memeorandum: Justice, CIA to probe destruction of taped interrogations (CNN)

3:16 AM ET, December 9, 2007

Top Items:

Huckabee called homosexuality 'sinful' — Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, surging in Iowa polls in the Republican presidential race, wrote on a questionnaire while running for U.S. Senate in 1992 that homosexuality is "aberrant" and "sinful." — "I feel homosexuality is an aberrant …

Discussion: PoliBlog (TM), The New Republic, The RBC, QandO, Townhall.com, The Corner and Riehl World View

The Corner:

Re: Huck AIDS Statement — The Huckabee statement Byron posts below is exceedingly disingenuous. By 1992 it was well understood that AIDS could not be transmitted by casual contact. Citing concerns about breast milk or exposure from health care workers in a medical context are not particularly relevant.

Discussion: Townhall.com and Daily Pundit

Allahpundit / Hot Air:
Huckabee '92: Isolate AIDS patients; Update: Huck issues statement

Discussion: skippy the bush kangaroo, Talking Points Memo, Stop The ACLU, Riehl World View and Jonathan Martin's Blogs

Peterhamby / CNN Political Ticker:
Anonymous anti-Huckabee fliers distributed in South Carolina

Discussion: The Palmetto Scoop and The New Republic

Sarah Wheaton / New York Times:
Huckabee Immigration Plan Emphasizes Security

Discussion: Lonewacko

CNN:

Justice, CIA to probe destruction of taped interrogations — WASHINGTON (CNN) — The Justice Department and the CIA will jointly investigate the destruction of videotapes of CIA interrogations of two al Qaeda suspects, a top official said. — The Justice Department's assistant attorney general …

Discussion: The Moderate Voice and New York Times

Ken Silverstein / Harper's:

Where is Jose Rodriguez? Apparently in business with the brother of top Democrat on Intel Panel — I tend to agree with my colleague Scott Horton that Jose Rodriguez Jr., the former head of the CIA's clandestine service, is being made the scapegoat for the destruction of videotapes showing the interrogation of two Al Qaeda members.

Discussion: Booman Tribune, NO QUARTER, Washington Post, Think Progress and A Tiny Revolution

Scott Horton / Harper's:

The Scapegoat — Leviticus chapter 16 describes a practice among the ancient Jews in which, in connection with the observation of the Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur, a goat is driven off. In the English words of the King James Bible, verse 22 reads: … The Hebrew word is azazel () …

Discussion: Power Line, About.com US Politics, JURIST, All Spin Zone, Cliff Schecter, NewsBusters.org and Think Progress

Jim Kuhnhenn / Associated Press:

NBC Decides to Run Conservative-Group Ad — WASHINGTON — NBC reversed course Saturday and decided to air a conservative group's television ad thanking U.S. troops. — The ad, by the group Freedom's Watch, asks viewers to remember the troops during the holiday season.

Discussion: Redstate, Power Line, michellemalkin.com, Hot Air, Associated Press, Ian Schwartz, News Hounds and Think Progress

Redstate:

NBC Lawyer who nixed troop ad gives generously to Congressional Democrats — According to a Fox News report, Richard Cotton, the general counsel for NBC/Universal, was one of two network officials who decided not to sell ad time to Freedom's Watch, which describes itself as …

Discussion: NewsBusters.org and Power Line

Mark Steyn / The Corner:

Racist is as racist quotes — Jim Henley has his say on my present legal woes: … Etc. The words that so offend him are, indeed "frank bigotry". However, if you read my racist diatribe, you'll see the bigotry is not mine but Mullah Krekar's: … Hello, Mr Henley? Anybody home in there?

Discussion: lfpress.ca, Hot Air, Cold Fury, Unqualified Offerings and small dead animals

Jim Henley / Unqualified Offerings:
Sympathy for the Devil — The excerpt from Mark Steyn's America Alone …

Discussion: Pajamas Media, PoliGazette, JammieWearingFool and The Corner

William Glaberson / New York Times:

Detainee Says He Was Tortured in C.I.A. Prison — The first of the so-called high value Guantánamo detainees to have seen a lawyer claims he was subjected to "state-sanctioned torture" while in secret C.I.A. prisons, and he has asked for a court order barring the government from destroying evidence of his treatment.

Discussion: JunkYardBlog, The Sundries Shack and DownWithTyranny!

Digby / Hullabaloo:
Presidential Perks

Discussion: Middle Earth Journal, Daily Kos, Liberal Values, Washington Monthly and The Newshoggers

John Amato / Crooks and Liars:

Tom Tancredo boycotts Univision/Spanish Debate: Attacks their entire viewership — Tancredo has a little problem speaking English himself, but that's beside the point. The racist platform upon which his campaign is built is very saddening to witness. Watch his reasoning for boycotting the Univision debate.

Discussion: The Unapologetic Mexican and Latinopundit

The Atlantic Online:
A Race Nobody Can Win

Discussion: Eunomia, Pollster.com, The Carpetbagger Report, Crooks and Liars and The New Republic

USA Today: Tancredo says other candidates are 'pandering' by going to Spanish-language debate

The Politico:

The 'O' Show sweeps Iowa — CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa - Iowans turned out by the thousands Saturday to watch the "O" Show: Oprah Winfrey stepping into presidential politics for the first time, hailing Sen. Barack Obama as a "rare thing." — Winfrey bounded on the stage like she does her 22-year-old talk show …

Discussion: CNN Political Ticker

John McCormick / The Swamp:

Oprah says she knows she's not selling books — DES MOINES - Oprah Winfrey said this afternoon that she realizes even she can't just recommend a man for president the way she has with books to make them instant best-sellers. — "I am not here to tell you what to think. I am here to ask you to think," she said.

Discussion: CNN Political Ticker, Ben Smith's Blogs and Obama HQ

Michael Goldfarb / Weekly Standard:

Another Surge Convert — In today's Washington Post, Pete Hegseth, executive director of Vets for Freedom, has coauthored an op-ed with...wait for it...Major General John Batiste. — Batiste, you will remember, is the formerly "antiwar" general who spoke out against Donald Rumsfeld …

Discussion: Say Anything, Blue Crab Boulevard, Captain's Quarters, Wizbang, The Belmont Club, Dean's World and The Sundries Shack

Washington Post:
Getting Beyond Stalemate to Win a War

Discussion: Hot Air and The Corner

Rasmussen Reports:

Election 2008: Michigan Republican Primary — Michigan: Huckabee 21% Romney 20% Giuliani 19% — Mike Huckabee's surging campaign has created a three-way toss-up in Michigan's Republican Primary. The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey finds Huckabee earning 21% of the vote.

Discussion: Political Machine

Floyd Norris / New York Times:

Like Subprime Mortgages, Some Construction Loans Are Delinquent — BANKS across the United States, particularly the smaller ones, have become dependent on construction lending just as that area of the economy is weakening and the number of bad loans is growing.