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.
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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
Jessica Fender / Denver Post:
1 suspect in custody following Dem HQ vandalism in Denver — A 24-year-old arrested this morning on suspicion of smashing 11 windows at Colorado Democratic Party headquarters tried to conceal his identity while allegedly committing the crime, according to police descriptions.
Discussion:
RedState
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New York Times:
Report Shows Tight C.I.A. Control on Interrogations — WASHINGTON — Two 17-watt fluorescent-tube bulbs — no more, no less — illuminated each cell, 24 hours a day. White noise played constantly but was never to exceed 79 decibels. A prisoner could be doused with 41-degree water but for only 20 minutes at a stretch.
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Greg Sargent / The Plum Line:
CNN Gets Snookered By Cheney's Masterful Obfuscation
CNN Gets Snookered By Cheney's Masterful Obfuscation
Discussion:
Weekly Standard, Crooks and Liars, Swampland, CNN, American Prospect, The Opinionator, The Washington Independent, The League of Ordinary …, Hullabaloo, Think Progress, TPMMuckraker, D-Day, Ben Smith's Blog, Gothamist, Washington Monthly, The Daily Dish, No More Mister Nice Blog and New York Times
US News:
‘Blue Dog’ Democrat: Pelosi Is Too Divisive to Be Speaker — In a statement likely to intensify the GOP assault on Speaker Nancy Pelosi's reign, a first-term Democratic “blue dog” congressman said that he would not vote to make her the top House Democrat again.
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Faiz Shakir / Think Progress:
Fox News' Shep Smith debunks McCain's charge that reconciliation would be a ‘drastic change.’ — This afternoon in his town hall, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) said he is “unalterably opposed” to using the budget reconciliation process to pass health care reform.
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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.
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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 …
Discussion:
AMERICAblog News, Open Left, Scorecard's Blog, Emptywheel, TPMDC, Blue Jersey and Hotline On Call
Steven Pearlstein / Washington Post:
The New Republican Plan to Bankrupt America — Michael Steele, chairman of the Republican National Committee, this week revealed a secret Republican plan that would end up eliminating all federal farm subsidies; closing down Yellowstone and Yosemite national parks; selling off the interstate highway system …
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo, Balloon Juice, Washington Monthly, Grasping Reality …, Blog entry, Democratic Strategist and Wonkette
Wall Street Journal:
The Pelosi-Obama Deficits — Even $9 trillion might be too optimistic on current spending trends. — Printer — Friendly — Earlier this year when President Obama was selling his first budget blueprint, he promised to end years of “borrow and spend” budgeting. Yesterday, reality struck.
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Bloomberg:
Obama Increases 2010 Deficit Forecast 19% to $1.50 Trillion
Obama Increases 2010 Deficit Forecast 19% to $1.50 Trillion
Discussion:
James Pethokoukis, Row 2, Seat 4, Washington Post, The Strata-Sphere, Wall Street Journal, The Greenroom, Hot Air, Stop The ACLU, Commentary, Blue Crab Boulevard, Little Green Links, Right Wing News, American Prospect, The White House, New York Times, Pundit & Pundette, Gateway Pundit, Don Surber, Dennis the Peasant, Pajamas Media and The TrogloPundit
ABCNEWS:
Deaths, Missing Detainees Still Blacked Out in New CIA Report — Inspector General Reportedly Discovered Three Died, Many Unaccounted For by CIA — The CIA and the Obama Administration continue to keep secret some of the most shocking allegations involving the spy agency's interrogation program …
Discussion:
Washington Post, the talking dog, The Huffington Post, Blogs and Stories, Philly.com, The Note, Salon, SpyTalk and BuzzFlash.org
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.
Top Stories from CQ:
Rangel's Wealth Jumps After Disclosure — House Ways and Means Chairman Charles B. Rangel , already beset by a series of ethics investigations, has disclosed more than $500,000 in previously unreported assets. — Among the new items on Rangel's amended 2007 financial disclosure report …
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.
Aaron Blake / The Hill:
Club for Growth puts Sen. Bennett in crosshairs — The Club for Growth took a significant step Tuesday toward opposing Sen. Bob Bennett (R-Utah) in the GOP Senate primary. — The Club announced an advertising and letter-writing campaign targeted at the 3,200 likely delegates to the state Republican convention.
Ben Smith / Ben Smith's Blog:
Feingold: 'We're headed in the direction of absolutely nothing' — Russ Feingold tells a Wisconsin crowd of the prospects for health care legislation: — “Nobody is going to bring a bill before Christmas, and maybe not even then, if this ever happens,” Feingold said. “The divisions are so deep.
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 …
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 …
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.
Hanna Rosin / The Daily Dish:
Lose the Foreskin! — The responses to the Center for Disease Control's proposal this week to require all American boys to be circumcized are predictably hysterical. Hundreds of commenters wrote into the New York Times today to complain about “child abuse” and “genital mutilation” and one …
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.
Discussion:
Senator Chuck Grassley, Glenn Thrush's Blog, Wall Street Journal, NOW! Blog, TPMDC and Washington Monthly
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 …
Myglesias / Matthew Yglesias:
The Burdens of Accountability — You can put long articles on the internet. But Josh Tyrangiel, Managing Editor of Time.com says it doesn't really work and he has a sensible explanation of why. If you look at the traffic statistics for any newsish website you'll see that people are reading when they're supposed to be at work.
Philip Tetlock / The National Interest:
Reading Tarot on K Street — From the September/October 2009 issue of The National Interest. — Ian Bremmer and Preston Keat, The Fat Tail: The Power of Political Knowledge for Strategic Investing (New York: Oxford University Press, 2009), 272 pp., $27.95.