memeorandum: The bucks stop here — A typical bill moving through the Senate … (Ryan Grim/The Politico)

9:35 AM ET, December 11, 2007

Top Items:

Destruction of C.I.A. Tapes Cleared by Lawyers — Lawyers within the clandestine branch of the Central Intelligence Agency gave written approval in advance to the destruction in 2005 of hundreds of hours of videotapes documenting interrogations of two lieutenants from Al Qaeda …

Discussion: Crooks and Liars, Firedoglake, Los Angeles Times, The Raw Story, Salon, PrairiePundit, Greatscat!, Oliver Willis, Corrente, The Reaction, ScrappleFace, On Deadline, Prairie Weather and War and Piece

Washington Post:

Waterboarding Recounted — Ex-CIA Officer Says It 'Probably Saved Lives' but Is Torture — A former CIA officer who participated in the capture and questioning of the first al-Qaeda terrorist suspect to be waterboarded said yesterday that the harsh technique provided an intelligence breakthrough that …

Discussion: The Swamp, The Carpetbagger Report and Prairie Weather

ABCNEWS:
Hayden to Testify About CIA Videotapes

Discussion: Think Progress

Jonah Goldberg / The Corner: This Will Ruin Ted Kennedy's Day

ABCNEWS:
Coming in From the Cold: CIA Spy Calls Waterboarding Necessary But Torture

Kevin Drum / Washington Monthly:
TWO STORIES....After the United States captured al-Qaeda operative …

Discussion: Unqualified Offerings, Slate and Hullabaloo

Kevin Drum / Washington Monthly:
WHO KNEW?....A "former senior intelligence official with direct knowledge …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo

Ron Claiborne / ABCNEWS:

Analysis: How McCain Could Still Win — Political Watchers Say John McCain May Be Down, but a Comeback Is Possible — A year ago, he was the odds-on favorite to be the Republican presidential nominee in 2008. Today, he's considered a long shot. — His campaign has rebounded …

Discussion: The Hill

Leslie Wayne / New York Times:
In New Ad, Romney Attacks Huckabee on Immigration

Discussion: Captain's Quarters, Heading Right, The Politico, TIME, ImmigrationProf Blog and CNN Political Ticker

David Brooks / New York Times:
The Postwar Election

Discussion: Betsy's Page

Byron York / The Corner:
McCain Attacks Romney's Attack on Huckabee

Discussion: The Daily Dish, The Atlantic Online, Redstate and Eunomia

Thomas Hendrick / TheDenverChannel.com:

Security Guard: 'God Guided Me And Protected Me' — Jeanne Assam Stopped Gunman At New Life Church — COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Jeanne Assam appeared before the news media for the first time Monday and said she "did not think for a minute to run away" when a gunman entered the New Life Church …

Washington Post:
Gunman Planned to Kill More, Officials Say

Discussion: PoliPundit.com and Winds of Change.NET

Jonathan Weisman / Washington Post:

House Democrats Pull Budget Offer — The GOP Is Negotiating In Bad Faith, Obey Says — A Democratic deal to give President Bush some war funding in exchange for additional domestic spending appeared to collapse last night after House Appropriations Committee Chairman David R. Obey (D-Wis.) …

Discussion: Captain's Quarters, Political Machine, Main and Central, Cliff Schecter and PrairiePundit

Wall Street Journal:

Group Says Iran Resumed Weapon Program — The Iranian opposition group that first exposed Iran's nuclear-fuel program said a U.S. intelligence analysis is correct that Tehran shut down its weaponization program in 2003, but claims that the program was relocated and restarted in 2004.

Discussion: Captain's Quarters, Israel Matzav and Jules Crittenden

Barry Hertz / network.nationalpost.com:

Teen girl in critical condition after alleged dispute over hijab — A 16-year-old girl is in critical condition after being choked by a man believed to be her father, apparently after a dispute with her family over her refusal to wear the hijab, the Islamic headscarf worn by some Muslim women.

Josh Kraushaar / The Politico:

NRCC props up its pummeled Ohio candidate — Republicans are facing a surprisingly fierce fight in a Tuesday special election to hold on to a conservative northwestern Ohio seat that has been under the party's control for the past 70 years. — The GOP expects to win another special election set …

Discussion: Real Clear Politics, Buckeye State Blog, Eunomia, Ohio Daily Blog and Daily Kos

Andrew Sullivan / The Daily Dish:

What's Working In Iraq — A reader writes:

Discussion: The Newshoggers and Unqualified Offerings

Basem Wasef / Popular Mechanics:

2008 Lamborghini Reventón: Video Test Drive — It's named after a deadly bull, — looks like something dreamed up by a skunkworks team at Area 51 and boasts the formidable pricetag of $1.4 million. The Reventon is the rarest, most extreme modern Lamborghini to date.

Jeff Zeleny / The Caucus:

Obama, Under the Clinton Microscope — DES MOINES - Presidential campaigns have unlimited appetites for information about their rivals. They track their whereabouts, they study their records and they obsessively follow nearly every movement. By this point in the race, though …

Discussion: Wizbang

Sean Olender / San Francisco Chronicle:

MORTGAGE MELTDOWN — Interest rate 'freeze' - the real story is fraud — Bankers pay lip service to families while scurrying to avert suits, prison — New proposals to ease our great mortgage meltdown keep rolling in. First the Treasury Department urged the creation of a new fund …

Discussion: Angry Bear, Mish's Global Economic … and Seeing the Forest

Christopher Hitchens / Slate:

Abolish the CIA — DESTROYING THE INTERROGATION TAPES AMOUNTS TO MUTINY AND TREASON. — It seems flabbergastingly improbable that President George W. Bush learned of the National Intelligence Estimate concerning Iranian nuclear ambitions only a few days before the rest of us did …

Discussion: The Corner, Eric Black Ink and The Newshoggers

CNN:

Algeria bomb blasts 'kill 47' — (CNN) — Two car bombs ripped through the Algerian capital Tuesday, reportedly killing at least 47 people in what appeared to be targeted attacks on government and United Nations buildings. — One explosion occurred outside the constitutional court …

Discussion: PrairiePundit