memeorandum: “Listen, I'll never forget you. … (Ann Althouse/Althouse)

11:15 PM ET, February 13, 2008

Top Items:

Maverick Fails The Test: McCain Votes Against Waterboarding Ban — Today, the Senate brought the Intelligence Authorization Bill to the floor, which contained a provision from Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) establishing one interrogation standard across the government.

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Firedoglake, The Gate, The Newshoggers, Eschaton, Comments from Left Field, Liberal Values, DownWithTyranny!, Slog, Democrats.senate.gov, THE LIBERAL JOURNAL, AMERICAblog, Hold Fast and Human Rights First Blog

David M. Herszenhorn / New York Times:

Senate Passes Interrogation Ban — WASHINGTON — The Senate voted 51 to 45 on Wednesday afternoon to ban waterboarding and other harsh interrogation methods used by the Central Intelligence Agency against high-level terrorism suspects. — Senate Republicans generally opposed the bill …

Discussion: michellemalkin.com, Crooks and Liars, The Carpetbagger Report, Flopping Aces, Political Machine, The Heretik, Think Progress, AMERICAblog and Crunchy Con

Pamela Hess / Associated Press:

Senate Votes to Ban Waterboarding — WASHINGTON (AP) - The Senate voted Wednesdy to prohibit the CIA from using waterboarding and other harsh interrogation methods on terror suspects despite President Bush's threat to veto any measure that limits the agency's interrogation techniques.

Discussion: MSNBC, JammieWearingFool, Gateway Pundit and Don Surber

Daniel W. Reilly / The Crypt's Blogs:
House Defeats FISA Extension

Discussion: The Hill, Stop The ACLU and Wake up America

Talal Al-Khatib / Political Radar:

McCain Adviser Won't Fight Obama — ABC News' Teddy Davis Reports: A top adviser to John McCain said Wednesday that he will step down from the Arizona senator's presidential campaign if the presumed GOP nominee faces Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., in the general election.

Discussion: The Newshoggers and PoliPundit.com

Jennifer Parker / Political Radar:

Obama ‘Takes It Down a Notch’ — ABC News' Sunlen Miller Reports: After touring a General Motors plant in Janesville, Wisconsin, Sen. Barack Obama delivered a speech on the economy that he said is on the “brink of a recession.” — The senator told GM workers to bear with him as he gave a more policy oriented speech.

Discussion: Ben Smith's Blogs and Slog

NPR:
Listen Now — · Sen. John McCain swept the so-called …

Discussion: The Swamp and Truthdig

Jonathan Chait / The New Republic:
Who's Singularly Lacking In Specifics?

Discussion: Political Radar, The Moderate Voice, The RBC and The Carpetbagger Report

Paul Kiel / Muckraker:

Conyers Introduces Contempt Resolution, Call for Lawsuit against White House — As expected, things are finally moving forward in the House today to bring contempt resolutions against White House officials for ignoring Congressional subpoenas as part of the U.S. attorney firings investigation.

Discussion: The Hill, MoJoBlog, Think Progress, The Politico and Daily Kos

Mcjoan / Daily Kos:
FISA Fight: House Blue Dogs enabling the GOP

Discussion: Firedoglake, DownWithTyranny!, Suburban Guerrilla, ShopFloor.org, The Raw Story and Hullabaloo

Matt Browner Hamlin / Hold Fast:
Another WSJ Editorial Farce

Discussion: The Corner, Wall Street Journal, Weekly Standard, The Newshoggers and The Carpetbagger Report

Jonathan Martin / Jonathan Martin's Blogs:

McCain manager welcomes age debate with Obama — McCain campaign manager Rick Davis today sent an unmistakable message to Barack Obama over the Illinois Democrat's effort to stoke the obvious age contrast between himself and the 71-year-old McCain: Bring it on.

