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 …

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.

Dems increase talk of moving healthcare without GOP  —  A leading House Democrat on Monday said Democrats are prepared to pass healthcare reform without Republican support, echoing comments made over the weekend by a leading Senate Democrat.  —  “I think that at some point everyone's …

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.”

‘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.

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.

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 …

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 …

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 …

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.

‘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 …

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.

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 …

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.

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 …

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.

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.

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 …

Oh please, oh please...well, not really  —  2012 may just be the most awesome (and most frightening) sociological experiment ever: … That's also Sarah Palin's response.  So God might have quite a sense of humor (and he's a bit of a dick).  —  Seriously, Palin, Hannity, Huckabee …

The Observer's Jason Horowitz Takes a Job With the The Washington Post  —  Political reporter Jason Horowitz is leaving The New York Observer for The Washington Post.  —  Mr. Horowitz has been reporting for the Observer since 2005.  He covered local politics and the 2008 presidential campaign.

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.

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.

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.

WH Warns Massive Swine Flu Spread  —  Dire Report Says 50 Percent Infection Rate, Up to 90,000 Deaths Possible This Flu Season From H1N1  —  Up to half of the population of the U.S. could come down with the swine flu and 90,000 could die this season, according to a dire report …