memeorandum: Official: We knew Benghazi was a terrorist attack “from the get-go” (Lindsey Boerma/CBS News)

3:00 PM ET, May 5, 2013

Top Items:

Obama's Vow on Chemical Weapons Puts Him in Tough Spot — WASHINGTON — Confronted with evidence that chemical weapons have been used in Syria, President Obama now finds himself in a geopolitical box, his credibility at stake with frustratingly few good options.

Discussion: Outside the Beltway, Hot Air, Weasel Zippers, Israel Matzav, Wake up America, FP Passport, Twitchy, The Lonely Conservative, msnbc.com, The Gateway Pundit, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, National Review, Via Meadia and TheTower.org

Daniel Halper / Weekly Standard:

Obama Aide On Syria's Assad: 'If He Drops Sarin On His Own People, What's That Got Do Do With Us?' — President Barack Obama got ahead of himself and his advisers when he said that Syria using chemical weapons would cross a “red line,” the New York Times reports.

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit and Israel Matzav

The Commentator:

Assad “to declare war” on Israel following fresh airstrikes — Reports suggest that Syria's embattled dictator, Bashar al-Assad, is shortly set to declare war on Israel after interventions against the regime — Following evidence of chemical warfare and an increasinly reticent US position …

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, The Other McCain, Israel Matzav and Hot Air

Reuters:

Israel strikes Syria again, rocking Damascus — (Reuters) - Israel carried out its second air strike in days on Syria early on Sunday, a Western intelligence source said, in an attack that shook Damascus with a series of powerful blasts and drove columns of fire into the night sky.

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, americanthinker.com, The Hill, The Long War Journal and FP Passport

CNN:

Syria: Attack on military facility was a ‘declaration of war’ by Israel — Damascus, Syria (CNN) — A Syrian official called an attack Sunday on the nation's military research facility a “declaration of war” by Israel. — In an interview with CNN, Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal al Mekdad …

Discussion: Washington Post, Guardian, Business Insider, Weasel Zippers, The Week and Alan Colmes' Liberaland

Associated Press:
Israeli warplanes continue to pound Damascus

Discussion: Wake up America

Daniel Byman / New York Times:
Mr. Obama, Don't Draw That Line

Discussion: JustOneMinute

BBC:
Damascus hit ‘by Israeli strikes’

Discussion: The Moderate Voice and New York Times

Kathleen Geier / Washington Monthly:

How wrong is Kathleen Parker about Plan B birth control? Let me count the ways! — Kathleen Parker's column in today's Washington Post, which is about over-the-counter sales of Plan B birth control, is a small masterpiece of sophistry. It's a virtual greatest hits collection …

Discussion: Balloon Juice

Kathleen Parker / Washington Post:
Prude or prudent? The debate over access to Plan B

Discussion: Wake up America, Althouse and Booman Tribune

Lindsey Boerma / CBS News:

Official: We knew Benghazi was a terrorist attack “from the get-go” — (CBS News) “Everybody in the mission” in Benghazi, Libya, thought the attack on a U.S. consulate there last Sept. 11 was an act of terror “from the get-go,” according to excerpts of an interview investigators conducted …

Discussion: Michelle Malkin, Power Line, protein wisdom, Right Turn, National Review, Weekly Standard, Weasel Zippers, The Strata-Sphere, The PJ Tatler, Wake up America, Wizbang, Betsy's Page and American Thinker

Justin Sink / The Hill:

King: ‘Very difficult to believe’ Boston bombing suspects acted alone — Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.), the former chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, said Sunday that he did not believe the suspects in last month's Boston Marathon bombings acted alone.

Alexander Abad-Santos / The Atlantic Wire:

China Is Censoring Jokes About Its Propaganda Machine's Penis-Shaped HQ — The People's Daily is the main state-owned newspaper of China's communist party, and everyone was pretty psyched about the paper's new Beijing headquarters. The building is massive, imposing, and, uh, currently shaped like a colossal penis.

Benjamin Bell / ABCNEWS:

Jim DeMint: Immigration Reform Will Cost U.S. Trillions — Former South Carolina Republican senator and current Heritage Foundation president Jim DeMint argued that implementing immigration reform as proposed by the so-called “Gang of Eight” would “cost Americans trillions of dollars,” …

Discussion: PERRspectives, Politico, The PJ Tatler and americanthinker.com

Justin Sink / The Hill:

Obama urges OSU graduates to celebrate ‘citizenship’ and reject cynicism — President Obama urged graduates at The Ohio State University to celebrate “citizenship” and reject cynicism in a commencement speech to tens of thousands of graduates, family members and friends at Ohio Stadium in Columbus on Sunday.

Discussion: Politico

Kevin Cirilli / Politico:

Howard Kurtz apologizes on CNN for errors — Howard Kurtz took to his CNN show “Reliable Sources” on Sunday to issue a lengthy full-fledged apology for his erroneous report last week about NBA star Jason Collins and for a string of past careless mistakes that he admitted he was sometimes slow to correct …

Discussion: BuzzMachine and Mediaite, more at Mediagazer »

Washington Post:

Poll: Cuccinelli has early lead over McAuliffe in Virginia governor's race — Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli II has an early lead over businessman Terry McAuliffe in their race for governor, a new Washington Post poll shows, even as most voters in the commonwealth have yet to engage in the nationally watched contest.

Discussion: Outside the Beltway and Taegan Goddard's …

Matthew DeLuca / U.S. News:

NRA's LaPierre: ‘We will never surrender our guns’ — NBC's Kasie Hunt reports from Houston, Texas on what's been said at this year's National Rifle Association convention. — In a fiery speech Saturday before cheering supporters, the National Rifle Association's Wayne LaPierre took …

Discussion: Crooks and Liars