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She Broke the G.O.P. and Now She Owns It — SARAH PALIN and Al Sharpton don't ordinarily have much in common, but they achieved a rare harmonic convergence at Michael Jackson's memorial service. When Sharpton told the singer's children it was their daddy's adversaries, not their daddy …
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The Moderate Voice, Blogs and Stories, Firedoglake, TalkLeft, BuzzFlash.org, Alternate Brain and Newshoggers.com
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McCain: Palin not a quitter — Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) defended his former running mate Sarah Palin on Sunday, saying she wasn't a quitter and that her decision to resign as governor was consistent with his own leadership qualities. — McCain said Palin did not tell him she was resigning …

EXCLUSIVE: Palin plans to stay in politics — Brushing aside the criticisms of pundits and politicos, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin said she plans to jump immediately back into the national political fray — stumping for conservative issues and even Democrats — after she prematurely vacates her elected post at month's end.

The Holder trial balloon: Abu Ghraib redux — (updated below - Update II) — Yesterday, I treated this new Newsweek report that Eric Holder is “leaning toward appointing a prosecutor to investigate the Bush administration's brutal interrogation practices” as something to celebrate.
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The Daily Beast, Emptywheel, The Huffington Post, TalkLeft, Don Surber, JustOneMinute, Balloon Juice, D-Day, Wizbang, Hullabaloo, ATTACKERMAN, Macsmind, Matthew Yglesias and Democrats.com
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Probe of Alleged Torture Weighed — Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. is leaning toward appointing a criminal prosecutor to investigate whether CIA personnel tortured terrorism suspects after Sept. 11, 2001, setting the stage for a conflict with administration officials who would prefer …

Rebuilding Something Better — Nearly six months ago, my administration took office amid the most severe economic downturn since the Great Depression. At the time, we were losing, on average, 700,000 jobs a month. And many feared that our financial system was on the verge of collapse.
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PostPartisan, Hot Air, Macsmind, The Hill's Blog Briefing Room, The Page and Dean's World
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Responding to the President's op-ed — I would like to respond to the President's Washington Post op-ed, “Rebuilding Something Better.” All quotes in this post are from the President. … The President and his team use this language to lower the bar against which they are measured.


GOP Responds To Cheney's Concealment Of CIA Program With Strawmen And Shrugged Shoulders — Earlier this week, seven House Democrats on the Intelligence Committee released a letter revealing that CIA Director Leon Panetta had “recently testified to Congress that the agency concealed information …
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Washington Monthly, The Hill, JONATHAN TURLEY, Washington Post, The Politico and The Political Carnival
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Democrats May Investigate Secret Program — House Democrats said yesterday that they expect to launch a formal investigation into a secret CIA program that was not disclosed to Congress for almost eight years, a probe that could entangle senior Bush administration officials who oversaw intelligence issues.
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The Moderate Voice, Washington Times, Power Line, The Confluence, This ain't Hell …, Newshoggers.com, The Page and Associated Press

Teen Girl Falls In Open Manhole While Texting — Alexa Longueira Suffers Deep Cuts, Bruises After Landing In Raw Sewage, Blames DEP For Leaving Hole Unattended — NEW YORK (CBS) ― It was an accident waiting to happen — an open sewer and a 15-year-old girl who was texting while she walked.
Discussion:
JONATHAN TURLEY, Polimom, Too, The Moderate Voice, UrbanGrounds, American Power, Jules Crittenden and Scared Monkeys

Will ObamaCare threaten medical innovation? — Glenn Reynolds argues that the wait lines for treatments in a single-payer system are not the biggest concern. In a Washington Examiner column, Glenn relates personal stories of how his family members have benefited from innovation in medical treatments …
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Jules Crittenden
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Glenn Reynolds on the hidden cost of national health care


Why tide against Sanford ebbed — Governor's wife, political realities helped put calls for resignation to rest — The shock had subsided. — Then Gov. Mark Sanford set the scandal ablaze again, saying he considered his Argentine lover his “soul mate” and saw her more often than he originally had said.

FOLKS: O, FOR SHAME! — 'GIRL'S NO SEX SYMBOL!' — The Secret Service might want to put a new threat on its watch list: the mad-as-hell mama of the 17-year-old Brazilian beauty ogled by President Obama and French leader Nicolas Sarkozy at the G8 summit last week.

In Supreme Court Pick Sotomayor, an Insider's Rise Meets an Outsider's Doubts — In Sotomayor, an Insider's Achievements Meet an Outsider's Insecurities — Within weeks of arriving in New Haven as a law student in the fall of 1976, Sonia Sotomayor fell in with a few first-year classmates whose ascent …
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Commentary
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