memeorandum: Switzerland: Europe's heart of darkness? (The Independent)

1:50 PM ET, September 7, 2007

Top Items:

Jurassicpork / Pottersville:

Paul Krugman: Time to Take a Stand — Here's what will definitely happen when Gen. David Petraeus testifies before Congress next week: he'll assert that the surge has reduced violence in Iraq — as long as you don't count Sunnis killed by Sunnis, Shiites killed by Shiites …

Discussion: CNSNews, The Moderate Voice, Comments From Left Field, Left in the West, No More Mister Nice Blog and DownWithTyranny!

Paul Krugman / New York Times:

[TS] Op-Ed Columnist: Time to Take a Stand — Gen. David Petraeus has a history of making overoptimistic assessments of progress in Iraq that happen to be convenient for his political masters.

Discussion: WorkingForChange, Prairie Weather, Middle Earth Journal, The Peking Duck, SWJ Blog, FP Passport, Brian Beutler, Time, Connecting.the.Dots, INSTAPUTZ, Brilliant at Breakfast, Bark Bark Woof Woof and The Atlantic Online

Faiz / Think Progress:

New Twist In Saga Over 'Petraeus Report': There Will Be No Report — In the latest twist to the ongoing saga over the White House report, a senior military official tells the Washington Times today that there will actually be no report at all: … To recap, first the public was incorrectly led …

Discussion: The Carpetbagger Report and Rasmussen Reports

Washington Times:

Inside the Ring — Gen. Musharraf, a key Washington ally despite the problems, seized power in a bloodless military coup in 1999 that sent Mr. Sharif into exile in Saudi Arabia. — Iraq progress report — A major political event unfolding Monday will be the report to President Bush …

Discussion: TPMmuckraker and unbossed.com

Kevin Drum / Washington Monthly:

BURIED LEDE ALERT....Fred Kaplan has a good piece in Slate today about the upcoming Petraeus report and what Congress needs to ask about it. But I was more taken by an astonishing statement at the end of the piece from Stephen Biddle, a member of Petraeus's advisory panel.

Discussion: The Atlantic Online, New York Times, The Next Hurrah, Pacific Views, Donklephant, The Peking Duck, Corrente and Balloon Juice

Daniel Politi / Slate:
Slow Motion — The New York Times and the Washington Post's …

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, My Left Wing, The Swamp, On Deadline and INTEL DUMP

Brian Ross Reports / The Blotter:

New Videotape From Bin Laden; Al Qaeda's No. 1 Still Alive — Brian Ross Reports: — Intelligence sources tell ABC News they believe the video message from Osama bin Laden is authentic, recently produced and evidence the al Qaeda leader is still alive. — According to government sources …

Discussion: The Jawa Report, Captain's Quarters, Hot Air, Blue Crab Boulevard, National Review, Gateway Pundit, CNN, The Daily Whim, QandO, Riehl World View, TalkLeft and GINA COBB

MSNBC:

U.S. has copy of bin Laden video — Bush administration says it is examining tape for authenticity — WASHINGTON - The White House has obtained a copy of a purported video by Osama bin Laden ahead of the sixth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks and has begun to analyze its contents, a Bush administration official said Friday.

Discussion: Weasel Zippers, On Deadline, The Belmont Club and The Jawa Report

Lydia Saad / Gallup Poll:

Gallup Ranks the 2008 Candidates According to a Feeling Thermometer — Obama rated the most positively by Americans; Hillary enjoys broadest partisan support — PRINCETON, NJ — Using a "feeling thermometer" rating scale, Gallup recently tested the public images of several of the Republican …

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, The Swamp, Blue Crab Boulevard, The American Pundit and Pollster.com

Peggy Noonan / Opinion Journal:

Off to the Races — Surprisingly, the Republican presidential campaign comes into focus. — This week the Republican candidates for the presidency tried to make it new again. Summer's over, autumn's here, they're relaunching. I think they pretty much succeeded. Their debate Wednesday night had sparks and fire.

Discussion: Eunomia, The Atlantic Online, No More Mister Nice Blog and GINA COBB

New York Times:
For Thompson, Goal Is to Don Reagan Mantle

Discussion: Boston Globe, Outside The Beltway, Washington Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, MSNBC, The Right's Field and TIME

Justin Rood Reports / The Blotter:

Who is Hsu? Captured Fundraiser Didn't Vote — Justin Rood Reports: — Mysterious Democratic fundraiser Norman Hsu is in custody again, after a brief return to a fugitive lifestyle he maintained for 15 years. But new questions are cropping up about his past.

Discussion: Hot Air and The American Pundit

San Francisco Chronicle:
Fugitive fundraiser Hsu captured in Colorado

Discussion: Los Angeles Times, TPMCafe blogs, The Detroit Times, Right Wing Nut House, Power Line, Washington Post, Classical Values, Macsmind, Captain's Quarters, Don Surber, JammieWearingFool, TalkLeft, Sister Toldjah, Gateway Pundit, Wizbang and The American Pundit

Allahpundit / Hot Air:
Breaking: Norman Hsu captured in Colorado; Update: Hospitalized …

Jim Moore / Seattle Post-Intelligencer:

Go 2 Guy: Seahawks duo blitzed by Bush backlash — KIRKLAND — Are you still fans of Matt Hasselbeck and Mack Strong after they visited President Bush last week in Bellevue? Or have their political leanings turned you against them? — The Seahawks quarterback and fullback gave …

Discussion: Don Surber, Sister Toldjah, Outside The Beltway, Gateway Pundit, QandO and Blue Crab Boulevard

Andrew Norfolk / Times of London:

Hardline takeover of British mosques — Almost half of Britain's mosques are under the control of a hardline Islamic sect whose leading preacher loathes Western values and has called on Muslims to "shed blood" for Allah, an investigation by The Times has found.

Discussion: Power Line, Heading Right, Captain's Quarters, Hot Air, The Glittering Eye, Weasel Zippers, Jihad Watch, Little Green Footballs, Theo Spark and Telegraph

The Independent:

Switzerland: Europe's heart of darkness? — Switzerland is known as a haven of peace and neutrality. But today it is home to a new extremism that has alarmed the United Nations. Proposals for draconian new laws that target the country's immigrants have been condemned as unjust and racist.

Discussion: The Corner, The Borjas Blog, Say Anything, Daily Pundit and The Brussels Journal

The Raw Story:

Video: Dazed Bush forgets where he is — Want to get the news the media buries? Get Raw headlines in your browser. President Bush's trademark struggles with the finer points of public speaking were on full display Friday, when he thanked his "Austrian" hosts for inviting him to this year's "OPEC" summit.

Discussion: Shakespeare's Sister and The Detroit Times

Carpetbagger / The Carpetbagger Report:

Greenwald vs. Giuliani — I've seen the polls, watched the debates, and read the fundraising reports. Rudy Giuliani, for reasons that continue to escape me, is at or near the front of the Republican presidential field, based almost entirely on the belief the former mayor is strong …

Sara Kugler / Associated Press:
Giuliani documentary being released

Discussion: All Spin Zone, Slog, Salon, Brilliant at Breakfast, Taylor Marsh and AMERICAblog

Catherine Donaldson-Evans / Fox News:

G.I. Joe to Become Global Task Force in Movie — Say it ain't so, G.I. Joe. — The popular all-American comic-book military man and action figure dating back to the 1940s is undergoing a significant transformation for the Paramount Pictures-distributed "G.I. Joe" film …

Discussion: BLACKFIVE, protein wisdom, Stop The ACLU, Sister Toldjah and NewsBusters.org