Top Items:
The Huffington Post:
MoveOn Torture Ad Highlights Cheney For Investigation — MoveOn.org is set to launch an aggressive new ad campaign calling on Attorney General Eric Holder to investigate the use of torture during the Bush administration and even raising the specter of targeting former Vice President Dick Cheney.
Discussion:
American Power, Los Angeles Times, D-Day, PoliticalBase.com Blog, Ben Smith's Blog and Gateway Pundit
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Washington Post:
Top Bush Officials Approved of Harsh Interrogations as Early as Summer 2002 — Condoleezza Rice, John D. Ashcroft and other top Bush administration officials reviewed and approved as early as the summer of 2002 the CIA's use of harsh interrogation methods on detainees at secret prisons …
Scott Horton / Blogs and Stories:
Obama v. the Justice Department — Blogs and Stories — The Daily Beast has learned that department lawyers are “incensed” at the White House for waging a frontal assault on their independence to prosecute over torture. — On Sunday, White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel …
Myglesias / Matthew Yglesias:
Same As the Old Cheney — Lately Josh Marshall's been kicking around the question of how Dick Cheney, chief of staff to Gerald Ford and defense secretary to George H.W. Bush, turned into the Dick Cheney, sociopath and vice president, that we all know and despise. — This is an interesting question.
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Alexander Mooney / CNN:
Cheney hits Obama again: ‘Devastating’ economic policies — (CNN) — President Barack Obama's expansion of the federal government into the financial sector is likely to have “devastating” effects in the long term, former Vice President Dick Cheney said in his latest salvo directed at the new White House administration.
Discussion:
Washington Monthly, Liberty Street, The Hill, MyDD, Political Machine, Shakesville and The Moderate Voice
Patrick O'Connor / The Politico:
Conservative reps. want Napolitano out — House Republicans are calling on Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to step down or be fired in the wake of a controversial department memo that has sparked indignant battle cries from conservatives and some veterans.
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CTV.ca:
U.S. security boss clarifies comments about border — The U.S. Homeland Security chief has clarified earlier remarks that suggested the 9-11 terrorists entered the U.S. through Canada. — Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano made the comments during a media interview earlier this week …
Discussion:
Political Punch, Rachel Lucas, Fox News, Blue Crab Boulevard, Clayton Cramer's BLOG and Flopping Aces
Peter Hoekstra / Wall Street Journal:
Congress Knew About the Interrogations — Obama should release the memo on the attacks prevented. — Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair got it right last week when he noted how easy it is to condemn the enhanced interrogation program “on a bright sunny day in April 2009.”
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Ann Coulter / Yahoo! News:
NELL HUSBANDS MARTIN COULTER — A lot of people claim to be my No. 1 fan — God bless them — but my true No. 1 fan left this world last week. My mother quietly stopped breathing last Tuesday, as she slept peacefully, holding my hand. — She was the biggest fan of all of us — Father, me and my brothers John and Jim.
Paul Bond / Hollywood Reporter:
Drama at GE shareholders meeting — ‘Open hostility’ toward execs over MSNBC's ‘leftward tilt’ — Things got testy Wednesday at the GE shareholders meeting courtesy of several complaints about political bias at its media division, NBC Universal. — Just don't expect to see the fireworks …
David M. Herszenhorn / The Caucus:
Pelosi Now Remembers Harman Wiretap — Speaker Nancy Pelosi acknowledged today that she had indeed been briefed about a wiretap that recorded conversations involving Representative Jane Harman, contradicting a statement she made on Tuesday when she said she didn't remember being advised of such surveillance.
Discussion:
Capitol Briefing, Roll Call, New York Times, The Raw Story, The Cable, Raw Story, Capital J | JTA, Prairie Weather, D-Day and BAGnewsNotes
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Jeff Stein / SpyTalk:
Source: Wiretap Caught Harman Discussing Pelosi Fundraising Flap
Source: Wiretap Caught Harman Discussing Pelosi Fundraising Flap
Discussion:
Capital J | JTA, Los Angeles Times, Hot Air, The BLT, BuzzFlash.org, The Huffington Post, CBS News, Gawker, Daily Kos, The Plank, TPMMuckraker, The Raw Story and Mondoweiss
Eric Tucker / Associated Press:
Ivy Leaguer ‘infiltrates’ Falwell's university — PROVIDENCE, R.I. - Kevin Roose managed to blend in during his single semester at Liberty University, attending lectures on the myth of evolution and the sin of homosexuality, and joining fellow students on a mission trip to evangelize partyers on spring break.
