Top Items:
Marc A. Thiessen / Washington Post:
Enhanced Interrogations Worked — In releasing highly classified documents on the CIA interrogation program last week, President Obama declared that the techniques used to question captured terrorists “did not make us safer.” This is patently false. The proof is in the memos Obama made public …
Discussion:
JustOneMinute, Weekly Standard, Flopping Aces, Wake up America, Swampland, PrairiePundit and Betsy's Page
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Philip Zelikow / Shadow Government:
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 …
Spencer Ackerman / The Washington Independent:
DOJ Sits on Secret CIA Interrogation Memo — The release last week of Bush-era legal memoranda justifying the Central Intelligence Agency's use of extreme interrogation methods has opened a window on what former Vice President Dick Cheney famously called “the dark side” of the war on terrorism.
Los Angeles Times:
Crimes suspected in 20 bailout cases — for starters — The special inspector general says TARP is ‘inherently vulnerable to fraud, waste and abuse.’ The risk grows as the plan becomes more complex, he says. — Reporting from Washington and Los Angeles — In the first major disclosure …
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Wall Street Journal:
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.
Greg Sargent / The Plum Line:
Dem Rep Harman Did Urge Times Not To Publish Wiretapping Expose! — Whoa. Dem Rep Jane Harman did in fact urge The New York Times not to publish its big expose of Bush-era warrantless wiretapping, apparently before the 2004 election, potentially changing the election's outcome and the course of history …
Discussion:
Think Progress, Sunlight Foundation, Blogs and Stories, Los Angeles Times and static.cqpolitics.com
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New York Times:
Lawmaker Is Said to Have Agreed to Aid Lobbyists
Lawmaker Is Said to Have Agreed to Aid Lobbyists
Discussion:
Glenn Thrush's Blog, Roll Call, TalkLeft, Firedoglake, Secrecy News, MoJo Blog Posts, Mondoweiss, Calitics, TPMMuckraker, Pajamas Media, SpyTalk, The Caucus, Raw Story, TPMCafe, The Plank, TigerHawk, Mideast Peace Pulse and MSNBC
Juan Williams / FOX Forum:
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.
Ceci Connolly / Washington Post:
Health-Care Dialogue Alarms Obama's Allies — As Congress returns to begin an intense debate over reshaping the nation's $2.2 trillion health-care system, prominent left-leaning organizations and liberal House members are issuing a warning to their Democratic allies: Don't cave on us.
Discussion:
The Huffington Post, Think Progress, AMERICAblog News, The Caucus, Daily Kos, WSJ.com, PrairiePundit and Connecting.the.Dots
Chuck Neubauer / Washington Times:
EXCLUSIVE: Senator's husband 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 …
Discussion:
CBS News, Don Surber, RedState, ProPublica, Hot Air, Wizbang, The Strata-Sphere and PrairiePundit
The Politico:
Why Republicans are 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 …
Wall Street Journal:
Computer Spies Breach Fighter-Jet Project — WASHINGTON — Computer spies have broken into the Pentagon's $300 billion Joint Strike Fighter project — the Defense Department's costliest weapons program ever — according to current and former government officials familiar with the attacks.
Chris Cillizza / The Fix:
White House Cheat Sheet: Cheney Keeps on Swinging — Former vice president Dick Cheney continued his one-man assault on President Obama, issuing a broad condemnation of the White House — from its handling of the CIA interrogation memos to the handshake with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez …
Martina Stewart / CNN:
Cheney: 'I don't think we've got much to apologize for' — WASHINGTON (CNN) - The former vice president Dick Cheney is slamming President Obama's efforts to set a new tone for relations with the U.S. on the world stage. — “I guess I've been concerned the way that we've been presented overseas …
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David Brooks / New York Times:
Big-Spending Conservative — We've all heard liberal speeches on the economy. The central concern is inequality. Power and wealth tend to concentrate at the top of society, so government must stand as a countervailing power. It must defend the people against the powerful to ensure fairness and opportunity for all.
Associated Press:
Obama picks Nike veep to run service agency — Featured Topics: - Barack Obama - Presidential Transition — WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama is picking a Nike vice president to lead the federal agency that oversees the country's national service programs.
THE WEEK News & Opinion:
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.”
Discussion:
The Note
Erica Werner / Associated Press:
Sebelius wins committee approval as HHS secretary — WASHINGTON (AP) — Gov. Kathleen Sebelius won Senate committee approval as health and human services secretary Tuesday despite opposition from Republicans critical of her ties to a late-term abortion doctor.
Lindsey Ellerson / Political Punch:
President Beefcake? D.C. magazine to feature shirtless Obama on cover — ABC News' Karen Travers and Jake Tapper report: — In the throes of an economic crisis and two wars, does the nation want more headlines about a “Pec-tacular” “Buff Bam”? — President Obama appears shirtless …
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Stuart Rothenberg / Real Clear Politics:
Media Cover Obama Like He's Ultimate A-List Celebrity
Media Cover Obama Like He's Ultimate A-List Celebrity
Discussion:
Media Blog
Ben Smith / Ben Smith's Blog:
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 …
Jerusalem Post:
Netanyahu won't attend AIPAC summit, asks Peres to represent Israel — Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Sunday canceled his plans to attend the upcoming AIPAC summit, after it became clear that US President Barack Obama would not meet him during the conference.
www.washingtonexaminer.com:
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.
Paul Kane / New York Times:
Up, Up and Out — ROBERT GATES, the secretary of defense, has proposed a budget overhaul that will go a long way toward improving our national security, but more can be done to meet his long-term goal: creating the right military for the 21st century. — Not since Henry Stimson's tenure …