Top Items:
ACLU:
Abuse of Power: The Bush Administration's Secret Legal Memos — On April 16, 2009, the Department of Justice released four secret memos used by the Bush administration to justify torture: — A 18-page memo, dated August 1, 2002, from Jay Bybee, Assistant Attorney General, OLC, to John A. Rizzo, General Counsel CIA.
Discussion:
The Moderate Voice, The Huffington Post, The Anonymous Liberal, Bloomberg, Threat Level, Washington Monthly, CNN, Hullabaloo, Lawyers, Guns and Money, Swampland, CBS News, Atlas Shrugs, NION, Christy Hardin Smith, Bob Cesca's Awesome Blog!, Rolling Stone, MoJo Blog Posts, The League of Ordinary … and Taylor Marsh
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Glenn Greenwald / Salon:
Obama to release OLC torture memos; promises no prosecutions for CIA officials — [updated below - Update II -Update III (Interview w/ACLU's Jameel Jaffer - calls for a special prosecutor)] — In a just-released statement, Barack Obama announced that — in response to an ACLU FOIA lawsuit …
Jeffrey Toobin In / New Yorker:
JEFFREY TOOBIN: HIDING JAY BYBEE — The newest round of “torture memos” have just been released by the Department of Justice. I'm only just beginning to go through them, but I have a preliminary thought. — The first, and very chilling memo in the group is an analysis of the various techniques …
Andrew Sullivan / The Daily Dish:
For The Record — No mention of the torture memos appears right now on the Drudge Report (which provides news of a prank at Dominos pizza), Instapundit (which mentions the new DVD for the Lord of The Rings trilogy), Pajamas Media, or Michelle Malkin. They are reacting to the evidence …
New York Times:
Interrogation Memos Detail Harsh Tactics by the C.I.A. — WASHINGTON — The Justice Department made public on Thursday detailed memos describing harsh interrogation techniques used by the Central Intelligence Agency, as President Obama said that C.I.A. operatives who carried out the techniques would not be prosecuted.
Discussion:
ACLU, Room for Debate, RebelReports, The Daily Dish, The Caucus, ACSBlog, NewsBusters.org and Unqualified Offerings
Spencer Ackerman / ATTACKERMAN:
Not Even Jesus Would Forgive What You Do — One of the Office of Legal Counsel memos that was released today was the famous hidden “Yoo-Bybee Two” or “Second Bybee Memo” from August 2002. Recall that the first August 2002 OLC specified that it was acceptable to apply physical pain to a detainee …
New York Times:
President Obama's Statement on the Memos — Following is President Obama's statement on the release of memos by the Office of Legal Counsel, as provided by the White House. — The Department of Justice will today release certain memos issued by the Office of Legal Counsel between 2002 and 2005 as part of an ongoing court case.
Andrew Sullivan / The Daily Dish:
The Banality Of Evil — Perhaps you are reading these documents alongside me. I've only read the Bybee memo, as chilling an artefact as you are ever likely to read in a democratic society, the work clearly not of a lawyer assessing torture techniques in good faith, but of an administration official tasked …
Michael Scherer / Time:
Bush Approved Use of Insects in al-Qaeda Interrogations — The Bush Administration approved the use of “insects placed in a confinement box” during the interrogation of top Al Qaeda official Abu Zubaydah, according to a 2002 document that President Obama declassified for release Thursday.
Mike Allen / The Politico:
Obama consulted widely on memos — White House senior adviser David Axelrod says President Barack Obama spent about a month pondering whether to release Bush-era memos about CIA interrogation techniques, and considered it “a weighty decision.” — “He thought very long and hard about it …
Mark Mazzetti / The Caucus:Obama Releases Interrogation Memos, Says C.I.A. Operatives Won't Be Prosecuted
Discussion:
UN Dispatch, Salon, Associated Press, Washington Monthly, The Plum Line, AfterDowningStreet.org and The Moderate Voice
Marc Ambinder / The Atlantic Politics Channel: CIA Officers Granted Immunity From Torture Prosecution *** UPDATE ***
Carrie Johnson / Washington Post:Administration Won't Charge CIA Officers for Approved Interrogations
Discussion:
United States Senator …, Salon, The Greenroom, Democracy in America, Democrats.com and RebelReports
Fox News:
Cable Anchors, Guests Use Tea Parties as Platform for Frat House Humor — Cable anchors and guests covered the anti-tax tea party protests by cracking a litany of barely concealed sexual references. — FOXNews.com — For thousands of Americans, Tax Day was a moment to protest …
Discussion:
Sister Toldjah, TBogg, Confederate Yankee, Atlas Shrugs, Political Machine, Don Surber, Althouse and The Hill's Blog Briefing Room
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Eric Zimmermann / The Hill's Blog Briefing Room:
Schakowsky: Tea parties ‘despicable’ — Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) blasted “tea party” protests yesterday, labeling the activities “despicable” and shameful. “The ‘tea parties’ being held today by groups of right-wing activists, and fueled by FOX News Channel, are an effort to mislead …
Gateway Pundit:Gutter Journalism: Angry Mainstream Media Reporters Use Nasty …
Discussion:
Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion
Little Green Footballs:
LGF on Glenn Beck — I still don't have a working cable TV connection in my new top-secret underground facility, so I missed Glenn Beck's show today (I wouldn't have been watching anyway, to be honest), but I understand from several lizardoid reports that Beck had some things to say about me.
