memeorandum: Revealed: Fake sheik fanatic accused of 40 sex offences, harassing the families of dead soldiers … (Daily Mail)

8:20 PM ET, December 15, 2014

Top Items:

Martin Place, Sydney siege gunman identified as Man Haron Monis — Siege hostage taker identified as Man Monis — The man who held more than a dozen people hostage, placing Sydney's CBD into lockdown is no stranger to the NSW police or the judiciary. — Self-described cleric …

Discussion: Telegraph, NBC News, Washington Post, ABC, The Daily Caller, Hot Air, New York Magazine, Jezebel, Business Insider and Gawker

BBC:
Australia commandos end Sydney cafe siege

Discussion: Guardian, Washington Free Beacon, Talking Points Memo, Gawker and New York Magazine

Daily Mail:
Revealed: Fake sheik fanatic accused of 40 sex offences, harassing the families of dead soldiers …

Discussion: BARE NAKED ISLAM, The Gateway Pundit and American Spectator

Matt Wilstein / Mediaite:
Fox's Hasselbeck Uses Sydney Siege to Defend CIA Torture Program

Discussion: Daily Kos, The Huffington Post and ThinkProgress

CNN:
Sydney gunman reportedly demands ISIS flag as some hostages escape

Discussion: Christian Science Monitor, Sydney Morning Herald, Gawker, The Gateway Pundit, Fox News, Guardian, ABC News, Mediaite, Taylor Marsh, PoliticusUSA, Daily Kos, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Questions and Observations, The Daily Caller, New York Magazine, BARE NAKED ISLAM, The Jawa Report and 9news.com.au

Nicholas McCallum / 9news.com.au:
LIVE STREAM: Eerie quiet settles over dramatic Sydney hostage scene

Discussion: Washington Free Beacon

Michelle Innis / New York Times:
Sydney Hostage Siege Ends With Gunman and 2 Captives Dead as Police Storm Cafe

Discussion: CNN, NSW Police Online, Crime and Consequences Blog, ABC, The Other McCain, ABC News, NPR, Business Insider, Talking Points Memo, Mashable, Liberaland, Shakesville, Outside the Beltway, Daily Mail and Reuters

USA Today:
Sydney siege: Gunman issued demands, threats

Discussion: The Daily Beast, HeraldSun, Wall Street Journal, Mashable, NBC News, Guardian, Associated Press, WTVR-TV, Michael J. Totten's blog, The Federalist, KFOR-TV, Hot Air, Scared Monkeys and American Spectator

BBC:
Sydney hostages: Sydney gunman identified as Iranian

Discussion: The PJ Tatler, CBS News, Raw Story and No More Mister Nice Blog

Burgess Everett / Politico:

Harry Reid plays hardball in lame duck — Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid pulled out one of his most familiar threats during perhaps his last week as majority leader, pledging to keep the Senate in session through the weekend to get 23 of President Barack Obama's nominations confirmed …

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, The Hill and Hot Air

Russell Berman / The Atlantic Online:

Finally, a New Surgeon General — President Obama nominated Vivek Murthy to be U.S. surgeon general on November 13, 2013. The Senate health committee signed off on him in February. On Monday, one year, one month, and two days after his selection, the Senate is poised to confirm him to a post that has been vacant since July.

Discussion: Capital New York and Daily Kos

Erik Telford / Washington Examiner:
Senate Republicans need to decide who their leader is

Discussion: The Daily Caller, RedState, Washington Post, ABC News and The Dish

Peter Beinart / The Atlantic Online:

Get Ready for the Obama Boomlet — Remember when pundits loved the president? The conditions are right for that old feeling to return. — Remember when pundits loved Barack Obama? It's been quite a few years now. But I suspect some of the adoration is about to come back. — There are three reasons.

Discussion: Hot Air

Harry Enten / FiveThirtyEight:
Don't Bet On Clinton Faltering In Iowa A Second Time

Discussion: Washington Monthly, iotwreport.com, Wall Street Journal and OnPolitics

Steve Inskeep / WBUR:

Sen. Warren Warns That Spending Bill Sets Dangerous Precedent — Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass. (right), a member of the Senate banking committee, and Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., ranking member of the House financial services committee, express their outrage to reporters …

Discussion: The Federalist, The New Republic, New York Post, The Daily Beast, The Hill, NPR, Wall Street Journal, Daily Kos, Hot Air, Washington Post, Fox News, Business Insider, Talking Points Memo and New York Times

Paul Krugman / New York Times:
Dodd-Frank Damaged in the Budget Bill

Discussion: Washington Post, Washington Monthly, Financial Times and Washington Center …

Michael Lewis / Bloomberg View:

Eight Things I Wish for Wall Street — It's a wonderful life on Wall Street, yet here is a holiday wish list to make it even better. — 1. The financial sector rids itself of anyone with even the faintest reason to believe that he or she is unusually clever.

