memeorandum: Odds and Ends — Here are some of the things we've been talking about on Twitter today: (Tom Jensen/Public Policy Polling)

7:25 AM ET, August 4, 2009

Top Items:

Obama ‘Joker’ Poster Causing a Stir in L.A. — Obama “Joker” Poster — What do you think? — When you're taking flak... ÃÂyou know you're over the target,and the person who made this poster is shining the light of truth on the Obama administration.

Discussion: NewsBusters.org, field negro, FullosseousFlap's Dental Blog, L.A. Now and RedState

Steven Mikulan / LA Daily:

New Anti-Obama ‘Joker’ Poster — A new poster depicting President Obama as a version of Heath Ledger's Joker character in The Dark Knight has appeared in Los Angeles, according to rightwing sources. Blog posters to such online sites as American Thinker and Tammy Bruce are predictably in the throes of political orgasm.

Discussion: Big Hollywood, Conventional Folly, RedState, Bookworm Room, Daily Dose, The Anchoress, The Confluence, rightofcourse.com, The washington times Blogs, Confederate Yankee, American Thinker and Moonbattery

Hideaki Tailor / Weekly World News:

OBAMA JOKER POSTER — LOS ANGELES, CA - A poster depicting President Obama as Batman's The Joker has begun appearing around Los Angeles. — Someone has been creating posters of President Obama in the famous face paint of The Dark Knight's Joker, famously depicted by Heath Ledger.

Discussion: Jules Crittenden, theblogprof, The Sundries Shack, Don Surber, American Power and The Note

Allahpundit / Hot Air:

LA Weekly wets itself over Obama/Joker poster: “The only thing missing is a noose” — Hey, remember when it was cool to demonize the president, or even the presidential or vice-presidential nominee? Sarahcuda had been on the national stage for all of eight weeks last year before she got the rabid vampire treatment.

Discussion: Pajamas Media, Cranky T-Rex's Blog, NewsBusters.org, The Corner and Macsmind

David Weigel / The Washington Independent:

Is This the Source of the Forged ‘Kenyan Birth Certificate?’ — [Update: Credit where it's due—my source tipped me off to this in the Politijab web forums, which have become a good site for “birther” debunking.] — One of my friends in the small community of Obama “birther” …

Discussion: Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Below The Beltway, Townhall.com and Dr. Orly Taitz Esquire

Alex Koppelman / Salon:
Birthers release forged Kenyan birth certificate for Obama

Discussion: The Washington Independent, Jesus' General, Unqualified Offerings, Right Truth, Hot Air, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Wonkette, Native and Natural … and MoJo Blog Posts

Lee Fang / Think Progress:

Durbin Responds To Lobbyist-Run Efforts To Harass Town Halls: We 'Won't Fall For A Sucker-Punch Like This' — ThinkProgress reported today on the growing number of angry right-wing activists viciously harassing Democratic, as well as moderate Republican, members of Congress on health care reform.

Discussion: Gawker, AmSpecBlog, The Political Carnival, And So it Goes in Shreveport, Wonk Room, Gateway Pundit, My Left Nutmeg, Lean Left, Macsmind, the talking dog, American Power, Hot Air, TPMDC, Wonkette, D-Day and Hullabaloo

Martin Kady II / Glenn Thrush's Blog:
Doggett calls protesters a ‘mob’

Discussion: CBS News, Hullabaloo, Gateway Pundit, The Huffington Post, Democratic Strategist and Salon

Postcards:
Doggett says he's more resolved than ever to pass a health-care plan

Discussion: The Caucus, Talking Points Memo, Off the Kuff, The New Editor, Glenn Thrush's Blog and Austin American-Statesman

New York Times:

Bill Clinton in North Korea to Seek Release of U.S. Reporters — WASHINGTON — Former President Bill Clinton went to North Korea on Monday to negotiate the release of two American television journalists who were sentenced to 12 years of hard labor for illegally entering North Korean territory …

Discussion: Los Angeles Times, Mediaite, The Hill's Blog Briefing Room, The Caucus, Gawker, The Page and Connecting.the.Dots

Reuters: Bill Clinton Reported Heading to North Korea

Evan Perez / Wall Street Journal:

White House Counsel's Job Is at Stake — WASHINGTON — Obama administration officials are holding discussions that could result in White House counsel Gregory Craig leaving his post, following a rocky tenure, people familiar with the matter said. — Mr. Craig, the top lawyer at the White House …

Discussion: Emptywheel

Siobhan Gorman / Wall Street Journal:

White House Cybersecurity Chief Quits — WASHINGTON — The White House's acting cybersecurity czar announced her resignation Monday, in a setback to the Obama administration's efforts to better protect the computer networks critical to national security and the global economy.

Discussion: Danger Room, Emptywheel and On Deadline

Marc Ambinder / The Atlantic Politics Channel:

Are Democrats In For An August Slaughter? — Democrats know the rulebook. The tactics being used against them by Republican and conservative groups were perfected by the party when it set out to defeat President Bush's Social Security privatization proposals.

Discussion: Betsy's Page

Josh Marshall / Talking Points Memo: Ambinder — Marc Ambinder seems to think the tea-bagger effort …

Wall Street Journal:

Geithner Vents as Overhaul Stumbles — WASHINGTON — Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner blasted top U.S. financial regulators in an expletive-laced critique last Friday as frustration grows over the Obama administration's faltering plan to overhaul U.S. financial regulation, according to people familiar with the meeting.

