memeorandum: Google's Sergey Brin bankrolled world's first synthetic beef hamburger (Alok Jha/Guardian)

2:45 PM ET, August 5, 2013

Top Items:

Exclusive: U.S. directs agents to cover up program used to investigate Americans — (Reuters) - A secretive U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration unit is funneling information from intelligence intercepts, wiretaps, informants and a massive database of telephone records to authorities across …

Paul Krugman / New York Times:

Republicans Against Reality — Last week House Republicans voted for the 40th time to repeal Obamacare. Like the previous 39 votes, this action will have no effect whatsoever. But it was a stand-in for what Republicans really want to do: repeal reality, and the laws of arithmetic in particular.

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Business Insider, The PJ Tatler, Balloon Juice, The Mahablog, Politico, Daily Kos, Paul Krugman and Post Politics

Stan Collender / Stan Collender's Capital Gains …:

Budget Bedlam This Fall — August actually is a pretty good time to be in Washington. — Yes, the weather usually is awful. But with Congress gone, getting to work isn't as stressful because there's less demand on roads and public transit. You can get up later and still get to work on time.

Discussion: Washington Monthly and CNNMoney.com

Associated Press:
House GOP plans anti-Washington push in August

Discussion: PoliticusUSA

Jillian Rogers / GOP.com:

RNC Chairman Calls on NBC and CNN to Stop Promoting Hillary Clinton — RNC will not partner with networks in 2016 primary debates — WASHINGTON - Today Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairman Reince Priebus sent a letter to Robert Greenblatt, Chairman of NBC Entertainment …

Discussion: Washington Wire, The Plum Line, Guardian, LifeNews.com, Hot Air and The Gateway Pundit

Mike Flynn / BREITBART.COM:

EXCLUSIVE-RNC TO NBC, CNN: DUMP HILLARY DOCS OR WE WILL DUMP DEBATES — On Monday, RNC Chair Reince Priebus sent stinging letters to NBC and CNN concerning their recently announced decisions to produce films celebrating the life of Hillary Clinton. The RNC sees the odd programing move …

Discussion: Andrew Kaczynski, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Mediaite and Joe. My. God.

Lynn Sweet / Voices:
GOP threatens to ban debates on CNN, NBC if networks produce Hillary Clinton shows

Discussion: The New Civil Rights Movement

Jonathan Easley / The Hill:
RNC warns networks: Drop Clinton movies or lose 2016 GOP debates

Discussion: Politico

Hilary Andersson / BBC:

Boston bomber ‘had far-right papers’ — What was behind Boston bombing? Hilary Andersson reports — One of the brothers suspected of carrying out the Boston bombings was in possession of right-wing American literature in the run-up to the attack, BBC Panorama has learnt.

Discussion: Jihad Watch, neo-neocon, The Jawa Report, The Raw Story, The PJ Tatler, The Daily Caller, Jammie Wearing Fools and Business Insider

CBS News:

U.S. still on edge in face of uncovered terror plot — (CBS News) American embassies and consulates will remain closed in 19 Middle Eastern and African countries through Saturday as intelligence officials analyze communications intercepted of senior al Qaeda leaders discussing attacks against unspecified Western targets.

Discussion: CBS DC, The PJ Tatler and Hot Air

Judson Berger / Fox News:
Army won't suspend contracts with Al Qaeda-tied companies, citing ‘due process rights’

Discussion: Weasel Zippers and Jammie Wearing Fools

Jeffrey Goldberg / Bloomberg:
Warning to Americans: Be Afraid, Very Afraid

Discussion: Guardian, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Reuters, Hot Air and Informed Comment

Mark Mazzetti / New York Times:
U.S. Extends Closing of Some Diplomatic Posts

Discussion: CBS News, ThinkProgress, McClatchy Washington Bureau, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, msnbc.com, The Week, Foreign Policy, Wall Street Journal and Guardian

Associated Press:

Dead people gave nearly $600K to campaigns since 2009 — WASHINGTON — The dead can't vote, but they can give money to politicians. — Thirty-two people listed on federal campaign records as “deceased” have contributed more than $586,000 to congressional and presidential candidates …

Discussion: The Week, Ballot Box, Taegan Goddard's …, The Raw Story, Reuters, CBS DC, Real Clear Politics and Jammie Wearing Fools

