memeorandum: When the Death Penalty Turns Into Torture (Dahlia Lithwick/Slate)

12:40 PM ET, May 1, 2014

Top Items:

Jennifer Rubin / Washington Post:

The worst excuse ever: The Rhodes memo debacle — The White House damage control on the latest batch of Benghazi emails is not going well. The White House's belated release of the documents at the very least show it has been actively evading legitimate congressional requests for relevant information.

Discussion: CNN, Taylor Marsh and Fox News

Michael D. Shear / New York Times:

Email Suggests White House Strategy on Benghazi — WASHINGTON — A newly released email shows that White House officials sought to shape the way Susan E. Rice, then the ambassador to the United Nations, discussed the Middle East chaos that was the context for the attack on the American diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, in 2012.

Discussion: JustOneMinute and NewsBusters

Katie Pavlich / Townhall.com:

Top Intel Chief Testifies: ‘We Should Have Sent Help For Americans in Benghazi’ — Testifying in front of a House Oversight Committee hearing Thursday on Capitol Hill, retired Air Force Brigadier General Robert Lovell said the military should have and could have done more to help Americans …

Discussion: Hot Air, Daily Kos and The Gateway Pundit

Justin Sink / The Hill:
Can Obama get his groove back? — It's been more than a year …

Discussion: Weekly Standard, Fox News and Jammie Wearing Fools

Wall Street Journal:
New evidence that Ben Rhodes told Susan Rice and Hillary Clinton to blame the video.

Discussion: Townhall.com, The Daily Caller, Outside the Beltway, Slate, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, The PJ Tatler and National Review

Yahoo! News:
When the White House hates your tweet

Discussion: Hot Air, more at Mediagazer »

John Hinderaker / Power Line:
Jay Carney Lies About the Benghazi Email

Discussion: Scared Monkeys, Betsy's Page and Mediaite

Globe and Mail:

Rob Ford takes leave as recent drug video emerges — A second video of Toronto Mayor Rob Ford smoking what has been described as crack cocaine by a self-professed drug dealer was secretly filmed in his sister's basement early Saturday morning. — The clip, which was viewed by two Globe and Mail reporters …

Discussion: CNN, Poynter, Washington Post, RT, Talking Points Memo, Business Insider and The Week

Royson James Toronto / Toronto Star:

Rob Ford is out of time and must resign: James — Toronto mayor's descent so long and dark it may be too late for redemption — Jennifer Gordon, whose back is to the camera, and friends spotted Mayor Rob Ford “stumbling” down the street near the Esplanade on St. Patrick's Day 2012.

Discussion: VodkaPundit and Boing Boing

Toronto Sun:
Mayor Rob Ford ‘ready to take a break’

Discussion: FreakOutNation, Mediaite, Globe and Mail, Blazing Cat Fur, Talking Points Memo, Business Insider and The Point Forward

Mayor Rob Ford / CBC News:
Rob Ford's statement on leave of absence

Discussion: Globe and Mail, New York Times and Talking Points Memo

Catherine Thompson / Talking Points Memo:

Tom Coburn: I Don't Believe There Should Be A National Minimum Wage — Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) said Thursday that he doesn't believe there should be a national minimum wage. — Senate Republicans voted Wednesday to block debate on legislation to raise the federal minimum wage to $10.10.

Discussion: Liberaland, Patterico's Pontifications and Shakesville

Dahlia Lithwick / Slate:
When the Death Penalty Turns Into Torture

Discussion: Washington Post, The Week, New York Times, The Baffler and The Dish

New York Times:
State-Sponsored Horror in Oklahoma

Discussion: Guardian, The Daily Caller, Tulsa World, The Week, The Dish, Democracy in America and Los Angeles Times

Snapchat:

Putting the Chat into Snapchat — Building Snapchat has taught us a lot about what makes conversation special. When we first started working on an application for sharing disappearing pictures, we had no idea how much we would learn. Our classmates were quick to point out that you could always take a screenshot.

