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.
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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 …
Mark Mazzetti / The Caucus:
Obama Releases Interrogation Memos, Says C.I.A. Operatives Won't Be Prosecuted — Updated After a tense internal debate, President Obama officially announced this afternoon that his administration would not prosecute C.I.A. operatives for carrying out controversial interrogations of terrorist suspects …
Discussion:
CNSNews, Associated Press, UN Dispatch, The Moderate Voice, Washington Monthly, Salon, AfterDowningStreet.org, The Plum Line, Don Surber and Hullabaloo
Marc Ambinder / The Atlantic Politics Channel:
Obama Explains Memo Release Decision — In sum: he's decided to redact the identities of the CIA officers who conducted the interrogations, but everything else will be released without censorship. The full statement is after the jump; here's the part that reflects, I think, what Obama really thinks:
Discussion:
Political Machine
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 …
US Department of Justice:
Department of Justice Releases Four Office of Legal Counsel Opinions — In connection with ongoing litigation, the Department of Justice today released four previously undisclosed Office of Legal Counsel ("OLC") opinions - one that OLC issued to the Central Intelligence Agency in August 2002 …
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.
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.
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 …, Democracy in America, The Raw Story, Democrats.com and RebelReports
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.
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John Aravosis / AMERICAblog News:
Georgia Senate threatens to secede — What do they plan on fighting with, peaches? Mind you, this comes on yesterday's threat by the GOP governor of Texas to secede as well. — Of course, what's really going on here is that Republicans are intentionally fanning the flames of violence …
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 …
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David Neiwert / Crooks and Liars:
Shepard Smith blows the ‘DHS is picking on the Tea Parties’ meme out of the water — You can view this video right here by getting the latest version of Flash Player! — Shepard Smith brought that rarest of things to Fox News yesterday: amid the cacophony over the Tea Parties, he actually committed an act of journalism.
Discussion:
The Caucus
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:
Gateway Pundit, Michelle Malkin, Althouse, Sister Toldjah, Atlas Shrugs, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Political Machine and Don Surber
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Nate Silver / FiveThirtyEight:
“Tea Party” Protests Appear to Draw At Least 250,000 — This is an update and probably the last one. Those of you who are interested in extending the analysis (there are undoubtedly many events missing, although most of the major ones should now be covered) are encouraged to do so at Wikipedia or elsewhere.
Brian Beutler / TPMDC:Fox News Anchor: We Did Public Relations For Tea Parties
Discussion:
Washington Monthly
Brian Faughnan / Weekly Standard:
House Democrat Leaders: Tea Partiers Are Racist, Nazi, Gun Nuts — If the Obama administration has taken flak for suggesting that conservative groups might be home to domestic terrorists, it looks like some House Democrat leaders are willing to go even further:
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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 …
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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.
fra.dot.gov:
High-Speed Rail — Vision of High-Speed Rail in America — President Obama proposes to help address the nation's transportation challenges by launching new an efficient, high-speed passenger rail network in 100-600 mile corridors that connect communities across America.
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New York Post:
CNBC SWEATS ‘OBAMA-BASHING’ — THE top suits and some of the on-air talent at CNBC were recently ordered to a top-secret meeting with General Electric CEO Jeffrey Immelt and NBC Universal President Jeff Zucker to discuss whether they've turned into the President Obama-bashing network, Page Six has learned.
Discussion:
TVNewser
Josh Marshall / Talking Points Memo:
Perry: No Secession, At Least for Now! — We've just gotten comment from Gov. Perry's press spokesman on the governor's apparent interest in seceding from the union. It's pretty vague but basically it seems like he's saying no need to secede for now. But in the future, who knows.
Aaron Deslatte / Central Florida Political Pulse:
Florida Senate passes budget that taps fees, taxes, casinos — TALLAHASSEE — The Florida Senate passed a stitched-together $65.6 billion spending plan Thursday that pays the bills with a huge infusion of federal stimulus cash, higher taxes on tobacco and fees on motorists and court-filers, along with a dramatic expansion of gambling.
Peter Urban / ConnPost.com:
Only 5 state residents donated to Dodd — WASHINGTON — Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd appears to have looked everywhere but his home state to fuel what pundits anticipate will be one of the most hotly contested races in the nation in 2010. — The five-term incumbent reported raising just $4,250 …
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 …
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 …
Forbes:
The Dangers Of The Drinking Age — The government pressured states to raise it to 21. So why didn't the move save lives? — For the past 20 years, the U.S. has maintained a Minimum Legal Drinking Age of 21 (MLDA21), with little public debate about the wisdom of this policy.
Discussion:
Reason
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