Obama Open to Inquiry in Interrogation Abuses  —  WASHINGTON — President Obama on Tuesday left open the door to creating a bipartisan commission that would investigate the Bush administration's use of harsh interrogation techniques on terrorism suspects, and he did not rule out taking action …

CIA Confirms: Waterboarding 9/11 Mastermind Led to Info that Aborted 9/11-Style Attack on Los Angeles  —  (CNSNews.com) - The Central Intelligence Agency told CNSNews.com today that it stands by the assertion made in a May 30, 2005 Justice Department memo that the use of “enhanced techniques” …

GWS  —  I am not angry Mr. York.  I am afraid.  Afraid of the hatred for this President generated by the likes of FOX news and this newspaper.  I know that MSNBC is in the bed with the Democrats, but FOX is married to the Republicans.  Promoting this tea party is a prime example.

President Holds Open Door For Prosecutions of Bush Officials For Interrogation Policies, Truth Commission  —  ABC News' Jake Tapper, Sunlen Miller and Yunji de Nies report:  —  President Obama suggested today that it remained a possibility that the Justice Department might bring charges …

Civil War Raging in Right-Wing Blogosphere  —  Since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, jazz musician and Web designer Charles Johnson has devoted his blog, Little Green Footballs, to exposing Muslim extremism in and outside the United States.  His targets have included the Council …

McCain facing 2010 primary  —  Social conservatives tolerated John McCain as the party's nominee, but never trusted him, and he now appears to be facing a serious primary from the right in Arizona next year.  —  Chris Simcox, the founder of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps and a prominent figure …

America's Newest Profession: Bloggers for Hire  —  In America today, there are almost as many people making their living as bloggers as there are lawyers.  Already more Americans are making their primary income from posting their opinions than Americans working as computer programmers, firefighters or even bartenders.

Is Cheney Panicking?  —  The one thing you saw most plainly in the Plame affair is how obsessed Dick Cheney is with public image, the chattering classes and spinning stories that might reflect poorly on him.  The act is the elder statesman, authoritatively reviewing the world scene …

THIESSEN RATIONALIZES MUSLIM TORTURE... Just 48 hours after President Obama was inaugurated, former Bush chief speechwriter Marc Thiessen said Obama “is already proving to be the most dangerous man ever to occupy the Oval Office.”  With a record like this, it's probably unwise to expect …

McCain demands White House apology  —  (CNN) - A recent report from the Department of Homeland Security is downright “insulting” to veterans, Arizona Sen. John McCain said Monday.  —  In an interview on FOX News, the Vietnam veteran and former Republican presidential candidate …

Prosecutors Considering Dropping Espionage Charges Against Former AIPAC Lobbyists  —  Review Comes Amid Reports That Rep. Harman Was Overheard on Wiretaps Agreeing to Seek Lenient Treatment for Them  —  Federal prosecutors are considering whether to drop the charges against two former pro …

The OLC “torture memos”: thoughts from a dissenter  —  I first gained access to the OLC memos and learned details about CIA's program for high-value detainees shortly after the set of opinions were issued in May 2005.  I did so as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's policy representative …

Into the Dark  —  A long time reader chimes in ...  It sort of baffles me too.  I think a lot of people just fooled themselves about Cheney's politics.  But I've had enough people (with sufficient proximity to speak with some authority) say things like this that I think it's possible …

Media Literacy 101: The Ethics of Photoshopping a Shirtless Obama  —  The web is buzzing about The Washingtonian magazine's choice to put a paparazzi photo of a buff and shirtless President Obama on the cover of its May issue.  —  The frenzy of comments about The Washingtonian's decision …

Obama's Outrageous Sin Against Our Kids  —  As I watch Washington politics I am not easily given to rage.  —  Washington politics is a game and selfishness, out-sized egos and corruption are predictable.  —  But over the last week I find myself in a fury.

Why GOP is devouring one book  —  There aren't any sex scenes or vampires, and it won't help you lose weight.  —  But House Republicans are tearing through the pages of Amity Shlaes' “The Forgotten Man” like soccer moms before book club night.  —  Shlaes' 2007 take on the Great Depression questions …

EXCLUSIVE: Senator's husband's firm cashes in on crisis  —  Feinstein sought $25 billion for agency that awarded contract to spouse  —  On the day the new Congress convened this year, Sen. Dianne Feinstein introduced legislation to route $25 billion in taxpayer money to a government agency …

Criminalizing Conservatism  —  Many liberals don't just want to defeat conservatives at the polls, they want to send them to jail.  Toward that end, they have sometimes tried to criminalize what are essentially policy differences.  President Obama hinted at another step in that direction …

Meghan McCain Gives Rave Review to Eminem's Video Depicting Sex with Faux Sarah Palin  —  Okay, I had wanted to stay away from further focus on the Twitter exploits of Meghan McCain, the daughter of the 2008 presidential candidate.  But sometimes you just can't tear your eyes away.

The Pulitzer-winning investigation that dare not be uttered on TV  —  (updated below - Update II)  —  The New York Times' David Barstow won a richly deserved Pulitzer Prize yesterday for two articles that, despite being featured as major news stories on the front page of The Paper of Record …

Go Organic — No Artificial Blogging.  Support Marcy Wheeler!  —  Yesterday, Marcy Wheeler made the front page of the New York Times with her scoop about about Khalid Sheik Mohammed being waterboarded 183 times in one month.  Her liveblogging of the Libby trial was one of the seminal moments …

It Begins  —  Noted global warming denier James Inhofe, who once insisted that the United States base its foreign policy on the book of Genesis, announced on the Senate floor yesterday that he will filibuster the nomination of Judge David Hamilton to the Seventh Circuit.

Obscene: Ahmadinejad entourage screams “Zionazi” at ... Elie Wiesel  —  Kaleidoscopic irony from the UN's Jew-bash bash in Geneva, as the world's most famous Holocaust survivor suffers the indignity of analogy to the people who murdered his family courtesy of the world's most famous Holocaust denier …

The Republicans' Paranoid Style  —  In 1964, historian Richard Hofstadter described “the paranoid style” as a periodic recurrence in American national life, characterized by “the use of paranoid modes of expressions by more or less normal people . . . heated exaggeration, suspiciousness, and conspiratorial fantasy.”

Use Energy, Get Rich and Save the Planet  —  When the first Earth Day took place in 1970, American environmentalists had good reason to feel guilty.  The nation's affluence and advanced technology seemed so obviously bad for the planet that they were featured in a famous equation developed …

Justice  —  I'm so old I can remember those ancient days when it was accepted that the Justice Department was independent from the president, that the Attorney General and others should make decisions absent political considerations, and that when it seemed as if independence might not be possible …