post, Firedoglake, Michael Calderone's Blog, Townhall.com and Nice Deb

Martha / Media Matters for America:
Statement on Dobbs' Resignation from CNN

Discussion: TBogg and Rod 2.0:Beta

Michael Calderone / Michael Calderone's Blog:
CNN's King replacing Dobbs

Discussion: Raw Story and TPM LiveWire

Washington Post:

Army sought ways to channel Hasan's absorption with Islam — Walter Reed psychiatrists ordered him to attend university lectures on religion — Army psychiatrists at Walter Reed Army Medical Center who supervised Maj. Nidal M. Hasan's work as a psychiatric fellow tried to turn …

Discussion: Hot Air, Below The Beltway, This ain't Hell …, Weasel Zippers and YID With LID

Dave Michaels / Dallas Morning News:

Fort Hood shootings suspect may have wired money to Pakistan — dmichaels@dallasnews.com — WASHINGTON - Authorities have been examining whether Fort Hood massacre suspect Nidal Malik Hasan wired money to Pakistan in recent months, an action that one senior lawmaker said would raise serious questions …

Discussion: Hot Air, YID With LID, The Strata-Sphere, The Jawa Report and Weasel Zippers

Caroline Glick:

Missing George W. Bush — A couple of days ago I heard the news that George and Laura Bush paid a private visit to the wounded soldiers at Fort Hood. They specifically requested that the base commander not inform the media of their visit. They came. They comforted the wounded soldiers …

Discussion: The Jawa Report and LifeNews.com Pro-Life …

HillBuzz:

Thank you former President George W. Bush and former First Lady Laura Bush — We know absolutely no one in Bush family circles and have never met former President George W. Bush or his wife Laura. — If you have been reading us for any length of time, you know that we used to make fun of …

Discussion: GayPatriot, Sister Toldjah, CDR Salamander, Wake up America and Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion

Daniel Zwerdling / NPR:
Walter Reed Officials Asked: Was Hasan Psychotic?

Discussion: Don Surber, Hot Air, Dr. Melissa Clouthier, The Hill and PoliBlog

Washington Times:
EXCLUSIVE: Fort Hood suspect contacted Muslim extremists

Discussion: Pundit & Pundette and Daily Pundit

Wall Street Journal:
Why Fort Hood Really Happened

Discussion: Commentary

Mark Weiner / Syracuse Post-Standard:

Recanvassing shows NY-23 race tightens even as Rep. Bill Owens is sworn into House seat … Washington — Conservative Doug Hoffman conceded the race in the 23rd Congressional District last week after receiving two pieces of grim news for his campaign: He was down 5,335 votes with 93 percent …

Discussion: Glenn Thrush's Blog, The Hill, The Washington Independent, Capitol Briefing, Michelle Malkin, Weekly Standard, Taegan Goddard's …, TPMDC, Flopping Aces, National Review Online and Moe Lane

Danny Shea / The Huffington Post:

Obama To Give Interview To Fox News — WHAT'S YOUR REACTION? — President Obama will give an interview to Fox News' Major Garrett, Drudge reports. — The interview will take place in China next week and comes just one day after it was reported that Obama Communications Director Anita Dunn …

Discussion: The Hill, Open Left, Kausfiles and Los Angeles Times

Jeff Zeleny / The Caucus:
Obama Announces Jobs Summit

Discussion: Washington Monthly, New York Times, Associated Press and Riehl World View

Karl Rove / Wall Street Journal:
‘A Referendum on This White House’

Discussion: Pundit & Pundette and Commentary

Glenn Greenwald / Salon:

The sleazy advocacy of a leading “liberal hawk” — Peter Galbraith's vast, undisclosed financial interests in the policies he spent years advocating as an “expert.” — The New York Times today details the unbelievably sleazy story of Peter Galbraith, one of the Democratic Party's leading so-called …

New York Times:
American Adviser to Kurds Stands to Reap Oil Profits

Discussion: JustOneMinute, The Agonist and A Tiny Revolution

Andy Barr / The Politico:

Perry: Obama ‘hell-bent’ on socialism — Texas GOP Gov. Rick Perry accused President Barack Obama on Wednesday of “punishing” Texas and being “hell-bent” on turning the United States into a socialist country. — Speaking at a luncheon for a Midland County Republican Women's group …

Discussion: Think Progress, Washington Monthly, The Plum Line, TPM LiveWire, The Reaction, The Confluence, Politics Daily, Raw Story, Weasel Zippers and Left Coast Rebel

Wall Street Journal:

U.S. Aims to Cut Deficit With TARP — WASHINGTON — The Obama administration, under pressure to show it is serious about tackling the budget deficit, is seizing on an unusual target to showcase fiscal responsibility: the $700 billion financial rescue. — The administration wants to keep …

Discussion: Matthew Yglesias, Wonk Room, Clusterstock, The Page and The Foundry

Washington Post:

Catholic Church gives D.C. ultimatum — Same-sex marriage bill, as written, called a threat to social service contracts — The Catholic Archdiocese of Washington said Wednesday that it will be unable to continue the social service programs it runs for the District if the city doesn't change …

Discussion: The Huffington Post, City Desk, IntoxiNation, Towleroad News #gay, The BLT, AMERICAblog Gay, Joe. My. God. and RHRealityCheck.org

CNN:

Source: Reid considering hiking Medicare payroll tax — WASHINGTON (CNN) - Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is considering a provision to raise payroll taxes for the wealthy as part of a health care bill, a Democratic source told CNN. — The Democratic source said Reid is considering …

Discussion: TalkLeft

David Espo / Associated Press:
AP Sources: Reid eyes payroll tax hike on wealthy

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, The Politico, Time, The Hill, race42008.com and NOW! Blog

Paul Krugman:

The agony of Fox Business — James Wolcott is made of sterner stuff than I am: he actually has the fortitude to watch Fox Business, where the talking heads manage to find nothing but clouds in the silver lining of a huge stock rally. To make their point they bring on such market experts as ... John Bolton.

Discussion: NewsBusters.org, Modeled Behavior and Clusterstock