memeorandum: Thousands of protesters and monks missing in secret gulag of the generals (Gary Slapper/Times of London)

2:15 PM ET, October 3, 2007

Top Items:

Bush vetoes kids' health insurance expansion — WASHINGTON (CNN) — President Bush on Wednesday vetoed legislation expanding a children's health insurance program by $35 billion over five years. — Bush exercised the veto at 10 a.m. ET before leaving the White House for a trip to Lancaster …

Discussion: CQ.com, The Politico, Three Wise Men, Wake up America, McBlogger, NewsBusters.org, The Gate, Comments from Left Field, Burnt Orange Report and Right Voices

Jonathan E. Kaplan / The Hill:

SCHIP slips as Dems trip over message — Democratic leaders on Tuesday moved quickly to shift public attention to President Bush's expected veto of a children's health insurance program from a surtax to pay for the war in Iraq. — Democrats had been reveling in their good fortune …

Discussion: The Swamp and Right Voices

Jennifer Loven / Associated Press:

Bush vetoes child health insurance plan — WASHINGTON - President Bush, in a sharp confrontation with Congress, on Wednesday vetoed a bipartisan bill that would have dramatically expanded children's health insurance. — It was only the fourth veto of Bush's presidency …

Discussion: MyDD, Daily Kos, The Gun Toting Liberal™, Pam's House Blend, The Carpetbagger Report, Left in the West and Macsmind

Ed Morrissey / Captain's Quarters:

Vetoland, Population: 4 — President Bush increased the number of vetoes issued during his administration by 33% today, torpedoing the S-CHIP expansion and setting up a major policy battle with Congress. With the Senate passing the bill with enough votes to overturn the veto …

Discussion: The Anchoress

Shaun Mullen / The Moderate Voice:
S-CHIP Bill Vetoed Behind Closed Doors

Discussion: AFL-CIO Weblog and BlueOregon

Sen. Edward M. Kennedy / The Huffington Post:
My Challenge to the President

Discussion: The Sundries Shack and Democratic Strategist

Ed Morrissey / Captain's Quarters:
They Met A Tax They Didn't Like! — Wisconsin Rep. David Obey …

Discussion: The Swamp

Caren Bohan / Reuters:
Bush vetoes bill on children's health care

Discussion: Power Line

Washington Post:

Clinton Widens Lead in Poll — Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton has consolidated her place as the front-runner in the contest for the Democratic presidential nomination, outpacing her main rivals in fundraising in the most recent quarter and widening her lead in a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.

Discussion: AFT, New York Times, Washington Wire, MoJoBlog, New York Magazine, The Caucus, Burkean Reflections, The Carpetbagger Report, Democratic Strategist, TalkLeft, Connecting.the.Dots, Oliver Willis, the talking dog, Captain's Quarters, BuzzMachine, TIME and Newsweek

Sam Youngman / The Hill:

Edwards says Obama using stolen ideas — Former Sen. John Edwards's (D-N.C.) campaign widened its sights Tuesday to include Democratic rival Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) and his foreign policy speech commemorating the five-year anniversary of his first speech against the Iraq war.

Discussion: New York Times, Des Moines Register, The Swamp, CNN Political Ticker, Hot Air, protein wisdom, Outside The Beltway, Taylor Marsh, The Van Der Galiën Gazette, The Politico, The Carpetbagger Report, The Caucus and Air America Radio

Quinnipiac University News and Events:

October 3, 2007 - Clinton Tops Giuliani By 11 Points In New York State, Quinnipiac University Poll Finds; Favorite Son And Daughter Dominate Party Primaries — Sen. Hillary Clinton leads the Republican front-runner, former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani 52 - 41 percent in the 2008 …

Discussion: The Swamp, MSNBC, The Daily Politics and No More Mister Nice Blog

Richelieu / Weekly Standard:

Media Blasphemy — Another day, another blasphemy against rational political analysis by the media. This time, a new national poll from the Washington Post complete with howls of new insight: It's over. … Media polling is strange journalism. The media both creates a story by conducting …

Discussion: The Corner

Howard Kurtz / Washington Post:

Hillary Chuckles; Pundits Snort — Clinton's Robust Yuks Lead To Analysis of Appeal of Laughter — Forget the cleavage. It's now about the cackle. — No joke: Hillary Clinton's laugh is now being analyzed, scrutinized and, yes, mocked as if it were a sound barrier on her glide path …

Discussion: Horses Mouth, Des Moines Register, Shakespeare's Sister, Brendan Nyhan and Sadly, No!

