memeorandum: Iowa Senate leader rules out gay marriage debate (Mike Glover/Associated Press)

9:15 AM ET, April 7, 2009

Top Items:

Stolen Cessna Pursued by Jet Fighters Lands on Highway — Pilot Took Off Running After Landing Plane, Officials Say — A Cessna stolen from a Canadian flight school landed on a Missouri highway late today, after being pursued for hours across the Midwest by fighter jets ready to shoot it down if it was determined to be a threat.

Discussion: CTV.ca, Talking Points Memo, Atlas Shrugs, CNN, Redhot and Jihad Watch

Robert Imrie / Associated Press:

Man nabbed after plane taken from Canada to Mo. — WAUSAU, Wis. - A single-engine airplane flown away from an airport in Canada by a student pilot Monday was intercepted by jet fighters over Wisconsin but kept flying south through two more states. It finally landed on a road in southeastern Missouri and the pilot was apprehended.

Washington Post:

Report Calls CIA Detainee Treatment ‘Inhuman’ — Medical officers who oversaw interrogations of terrorism suspects in CIA secret prisons committed gross violations of medical ethics and in some cases essentially participated in torture, the International Committee of the Red Cross concluded …

Discussion: TalkLeft, The Hill's Blog Briefing Room, The BLT, Raw Story and Emptywheel

Scott Shane / New York Times:

Report Outlines Medical Workers' Role in Torture — WASHINGTON — Medical personnel were deeply involved in the abusive interrogation of terrorist suspects held overseas by the Central Intelligence Agency, including torture, and their participation was a “gross breach of medical ethics,” …

Attaturk / Firedoglake:
Hypocritical Oaths

Discussion: The Hill's Blog Briefing Room

CBS News:

Poll: Obama Approval Hits New High - 66% — CBS/NY Times Survey Finds Most Believe World Leaders Respect President, Though They Maintain U.S. Is Not Respected Overall — (CBS) As President Obama concludes his well-publicized trip to Europe, Americans are more positive about the respect accorded …

Discussion: TalkLeft, Washington Monthly, The Moderate Voice, NewsBusters.org, Macsmind and Oliver Willis

Jerusalem Post:

‘Turkey foils plot to assassinate Obama’ — Turkish security services have arrested a man of Syrian descent who was planning to assassinate US President Barack Obama during his current trip to Turkey, the Saudi daily Al Watan reported Monday. — According to the report, the man …

Discussion: The Powers That Be, Jules Crittenden, Political Machine, The College Politico and protein wisdom

Associated Press:
Official: Man freed amid Obama murder ‘hoax’

Discussion: Hot Air

Aljazeera:
Obama: ‘US not at war with Islam’

Discussion: Jihad Watch, Atlas Shrugs and Gateway Pundit

Ernest Luning / Colorado Independent:

Focus on the Family narrator arrested for luring teenage girl for sex on Net — A Colorado Springs man who narrates the Bible in Spanish on CDs and works in the Spanish broadcasting department of Focus on the Family appeared in court Monday in Golden on two felony counts of using the Internet …

Discussion: Right Wing News, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, pandagon.net and Pam's House Blend

Kieran Nicholson / Denver Post:
Man arrested in Jeffco on suspicion of internet luring

Discussion: Colorado Independent, La Figa and The Raw Story

Amanda Terkel / Think Progress:

Frank 'I'm A Member Of Dick Cheney's Fan Club' Gaffney: Obama's ‘Respect’ For Muslims Is Code For Submission — The right wing has been apoplectic over President Obama's words and actions while in Europe. A large amount of their outrage has been over the fact that Obama briefly bowed to King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia.

Discussion: Washington Monthly, The White House, No More Mister Nice Blog, Sister Toldjah, Whiskey Fire and Salon

Bob Egelko / San Francisco Chronicle:

Administration defends Bush wire-taps — (04-06) 15:26 PDT SAN FRANCISCO — The Obama administration is again invoking government secrecy in defending the Bush administration's wiretapping program, this time against a lawsuit by AT&T customers who claim federal agents illegally intercepted …

Discussion: QandO, Stop The ACLU, Sister Toldjah and AlterNet.org

Glenn Greenwald / Salon:
New and worse secrecy and immunity claims from the Obama DOJ

