memeorandum: Today's Must Read (Paul Kiel/TPMmuckraker)

3:15 PM ET, November 1, 2007

Top Items:

President Bush Previews War on Terror Speech — THE PRESIDENT: Thanks. I wanted to highlight the speech I'm giving today to Heritage. I'm concerned that there are some who have lost sight of the fact that we're at war with extremists and radicals who want to attack us again.

Discussion: LeftWord and First Draft

Andrew Sullivan / The Atlantic Online:

The Democrats and Mukasey — The NYT argues today that Michael Mukasey cannot condemn waterboarding as torture before he becomes AG because that would risk war crime prosecutions against many military and CIA personnel and those who authorized them, i.e. Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, et al. In my dreams.

Discussion: The Newshoggers, Chris Dodd National Blog, Interesting Times, Booman Tribune and Law Blog

Terence Hunt / Associated Press:

Sen. Kennedy turns against AG nominee — WASHINGTON - President Bush, seeking Thursday to salvage the embattled nomination of Michael Mukasey as attorney general, defended the former judge's refusal to say whether he considers waterboarding as illegal torture. But the nomination suffered another setback in the Senate.

Discussion: New York Times, Democrats.com, The Carpetbagger Report, Interesting Times and Think Progress

Paul Kiel / TPMmuckraker:

Today's Must Read — When you get right down to it, Michael Mukasey has refused to answer the question of whether waterboarding is torture for three reasons, which he provided in his letter to Senate Democrats earlier this week. Two of those are readily disputable (not wanting to tip off …

Discussion: New York Times, Seeing the Forest and The Mahablog

Sidney Blumenthal / Salon:
The sad decline of Michael Mukasey

Discussion: New York Times, Balkinization, Firedoglake and TPMmuckraker

Kevin Aylward / The 2007 Weblog Awards:

Finalists Announced — Here is a partial list of the finalists for The 2007 Weblog Awards. Finalists badges (hosted by Imageshack) will be available Thursday. Voting is scheduled to begin Thursday evening (late), but at this point we can't pinpoint the exact time polls will open.

Discussion: The Newshoggers, The Moderate Voice, The Jawa Report, Captain's Quarters, Balloon Juice, Swords Crossed, JammieWearingFool, Suitably Flip, Shakespeare's Sister, Wizbang, At-Largely, National Review, Pam's House Blend and The Van Der Galiën Gazette

Robin Wright / Washington Post:

From the Desk of Donald Rumsfeld . . . In Sometimes-Brusque 'Snowflakes,' He Shared Worldview, Shaped Policy — In a series of internal musings and memos to his staff, then-Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld argued that Muslims avoid "physical labor" and wrote of the need to …

Discussion: Think Progress, TPMCafe blogs, CBS News, Cliff Schecter, Norwegianity, A Second Hand Conjecture, American Footprints, Wonkette, The Plank, Connecting.the.Dots, The Heretik, The Garlic, Armchair Generalist, The Swamp and Romenesko

Juan Cole:

Time to Close the US Embassy — I don't try to start an internet campaign very often, because the blogosphere has its own priorities and logic that are democratic and should not be forced. But here is a plea for everyone in the blogging world to help force congress to save our diplomats.

Discussion: The Carpetbagger Report, The Newshoggers, Shakespeare's Sister, D-Day and BBC

Armchair Generalist / American Footprints:
State Dept Revolt

Discussion: BLACKFIVE, Wonkette, TPMCafe blogs and Daily Kos

Sam Youngman / The Hill:

Campaign call reveals Clinton debate concern — Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's (D-N.Y.) top advisers, doing damage control after the candidate's debate performance Tuesday, told supporters on a conference call Wednesday that the campaign needed more money to fight back.

Pew Research Center:

A Year Ahead, Republicans Face Tough Political Terrain — Clinton Propelled by Support from Young Women in '08 Test — Introduction and Summary — A year before the 2008 presidential election, most major national opinion trends decidedly favor the Democrats.

Discussion: Democratic Strategist, Quinnipiac University News …, The Carpetbagger Report and Pollster.com

Boris Johnson / Telegraph:
I want Hillary Clinton to be president

Discussion: PSoTD and Samizdata.net

Matthew Sheffield / NewsBusters.org:

U.N. Scientist Rejects Nobel Prize Share, Denounces Climate Alarmism — Has the global warming alarmism movement hit its apex? Maybe so. — In recent weeks, we've seen a resurgence of hard scientists who have come out strongly against the warm-mongers, the latest of which is Intergovernmental Panel …

Discussion: CBS News, Bookworm Room, Atlas Shrugs, Classical Values, Say Anything and The Sundries Shack

John R. Christy / mobile2.wsj.com:

My Nobel Moment — I've had a lot of fun recently with my tiny (and unofficial) slice of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize awarded to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). But, though I was one of thousands of IPCC participants, I don't think I will add "0.0001 Nobel Laureate" to my resume.

Discussion: The Anchoress and Blue Crab Boulevard

Irenep / Michael Yon:

Iraqi Islamic Party says, "Al Qaeda is Defeated." — O1 November 2007 — Iraqi Islamic Party: "Al Qaeda is Defeated" — "Al Qaeda in Iraq is defeated," according to Sheik Omar Jabouri, spokesman for the Iraqi Islamic Party and a member of the widespread and influential Jabouri Tribe.

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Hot Air, Wake up America, alphabet city, A Blog For All, Gateway Pundit and BitsBlog

Joel Stein / Time:

The Ron Paul Revolution — It sometimes seems as if someone is playing a cruel practical joke on Ron Paul. He goes to a college and delivers the same speech he's given for the past 30 years of his political career, the one espousing the Austrian school of economics.

Discussion: MoJoBlog, American Thinker, Donklephant and The American Mind

Sarah Lai Stirland / Wired News:
'Criminal' Botnet Stumps for Ron Paul, Researchers Allege

Discussion: Right Wing Nut House, The Atlantic Online, Wonkette, techPresident, Ars Technica, The Democratic Daily, Reason Magazine, Liberal Values, Flopping Aces, JammieWearingFool, Outside The Beltway, Blue Crab Boulevard and IMAO

American Prospect:

What's the Air Force For? — A roundtable discussion of Robert Farley's proposal to abolish the Air Force. — Rob Farley discusses his case for abolishing the Air Force with David Axe of War is Boring, Jason Sigger of Armchair Generalist, John of OP-FOR, Noah Shachtman of Danger Room …

Discussion: War Is Boring

Ned Parker / Los Angeles Times:

Iraqi civilian deaths plunge — A woman sells cigarettes to drivers caught in traffic in Baghdad. One resident of the capital said sectarian cleansing of neighborhoods was the heavy price of safety. — U.S. credits troop buildup, but residents and observers say homogenization has brought relative calm.

Discussion: Captain's Quarters, Angry Bear and Don Surber

Telegraph:

The most influential US conservatives: 21-40 — As the US prepares for what is arguably the most open presidential election since 1928, the last time there was no incumbent president or vice-president on the ballot, the Daily Telegraph's Washington correspondents compile a list of the 100 …

Discussion: The Corner and Reason Magazine

The Politico:

The angry voter: Bad news for Dems — Congressional Democrats certainly know the power of a throw-the-bums-out message. It vaulted them to power a year ago this week. Little wonder anxiety is boiling over inside the new majority as lawmakers ponder a succession of polls and reach …