Wall Street Journal:

Congress's ObamaCare Exemption — The President intervenes to give Members and staff a break. — To adapt H.L. Mencken, nobody ever went broke underestimating the cynicism and self-dealing of the American political class. Witness their ad-libbed decision, at the 11th hour and on the basis …

Discussion: Weekly Standard, Real Clear Politics, Patterico's Pontifications, americanthinker.com, Betsy's Page and American Power

Kyle Cheney / Politico:
Obamacare message war goes local

Discussion: Hot Air, Twitchy, Weasel Zippers, americanthinker.com, Michelle Malkin, Heritage Action for America, The Lonely Conservative, NewsBusters and VodkaPundit

Prof Mark Post / BBC:

World's first lab-grown burger is eaten in London — The world's first lab-grown burger was cooked and eaten at a news conference in London on Monday. — Scientists took cells from a cow and, at an institute in the Netherlands, turned them into strips of muscle that they combined to make a patty.

Discussion: Althouse

Alok Jha / Guardian:
Google's Sergey Brin bankrolled world's first synthetic beef hamburger

Discussion: Mashable, Hot Air, The Daily Caller, The Week and Death and Taxes

New York Times:

The Last Temptation of Tina Brown — On Nov. 12, 2010, Tina Brown gathered the staff of her Web site The Daily Beast in the third-floor conference room at its Chelsea offices with its commanding views of the Hudson. Brimming with the fervor she has brought to all her endeavors …

Discussion: Los Angeles Times, Politico, Capital New York, Gawker, Outside the Beltway, Taylor Marsh, TheBlaze.com, Business Insider, The Huffington Post and Poynter, more at Mediagazer »

Jonathan Martin / New York Times:

G.O.P. Governors Warn Party Members in Congress Not to Shut Government — MILWAUKEE — Worried about the potential impact on the fragile economies in their states, Republican governors this weekend warned their counterparts in Congress not to shut down the federal government as part of an effort …

Discussion: National Review, msnbc.com, The Plum Line, ThinkProgress, Daily Kos, Mediaite, Booman Tribune and Prairie Weather

Alexandra Jaffe / Ballot Box:

McConnell slams GOP challenger as ‘Bailout Bevin’ in new ad — Sen. Mitch McConnell's (R-Ky.) reelection campaign is out with a new ad hitting Tea party challenger Matt Bevin as “bailout Bevin” and highlighting a number of tax liens assessed on his business and vacation home.

Discussion: Washington Monthly and CNN

Joseph Gerth / Courier-Journal:
Mitch McConnell targets Obama; Alison Lundergan Grimes aims at McConnell at Fancy Farm

Discussion: Yahoo! News

Ralph Z. Hallow / Washington Times:

Newt Gingrich sees major Mideast mistakes, rethinks his neocon views on intervention — Welcomes libertarian debate on U.S. military involvement — Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, a leading neoconservative hawk and staunch supporter of Israel, says the U.S. military interventions …

Discussion: ThinkProgress and CBS DC

Brian Krebs / Krebs on Security:

Firefox Zero-Day Used in Child Porn Hunt? — A claimed zero-day vulnerability in Firefox 17 has some users of the latest Mozilla Firefox browser (Firefox 22) shrugging their shoulders. Indeed, for now it appears that this flaw is not a concern for regular, up-to-date Firefox end users.

Discussion: The Switch, Guardian, GigaOM and The Verge

blog.torproject.org:
Hidden Services, Current Events, and Freedom Hosting

Discussion: Wired, Firedoglake and Gizmodo

Benjamin Wallace-Wells / New York Magazine:

What Is Chris Christie Doing Right? — He's hugely popular in a state way to his left. He's unafraid to take on a national party considerably to his right. And he's most adored when he's acting reprehensibly. — In New Jersey, charisma is a blunt instrument.

Discussion: Daily Kos and The Reaction

Sarah Lacy / PandoDaily:

Olivia Nuzzi won't defend herself against the latest lies, so allow me — I'm no stranger to receiving hate and abuse on the Internet, and beyond. I'm not going to link to any of it in this post, but if you've been following my career or Pando for a while you've probably seen it.

Discussion: FishbowlDC, Mediaite and The Daily Caller