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 Daily Dish, Threat Level, Swampland, Bob Cesca's Awesome Blog!, Rolling Stone and Taylor Marsh
RELATED:
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 …
Glenn Greenwald / Salon:
Obama's huge test today: do we believe in secret law? — (updated below - Update II) — Today is the most significant test yet determining the sincerity of Barack Obama's commitment to restore the Constitution, transparency and the rule of law. After seeking and obtaining multiple extensions …
Discussion:
CNN
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:
MSNBC:
CIA employees won't be tried for waterboarding — Holder gives first definitive assurance officials are legally in the clear — WASHINGTON - The Obama administration on Thursday informed CIA officials who used waterboarding and other harsh interrogation tactics on terror suspects that they will not be prosecuted.
Discussion:
Political Machine, Christy Hardin Smith, Swampland, TPMMuckraker and Little Green Footballs
Glenn Greenwald / Salon:
Obama to release OLC torture memos; promises no prosecutions for CIA officials — (updated below) — In a just-released statement, Barack Obama announced that — in response to an ACLU FOIA lawsuit — he has ordered four key Bush-era torture memos released, and the Associated Press …
New York Times:
Obama Rules Out Charging C.I.A. Agents in Interrogations — 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:
Unqualified Offerings
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.
Carrie Johnson / Washington Post:
Administration Won't Charge CIA Officers for Approved Interrogations
Administration Won't Charge CIA Officers for Approved Interrogations
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.
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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.
Fox News:
Napolitano Apologizes for Offending Veterans After DHS Eyes Them for ‘Rightwing Extremism’ — Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano apologized to veterans in a FOX News interview after a DHS report labeled returning troops at risk for embracing right-wing extremism. — FOXNews.com
Discussion:
Hot Air, Cold Fury, Commentary, Ben Smith's Blog, Michelle Malkin, JammieWearingFool, Wake up America and Washington Post
Ross Douthat:
The Tea Parties — They resemble nothing so much as the anti …
The Tea Parties — They resemble nothing so much as the anti …
Discussion:
Matthew Yglesias, Whiskey Fire, Outside The Beltway, The League of Ordinary … and The Liberty Papers
Fox News:
Cable Anchors, Guests Use Tea Parties as Platform for Frat House Humor
Cable Anchors, Guests Use Tea Parties as Platform for Frat House Humor
Discussion:
Gateway Pundit, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Atlas Shrugs, Political Machine and Infinite Monkeys
Brian Beutler / TPMDC:
Fox News Anchor: We Did Public Relations For Tea Parties
Fox News Anchor: We Did Public Relations For Tea Parties
Discussion:
Washington Monthly
Karl Rove / Wall Street Journal:
Republicans and the Tea Parties
Republicans and the Tea Parties
Discussion:
Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Reason, Daily Kos, New York Times, USA Today, And So it Goes in Shreveport and Pajamas Media
Byron York / www.washingtonexaminer.com:
Small-town rally shows true meaning of tea parties
Small-town rally shows true meaning of tea parties
Discussion:
Hot Air
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.
RELATED:
The White House:
A Vision for High Speed Rail
A Vision for High Speed Rail
Discussion:
Matthew Yglesias, The Corner, Environment and Energy, Jack & Jill Politics, Climate Progress, Wonkette and MoJo Blog Posts
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.
George F. Will / Washington Post:
America's Bad Jeans — On any American street, or in any airport or mall, you see the same sad tableau: A 10-year-old boy is walking with his father, whose development was evidently arrested when he was that age, judging by his clothes. Father and son are dressed identically — running shoes, T-shirts.
Discussion:
Washington Monthly, Outside The Beltway, The Plank, The Washington Independent, Shakesville, PoliGazette, Swampland and The Foundry
Alexander Mooney / CNN:
Texas governor says secession possible — (CNN) — Texas Gov. Rick Perry isn't ruling out the possibility his state may one day secede from the nation. — Speaking to an energetic and angry tea party crowd in Austin Wednesday evening, the Lone Star State governor suggested secession …
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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
Edwin Mora / CNSNews:
Georgetown Says It Covered Over Name of Jesus to Comply With White House Request — (CNSNews.com) - Georgetown University says it covered over the monogram “IHS”—symbolizing the name of Jesus Christ—because it was inscribed on a pediment on the stage where President Obama spoke at the university …
Discussion:
Political Punch, Power Line, National Review, The Swamp, Flopping Aces, Atlas Shrugs, And So it Goes in Shreveport and Lean Left
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 …
Brian Stelter / New York Times:
Gotcha TV: Crews Stalk Bill O'Reilly's Targets — When Bill O'Reilly's camera crew ambushed Mike Hoyt at a bus stop in Teaneck, N.J., a few months ago, the on-camera confrontation and the microphone in his face reminded him, oddly enough, of the “60 Minutes” interviewer Mike Wallace.