memeorandum: What Tax Dollars Can't Buy (Ross Douthat/New York Times)

5:45 PM ET, October 30, 2011

Top Items:

CEPR:

Washington Post Discards All Journalistic Standards In Attack on Social Security — News outlets generally like to claim a separation between their editorial pages and their news pages. The Washington Post has long ignored this distinction in pursuing its agenda for cutting Social Security …

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Crooks and Liars, Hullabaloo and The Reality-Based Community

Lori Montgomery / Washington Post:

The debt fallout: How Social Security went ‘cash negative’ earlier than expected — View Photo Gallery — Since the entitlement program's inception in 1935, many changes to Social Security have been enacted or attempted. Here's a look at some memorable moments in Social Security's history.

Discussion: Wake up America, Prairie Weather, Via Meadia, The Gateway Pundit, Hullabaloo and State of the Union

Paul Krugman:

Social Security Bait And Switch, A Continuing Series — Dean Baker is angry at the Washington Post for spreading disinformation about Social Security. He's right, of course — and it's shocking that a well-known fallacy is the subject of a “news analysis” that purports to inform readers.

Jennifer Jacobs / Iowa Caucuses:

The Register's Iowa Poll: Herman Cain, Mitt Romney lead GOP pack; Ron Paul third — Former business executives Herman Cain and Mitt Romney lead the Republican field in Iowa in an election cycle in which likely GOP caucusgoers favor business experience over elective experience as a qualification for the presidency.

Discussion: USA Today, New York Times, Washington Monthly, Rick Perry 2012 Campaign … and Ballot Box

Jamie Klatell / Ballot Box:
Bachmann touts Iowa straw poll win, downplays importance of Iowa caucuses

Discussion: Iowa Caucuses and The Politico

John Heilemann / New York Magazine:
The Temptation of Mitt

Discussion: Iowa Caucuses

Des Moines / Iowa Caucuses:
Herman Cain, Mitt Romney lead new Iowa Poll

Jon Ward / The Huffington Post:

Rick Perry's Unusual Speech Performance (VIDEO) … Republican Presidential Primary , Elections 2012 , Rick Perry , Video , New Hampshire , Back Surgery , Speech , Politics News — WASHINGTON — Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry raised some eyebrows Friday night …

Discussion: Little Green Footballs, The Impolitic, The Daily Dish and Mother Jones

Reid J. Epstein / The Politico:
Rick Perry flip-flops on debates

Discussion: The Political Carnival and Outside the Beltway

David Rose / Daily Mail:

Scientist who said climate change sceptics had been proved wrong accused of hiding truth by colleague — It was hailed as the scientific study that ended the global warming debate once and for all - the research that, in the words of its director, ‘proved you should not be a sceptic, at least not any longer’.

Discussion: thegwpf.org, Doug Ross, blogs.telegraph.co.uk, BizzyBlog, The PJ Tatler, The Lonely Conservative and Watts Up With That?

Thomas L. Friedman / New York Times:

Did You Hear the One About the Bankers? — CITIGROUP is lucky that Muammar el-Qaddafi was killed when he was. The Libyan leader's death diverted attention from a lethal article involving Citigroup that deserved more attention because it helps to explain why many average Americans …

Discussion: Swampland, Economist's View, Vox Popoli and Prairie Weather

New York Post:

Zuccotti perv — Wall Street protesters in Zuccotti Park battened down the hatches yesterday as the early October snow turned their tents into igloos, but the close quarters also made easy pickings for one predator. — A sex fiend barged into a woman's tent and sexually assaulted her at around 6 a.m. …

Discussion: Ironic Surrealism, Proof Positive, The Gateway Pundit, Weasel Zippers, Sister Toldjah, The Crawdad Hole, Verum Serum, Pirate's Cove, JammieWearingFool and Big Government

The Independent:

Exclusive: Cover-up at St Paul's — Clerics suppress report on bankers' greed to save church embarrassment — A highly critical report into the moral standards of bankers has been suppressed by St Paul's Cathedral amid fears that it would inflame tensions over the Occupy London tent protest.

Discussion: Truthdig and Guardian

Mark Townsend / Guardian:
Occupy London could be protected by Christian ring of prayer

Discussion: Crooks and Liars and US Politics

Matthew Yglesias / ThinkProgress:

Let Children Vote — Via Jonathan Bernstein, Sally Kohn writes about a campaign in Lowell, Massachusetts to let seventeen year-olds vote in local elections. More power to them, but I say let any American citizen vote in any American election he or she wants to.

Discussion: Althouse, American Prospect and A plain blog about politics

Mona Simpson / New York Times:

A Sister's Eulogy for Steve Jobs — I grew up as an only child, with a single mother. Because we were poor and because I knew my father had emigrated from Syria, I imagined he looked like Omar Sharif. I hoped he would be rich and kind and would come into our lives (and our not yet furnished apartment) and help us.

Discussion: Mediaite, Gothamist, Gawker and The Impolitic, more at Techmeme »

Jamie Klatell / The Hill:

Obama: Pelosi was ‘one of the best’ Speakers, will be back in 2013 — President Obama on Saturday said Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) was a great House Speaker and that she will get that job back after the 2012 elections. — “I am biased, but I think Nancy was one of the best Speakers …

Discussion: Weasel Zippers, The Lonely Conservative, Wake up America, Pundit Press and Michelle Malkin

Denver Post:

Occupy Denver protesters, law enforcement officers clash; 20 arrested — In the most violent Saturday in more than a month of Occupy Denver demonstrations and marches, Denver police fired mace and pepper balls at a crowd of protesters in Civic Center today and arrested 20 people.