Discussion: naked capitalism, Real Time Economics, Clusterstock and zero hedge

Kevin Helliker / Wall Street Journal:

Killer App for Clunkers Spurs Market — Rebate Program Prescribes Chemical to Stop Car Engines — for Good; Mechanics 'Can't Wait' — Robert Mueller deals in chemicals for a living — things that can unstick glue, thin paint, make plastic — but he'd never seen an order like the one he got for sodium silicate.

Discussion: Clusterstock

Michael Barone / Real Clear Politics:
Beware the High Cost of Unintended Consequences

Discussion: Sense of Events, Wall Street Journal, Fausta's Blog and Betsy's Page

Weekly Standard:

And That's the Way It Wasn't — From the Scrapbook. — It seems somehow oddly appropriate that the passing of TV news giant Walter Cronkite should have produced in turn a gigantic correction in the New York Times, which we reproduce here for your delectation:

Discussion: The Moderate Voice

Ezra Klein:

Should We Envy Texas? — Ross Douthat has a strange column today arguing that Texas — yes, Texas — represents the sort of “model” economy that Barack Obama promised but can't quite seem to achieve. “The president wants to govern America like a blue state,” writes Douthat.

Discussion: Economix, Free exchange, Obsidian Wings and The Plank

Ross Douthat / New York Times:
Blue-State Blues

Jon Ralston / Las Vegas Sun Blogs:

Emails between Ensign NRSC lieutenants, Hamptons show affair was known inside organization more than a year ago — The emails, between Mike Slanker and Doug Hampton and Lindsey Slanker and Cindy Hampton, show the Slankers knew of the affair between John Ensign and Cindy Hampton while they were working …

Discussion: Las Vegas Sun, The Political Carnival and The Huffington Post

Dion Lefler / Kansas City Star:
Kansas casino partner linked to son's sex scandal

Discussion: Glenn Thrush's Blog and TPMMuckraker

Kathy Kiely / USA Today:

Republican support for Sotomayor looks paltry — WASHINGTON — As the Senate begins debate Tuesday on Sonia Sotomayor's nomination to the Supreme Court, the veteran federal judge appears assured of confirmation but without the sweeping bipartisan majority her backers hoped for the nation's first Hispanic high court pick.

Discussion: The Page and Associated Press

Hotline On Call:
McCain To Vote “No” On Sotomayor

Discussion: Hot Air and Wonkette

Glenn Thrush / The Politico:

5 things to watch during recess — House Minority Leader John Boehner has predicted a “very, very hot summer.” — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is bracing for what she calls “the fight of our lives.” — Sleepy, sweltering August, typically a month for congressional beach getaways …

Discussion: Daily Kos, Maggie's Farm and Wonk Room

Alex Isenstadt / The Politico:
As recess begins, the heat is on

Discussion: Firedoglake, Wizbang and NolanChart.com

Laura A. Munson / New York Times:

Those Aren't Fighting Words, Dear — LET'S say you have what you believe to be a healthy marriage. You're still friends and lovers after spending more than half of your lives together. The dreams you set out to achieve in your 20s — gazing into each other's eyes in candlelit city bistros …

Discussion: Vox Popoli

Josh Marshall / Talking Points Memo:

And for the Blue Team? — We spent most of Monday reporting on these tea-bagging crowds going to Democratic health care town hall meetings to shout down the hosts and shut the events down. It's classic agitprop, very akin to the ‘Brooks Brothers riot’ down in Florida during the recount.

David Paul Kuhn / Real Clear Politics:

Both Parties Have Their Fanatics — Fully 35 percent of Democrats believe George W. Bush had advance knowledge of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Fully 28 percent of Republicans believe Barack Obama wasn't born in the United States. — Meet the fanatical third.

Discussion: FiveThirtyEight, Democratic Strategist and PrairiePundit

Adam Liptak / New York Times:

Obama Administration Weighs in on State Secrets, Raising Concern on the Left — A Supreme Court filing from the Obama administration last month has set off alarm bells on the left. — The filing was a friend-of-the-court brief, and it mostly dealt with an excruciatingly technical question about the attorney-client privilege.

Discussion: The Politico and AMERICAblog News

Paul Krugman:

In defense of Michelle Malkin — No, really. She's been getting a lot of grief from progressive bloggers for saying that extended unemployment benefits cause higher unemployment, and attributing that view to Larry Katz, who has gone to some pains to say that he believes no such thing.

Discussion: Angry Bear, FishBowlDC, Zandar Versus The Stupid, Matthew Yglesias, D-Day and Washington Monthly

The Hill:

Tax trial balloon pops — The Obama administration on Monday quickly shot down a trial balloon it floated over the weekend that opened the possibility of new taxes on the middle class after the idea came under heavy fire from labor unions, liberal leaders and Republicans.

Chris Good / The Atlantic Politics Channel:

GOP Polling Charts Galore — For anyone who enjoys a) charts and b) speculating about who will win the Republican presidential primary in 2012, Pollster.com has just greatly improved your life: the site is now tracking favorability ratings for Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee, as well as Sarah Palin.