memeorandum: How secret renditions shed light on MI6's licence to kill and torture (Ian Cobain/Guardian)

10:15 AM ET, February 15, 2012

Top Items:

Brian Montopoli / CBS News:

Poll: Obama holds edge over GOP hopefuls — CBS News Poll analysis by the CBS News Polling Unit: Sarah Dutton, Jennifer De Pinto, Fred Backus and Anthony Salvanto. — President Obama holds a significant lead over each of his potential Republican opponents in the general election …

Discussion: CBS News, Daily Kos, American Spectator, THEROOT.COM, Swampland, americanthinker.com, American Power, Ricochet Conversations Feed, US Politics, THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS and ThinkProgress

Politics:

Here's Romney's Plan To Take Out Santorum — A brutal, two-front attack from the campaign and the SuperPAC. “The expectation is that Santorum, just given his personality, is going to whine like crazy,” said a Romney advisor — Santorum at the Conservative Political Action Conference last week.

Discussion: No More Mister Nice Blog, Real Clear Politics, Townhall.com, CNN, Washington Post, The Hill, NY Daily News, Daily Kos, Public Policy Polling, nation.foxnews.com, Guardian, Campaign 2012, Hot Air, GOP 12, Weekly Standard and News Desk

Michael Scherer / Swampland:

Rick Santorum Wants to Fight ‘The Dangers Of Contraception’ — Candidates often say things when polling in the single digits that come back to haunt them when they start leading the polls. Last October, Rick Santorum gave an interview with an Evangelical blog called Caffeinated Thoughts …

Discussion: Hit & Run, Taylor Marsh, The Daily Caller, Hot Air, The Reaction, The PJ Tatler, Betsy's Page, Outside the Beltway, RADAMISTO, GOP 12 and Political Insider

Lucy Madison / CBS News:

Poll: Most back mandating contraception coverage — Amid continued controversy surrounding an Obama administration policy mandating that women working at religiously-affiliated institutions be provided with free access to contraceptive health care, a new CBS News/New York Times poll shows …

Discussion: Washington Monthly, New York Times, Hullabaloo, Daily Kos and The Page

CNN:
CNN Poll: Gender and income gaps in GOP nomination battle

Discussion: The Daily Caller, Politico, The Huffington Post, Reuters, ABCNEWS, Hot Air, Washington Wire, The Caucus, CBS News and Washington Post

Pew Research Center for the People and the Press:
Public Divided Over Birth Control Insurance Mandate

Discussion: Campaign 2012, JustOneMinute, Hot Air, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post and ABCNEWS

Michael Warren / Weekly Standard:
Romney Surrogate Attacks Santorum for Voting the Same Way He Did

Discussion: Campaign 2012, American Spectator and Ricochet Conversations Feed

Sara Burrows / Carolina Journal Online:

Preschooler's Homemade Lunch Replaced with Cafeteria “Nuggets” — State agent inspects sack lunches, forces preschoolers to purchase cafeteria food instead — RAEFORD — A preschooler at West Hoke Elementary School ate three chicken nuggets for lunch Jan. 30 because a state employee told …

Discussion: Sister Toldjah, The Lonely Conservative, The PJ Tatler, Rush Limbaugh, Hit & Run, National Review, LewRockwell.com Blog and Pundit & Pundette

Matthew Boyle / The Daily Caller:

Nanny state report: NC school officials confiscate preschooler's homemade lunch — A North Carolina elementary school forced a preschool student to eat cafeteria chicken nuggets for lunch on Jan. 30 after officials reportedly determined that her homemade meal wasn't up to the U.S. Department …

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit

Matt Willoughby / nccivitas.org:
State Inspectors Searching Children's Lunch Boxes: “This Isn't China, Is It?”

Discussion: Wizbang and Hot Air

Meredith Dake / Breitbart.tv:

Dershowitz: I Won't Vote For Obama If Associated With ‘Stalinist Bigots’ Media Matters — Harvard Professor Alan Dershowitz told BreitbartTV Editor Larry O'Connor on the Governor Paterson Show on WOR that the Media Matters organization is full of “radical Stalinists” and says the White House …

Discussion: Big Government, Scared Monkeys and Big Journalism

Will Rahn / The Daily Caller:

Media Matters tax-exempt status may face new scrutiny from Congress — Congressional Republicans are now interested in examining the Media Matters For America's tax-exempt status, The Daily Caller has learned. Doing so would cause the GOP to wade into the complex world of tax laws that govern …

