memeorandum: Thanks for the Lip Service (Harry Shearer/The Huffington Post)

7:25 PM ET, June 19, 2007

Top Items:

Carter: Stop favoring Fatah over Hamas — The United States, Israel and the European Union must end their policy of favoring Fatah over Hamas, or they will doom the Palestinian people to deepening conflict between the rival movements, former US President Jimmy Carter said Tuesday.

Discussion: Washington Post, Macsmind, Blue Crab Boulevard, Israel Matzav, Don Surber, Michael P.F. van der Galiën, QandO and Israpundit

Hindrocket / Power Line:

CARTER ATTACKS U.S., STICKS UP FOR HAMAS — Jimmy Carter was in Ireland today to speak to the ninth annual NGO Forum on Human Rights. Along the way, he picked up a check for $1.2 million from the Irish government to the Carter Center. The former President, loyal as always to his financial backers …

Discussion: ireland.com, Israpundit and Instapundit.com

Ed Morrissey / Captain's Quarters:

Might Makes Right? — What kind of world leader would instruct the international community to engage with Hamas, even though it just committed an armed insurrection against the Palestinian Authority? Who among the world's experts would argue that the coup d'etat legitimized their claim to speak for the Palestinian people?

Craig Gordon / Newsday:

Rudy missing in action for Iraq panel — Giuliani's campaign fundraising kept him from commitment to panel studying Iraq. — WASHINGTON — Rudolph Giuliani's membership on an elite Iraq study panel came to an abrupt end last spring after he failed to show up for a single official meeting of the group …

Discussion: The Huffington Post, The Carpetbagger Report, Think Progress, Power Line, National Review, bustardblog, Washington Monthly, Taylor Marsh, State of the Day, Democratic National Committee and The Atlantic Online

National Review:
Rudy & The ISG — The Giuliani campaign forwarded me the following statement:

Discussion: Election Central, Talking Points Memo, Angry Bear and MyDD

Jonathan Martin / The Politico:
Rudy pushes back against Newsday ISG story

Discussion: The Carpetbagger Report, TalkLeft, Obsidian Wings, Comments From Left Field and MSNBC

Sewell Chan / City Room:

Bloomberg Leaving Republican Party — Michael R. Bloomberg, a longtime Democrat who switched to the Republican Party to run for mayor of New York City in 2001, announced this evening that he is changing his party status and registering as an independent. — Mr. Bloomberg maintained that …

Discussion: MyDD, The Agonist and Comments From Left Field

Marcia Kramer / WCBS-TV:
Bloomberg Leaves GOP

Discussion: Sister Toldjah

Michael Yon:

Be Not Afraid … [From a prayer card I found on a base in Anbar Province, Iraq.] — Thoughts flow on the eve of a great battle. By the time these words are released, we will be in combat. Few ears have heard even rumors of this battle, and fewer still are the eyes that will see its full scope.

Discussion: CNN, Comments From Left Field, Done With Mirrors, Flopping Aces, Neptunus Lex, QandO, Confederate Yankee, Captain's Quarters, shotinthedark.info/wp …, GINA COBB and Jules Crittenden

Bill Roggio / The Fourth Rail:

The Battle of Baqubah II — The Baqubah region. Click map to view. — Major offensive in al Qaeda's so-called capital of the Islamic State of Iraq — The Diyala Campaign is underway. As part of major offensive operations throughout the belts regions of Baghdad …

Discussion: Multi-National Force, New York Times, The Newshoggers, Mudville Gazette, The Atlantic Online, Michael P.F. van der Galiën and Gateway Pundit

Washington Post:
U.S. Forces Target Insurgents in New Operation

Discussion: New York Times, TPMmuckraker, Liberty Street, INTEL DUMP, Telegraph, Macsmind and The Fourth Rail

David Weigel / Reason Magazine:

The Awful Truth About 9/11 — The guerrilla reporters of Infowars—last seen being broken up and hauled out of the spin room at CNN's Republican debate—nailed Michael Moore at a screening of Sicko and got him to discuss 9/11 conspiracy theories. (Sorry, other theories of the events of 9/11.)

Discussion: Hot Air, protein wisdom, NewsBusters.org, Liberal Values, Little Green Footballs and Neptunus Lex

Kyle Smith / Movies:
Kyle Smith on Michael Moore's 'Sicko'

Discussion: Say Anything

Fred Thompson / Townhall.com:

Fred Thompson's Remarks to Policy Exchange in London — Thank you very much. Charles Moore, Anthony Browne, Dean Godson, distinguished guests: I appreciate the cordial welcome to London. I always look forward to visiting the United Kingdom, and this time around I couldn't ask for a better host than the Policy Exchange.

