What every American should be made to learn about the IG Torture Report  —  (updated below - Update II)  —  I wrote earlier today about Eric Holder's decision to “review” whether criminal prosecutions are warranted in connection with the torture of Terrorism suspects — that can be read here …

GOP Offers Health Rights for Seniors  —  The Republican Party issued a new salvo in the health debate Monday with a “seniors' health care bill of rights” that opposed any moves to trim Medicare spending or limit end-of-life care to seniors.  —  Intended as a political shot at President Barack Obama …

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.

UPDATED: Glenn Beck goes after Color of Change co-founder Van Jones  —  Glenn Beck used his popular Fox News show this afternoon to attack the background of Van Jones, a White House environmental advisor who co-founded an African American political advocacy group that organized an advertising boycott of his program.

‘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.

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.”

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 …

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 …

Obama's pet peeves  —  It was one of those nonstop days: President Barack Obama was flying back to Washington from Los Angeles to meet President Mahmoud Abbas, then he was scheduled to tape an interview for “The Colbert Report” and sit down for his regular briefing with advisers.

Court Orders Federal Reserve to Disclose Emergency Loan Details  —  Aug. 25 (Bloomberg) — The Federal Reserve must for the first time identify the companies in its emergency lending programs after losing a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit.  —  Manhattan Chief U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska ruled …

‘DESECRATING’ 9/11?.... As the eighth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks approaches, the White House has designated Sept. 11, 2009 as a “National Day of Service.”  It seems like an appropriate way to honor the tragedy.  —  But not to everyone.  Matthew Vadum has a piece in the far-right American Spectator …

Saving the Obama Presidency  —  Obama needs to move to the right.  —  Printer  —  Friendly  —  On this day in 1994, Bill Clinton's presidency was saved.  —  It didn't look that way at the time.  After threatening to keep Congress in session until a health-care bill was passed …

Obama's Summer of Discontent  —  The politics of charisma is so Third World.  Americans were never going to buy into it for long.  —  Printer  —  Friendly  —  So we are to have a French health-care system without a French tradition of political protest.

Rhetoric Fails to Sway Voters on Health  —  Jonathan Weisman reports on the health-care debate.  —  In the rhetorical battle over health care, the forces backing President Barack Obama's overhaul have spent years polling and using focus groups to find the precise language that would win over voters …

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 …

Woman accused of threatening bomb-plot informant  —  Trial could begin in Austin next week.  —  A Texas woman faces trial this month in Austin on charges she threatened to kill a government informant who infiltrated an Austin-based group that planned to bomb the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn., last fall.

Groups target GOP on cap-and-trade  —  Four independent groups are launching more than $1 million in attack ads Tuesday targeting five House Republicans who voted against energy legislation in June, spokespeople for the groups said.  —  The ads from the League of Conservation Voters …

Tax Penalties and the Health-Care Bill  —  Under the House legislation, taxpayers will be fined for honest mistakes.  —  Printer  —  Friendly  —  Two tax provisions in the health-care bill voted on by the House Ways and Means Committee earlier this summer have gained significant attention.

What Should Colleges Teach?  —  A few years ago, when I was grading papers for a graduate literature course, I became alarmed at the inability of my students to write a clean English sentence.  They could manage for about six words and then, almost invariably, the syntax (and everything else) fell apart.

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 …