Top Items:
Wall Street Journal:
The President Ties His Own Hands on Terror — The point of interrogation is intelligence, not confession. — The Obama administration has declassified and released opinions of the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) given in 2005 and earlier that analyze the legality …
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Washington Post:
President Obama's wise decision on dealing with the legacy of torture — THE OBAMA administration acted courageously and wisely yesterday with its dual actions on interrogation policy. The pair of decisions — one essentially forgiving government agents who may have committed heinous acts …
Discussion:
Power Line, BBC, Concurring Opinions, TalkLeft, The Washington Independent, The Caucus and The Atlantic Politics Channel
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 …
Jeffrey Toobin In / New Yorker:
JEFFREY TOOBIN: HIDING JAY BYBEE
JEFFREY TOOBIN: HIDING JAY BYBEE
Discussion:
AfterDowningStreet.org, Hullabaloo, Hot Air, The Anonymous Liberal, Taylor Marsh, The Plank, CBS News, Townhall.com and NION
Andrew Sullivan / The Daily Dish:
We Are Now Indonesia — Greenwald points to this nugget: … And this is, in fact, the Bush-Cheney position. Because America did these things, they are not torture. This is also, by the way, the position of the news reporters and editors at the New York Times and the Washington Post.
RELATED:
Glenn Greenwald / Salon:
Obama to release OLC torture memos; promises no prosecutions for CIA officials
Obama to release OLC torture memos; promises no prosecutions for CIA officials
Discussion:
The Opinionator, Washington Monthly, ATTACKERMAN, BuzzFlash.org, Brilliant at Breakfast, Corrente, Christy Hardin Smith, Washington Post, The Washington Independent, Guardian, Buck Naked Politics, The Atlantic Politics Channel, Hullabaloo, Political Byline, CBS News, Macsmind, Threat Level, The Mahablog, PoliGazette, Atlas Shrugs, AfterDowningStreet.org, DISSENTING JUSTICE and Political Machine
Rasmussen Reports:
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 …
Jamie Larson / The Register Star Online:
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 …
Brian C. Mooney / Boston Globe:
Dodd faces steep road to reelection — Conn.'s senior senator trails 3 Republicans — HARTFORD - The election is still more than 18 months away, but US Senator Chris Dodd is barnstorming Connecticut this week like an incumbent in trouble. Voters who have supported him for 29 years …
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Peter Urban / ConnPost.com:
Only 5 state residents donated to Dodd
Only 5 state residents donated to Dodd
Discussion:
The Campaign Spot, Fox News, The Washington Independent, The New Ledger, Commentary, Truthdig, Riehl World View and Scorecard's Blog
Kahrin Deines / Associated Press:
New gun law aimed at asserting sovereignty — Gov. Brian Schweitzer has signed into law a bill that aims to exempt Montana-made guns from federal regulation, adding firepower to a battery of legislative efforts to assert states' rights across the nation. — “It's a gun bill …
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.
Discussion:
PoliGazette
RELATED:
Paul Krugman / New York Times:
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.
Michael Sandler / The Hill:
Dean, Emanuel bury the hatchet — The feud between Howard Dean and Rahm Emanuel appears to be over. — Dean told The Hill that he recently had lunch with the White House chief of staff, signaling a thaw in their once icy relationship. — Dean, the former chairman of the Democratic National Committee …
New York Times:
Control of Cybersecurity Becomes Divisive Issue — WASHINGTON — The National Security Agency has been campaigning to lead the government's rapidly growing cybersecurity programs, raising privacy and civil liberties concerns among some officials who fear that the move could give the spy agency …
Discussion:
Washington Post
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Wall Street Journal:
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 …
Charles Krauthammer / Washington Post:
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.”
Nate Silver / FiveThirtyEight:
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 …
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.
Discussion:
CBS News, New York Times, Hot Air, Kausfiles, NewsBusters.org, naked capitalism and JammieWearingFool
Philip Rucker / Washington Post:
New Mexico Gov. Richardson Sets Aside Political Aspirations — for Now — After His Abortive Cabinet Bid, N.M. Governor Says He's Content to Leave Washington Behind — SANTA FE, N.M. — If all had gone according to plan, Bill Richardson would be at center stage in Washington, wheeling …
Discussion:
Ben Smith's Blog
ABCNEWS:
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 …
Discussion:
AMERICAblog News
Eric Pfanner / New York Times:
Court Says File-Sharing Site Violated Copyright — PARIS — A court in Sweden on Friday convicted four men linked to the notorious Internet file-sharing service The Pirate Bay of violating copyright law, handing the music and movie industries a high-profile victory in their campaign to curb online piracy.
Discussion:
Guardian, Threat Level, The Moderate Voice, Ars Technica, Reason, Boing Boing and CNET News
Mark Pittman / Bloomberg:
Fed Shrouding $2 Trillion in Bank Loans in ‘Secrecy,’ Suit Says — U.S. taxpayers need to know the risks behind the Federal Reserve's $2 trillion in lending to financial institutions because the public is now an “involuntary investor” in the nation's banks, according to a court filing by Bloomberg LP.
Discussion:
The Peking Duck
Chris Cillizza / The Fix:
White House Cheat Sheet: Influencing the Influencers — President Obama ran against the chattering class politics of Washington but since coming into office has effectively manipulated this elite group of influencers using a variety of techniques from small group sitdowns to opinion pieces …
Discussion:
Alex Conant