Chris Cillizza / The Fix:
Matt Drudge — Nowhere Man? — (Photo by Jenny Zeiner for Washington Post) — Loyal Fix readers know that we follow the movements of one Matt Drudge — and his eponymous Web site — quite closely. — Why? Because, despite any number of critics across the media sphere …
Marc Ambinder / The Atlantic Politics Channel:
Torture: Who Was In The Key Meetings? — This newly declassified history comes courtesy of Sen. Jay Rockefeller and the Senate intelligence committee. It includes a bit of information about the post 2005 Office of Legal Counsel memoranda and provides independent confirmation for the disclosure …
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Dahlia Lithwick / Slate:
Search Me — The Supreme Court is neither hot nor bothered by strip searches. — When constitutional historians sit down someday to compile the definitive Supreme Court Concordance of Not Getting It, the entry directly next to Lilly Ledbetter ("Court fails utterly to understand realities …
Discussion:
New York Times, Amygdala, Latest Open Salon Blog, pandagon.net, Blog of Rights, Fausta's Blog, Feministing and Betsy's Page
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Marc Ambinder / The Atlantic Politics Channel:
Who's More Popular Than Republicans These Days? — Yes, stealing this blatantly off of a liberal website, but it explains why the White House is so confident and has so much breathing room: As Chris Bowers writes: “A new CNN poll has found that Venezuela — an anti-American, socialist-block forming …
Matt Corley / Think Progress:
Two Days After Defending Waterboarding, Lieberman Now Claims He's ‘Strongly Opposed’ To It — In a letter to President Obama today, Sens. John McCain (R-AZ), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), and Joe Lieberman (I-CT) asked him to resist prosecuting Bush administration officials who wrote legal memos authorizing torture.
ABCNEWS:
ABC News Exclusive: Torture Tape Implicates UAE Royal Sheikh — Police in Uniform Join In as Victim Is Whipped, Beaten, Electrocuted, Run Over by SUV — A video tape smuggled out of the United Arab Emirates shows a member of the country's royal family mercilessly torturing a man with whips …
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo
The Huffington Post:
Shepard Smith Uncensored: “We Are America, We Do Not F**king Torture!” (VIDEO) — Update: scroll down for Smith's uncensored comments — Fox News viewers witnessed a rather incredible scene on Wednesday as anchor Shepard Smith and Fox contributor Judith Miller (of CIA leak infamy) …
Glenn Kessler / Washington Post:
Clinton: Cheney Not a Reliable Source — House Republicans today tried to pummel Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton with questions about the administration's decision to release Justice Department memos permitting tough interrogation techniques of detainees, but she gave no ground.
Discussion:
Capital J | JTA
RELATED:
Steve Benen / Washington Monthly:
‘COLONELS IN MIRRORED SUNGLASSES’.... I can appreciate why Karl Rove is upset about recent revelations about Bush administration torture policies. After all, who wants their friends and colleagues to end up looking like war criminals? Rove has a specific job to do: make Bush and his team look better …
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Eamon Javers / The Politico:
D.C's ghoulish response to suicides — It's the nature of Washington to search for and usually find a politically charged subtext to any news event. But that instinct is never more ghoulish when the event is the sudden death of an important person by his own hand.
Washington Wire:
Pelosi Presses for ‘Truth Commission’ — Greg Hitt reports on Congress. — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi pressed the case for creation of a special “truth commission” to investigate the interrogation of terror suspects during the Bush administration. — The California Democrat …
Andrew Malcolm / Top of the Ticket:
Levi Johnston's shockingly candid answers to CNN's Larry King — Well, once again Larry King's bookers have got the big get — Levi Johnston is scheduled to be on the CNN show tonight, unless his pickup breaks down in Saskatchewan. — It's billed as an “exclusive” — at least for this week.
Robert Pear / New York Times:
Democrats Consider Bypassing G.O.P. on Health Care Plan — WASHINGTON — With solid majorities in both houses of Congress, Democrats are tempted to use their political muscle to speed passage of health care legislation with minimal concessions to the Republican minority.
Rasmussen Reports:
60% Say Government Has Too Much Power, Too Much Money — Sixty percent (60%) of Americans say the federal government has too much power and too much money, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey. — Just nine percent (9%) say the government has too little power and money.
The Huffington Post:
Bonuses To New York Times Execs Under Fire — At a time when New York Times managers are forcing all employees to take a five percent pay cut, and demanding even larger sacrifices from the NYT-owned Boston Globe, top executives of the beleaguered newspaper received substantial bonus …
Discussion:
NewsBusters.org, Gawker, New York Magazine, TigerHawk, Ben Smith's Blog and PoliticalBase.com Blog
Fox News:
Obama Administration Wants Judge to Toss Embassy Hostage Suit — In court papers filed Tuesday night without any announcement, the Justice Department argued that the agreement to release the hostages, known as the Algiers Accords, precluded lawsuits against Iran.