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Jay / Stop The ACLU:
( Video) Glenn Beck Vs. Charles Johnson — Update: (Perhaps a coincidence or mistake, but for some reason my account at Little Green Footballs is suddenly blocked. How odd. Surely it was just a fluke; a mistake of some kind. Maybe I should have took sides?) — It's at about 7 minutes in on this video.
Jay Bookman:
Georgia Senate threatens dismantling of USA — It wasn't quite the firing on Fort Sumter that launched the Civil War. But on April 1, your Georgia Senate did threaten by a vote of 43-1 to secede from and even disband the United States. — It was not an April Fool's joke.
RELATED:
Elise Hu / KVUE Political Junkie:
Perry Says He Never Called For Secession (w/ full transcript) — Governor Rick Perry, who's enjoying being a darling of the tea party movement, signed the first bill of the 2009 legislative session into law this afternoon. But all the reporters wanted to talk about is the flurry …
Discussion:
TPMDC, Think Progress, The Politico, The Huffington Post, D-Day, Oliver Willis, Off the Kuff and Texas Politics
RELATED:
Josh Marshall / Talking Points Memo:Go Rick! — MSNBC is now picking up on the story of Gov. Perry …
Discussion:
Open Left
Huma Khan / Political Punch:
WH: No Religious Cover-up at Georgetown — ABC News' Karen Travers reports: — The White House is taking some heat today from conservative and Catholic bloggers who noticed that while President Obama delivered remarks on the economy at Georgetown University Tuesday, a monogram that is a symbol …
Discussion:
Political Machine
RELATED:
Myglesias / Matthew Yglesias:
Frum on Conservative Paranoia — David Frum's Spectator article on the political challenges facing the modern Republican Party has a nice ditty on the tide of extreme paranoia sweeping the conservative mediaverse: … Now to be fair, during the Bush years more than one person passed me this …
RELATED:
Wall Street Journal:
Authorities Investigate Payments by Rattner — Steven Rattner, the leader of the Obama administration's auto task force, was one of the executives involved with payments under scrutiny in a probe of an alleged kickback scheme at New York state's pension fund, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Newsdesk / Clout St:
Burris fundraising total: $845 — U.S. Senator Roland Burris, the controversial appointee to the seat once held by President Barack Obama, is holding his first campaign fundraiser since he took office this weekend—and the financial report he filed this week shows he could use some political donations.
Chloe Albanesius / PC Magazine:
Time Warner Scraps Bandwidth Cap Testing — Time Warner Cable has shelved plans to test consumption-based billing until it can improve its “customer education process,” the company announced Thursday. — “It is clear from the public response over the last two weeks that there is a great deal …
Discussion:
Preemptive Karma
Khaled Wassef / CBS News:
Al Qaeda Urges Somalis To Attack Ships — A senior Saudi Arabian al Qaeda operative has called on Somali jihadists to step up their attacks on “crusader” forces at sea in the pirate-infested Gulf of Aden, and on land in neighboring Djibouti, which hosts France's largest military base in Africa.
Ed Morrissey / Hot Air:
Video: John Ziegler's arrest — From the Someone Left the Irony On Department, John Ziegler gets arrested by security guards outside USC's Annenberg School of Journalism for committing ... er ... journalism. He wanted to ask people attending their ceremony honoring Katie Couric …
John Amato / Crooks and Liars:
Did the GOP in Oregon really send these PSA scripts out to be made? UPDATED — I'm in the process of verifying that the GOP in Oregon is in the process of having these new PSA's/commercials made. … I redacted the company letter head that the bids went out on. Check out these docs.
ProgressNow Colorado:
CONTACT: Michael Huttner at 303-931-4547 — DENVER: ProgressNow Colorado staff once again braved a crowd of belligerent right-wing protesters at today's “Tea Party” protest event at the Colorado State Capitol. And once again, ProgressNow recorded for posterity shameful displays of both ignorance …
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