Discussion: Riehl World View and American Power

Jamie Weinstein / The Daily Caller:
Alan Dershowitz: Media Matters could become Rev. Wright of 2012 for Obama

Discussion: Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, UrbanGrounds, Big Government, The PJ Tatler, Patterico's Pontifications, Big Journalism, Crooks and Liars and Israel Matzav, more at Mediagazer »

Jennifer Steinhauer / New York Times:

Tentative Deal Reached to Preserve Cut in Payroll Tax — WASHINGTON — Members of a House-Senate committee charged with writing a measure to extend a payroll tax reduction and provide added unemployment benefits reached a tentative agreement Tuesday evening, with Republicans and Democrats claiming …

Discussion: Mediaite, The Maddow Blog, Campaign 2012, The Caucus and Daily Kos

Washington Post:
Congressional negotiators reach tentative deal on payroll tax, unemployment benefits

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Outside the Beltway, News Desk, Right Wing News, US Politics, The Hill and CNN

Alexander Bolton / The Hill:
McConnell staying at arm's length

Discussion: NY Daily News, ThinkProgress and Prairie Weather

Manu Rajuand Jake Sherman / Politico:
Tentative payroll, unemployment deal

Discussion: Firedoglake, Washington Post, The Huffington Post, The Impolitic, White House.gov Blog, CNN and The Hill

Maggie Fox / NationalJournal.com:

Reid to Allow Vote on Rescinding Contraception Rule — Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., relented on Tuesday and now says he'll allow a Senate vote on an amendment that would reverse the White House's controversial requirement that all insurers provide birth control free of charge to women.

Discussion: Campaign 2012 and Hot Air

Sam Stein / The Huffington Post:
Birth Control Amendment ‘Dangerous,’ Obama Spokesman Says

Discussion: The Hill, ThinkProgress, Feministing and Washington Post

Sam Baker / The Hill:
Reid will allow vote on repeal of administration's birth control mandate

Discussion: ThinkProgress

Andrew Restuccia / The Hill:

White House issues veto threat for House transportation bill — The White House on Tuesday threatened to veto a wide-ranging transportation package from House Republicans. — The administration raised concerns about a provision to approve the Keystone XL pipeline, and argued …

Discussion: ThinkProgress

Megan Ruyle / The Hill:
Facing objections from left and right, Boehner splits up transportation bill

Discussion: Politico and Connecting.the.Dots

The Gallup Organization / Gallup:

Health Costs, Gov't Regulations Curb Small Business Hiring — Nearly half of small-business owners name these issues — PRINCETON, NJ — U.S. small-business owners who aren't hiring — 85% of those surveyed — are most likely to say the reasons they are not doing so include …

Discussion: Reuters, The PJ Tatler and The Lonely Conservative

Investor's Business Daily:

Why Do Democrats Want to Protect Voter Fraud? — Suffrage: A new study finds that nearly 2 million dead people remain on voter registration rolls. So tell us again why Democrats oppose voter ID laws that would help prevent these errant registrations from being exploited?

Discussion: UrbanGrounds

Brendan DeMelle / DeSmogBlog:

Heartland Institute Exposed: Internal Documents Unmask Heart of Climate Denial Machine — Internal Heartland Institute strategy and funding documents obtained by DeSmogBlog expose the heart of the climate denial machine - its current plans, many of its funders, and details that confirm …

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Guardian and ThinkProgress

Richard Littlemore / DeSmogBlog:
Heartland Insider Exposes Institute's Budget and Strategy

Discussion: ThinkProgress

Brendan Sasso / The Hill:

FCC moves to kill LightSquared over GPS interference concerns — The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) moved to reject LightSquared's planned wireless network on Tuesday after the president's top adviser on telecom issues said there is “no practical way” to prevent the network from disrupting GPS devices.

Discussion: Hot Air, more at Techmeme »

Chris Geidner / Poliglot:

EXCLUSIVE: Nancy Pelosi Supports 2012 Democratic Party Platform Including Marriage Equality — House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) supports the 2012 Democratic Party platform including, for the first time, language in full support of marriage equality, her spokesman told Metro Weekly on Tuesday evening, Feb. 14.

Discussion: ThinkProgress and Freedom to Marry Blog

Wall Street Journal:

Gingrich's Main Backer Plays Two Angles — Casino Mogul Adelson Weighs New Funding to Boost Former Speaker and to Help Romney Keep Santorum at Bay — Billionaire Sheldon Adelson, by far the biggest financial backer of Newt Gingrich's presidential bid, is preparing to open his wallet again.

Discussion: ABCNEWS