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.

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.

Tedisco asks to be declared winner  —  COLUMBIA COUNTY — 20th Congressional District candidate Republican Jim Tedisco submitted a petition to the Dutchess County Supreme Court Thursday asking the judge to declare him the winner of the extremely close special election race …

Green Shoots and Glimmers  —  Ben Bernanke, the Federal Reserve chairman, sees “green shoots.”  President Obama sees “glimmers of hope.”  And the stock market has been on a tear.  —  So is it time to sound the all clear?  Here are four reasons to be cautious about the economic outlook.

Moran Campaign Contributors Have Business Before Brother  —  More than a dozen defense contractors with business before U.S. Rep. James P. Moran Jr. (D-Va.), a member of the powerful House Appropriations defense subcommittee, have donated thousands of dollars to Moran's younger brother Brian, a candidate for governor of Virginia.

Ex-McCain aide to call for gay marriage support  —  WASHINGTON (CNN) - Steve Schmidt, a key architect of John McCain's presidential campaign, is making his first public return to Washington a bold one.  —  Schmidt will use a speech Friday to Log Cabin Republicans, a gay rights group …

Barack Obama's ‘New Foundation’ - a Sting in Four Parts  —  Franklin Roosevelt gave us the New Deal.  John Kennedy gave us the New Frontier.  In a major domestic policy address at Georgetown University this week, Barack Obama promised — eight times — a “New Foundation.”

Blind Amputee Has to Fight AIG for New Plastic Leg, Wheelchair  —  While Executives Get Bonuses, John Woodson Gets “Cheapest They Could Get Away With”  —  An Oklahoma man who lost an eye and a leg in Iraq says the giant insurance company AIG refused to provide him a new plastic leg and fought …

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.

Obama on Taxes and Traffic: Ever Get the Feeling You've Been Cheated?  Or, can we start talking about Obama's vision deficit?  —  Mega-props to our President Obama for yesterday's speechifying about simplifying and fair-izing the Infernal Revenue Service and all that.

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 …

A.I.G. Chief Owns Significant Stake in Goldman  —  Edward M. Liddy, the dollar-a-year chief executive leading the American International Group since its bailout last fall, still owns a significant stake in Goldman Sachs, one of the insurer's trading partners that was made whole by the government bailout of A.I.G.

Veterans a Focus of FBI Extremist Probe  —  WASHINGTON — The Federal Bureau of Investigation earlier this year launched a nationwide operation targeting white supremacists and “militia/sovereign-citizen extremist groups,” including a focus on veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan …

Tea Party Nonpartisan Attendance Estimates: Now 300,000+  —  I promised that I wasn't going to put much more work into estimating crowd sizes for yesterday's tea party events, but here is one last update.  The important thing is that we now have a credible estimate for Atlanta at 15,000 persons …

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 …

Where Do The Tea Parties Go From Here?  —  Several sites are attempting to ensure that the enthusiasm of yesterdays tea parties isn't a flash in the pan, including AfterTheTeaParty.com and TaxDayTeaParty.com.  —  If 100-1,000 people show up at a rally, the event may or may not get media coverage …

Big Early Money for Democrats Defending ‘Frontline’  —  “Raise money early” is probably the most oft-repeated advice given to the 40 House Democrats singled out by party officials to receive special assistance, as they prepare to defend against potentially serious challenges in the 2010 elections.

Sharing Our Ideas With the Community  —  One thing we've been most excited about here at the Sunlight Foundation is the concept of Data.gov. Due later this year, new federal CIO Vivek Kundra will release a new central repository for government data and research.