Top Items:
Ben Smith / Ben Smith's Blog:
King on Holder: 'You wonder which side they're on' — A “furious” Rep. Peter King, the hawkish, maverick Long Island Republican, blasted a “disgraceful” Eric Holder for opening an investigation of CIA interrogators and chided his own party for what he described as a weak response to the move in an interview just now with POLITICO.
Discussion:
Washington Monthly, Townhall.com, Weekly Standard, Hot Air, Ta-Nehisi Coates, INSTAPUTZ and Anne Schroeder's Blog
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Glenn Greenwald / Salon:
What every American should be made to learn about the IG Torture Report — (updated below - Update II - Update III) — I wrote earlier today about Eric Holder's decision to “review” whether criminal prosecutions are warranted in connection with the torture of Terrorism suspects …
Andrew Sullivan / The Daily Dish:
The Evidence Mounts Still Further — I'll write at more length when I'm back off my summer bloggatical, but the question of torture - and the United States' embrace of inhumanity as a core American value under the presidency of George W. Bush - remains, in my view, the pre-eminent moral question in American politics.
Discussion:
New York Times
Spencer Ackerman / The Washington Independent:
CIA Documents Provide Little Cover for Cheney Claims — Former Vice President Dick Cheney (Associated Press) — For months, former Vice President Dick Cheney has said that two documents prepared by the CIA, one from 2004 and the other from 2005, would refute critics of the Bush administration's torture program.
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Greg Sargent / The Plum Line:
CNN Gets Snookered By Cheney's Masterful Obfuscation — I've noted this before, but Dick Cheney is as masterful as any Washington hand at using precise languate to obfuscate. And today the old master completely had his way with poor, hapless CNN. — Look at how CNN is now reporting Cheney's claims of vindication today:
Stephen F. Hayes / Weekly Standard:
Cheney Statement on CIA Documents/Investigation
Cheney Statement on CIA Documents/Investigation
Discussion:
Alan Colmes' Liberaland, The Atlantic Politics Channel, TPMMuckraker, Swampland, MoJo Blog Posts, Washington Post, Ben Smith's Blog, McClatchy Washington Bureau, Wall Street Journal, Atlas Shrugs, Politics Daily, The Washington Independent, No More Mister Nice Blog, Gateway Pundit, The Hill's Blog Briefing Room, Wake up America, Washington Monthly, Taylor Marsh, The Note, The Daily Dish and Hot Air
Bloomberg:
Nemazee Is Arrested in $74 Million Citibank Fraud — Aug. 25 (Bloomberg) — Hassan Nemazee, chairman of Nemazee Capital Corp. and a fundraiser for President Obama and Hillary Clinton, was arrested on charges that he tricked Citigroup Inc. into lending him as much as $74 million using phony documents.
Discussion:
Reuters, Ben Smith's Blog, Hot Air, Weekly Standard, Little Green Links, Gateway Pundit, msnbc.com and The Corner on National …
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al.com:
Applause, boos greet lawmaker - Page 2 — Another speaker commended him for his stance, but said he was concerned that if Pelosi was privy to everything he was saying, “she might not let you back in chambers.” — Griffith laughed and said, “If she doesn't like it, I've got a gift certificate to the mental health center.”
Discussion:
The Washington Independent
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Faiz Shakir / Think Progress:
Angry right boos John McCain for stating that Obama ‘respects the Constitution of the United States.’ — Today in a town hall forum in Arizona, an elderly woman asked Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) whether President Obama knows “that we still live under a Constitution.”
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Bloomberg:
Obama Increases 2010 Deficit Forecast 19% to $1.50 Trillion — Aug. 25 (Bloomberg) — U.S. unemployment will surge to 10 percent this year and the budget deficit will widen to $1.5 trillion next year, reflecting a “deeper recession” than previously expected, White House budget chief Peter Orszag said.
Discussion:
James Pethokoukis, Washington Post, The White House, New York Times, Row 2, Seat 4, Wall Street Journal, Hot Air, Blue Crab Boulevard, RedState, The Greenroom, Don Surber, Commentary, Pundit & Pundette, Pajamas Media, Right Wing News, Dennis the Peasant, Gateway Pundit, The TrogloPundit and Wake up America
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Matt Corley / Think Progress:
Comparing Obama to ‘Hitler,’ Grassley constituent says he'd ‘take a gun to Washington’ if crowd supported him. — Earlier this month, police detained a man at a health care town hall meeting held by Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD) because he was carrying a sign declaring “Death to Obama” and “Death to Michelle and her two stupid kids.”
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Vanity Fair
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Chris Harris / Media Matters Action Network:
Sen. Grassley On Health Care: “I Don't Think It's Going To Be Possible To Work It Out With The Administration” … ALL OVER THE BALL PARK — During a conference call with Iowa reporters, Sen. Chuck Grassley was asked: … Grassley's response is almost incomprehensible: … You read that right.
