memeorandum: Keeping Score on Obama vs. Netanyahu (New York Times)

11:10 AM ET, May 21, 2009

Top Items:

FBI arrest four in alleged plot to bomb Bronx synagogues, shoot down plane — The FBI busted a homegrown terror cell late Wednesday night as the men sneaked around a Jewish temple in Riverdale planting what they thought were packages of C-4 explosives, sources told the Daily News.

Sheryl Gay Stolberg / New York Times:

Obama Is Said to Consider Preventive Detention Plan — WASHINGTON — President Obama told human rights advocates at the White House on Wednesday that he was mulling the need for a “preventive detention” system that would establish a legal basis for the United States to incarcerate terrorism suspects …

Discussion: CBS News, Los Angeles Times, The Swamp, The Hill, The Atlantic Politics Channel, The Note, Ben Smith's Blog, Washington Post, The Washington Independent, MSNBC, Boston Globe, Hot Air, The Rhetorican, Corrente, Right Wing News and The Page

New York Times:

4 Accused of Bombing Plot at Bronx Synagogues — Four men were arrested Wednesday night in what the authorities said was a plot to bomb two synagogues in the Bronx and shoot down military planes at an Air National Guard base in Newburgh, N.Y. — The men, all of whom live in Newburgh …

Discussion: Washington Monthly, City Room, Obsidian Wings, Commentary, New York Magazine, New York Post, The Stimulist, Hot Air, The Peking Duck, LewRockwell.com Blog, Jeffrey Goldberg, Spin Cycle, NY Daily News and Hyscience

Howard Fineman / Newsweek:

Ignore the party, Rush, Newt and Cheney are the muscle — Right now there are two RNCs here in Washington, side by side. The contrast is instructive. — One, the Republican National Committee, is a clueless self-parody. The other, the (R)ush-(N)ewt-(C)heney tag team …

Discussion: The Opinionator, The Fix, Bloomberg, Washington Times, DownWithTyranny!, Swampland, US News and Crooks and Liars

Mike Allen / The Politico:

Obama: U.S. went ‘off course’ on terror — President Barack Obama declared defiantly Thursday that the U.S. “went off course” in fighting terrorism over the past eight years, and said his policies will “better protect” the country against al Qaeda. — In a major address at the National Archives …

Discussion: Washington Times, CJR, Taegan Goddard's …, USA Today, Pat Dollard, The Politico, BuzzFlash.org, Weasel Zippers, Crooks and Liars, Michael Calderone's Blog, Washington Monthly and Patterico's Pontifications

New York Times:

Police Say Terror Suspects Acted Alone — The four men arrested Wednesday night in what the authorities said was a plot to bomb two synagogues in the Bronx and shoot down military planes at an Air National Guard base in Newburgh, N.Y. were petty criminals who appeared to be acting alone …

Discussion: JustOneMinute, Think Progress, TPMMuckraker, Wonk Room and The Washington Independent

Paul Steinhauser / CNN:

Poll: Favorable opinions of Cheney rise — CNN Deputy Political Director — WASHINGTON (CNN) — As Dick Cheney prepares to give a major speech on the battle against terrorism, a new national poll suggests that favorable opinions of the former vice president are on the rise.

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, Taylor Marsh and Say Anything

Jules Crittenden:

Split-Screen Irony Alert — Politico on a remarkable moment in the political history of television: … That's fascinating. Couldn't agree more. Living through the last 8 years of “Bush lied, people died,” Code Pink outrages, Cindy Sheehan being a shrill demented moonbat …

Discussion: The Plum Line, Washington Monthly, Don Surber, Weekly Standard and The Hill's Blog Briefing Room

William Kristol / Weekly Standard:

Text of Cheney's AEI Speech — THE WEEKLY STANDARD has obtained an advance copy of VP Cheney's remarks as prepared for delivery later this morning at the American Enterprise Institute. I've read it quickly. I think fair-minded people will find it very well-argued and powerful.

Elisabeth Bumiller / New York Times:

1 in 7 Freed Detainees Rejoins Fight, Report Finds — WASHINGTON — An unreleased Pentagon report provides new details concluding that about one in seven of the 534 prisoners already transferred abroad from the detention center in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, has returned to terrorism or militant activity …

Marc Ambinder / The Atlantic Politics Channel:
Obama's Speech: A Preview

Discussion: Weekly Standard

Jonathan Dienst / NBC New York:
FBI, NYPD Arrest 4 in Alleged Plot to Bomb NY Synagogues

Discussion: The Strata-Sphere and Sister Toldjah

Caitlin Taylor / The Note:
Cheney Speech: Obama ‘Deserves an Answer’

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, First Draft and Rising Hegemon

New York Post:
CHILLING TERROR PLOT THWARTED

Discussion: JammieWearingFool and Cold Fury

Michelle Malkin:
Dueling banjos in Washington; Updated

Discussion: The Anchoress

New York Post:
NY TERROR PLOT FOILED

Discussion: Pat Dollard, Gothamist and Gateway Pundit

Ben Smith / Ben Smith's Blog:
Setting the stage at AEI

Discussion: Taegan Goddard's … and Democracy in America

Tom McElroy / Associated Press:
APNewsBreak: 4 arrested in plot to bomb NYC temple

Discussion: Sky News, WCBS-TV, Israpundit, Sweetness & Light, Donklephant and Little Green Footballs

Randy E. Barnett / Forbes:

A Bill Of Federalism — A detailed proposal to redress the imbalance between state and federal power. — Lately some state legislatures have been considering so-called “sovereignty resolutions.” Rather than pass strictly symbolic measures, however, I recommended—in an op-ed last month …