Discussion: Electronic Frontier Foundation, The Raw Story, Patterico's Pontifications and Democrats.com

Alexander Bolton / The Hill:

Lieberman-Obama honeymoon stops at missile defense — Sen. Joe Lieberman (Conn.) has tried to mend his relationship with President Obama in recent months but their reconciliation hit a snag Monday over ballistic missile defense. — Lieberman, the self-described independent Democrat …

Discussion: The Politico

Ezra Klein / American Prospect:

BEAT SWEETENERS. — Matt Yglesias pulls the curtain back a bit on the “beat sweeteners:” … I'm not sure this is quite as calculated as Matt implies. New administrations tend to spark a lot of positive profiles because new administrations usher in new players whose power merits attention …

Discussion: Matthew Yglesias

Mike Allen / The Politico:

Reality hits Obama Express — President Barack Obama, after a lightning-quick start for his agenda on Capitol Hill, is bracing for a much slower pace and big changes in his proposals as early urgency and excitement give way to the more languid rhythms that are the norm for Congress.

Discussion: Alex Conant

Jamie Court / The Huffington Post: White House Summit In Denial On Regulating Health Care Costs

New York Times:

Poll Finds New Optimism on Economy Since Inauguration — Americans have grown more optimistic about the economy and the direction of the country in the 11 weeks since President Obama was inaugurated, suggesting that he is enjoying some success in his critical task of rebuilding the nation's confidence …

Discussion: The Swamp, CBS News, Think Progress, Greg's Opinion, Prairie Weather, Taegan Goddard's …, The Daily Dish, PoliticalBase.com Blog and Swampland

Kevin Drum / MoJo Blog Posts:

Fun With Phosphates — The blogosphere had a few laughs last week at the expense of RedState head honcho Eric Erickson, who warned that revolution was coming and told residents of Washington state, “I'd be cleaning my gun right about now waiting to protect my property from the coming riots …

Discussion: Megan McArdle, Outside The Beltway, Felix Salmon, Sadly, No!, TigerHawk, Dean's World and Los Angeles Times

Noah Shachtman / Danger Room:

Pentagon Chief Rips Heart Out of Army's ‘Future’ — In 2003, the U.S. Army introduced its plan to wage the wars of tomorrow. A fleet of light, networked, electric-powered combat vehicles would speed American forces into battle against another superpower military — and win the fight almost instantly …

Discussion: Slate, Washington Post, The Daily Dish, DownWithTyranny!, Fox News, Obsidian Wings, American Power, Hot Air and abu muqawama

New York Times:
Military Budget Reflects a Shift in U.S. Strategy

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, The Politico, United States Senator …, Think Progress, MoJo Blog Posts, American Prospect, D-Day, Pajamas Media, The Swamp, TPMDC and Wonk Room

Agence France Presse:

Web campaign to save bankrupt Minneapolis paper — WASHINGTON (AFP) — Employees of the Minneapolis Star Tribune launched an online campaign on Monday in a bid to save the Minnesota newspaper, which declared bankruptcy nearly three months ago. — “With the Star Tribune in bankruptcy …

Discussion: Power Line and Minnesota Independent

Ezra Klein / Los Angeles Times:

When it comes to healthcare, the U.S., Britain and Canada are hurting — Healthcare in all three countries has the same problem. They just feel it in different places. — When asked by the New England Journal of Medicine to detail his healthcare vision during the campaign …

Discussion: EconLog and Economist's View

United States Senator James Inhofe:

Inhofe says Obama Defense Cuts will — Responds in a YouTube Video from Afghanistan — WASHINGTON, D.C. - In a You Tube video today from Afghanistan, U.S. Senator Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.), a senior member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, blasted an announcement by the Obama administration …

Discussion: Moe Lane and Los Angeles Times

Mike Glover / Associated Press:

Iowa Senate leader rules out gay marriage debate — DES MOINES, Iowa - A key lawmaker Monday ruled out any move to overturn an Iowa Supreme Court decision legalizing gay marriage, even as backers of that effort promised to step up pressure on the Legislature.

Discussion: The Fix and #gay

John / Power Line:

The Apology Tour: Will It Ever End? — Earlier today, President Obama addressed the Parliament of Turkey. What made news were his positive references to Islam: … This is, of course, indistinguishable from many similar pronouncements that were made by President Bush.