The Bigger Picture  —  It will take some time to absorb the full implications of the ICRC report and the OLC memos.  Right now, many are understandably focused on the legal details, the grotesque specifics of the techniques ("insects", “walling”?), the inconsistencies of the memos …

Fox-Bashing CNN Reporter Applied for a Job at Fox  —  CNN's Susan Roesgen went nuts on the air Wednesday at a Chicago tea party, blaming everything (accurately) on Fox News.  But maybe she was angry because Fox turned her down for a job—twice!  —  Roesgen got snippy with a crazy interviewee …

Happening NOW  —  For those of who you who can't get enough Palin and/or miss Campaign '08, C-SPAN's Howard Mortman sends over this note:  —  At about 1:30 p.m. ET today (Friday, April 17), C-SPAN2 will show A.B. Culvahouse discussing the vetting process for Sarah Palin's selection as John McCain's running mate, plus other issues.

McCain Guru Urges GOP to Back Gay Marriage  —  ABC News' Teddy Davis reports:  —  Former top McCain adviser Steve Schmidt is planning to use a Friday speech to the Log Cabin Republicans to urge the GOP to drop its opposition to same-sex marriage.  —  “I'm confident American public opinion …

E.P.A. Clears the Way for Regulation of Warming Gases  —  WASHINGTON — The Environmental Protection Agency on Friday formally declared carbon dioxide and five other heat-trapping gases to be pollutants that threaten public health and welfare, setting in motion a process that for the first …

Taxes & Tyranny  —  Amidst all of the hooplah, I've heard a lot of complaints from liberals.  Here are the most frequent complaints and my responses.  1. All of this tyranny talk is overheated and idiotic.  Well, some of it surely is.  But look: According to that Reason video I posted below …

Palin Says She Considered Abortion  —  In her first out-of-state political appearance since last fall's presidential election, former GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin confided to 3,000 at a right-to-life event here that she had “just for a fleeting moment” contemplated seeking …

Tea Party Fallout: Independents Turned Off, Some GOPers Worried  —  It's been two days now since angry conservatives hosted a series of tea parties across the country, and the fallout has some Republicans nervous.  —  While the anti-tax sentiment of the protests may have been sincere …

White House Embraces Opening for Talks With Cuba  —  White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs says the administration was struck by Raul Castro's statement about Cuba potentially being “wrong” about avoiding talks with the U.S.  —  FOXNews.com  —  PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad and Tobago …

Goodbye Bland Affluence  —  Get ready for authenticity chic.  —  A small sign of the times: USA Today this week ran an article about a Michigan family that, under financial pressure, decided to give up credit cards, satellite television, high-tech toys and restaurant dining, to live on a 40-acre farm and become more self-sufficient.

One of the most hateful rants in history  —  http://www.youtube.com/watch?  v=jAAHMDpk7Ik  —  Surprisingly, Olbermann is not the craziest person in this video.  That alone puts this into a special category of left-wing vile that stands out as some of the most hateful speech you will ever hear on television.

Culture Shock  —  What happened when one conservative Web site ventured outside the movement bubble.  —  Last May, Conor Friedersdorf, a twenty-eight-year-old recent graduate of NYU's Journalism School, decided he was going to save conservative journalism.

Rescued Banks Balk at Chrysler Deal  —  Creditors Pushed To Surrender Claims Of Billions  —  At a meeting with executives from four of the nation's largest banks earlier this month, the chief of the government's auto task force, Steven Rattner, delivered a message that shocked some in the room.

Morning Thread: Epilogue  —  Since the right-wing blogs likely will not revisit and the press certainly will not.  —  The coda of the Beauchamp Affair: … If you cannot place the name, Master Sgt. Hatley was the direct superior of Pvt. Scott Beauchamp and the person most used to discredit …

In Texas, 31% Say State Has Right to Secede From U.S., But 75% Opt To Stay  —  Thirty-one percent (31%) of Texas voters say that their state has the right to secede from the United States and form an independent country.  —  However, the latest Rasmussen Reports poll in the state finds …

Direct Your Tweet Outrage To Katie Couric  —  Two days ago, journalist John Ziegler was arrested for trying to ask questions at an event where Katie Couric of CBS News received an award for her interview with Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin last fall.

Newly Released Memo Inadvertently Reveals CIA Held (and Abused) Missing Prisoner  —  Among the OLC memos released today, one appears to inadvertently reveal that a top al-Qaida suspect captured in northern Iraq in January 2004 was held by the CIA in a secret prison.

How Barack Obama resurrected The Dead  —  LOS ANGELES - He's still got a little work to do on the economy, but already President Barack Obama has accomplished at least one task that had appeared all but impossible just a year ago: He's put The Dead back on the road.

Turning Tables, U.S. Troops Ambush Taliban With Swift and Lethal Results  —  KORANGAL OUTPOST, Afghanistan — Only the lead insurgents were disciplined as they walked along the ridge.  They moved carefully, with weapons ready and at least five yards between each man, the soldiers who surprised them said.

Income Gaps Hit Record Levels In 2006, New Data Show  —  Rich-Poor Gap Tripled Between 1979 and 2006  —  New data from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) show that in 2006, the top 1 percent of households had a larger share of the nation's after-tax income, and the middle and bottom fifths …

Limbaugh's ‘just an entertainer,’ says GOP congressman  —  U.S. Rep. Todd Tiahrt of Kansas is a feisty and ardent conservative.  But he said something Tuesday that might irritate Rush Limbaugh's ditto-head followers.  —  Tiahrt was asked by a Kansas City Star Editorial Board member whether Limbaugh …

Partied-Out CNN Reporter Takes a Break  —  Two days after Susan Roesgen's much talked-about Chicago Tea Party live shots, we are learning more about what happened off-camera.  —  Sources close to the situation tell TVNewser as Roesgen was reporting her 2pmET live shot for CNN …

An Oregon School for Troubled Teens Is Under Scrutiny  —  On April 28, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments in a case that has caused anguish in the world of special education and children's mental health.  —  The case, Forest Grove v. TA, centers on the question of whether families …

Washington Diarist: Dead Of Exposure  —  The evidence that transparency is returning to Washington may be found not in its politics but in its architecture.  Everywhere buildings are going up in glass.  Many of these gleaming stacks of work spaces with nothing to hide …

Tax Tea Party Time, Part Two  —  A look at today's taxes compared to those in the past.  —  Last week, I presented data comparing taxation in the United States to other major countries and concluded that Americans are not especially overtaxed.  The almost universal reaction to this analysis was, “So what?”