memeorandum: California Wildfires: Harry Reid Blames Global Warming, Boxer Blames Iraq War (John W. Lillpop/The National Ledger)

4:30 PM ET, October 25, 2007

Top Items:

Beauchamp and the Rule of Second Chances — October 25, 2007 — Beauchamp and the Rule of Second Chances: Pass it Along — I'd known that General Petraeus was once accidentally shot in the chest, but I first heard the full story this summer in Baqubah, from an eyewitness whose account I wrote about in Second Chances.

Discussion: The Newshoggers, Hot Air, Little Green Footballs, Riehl World View, BLACKFIVE, Roger L. Simon and Confederate Yankee

Greg Sargent / Horses Mouth:

Army Acknowledges Leaking Beauchamp Docs To Drudge, Promises Investigation — Updated below. — There's been a very interesting turn in the saga of The New Republic's "Baghdad Diarist," the American soldier in Iraq who's been accused of fabricating negative stories about U.S. troops and publishing them in the mag.

Discussion: Salon, National Review, Hot Air and Confederate Yankee

Howard Kurtz / Washington Post:

Baghdad Diarist Was On Guard When Questioned by Editors — The soldier whose New Republic article about military cruelty in Iraq was labeled false by Army investigators refused to defend his accusations when questioned by the magazine, even after being told that the editors could no longer support him unless he cooperated.

Ed Morrissey / Captain's Quarters: Yon: Beauchamp's Honor

Michael Cooper / The Caucus:

In His Words: Giuliani on Torture — DAVENPORT, Iowa — At a town hall meeting here last night, Rudolph W. Giuliani expanded upon his views of torture. Here is a transcript of the exchange. — Linda Gustitus, who is the president of a group called the National Religious Campaign Against Torture …

Discussion: Washington Monthly, TalkLeft, The Plank, The Atlantic Online, Think Progress, The Newshoggers, The Carpetbagger Report, Comments from Left Field, Spin Cycle, The Heretik, No More Mister Nice Blog and TIME: Swampland

Salon:

Glenn Greenwald — Anonymous Liberal for Glenn Greenwald: Giuliani on torture — In his book, former Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin described his experience being tortured by sleep deprivation at the hands of the KGB: … Here's U.S. presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani, speaking at a town hall event in Iowa yesterday:

CNN:

GOP cries foul on timing of children's health vote — WASHINGTON (CNN) — House Republicans are fuming over Democrats' decision to hold the next vote on the State Children's Health Insurance Program on Thursday — when many Republicans will be in California as President Bush tours areas hit by wildfires.

Discussion: The Hill, Wonkette, Angry Bear, Middle Earth Journal, Cliff Schecter and The Rude Pundit

Jonathan Weisman / Washington Post:
House Democrats Set For Vote on New Version Of Children's Health Bill

Discussion: Captain's Quarters, Central Sanity, DownWithTyranny!, The Moderate Voice, The American Street, Fact-esque, The Carpetbagger Report, Daily Kos and The Stakeholder

Docweasel / docweaselblog:

Bobby Caina Calvan Blog : the entire post with comments preserved — UPDATE: Good gracious, blogging since '97 and my first Instalanche. Thank you Mr. Reynolds! Thank you AOSHQ and the lovely and talented Michelle Malkin as well. — The entire site is 404′d, and the comments were the sweetest plum!

William J. Broad / New York Times:

Satellite Photos Show Cleansing of Syrian Site — New commercial satellite photos show that a Syrian site believed to have been attacked by Israel last month no longer bears any obvious traces of what some analysts said appeared to have been a partly built nuclear reactor.

Discussion: The Newshoggers, Danger Room, A Blog For All and Prairie Weather

Faiz / Think Progress:

Thompson Downplays Iraq Insurgency: 'A Bunch Of Kids With Improvised Explosive Devices' — Speaking during a stop in South Carolina today, former Sen. Fred Thompson (R-TN) downplayed the Iraq insurgency as child's play. The insurgency is made up of "a bunch of kids with improvised explosive devices," Thompson said:

CNN Political Ticker: Thompson: Iraqi insurgents 'a bunch of kids' with IEDs

Cornelia Dean / New York Times:

'55 'Origin of Life' Paper Is Retracted — In January 1955, Homer Jacobson, a chemistry professor at Brooklyn College, published a paper called "Information, Reproduction and the Origin of Life" in American Scientist, the journal of Sigma Xi, the scientific honor society.

Discussion: Pharyngula and DefCon Blog

Little Green Footballs:

Ted Rall: Only Idiots Die in Iraq, US IQ Soars — Here's a look into the squirmy, ugly mind of Ted Rall, whose latest cartoon about US troops in Iraq says: "Only idiots signed up; only idiots died. Back home, the average I.Q. soared." — (Hat tip: LGF readers.)

Discussion: Weasel Zippers, The American Street, Death and Tim Blair

Andrew Sullivan / The Atlantic Online:

The Ron Paul Wars — RedState defends its decision to bar future posters from supporting Ron Paul: … I don't think I qualify as a Neo-Nazi or a Code Pink activist. Full Wired story here. But here's a simple message to Ron Paul supporters. You're welcome here.

Discussion: Wired News, The Van Der Galiën Gazette and Eunomia

David Eggert / Associated Press:

Student hounds prof running for Congress — MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. - A politically conservative student armed with a video camera and a Web site is trying to force a Democratic congressional candidate out of his teaching job at Central Michigan University. — Dennis Lennox, a 23-year-old junior …

Discussion: The Van Der Galiën Gazette, BartBlog and UrbanGrounds

John Feehery / The Hill:

Dems Are Out of Touch on Taxes — Earlier this year, The Tax Foundation released a poll about the attitudes that Americans have towards the tax code. It found that a majority of U.S. adults believe the federal tax code is complex, that the federal income taxes they pay are "too high," …

Discussion: The Politico, Macsmind and Blue Crab Boulevard

Col. David Hunt / Fox News:

America Could Have Killed Usama bin Laden — But Didn't — Because there is no shortage of things to yell about regarding the War on Terror, Iraq, Afghanistan, Homeland Security, and so on, deciding what to write about is always fun. — This week, I was going to yell about how the Bush …

Discussion: Crooks and Liars, BuzzFlash.org, BLACKFIVE and Cliff Schecter