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, VentureBeat and Mashable

Ellis Hamburger / The Verge:
Real talk: the new Snapchat brilliantly mixes video and texting

Discussion: New York Times, Gigaom, PandoDaily, Globe and Mail, The Week and Business Insider

Politico:

What Is Hillary Clinton Afraid Of? — Over the 25 years Hillary Clinton has spent in the national spotlight, she's been smeared and stereotyped, the subject of dozens of over-hyped or downright fictional stories and books alleging, among other things, that she is a lesbian …

Discussion: Associated Press, NewsBusters and National Review

Politico:
The White House Beat, Uncovered

Discussion: Fox News, The Week and The Huffington Post

Stephanie Condon / CBS News:

Report: 67% of Obamacare enrollees have paid so far — Shares - — As of April 15, 67 percent of Americans enrolled in the federally-run Obamacare marketplace had paid their first monthly premium, according to data collected by the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

Discussion: American Spectator, The Week and CBS DC

Allahpundit / Hot Air:
Uh oh: House committee claims only two-thirds of federal ObamaCare enrollees paid first premium by April 15

Discussion: VodkaPundit and Patterico's Pontifications

Energy & Commerce Committee:
Committee Learns Who's Paid for Obamacare: As of April 15, Only 67 Percent of Enrollees …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, The New Republic, Hit & Run, Daily Kos, National Review, Reuters, Eric Cantor …, “The Lid” and Washington Examiner

Sahil Kapur / Talking Points Memo:

Antonin Scalia's Blunder Is Unprecedented, Legal Experts Say — Justice Antonin Scalia's factual error in a dissenting opinion Tuesday has become the talk of the legal community as experts puzzle over the extraordinary nature of the Reagan-appointed justice's blunder, which the Supreme Court quietly corrected as of Wednesday morning.

Discussion: NPR, Hit & Run, SCOTUSblog, The Mahablog, DownWithTyranny!, Prairie Weather, Bloomberg View, Josh Blackman's Blog, New York Times, The Raw Story and Legal Planet

A.B. Stoddard / The Hill:

Dems on thin ice for 2014 — Amid a torrent of fresh and frightening polling, Democrats are clinging to some comforting silver linings: flush war chests, a few strong individual polls, a robust gender gap. But it will be months before we know if they are kittens balancing on branches or cats with nine lives.

James Freeman / Wall Street Journal:
The ObamaCare 8% — The WSJ/NBC poll asks Americans …

Discussion: Scared Monkeys, NewsBusters and The Gateway Pundit

James Taranto / Wall Street Journal:

If Data Were a Journalist — He'd work for Ezra Klein. — “Vox.com joins a crowded field of data-driven news sites,” USA Today reported earlier this month on Ezra Klein's new venture. Maybe “Data” should have been capitalized. — A pair of articles the site published yesterday …

Discussion: The Dish and Althouse

Eleanor Clift / The Daily Beast:

Meet Mary Burke, the Woman Who Could Beat Scott Walker — She's a political novice—and that may be what it takes to knock off Wisconsin's governor, of whose jobs plan she says: 'I've seen eighth-graders' term papers that are more thoughtful.' — Republicans call her “Millionaire Mary,” …

Discussion: Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Althouse and Hot Air

James Hohmann / Politico:

Mitt Romney to endorse Monica Wehby in Oregon — Mitt Romney will endorse Monica Wehby Thursday in the Oregon GOP Senate primary. — “Dr. Wehby is the kind of leader Oregon needs — someone who has strong experience outside of government, who can bring trust and accountability back to Washington …

Discussion: CNN

Detroit Free Press:

Moscow revives Red Square May Day parade — MOSCOW - Tens of thousands of Russians marched through Red Square on Thursday as part of May Day celebrations in the first such display of Soviet-era-like ceremony since 1991 - the year the Communist Soviet Union dissolved.

Discussion: Hot Air