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Josh Margolin / New Jersey Online:
Federal prosecutor who took loan from GOP governor candidate Chris Christie resigns — TRENTON — The federal prosecutor at the center of the controversy over a loan made by New Jersey gubernatorial candidate Chris Christie has resigned. — In her resignation letter dated today …
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Wally Edge / politickernj.com:
Poll: Christie leads Corzine by three points
Poll: Christie leads Corzine by three points
Discussion:
TPMDC, Swing State Project, Hotline On Call, Politics Nation, Daily Kos, Real Clear Politics and MyDD
Kevin Sack / New York Times:
Calm, but Moved to Be Heard on Health Care — MONTEZUMA, Ga. — Until Thursday evening, nothing in Bob Collier's 62 years had stirred in him the slightest desire to take a stand — about anything — in public. — He skipped the antiwar protests of his college years, took a job …
Discussion:
The Huffington Post, JustOneMinute, Balloon Juice, Swampland, MoJo Blog Posts, Corrente, BAGnewsNotes and AMERICAblog News
Michael Lynch / New York Times:
‘Peak Oil’ Is a Waste of Energy — REMEMBER “peak oil”? It's the theory that geological scarcity will at some point make it impossible for global petroleum production to avoid falling, heralding the end of the oil age and, potentially, economic catastrophe.
Zaid Jilani / Think Progress:
Coburn tells weeping victim of broken health care system that government isn't the solution. — Yesterday CNN's Rick Sanchez aired a segment from a health care town hall where a weeping constituent explained to Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) that her husband's health insurer refuses to cover his treatment for a traumatic brain injury.
Stephen Roach / Financial Times:
The case against Bernanke — Barack Obama has rendered one of his most important post-crisis verdicts: Ben Bernanke will be nominated for a second term as chairman of the Federal Reserve. This is a very shortsighted decision. While America's head central banker deserves credit …
Discussion:
The Atlantic Business Channel, naked capitalism, Paul Krugman, Paul Kedrosky's … and Calculated Risk
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Founding Bloggers:
EXCLUSIVE VIDEO: Political Terrorism In The Heartland - Inside the Quincy Tea Party Cell — Recently, Founding Bloggers was tipped off to the existence of a regional “political terrorist” cell calling itself the Quincy Tea Party. — When we learned that this group of Tea Party fundamentalists …
Discussion:
American Power
Jonah Goldberg / The Corner on National Review Online:
Will There Be Outrage? — By: Jonah Goldberg — I haven't read the IG report yet, I've just seen a few write ups and excerpts around here and other places. Without getting into the substance of the controversy, I'm doubting that there will be a lot of popular outrage over any of the allegations of abuse.
Danny Hakim / New York Times:
Giuliani, Seeing Opening, Mulls a Governor Bid — ALBANY — Nineteen months after ending his disastrous run for the presidency, Rudolph W. Giuliani is clearing a path for a possible race for governor in 2010, believing public anger at an ineffectual Albany and unease over the economy …
Discussion:
NY Daily News, New York Post, Mediaite, Politics Daily, msnbc.com, Hot Air, Scorecard's Blog, D-Day, The Daily Politics, Democratic Strategist, Gawker and Gothamist
James Fallows:
Will it never end? McCaughey v. Ezekiel Emanuel — Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel should need no introduction to Atlantic readers. Among his many pursuits is writing a number of interesting articles for our “Food Channel,” under Corby Kummer's auspices. He should need no introduction to anybody …
Laura Crimaldi / Boston Herald:
Cons cash in on stimulus money — Federal economic stimulus cash was handed out to cons behind bars in Bay State prisons after a bureaucratic snafu resulted in $250 checks being sent to some inmates - and now red-faced feds want it back. — “Taxpayers already believe the inmates are running …
Tyler Cowen / Marginal Revolution:
Were the bailouts a good idea? — Following the renomination of Bernanke, it is worth revisiting this question. Here is a recent report: — With the FTSE World Banks index up 130 per cent since its lows of early March, the paper losses that governments in France, Belgium, Luxembourg and Germany are sitting on have also shrunk.
Discussion:
The Atlantic Business Channel, Financial Times, Salon, Matthew Yglesias, EconLog and Liberal Values
Charles Murray / The Enterprise Blog:
The White House and the Pauline Kael Syndrome — The late New Yorker film critic Pauline Kael famously said after Nixon's landslide reelection, “How can he have won? Nobody I know voted for him.” My proposition for today is that the entire White House suffers from the Kael syndrome.
Wall Street Journal:
How Facebook Ruins Friendships — Notice to my friends: I love you all dearly. — But I don't give a hoot that you are “having a busy Monday,” your child “took 30 minutes to brush his teeth,” your dog “just ate an ant trap” or you want to “save the piglets.”