Chris Cillizza / The Fix:
Parsing the Polls: Inside the Clinton Surge

Discussion: The Caucus, The Carpetbagger Report, Raising Kaine and Open Left

Patrick Ruffini:

Kos Traffic Numbers Inflated by 60% — Yesterday, I had the good "fortune" of being frontpaged on Daily Kos. The post sat atop the site for two hours. According to Google Analytics, the link produced 1,164 visitors yesterday. — For the traffic behemoth Kos is portrayed as, that seems low …

Discussion: Clayton Cramer's BLOG, Outside The Beltway, techPresident, Riehl World View, Personal Democracy Forum and GINA COBB

Byron York / National Review Online:

Limbaugh Makes His Case — On Monday evening, September 24, Rush Limbaugh was struck by a story that appeared on ABC's World News with Charles Gibson. "A closer look tonight at phony heroes," Gibson said in his introduction to the report, which was about men who claim to be veterans but are not.

Discussion: Captain's Quarters, Think Progress, JustOneMinute, Weekly Standard, The Van Der Galiën Gazette, Gateway Pundit, Hot Air, Ezra Klein, Betsy's Page, PrairiePundit, TigerHawk, RIGHTWINGSPARKLE and Little Green Footballs

Hugh Hewitt / Townhall.com:
Rush And The Left's Great Snarl

Discussion: Power Line and michellemalkin.com

Griff Witte / Washington Post:

Pakistan Seen Losing Fight Against Taliban And Al-Qaeda — PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Pakistan's government is losing its war against emboldened insurgent forces, giving al-Qaeda and the Taliban more territory in which to operate and allowing the groups to plot increasingly ambitious attacks …

Discussion: The Swamp, CBS News, PrairiePundit, Middle Earth Journal, ParaPundit, On Deadline and Truthdig

Logan Murphy / Crooks and Liars:

Latest Vote Vets Ad: Rush - Say It To My Face — Comedian and anti-troop, anti-veteran propagandist, Rush Limbaugh, gets another smackdown from VoteVets.org. Iraq veteran Brian McGough, who suffered a traumatic brain injury in Iraq after shrapnel lodged in his skull, sends a message directly …

Discussion: skippy the bush kangaroo and The Moderate Voice

Media Matters for America:
Limbaugh: VoteVets lied to soldier in ad, "strapp[ed] those lies …

Discussion: MoJoBlog, Baltimore Sun and All Spin Zone

Gary Slapper / Times of London:

Thousands of protesters and monks missing in secret gulag of the generals — With its rusty barbed wire fence, dense tropical foliage and acreage of decaying buildings, the former Government Technology Institute in Rangoon would be a spooky place at the best of times.

Discussion: Right Wing Nut House, PrairiePundit and Blue Crab Boulevard

John Stossel / Real Clear Politics:

Control Your Own Health Care — Candidates for president have plans to get more people health insurance. Some would compel us to buy it; others would use the tax code to encourage that. Regardless, insurance is the magic that will solve our health-care problems.

Discussion: Liberal Values, The Glittering Eye, QandO, Blue Crab Boulevard and PrairiePundit

New York Times:

From Errand to Fatal Shot to Hail of Fire to 17 Deaths — It started out as a family errand: Ahmed Haithem Ahmed was driving his mother, Mohassin, to pick up his father from the hospital where he worked as a pathologist. As they approached Nisour Square at midday on Sept. 16 …

Discussion: The RBC, Majikthise, Firedoglake, The Atlantic Online, Middle Earth Journal, rubber hose, Brilliant at Breakfast and Three Wise Men

Alexander Bolton / The Hill:

Rudy does end run around the right's leaders — Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, the Republican frontrunner in national polls, has avoided meeting with the nation's most powerful socially conservative leaders, and instead is taking his appeal directly to conservative activists at the local level.

Discussion: The Carpetbagger Report, Right Wing Watch and JoinRudy2008