Discussion: The Volokh Conspiracy

Washington Post:
Judge Diane Wood, Solicitor General Elena Kagan Seen as Supreme Court Hopefuls

Discussion: Think Progress, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, The Caucus, The BLT, Los Angeles Times, The Moderate Voice, Law Blog and Connecting.the.Dots

Bill Sammon / Fox News:

Obama ‘Distracted’ by Biden's ‘Indiscipline,’ Book Asserts — The president is so “distracted by his vice president's indiscipline” that he has been forced to rebuke privately Vice President Biden, according to a new book by Richard Wolffe. — FOXNews.com

Discussion: Ben Smith's Blog and Jihad Watch

Bret Baier / Fox News:

The Death of the Republican Party May Have Been Greatly Exaggerated — Now some fresh pickings from the Political Grapevine: — Elephant Extinction — Some in the media believe the Republican Party is washed up and dying. Leslie Savan wrote in The Nation earlier this month …

Discussion: MSNBC and Gateway Pundit

Adam Nagourney / The Caucus:
R.N.C. Votes Down the ‘Democrat Socialist Party’

Discussion: Washington Monthly, PoliBlog and Alan Colmes' Liberaland

CNN:
CNN Poll: Obama moving US in right direction

Discussion: The Politico, Raw Story, The Page, Taegan Goddard's … and TPMDC

Erika Lovley / The Politico:

Congressman: We're going to Disney — Rep. Alan Grayson was standing in the middle of Disney World when it hit him: What Americans really need is a week of paid vacation. — So on Thursday, the Florida Democrat will introduce the Paid Vacation Act — legislation that would be the first …

Discussion: Townhall.com, Say Anything, DownWithTyranny!, Open Left and HotMES

Directorblue / Doug Ross:

Sacramento Bee publishes vicious screed bashing taxpayers, gets caught, then scrubs with milquetoast replacement — Early this morning, the failing Sacramento Bee published a “vicious screed” that pilloried taxpayers for refusing to feed California's insatiable state government.

Discussion: Hot Air, NewsBusters.org and Patterico's Pontifications

Michelle Malkin:
What the Sacramento Bee really thinks of voters

Discussion: Sacramento Bee, RushLimbaugh.com, The Radio Patriot and The Rhetorican

Agence France Presse:

US House speaker Pelosi to visit China: state media — US House speaker Pelosi to visit China: state media — BEIJING (AFP) - US House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi will visit China this month, state press said Thursday of the longtime critic of Beijing's rule over Tibet and its human rights record.

Discussion: The Page

Reid Wilson / The Hill:
Specter defends Pelosi, questions CIA's honesty

Greg Sargent / The Plum Line:

Porter Goss Won't Say Whether He And Pelosi Were Told About Use Of Torture — Porter Goss, the former GOP Congressman who was in the room with Nancy Pelosi during their 2002 CIA briefing on interrogations, is declining through a spokesperson to say whether the two of them were told that enhanced interrogation techniques had been used.

Discussion: Think Progress, TPMMuckraker, Emptywheel, Swampland, Bloomberg and ATTACKERMAN

Karl Rove / Wall Street Journal:

Flip-Flops and Governance — Our president isn't quite as advertised. — Printer — Friendly — Barack Obama inherited a set of national-security policies that he rejected during the campaign but now embraces as president. This is a stunning and welcome about-face.

Discussion: The Volokh Conspiracy, New York Magazine, Conservatives4Palin.com and Pajamas Media

Pew Research Center:

Independents Take Center Stage in Obama Era — Trends in Political Values and Core Attitudes: 1987-2009 — Centrism has emerged as a dominant factor in public opinion as the Obama era begins. The political values and core attitudes that the Pew Research Center has monitored since 1987 show little overall ideological movement.

Discussion: Politics Daily and Taegan Goddard's …

The Huffington Post:

Obama Huddles With Human Rights Groups Before Security Speech — Under heavy criticism for a series of decisions on national security that resembled, for some, those of the Bush years, President Barack Obama hosted a lengthy meeting on Wednesday with the leaders of several key human rights and civil liberties groups.

Discussion: CNN, Weekly Standard, Hullabaloo, Democrats.com, Gateway Pundit and Bob Cesca's Awesome Blog!

David S. Broder / Washington Post:

President Obama as Commander in Chief — No new president finds that every aspect of the job suits him at once; some duties are inevitably more comfortable than others. What we have witnessed in the past few weeks is Barack Obama trying on and fitting himself to the role of commander in chief.

Discussion: Salon, Washington Monthly, Firedoglake and Rising Hegemon

Jennifer Steinhauer / New York Times:

California, a Broke State, Reels as Voters Rebuff Leaders — LOS ANGELES — Direct democracy has once again upended California — enough so that the state may finally consider another way by overhauling its Constitution for the first time in 130 years. — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger returned home …

Discussion: MoJo Blog Posts, Outside The Beltway, Balkinization and CANNONFIRE

Fox News:

Trebek Makes Bush Joke as Texas Teen Wins Geography Bee — WASHINGTON — The nation's top geography whiz breezed through questions about mountain ranges, rivers and world capitals Wednesday, but he was stumped when National Geographic Bee host Alex Trebek asked him to name one of his weaknesses.

Discussion: PoliGazette and NewsBusters.org

Wall Street Journal:

Pre-emption of State Laws Rolled Back — WASHINGTON — In a sweeping order Wednesday, President Barack Obama called for a rollback of Bush administration regulations designed to protect companies from product-liability lawsuits in state courts. — The memo didn't name specific industries …

Discussion: Right Wing News