memeorandum: Fake Afghan Poll Sites Favored Karzai, Officials Assert (New York Times)

11:30 AM ET, September 7, 2009

Top Items:

We All Blew It — On Thursday evening, I got worried. Friday I put in a call to ask Van Jones how to help. Saturday I started writing a blog post, which would have appeared this morning. (I've attached it below because it goes into more detail on the history of the “Bush as addict” meme.)

Discussion: Firedoglake, Sandra Rose, The American Scene, Riehl World View, The Other McCain, Whiskey Fire and The Sundries Shack

Mickey Kaus / Kausfiles:

Van Jones: Does the NYT Know What a Truther Is? — Amazingly, many New York Times print readers still don't know why Van Jones resigned! Here's how the paper's John Broder describes his situation: … Reading that, would you realize the petition was a Truther petition?

Discussion: Ben Smith's Blog, The Corner on National …, Don Surber, Bluegrass Pundit and Washington Post

The Politico:

Beck up, left let down and Jones defiant — The resignation early Sunday of “green jobs” adviser Van Jones says as much about the Obama White House as it does about Jones - marking the latest sacrifice to the political gods after a long summer of compromises and surrenders highlighted the limits of White House power.

Discussion: Commentary, The Strata-Sphere, RedState, Betsy's Page, POWIP, Gateway Pundit, Pajamas Media, Ben Smith's Blog, Power Line and And So it Goes in Shreveport

Washington Post:

In Adviser's Resignation, Vetting Bites Obama Again — Uproar Concerned Environmental Aide's Past Activism — The resignation of White House environmental adviser Van Jones has revealed a lapse in the administration's vetting procedures that, nearly eight months into his tenure …

Discussion: Washington Times, Blue Crab Boulevard, Swampland, The Corner on National …, AmSpecBlog, Weekly Standard, Hot Air, Gateway Pundit and NewsBusters.org

Jane Hamsher / Firedoglake:

Van Jones: A Moment of Truth For Liberal Institutions in the Veal Pen — I first met Van Jones when he was honored last year by the Campaign for America's Future at their gala dinner. He was being swarmed by all of the liberal institutional elite, who just could not be more full of praise …

Discussion: The Huffington Post, JustOneMinute, The Sideshow, NewsBusters.org, Wake up America, RebelReports, Political Byline, Open Left, Riehl World View, Eschaton, Dennis the Peasant, The BRAD BLOG, Blue Crab Boulevard, American Power and Seeing the Forest

Joe Garofoli / San Francisco Chronicle:
Progressives decry resignation of Van Jones

Discussion: Pajamas Media, RBO and Riehl World View

Keith Olbermann / Daily Kos:
Send Me Everything You Can Find About Glenn Beck

Jackturner / Jack & Jill Politics:
When Will This White House Learn You Cannot Negotiate With Terrorists?

Discussion: QandO, The Politico, Crooks and Liars, Political Byline, The Washington Independent, Hot Air, Pajamas Media, American Power, Calitics, The Impolitic, Riehl World View, AmSpecBlog, Little Green Footballs and Gawker

Fox News: Jones' Resignation Could Embolden Administration Critics

Robert Pear / New York Times:

New Fee on Health Insurance Companies Is Proposed to Help Expand Coverage — WASHINGTON — In a last effort to give the Senate a bipartisan health care bill, the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee circulated a comprehensive proposal on Sunday to overhaul the health care system and proposed …

Discussion: The Hill, Hullabaloo, Washington Post, TalkLeft, Washington Monthly, Emptywheel, TPMDC, The Confluence, Obsidian Wings, MyDD, George's Bottom Line and The Politico

Mike Collett-White / Reuters:

“Capitalism is evil,” says new Michael Moore film — VENICE (Reuters) - Capitalism is evil. That is the conclusion U.S. documentary maker Michael Moore comes to in his latest movie “Capitalism: A Love Story,” which premieres at the Venice film festival Sunday.

Discussion: theblogprof, The Anchoress, Pajamas Media, Cold Fury, Babalú Blog and JammieWearingFool

Gateway Pundit:
To Michael Moore “Capitalism Is Evil” Except For Its Perks

Discussion: The Jawa Report and Althouse

Ambrose Evans-Pritchard / Telegraph:

China alarmed by US money printing — The US Federal Reserve's policy of printing money to buy Treasury debt threatens to set off a serious decline of the dollar and compel China to redesign its foreign reserve policy, according to a top member of the Communist hierarchy.

Discussion: Outside The Beltway, The Moderate Voice, Fausta's Blog, Wake up America, The Other McCain, Below The Beltway, Ztower and Not Tucker Carlson

Edmund Conway / Telegraph:

Barack Obama accused of making ‘Depression’ mistakes — Barack Obama is committing the same mistakes made by policymakers during the Great Depression, according to a new study endorsed by Nobel laureate James Buchanan. — His policies even have the potential to consign the US to a similar fate …

Discussion: Axis of Right, Pajamas Media and The Hinterland Gazette

Lisa Lerer / The Politico:

More czars on conservative hit list — Cass Sunstein, regulatory czar — Prolific Harvard law professor Cass Sunstein spent years examining the obscure corners of regulatory law and behaviorial economics. Now, conservatives are combing through his writings to build a case against his nomination …

Discussion: Townhall.com

Washington Post:

Major U.S. Role in Mortgages Shaping Entire Market — Classes of Borrowers Cannot Find Loans as Publicly Backed Debt Mounts — In the go-go years of the U.S. housing boom, virtually anybody could get a few hundred thousand dollars to buy a home, and private lenders flooded the market …

Discussion: A Blog For All and EconLog

Pamela Geller / Atlas Shrugs:

Rifqa Bary Facebook Fatwa: “We Need to Kill Her” — I have said from the very first that Rifqa Bary is the highest value target in America. Apostasy is the most egregious crime against Islam. Her crime is not just against the family. it is against Islam.

Discussion: Bartholomew's Notes … and The Jawa Report

New York Times:

Fake Afghan Poll Sites Favored Karzai, Officials Assert — KABUL, Afghanistan — Afghans loyal to President Hamid Karzai set up hundreds of fictitious polling sites where no one voted but where hundreds of thousands of ballots were still recorded toward the president's re-election, according to senior Western and Afghan officials here.

Discussion: Mudville Gazette, Sweetness & Light, ThreatsWatch and Los Angeles Times

Martina Stewart / CNN:

Klobuchar on a health care bill: 'I would like to see us at 60′ — (CNN) - Two Democratic senators said Sunday that they would prefer not to see their party use “reconciliation,” a procedural maneuver in the Senate designed for budgetary legislation which only requires 50 votes for a bill to pass …

Discussion: The Reaction