Discussion: TownHall Blog and Spin Cycle

Jim Tankersley / The Swamp:
Republicans honing in on Barack Obama

Discussion: The Politico

The Huffington Post:
John McCain Goes After Barack Obama

Discussion: Political Radar and Don Surber

Steven Kreytak / Austin American-Statesman:

Court strikes down Texas ban on sex toys — Federal appeals court says law violates right to privacy. — A federal appeals court has struck down a seldom-enforced Texas law making it a crime to promote or sell sex toys. — The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, ruling in a case originally filed …

Discussion: Lawyers, Guns and Money, Feministe and Pandagon

Gallup:

Gallup Daily: Tracking Election 2008 — Based on polling conducted February 10-12, 2008 — PRINCETON, NJ — Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama remain locked in a statistical tie among Democrats nationally for the Democratic presidential nomination. — In Gallup Poll Daily tracking conducted …

Discussion: Comments from Left Field, The Daily Dish, Political Machine and Liberal Values

ABCNEWS:

Edwards Weighs Clinton Endorsement — Former Candidate Torn Between Clinton and Obama in Democratic Race — As he weighs a possible endorsement in the Democratic race, former Sen. John Edwards is as split as the party he once hoped to lead — and is seriously considering supporting …

Discussion: Eunomia, Donklephant, Matthew Yglesias, Spin Cycle and Tennessee Guerilla Women

Jim Tankersley / Baltimore Sun:

Bill Clinton's '92 campaign manager backs Obama — David Wilhelm, who managed Bill Clinton's winning 1992 presidential campaign and went on to be the youngest Democratic National Committee chairman in history, is set to endorse Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) this afternoon.

Discussion: The Politico, Liberal Values, Comments from Left Field and TIME

Ron Fournier / Associated Press:
ON DEADLINE: Chickens Come Home to Roost

Discussion: Neptunus Lex, wtopnews.com, The Huffington Post, NewsBusters.org, Balloon Juice, Blue Crab Boulevard, Betsy's Page, The New Republic, MSNBC, Talking Points Memo, The Field and Hot Air

CNN:

Newspapers reprint Prophet Mohammed cartoon — (CNN) — Newspapers across Europe Wednesday reprinted the controversial cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed that sparked worldwide protests two years ago. — The move came one day after Danish authorities arrested three people allegedly plotting a …

Discussion: michellemalkin.com, The Jawa Report, Telegraph, The Reaction, FullosseousFlap's Dental Blog, Captain's Quarters, A Blog For All, Pharyngula, Gateway Pundit, Outside The Beltway, Neptunus Lex, Publius Pundit and Wake up America

Dr. Rusty Shackleford / The Jawa Report:
U.S. Muslim Inciting Murder of Danish Mohammed Cartoonists …

Discussion: Jihad Watch

Alex Tabarrok / Marginal Revolution:

Was there a Housing Bubble? — The conventional wisdom is that there was a housing bubble which has now popped. The data, however, tell a different story. Remember, that the evidence for the bubble was that real house prices had increased tremendously since around 1997 leading to prices …

Discussion: Ross Douthat, The Newshoggers, Megan McArdle, Washington Monthly, The Glittering Eye and Paul Krugman

Mary Ann Akers / The Sleuth:

Jewish Rep. Cohen Battles Antisemitism and Racism In Re-Election — If you thought race was an uncomfortable issue in the Democratic presidential primary, wait 'til you get a load of what's going on in the Democratic primary in the Memphis area's 9th District of Tennessee …

Discussion: Commercial Appeal, Captain's Quarters, Redstate, QandO and Instapundit.com

Ann Althouse / Althouse:

“Listen, I'll never forget you. You were the only guys who would listen to me for a couple of months. Do you think I'd ever forget you?" — John McCain, on the phone with the bloggers, responding to a blogger thanking him for continuing doing phone calls with bloggers.

Discussion: The American Conservative … and Cadillac Tight

Jerome Armstrong / MyDD:

50 means 50, and far from over — I'd like to take my friend Markos at his word, that Obama is running a 50-state strategy. As a fellow 50-state propagandist, I would expect that he shares the opinion that it applies not just to a presidential campaign, but also to the presidential nomination.

Discussion: Daily Kos, Lawyers, Guns and Money, Taylor Marsh, Middle Earth Journal, TalkLeft and Tennessee Guerilla Women

Etan Horowitz / The Buzz:

Carville and Matalin talk politics at Builders Show — Fresh from Tuesday's night “Potomac Primary” bi-partisan couple James Carville and Mary Matalin took shots at each other and talked politics in front of thousands of attendees at the International Builders Show.

Discussion: Political Punch