Discussion: Outside The Beltway, The Newshoggers, Redstate, Reuters, CALIFORNIA YANKEE, TIME, MSNBC, Say Anything and The Politico

Tim Montgomerie / Britain and America:
Fred Thompson in London

Discussion: Reuters, Captain's Quarters, Roger L. Simon and Hot Air

Richard Cohen / Washington Post:

The Runaway Train That Hit Scooter Libby — The attorney general called a meeting. He assembled all the U.S. attorneys in the Great Hall of the Justice Department and told them, in essence, that their chief responsibility was to decide whom not to prosecute.

Discussion: All Spin Zone, The Huffington Post, Heading Right, TalkLeft, Daily Kos, A Spork in the Drawer, Booman Tribune, Firedoglake, Comments From Left Field, The Next Hurrah, uggabugga, Captain's Quarters, BLCKDGRD, The American Street, Blue Crab Boulevard, The Sideshow and Brian Beutler

ZOA / Zionist Organization of America:

Mahmoud Abbas Is No Moderate & Deserves No Support — The Zionist Organization of America is opposing any Israeli and American support for Palestinian Authority (PA) president Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah terrorist group. ( Jerusalem Post, June 17, 2007). — Mahmoud Abbas in his own words:

Discussion: Atlas Shrugs and Israpundit

William Branigin / Washington Post:
Bush, Olmert Praise Palestinian Leader

Discussion: TIME, The Atlantic Online and Atlas Shrugs

Charlie Savage / Boston Globe:

US agencies disobey 6 laws that president challenged — Officials regarded some as advisory — WASHINGTON — Federal officials have disobeyed at least six new laws that President Bush challenged in his signing statements, a government study disclosed yesterday.

Discussion: Washington Post, Daily Kos, Threat Level, The Carpetbagger Report, TalkLeft, Democratic Underground …, Firedoglake, The Sideshow and TIME: Swampland

Andrew Sullivan / The Atlantic Online:

Ezra Klein And Liberal Hawks — Many bloggers are crying foul at Ezra Klein's recent screed against liberal interventionists. Kevin Sullivan tees off: … Sullivan's point is well taken. The policy decisions before us - how to redeploy, regroup or withdraw from Iraq …

Discussion: Liberal Values, Ezra Klein, Michael P.F. van der Galiën and Kevin Sullivan

Dan Froomkin / Washington Post:

Casual Lawbreaking at the White House — New evidence unearthed by House Democrats establishes that White House political adviser Karl Rove and many of his colleagues used Republican National Committee e-mail accounts for official business — even though White House policy is clear that doing …

Discussion: The Register, TalkLeft, CBS News, Corrente, WTF Is It Now?? and The Carpetbagger Report

The Politico:

Republican candidates begin snubbing Bush — A president with dismal approval ratings and a bitter intraparty rupture over immigration are obvious problems for Republican politicians. — In recent days, however, the combination is emerging as something less obvious: an opportunity.

Discussion: Right Wing Nut House, BuzzFlash.org, All Spin Zone and AMERICAblog

The State:

State treasurer indicted on drug charges — State Treasurer Thomas Ravenel has been indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of conspiracy to possess with the intent distribute cocaine, federal and state authorities said at a news conference at SLED headquarters this afternoon.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo and Cliff Schecter

Jennifer Hunter / Chicago Sun Times:

Obama finding new allies: Republicans — Many cite war in Iraq, spirit of political unity as issues — There is an interesting phenomenon that has arisen over the last few months: a trend of moderate Republicans who want to vote for Barack Obama. It may seem counterintuitive …

Discussion: TIME, NewsBusters.org, Taylor Marsh, MSNBC and safo2008.com

Associated Press:

'No massacre in Nanking,' Japanese lawmakers say — TOKYO: About 100 Japanese governing party lawmakers denounced the Nanjing Massacre as a fabrication on Tuesday, contesting Chinese claims that Japanese soldiers killed hundreds of thousands of people after seizing the Chinese city in 1937.

Discussion: The Reaction and Human Voices

Bob Geiger:

Here's How Fringe I Am, Fred Thompson — Did you know that former Senator and maybe, kinda, sorta Republican presidential candidate Fred Thompson has his own column on the ABC Radio Network's web site? Neither did I until someone pointed out to me that he had written a piece bashing Senate …