Marquis Moore.jpg / PennLive.com:

Harrisburg man insulted by racial slur found on Zembie's receipt — Marquis Moore displays a Zembie's receipt containing a racial slur a bartender used to identify him with after he placed a to-go order at the Harrisburg bar Saturday night. … Marquis Moore was about to eat an order …

Discussion: Raw Story, Mediaite, Jezebel and Liberaland

CBS News:

Most Americans consider waterboarding to be torture: poll — A barbed wire fence surrounds a military area is in the forest near Stare Kiejkuty village, close to Szczytno in Northeastern Poland, in this January 24, 2014 file photo. Poland threatened to halt the transfer of al Qaeda suspects …

Discussion: Washington Times, Hot Air, Bloomberg Politics, Washington Post, Politico and NBC News

Pew Research Center for the People and the Press:
About Half See CIA Interrogation Methods as Justified

Discussion: Hot Air, Washington Post, WhoWhatWhy, Guardian and Crime and Consequences Blog

Catherine Thompson / Talking Points Memo:

Cleveland Cops Demand Apology For Browns Player's Tamir Rice Protest Shirt — A Cleveland police union has demanded that the Cleveland Browns football team apologize for a player who wore a T-shirt before Sunday's game protesting the police shootings of two black people.

Discussion: Flex, Plain Dealer, WEWS-TV, Mediaite, New York Magazine, Prairie Weather, ABC News and Hullabaloo

Plain Dealer:
Cleveland police union president: Browns receiver Andrew Hawkins Justice for Tamir Rice shirt ‘disrespectful’

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Raw Story, Athens Daily News, Liberaland, Colorlines and Business Insider

John Paul Rollert / The Atlantic Online:

Meeting Ayn Rand on the Las Vegas Strip — For eight days last summer, a new generation of Randians was indoctrinated in the auditoriums of The Venetian. Where better to absorb Atlas Shrugged 's teachings than in a city of extremes? — 111-degree heat is confounding …

Discussion: Washington Monthly

Catherine Lucey / Associated Press:

Branstad seeks to end Iowa GOP straw poll — DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad is pushing to end the state's Republican straw poll, but the state party chairman says the event may still go on next year. — Branstad said Monday that the poll — traditionally held in Ames …

Ben Frumin / The Week:

Why TheWeek.com is closing the comments section — In the age of social media, the smartest and most vibrant reader conversations have moved off of news sites and onto Facebook and Twitter — Here at The Week, we have a deep respect for the intelligence and opinions of our readers …

Discussion: Gigaom and Poynter, more at Mediagazer »

Conor Friedersdorf / The Atlantic Online:

Dick Cheney Defends the Torture of Innocents — When I was growing up, Americans thought of torture as a tactic used by history's villains. A brutal dictator might keep a depraved regime in power with torture. People in foreign countries might suffer inside torture chambers.

Discussion: Salon, CNN, NBC News, New York Magazine, The Intercept, Outside the Beltway, Hit & Run, Daily Kos and Washington Monthly

Nicholas Kristof / New York Times:

A Shooter, His Victim and Race — TAMPA, Fla. — IAN MANUEL is a black man who has spent most of his life in prison. Yet he still has a most unusual advocate calling for his release: a white woman whom he met when he shot her in the face. — Manuel fired the bullet when he was barely 13 …

Discussion: Guns.com and Joanne Jacobs

Jessica Pressler / New York Magazine:

12. Because a Stuyvesant Senior Made Millions Picking Stocks. His Hedge Fund Opens as Soon As He Turns 18. — Rumors, on Wall Street, can be powerful. A whisper can turn into a current that moves markets, driving a stock price up or sending it tumbling.

Discussion: Business Insider, Fox News, Gawker, UPROXX, The PJ Tatler and New York Post

PolitiFact:

2014 Lie of the Year: Exaggerations about Ebola — Thomas Eric Duncan left Monrovia, Liberia, on Sept. 19, for Dallas. Eleven days later, doctors diagnosed Duncan with Ebola. — Eight days after that, he was dead. — Duncan's case is just one of two Ebola-related fatalities in the United States …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Liberal Values and Mediaite

Derek Draplin / The College Fix:

CAUGHT ON VIDEO: Hate-crime vandalism against conservative student — Security camera footage obtained Sunday by The College Fix shows a group of females changing into hoodies and other baggy clothing and proceeding to vandalize a conservative student's apartment doorway.

Discussion: Hit & Run and National Review

Bloomberg:

Ruble Tumbles Most Since 1998 as Traders Pressure Central Bank — The ruble tumbled the most since 1998, sliding past 60 for the first time, as traders tested Russia's willingness to defend the currency amid an oil slump that's pushing the economy toward recession.

Discussion: New York Times and Bloomberg View

Adam Liptak / New York Times:

Justices Let Abortion Decision Stand — WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday let stand a decision temporarily blocking an Arizona law that limits the availability of medicinal, nonsurgical abortions. As is its custom when it denies review, the court gave no reasons for its action.

Discussion: ACS Blog