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.

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.

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.

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.”

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.”

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.

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 …

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 …

‘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.

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.

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.

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 …

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.”

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.

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 …

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 …

Bachmann: Prayer and fasting will help defeat health care reform  —  On Wednesday Rep. Michele Bachmann was part of a star-studded “teletownhall” meeting to discuss health-care reform.  The event, billed “Keeping Faith with the Unborn,” was sponsored by the Susan B. Anthony List, an anti-abortion advocacy group.

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.

Figures.  Local Top Dem Involved in St. Louis BOMBING  —  Democratic strategist and bomber— Milton H.  “Skip” Ohlsen III.  (P-D)  —  What a shock.  A local top Democratic strategist was involved in a bombing last year that seriously injured a St. Louis attorney.  —  The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported:

Torture-slaying trial, Day 8: Cobbins guilty; jurors to consider death penalty  —  The jury will now consider the death penalty in the Channon Christian, Chris Newsom torture slayings.  —  KNOXVILLE - Jurors this morning convicted Letalvis Cobbins of first-degree murder in the torture-slaying …

Obama's FCC to enforce ‘net neutrality’  —  The Obama administration's Federal Communications Commission (FCC) plans to keep the Internet free of increased user fees based on heavy Web traffic and slow downloads.  —  Julius Genachowski, the FCC chairman, told The Hill that his agency will support …

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.

STEELE REDISCOVERS HIS OPPOSITION TO MEDICARE.... I really don't understand how Michael Steele is in a position to head a major political party.  —  Yesterday, the confused RNC chairman wrote an op-ed insisting that Democrats are trying to undermine Medicare.

Foreign GPs who commute to Britain: £100-an-hour Poles and Lithuanians fly in for shifts our doctors won't do  —  The huge extent to which the NHS needs foreign doctors to treat patients out of hours is revealed today.  —  A third of primary care trusts are flying in GPs from as far away as Lithuania …

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.