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8:10 PM ET, April 23, 2009

memeorandum

 Top Items: 
Ali Soufan / New York Times:
My Tortured Decision  —  FOR seven years I have remained silent about the false claims magnifying the effectiveness of the so-called enhanced interrogation techniques like waterboarding.  I have spoken only in closed government hearings, as these matters were classified.
RELATED:
The Huffington Post:
Boehner: Memos Outline “Torture Techniques”  —  While cable news outlets and major newspapers continue to use euphemisms such as “harsh interrogation tactics” to describe the Bush administration's approach to intelligence gathering, House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) used a more succinct term Thursday: “torture.”
Ann Scott Tyson / Washington Post:
Defense Chief Gates Says He Backed Releasing CIA Memos
Discussion: The Page and RedState
Greg Sargent / The Plum Line:
Cheney Succeeding In Shifting Torture Debate?  —  In case you're wondering whether Dick Cheney and other former Bushies are succeeding in shifting the torture debate on to the narrow question of whether torture has “worked,” take a look at this headline, photo, and article in today's New York Times (click to enlarge):
RELATED:
Stephen F. Hayes / Weekly Standard:
Goss: Obama Decision “Crossed a Red Line”
Discussion: Ben Smith's Blog
Ed Rollins / CNN:
Commentary: Obama waffled on torture, looks weak
Amanda Terkel / Think Progress:
Larry Summers falls asleep during Obama's meeting with credit card executives.  —  Today, President Obama met with credit card industry officials at the White House.  After the meeting, he pledged to push for a law that would offer “strong and reliable” protections for credit card users in the United States.
RELATED:
Mark Silva / The Swamp:
Larry Summers' cat-nap at credit talks  —  Listen, they are burning the midnight oil at the Treasury Department these days, what with billions of dollars going out the door to bail out the economy.  —  And over at the White House, where Larry Summers serves as director of the White House's …
Stephen Labaton / New York Times:
Obama Pressures Credit Card Issuers on Rates
Jonathan Martin / The Politico:
RNC faction wants Dems branded socialists  —  A conservative faction of the Republican National Committee is urging the GOP to take a harder line against both Democrats and wayward Republicans, drafting a resolution to rename the opposition the “Democrat Socialist Party” …
Discussion: Balloon Juice and Liberal Values
RELATED:
Ralph Z. Hallow / Washington Times:
Steele urged to label Obama a socialist  —  State RNC leaders raise dissent  —  Republican state party leaders are rebelling against new Republican National Committee Chairman Michael S. Steele for failing to dub President Obama and the Democrats as “socialists.”  And the rebels insist that the label matters.
Stuart Rothenberg / Roll Call:   April Madness: Can GOP Win Back the House in 2010?
Ceci Connolly / Washington Post:
GOP Stymies Vote on Sebelius  —  President Obama will have to wait a bit longer to round out his Cabinet.  Senate Republicans refused today to allow a confirmation vote on his health secretary nominee Gov. Kathleen Sebelius (D-Kan.).  She is the last Cabinet member awaiting Senate approval.
RELATED:
Bill Roggio / The Long War Journal:
Taliban advance eastward, threaten Islamabad  —  Click map for full view.  Taliban presence, by district and tribal agency, in the Northwest Frontier Province and the Federally Administered Tribal Agencies.  Information on Taliban presence obtained from open source and derived …
RELATED:
Aryn Baker / Time:
Taliban Advance: Is Pakistan Nearing Collapse?  —  Pakistani police officers in a shrine in Buner, Pakistan, on April 18, 2009  —  The move by Taliban-backed militants into the Buner district of northwestern Pakistan, closer than ever to Pakistan's capital of Islamabad …
Michael Calderone / Michael Calderone's Blog:
WaPo hires Prospect's Klein  —  The American Prospect's Ezra Klein, one of the top bloggers on politics and policy, is heading to the Washington Post.  —  Rumors about Klein's upcoming move spread on Wednesday night during a reception thrown by The Nation magazine in honor of D.C. bureau chief Chris Hayes.
Discussion: PoliGazette and ATTACKERMAN
RELATED:
Myglesias / Matthew Yglesias:
Ezra Klein Hired by Washington Post
Discussion: Outside The Beltway
CNN:
Johnston 'didn't think it was going to get this rough'  —  (CNN) — A year ago, few outside of Wasilla, Alaska, had ever heard of Levi Johnston.  All that changed last summer when Gov. Sarah Palin accepted the Republican vice presidential nomination.  —  Soon after she entered the national spotlight …
Discussion: The XX Factor
RELATED:
Drudge Report:
CNN ASKS PALIN DADDY IF SEX WAS IN THE HOUSE
Discussion: Michelle Malkin
Glenn Thrush / Glenn Thrush's Blog:
King: Torture trial should spark “scorched earth”  —  New York Republican Rep. Peter King thinks his party needs to go nuke if Bush era officials are prosecuted on torture charges.  —  King, the outspoken ranking member of the House homeland security committee, said Republicans should …
Kate Barrett / The Note:
Meghan McCain to Rove & Cheney: ‘Go Away’  —  ABC News' Rick Klein reports: Meghan McCain guest-hosted ABC's “The View” Thursday and brought some blunt advice for Karl Rove and Dick Cheney: “Go away.”  —  “It's very unprecedented for someone like Karl Rove or Dick Cheney to be criticizing the president,” McCain said.
Discussion: Ben Smith's Blog and The Swamp
Steve Chapman / Reason:
Torturing the Truth  —  It's time to face the ugly reality about the use of harsh interrogation tactics  —  When the Russian dissident Alexander Solzhenitsyn wrote his epic, The Gulag Archipelago, some Americans read it to measure the gulf between the brute savagery of communism and the principled standards of free, civilized nations.
Discussion: JustOneMinute
RELATED:
Andrew Sullivan / The Daily Dish:
Why Debate The T-Word?  —  Steve Chapman asks the torture supporters a question:
Discussion: Obsidian Wings
New York Times:
U.S. Is Said to Prepare Filing for Chrysler Bankruptcy  —  By MICHELINE MAYNARD and MICHAEL J. de la MERCED  —  DETROIT — The Treasury Department is preparing a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing for Chrysler that could come as soon as next week, people with direct knowledge of the action said Thursday.
Michael Goldfarb / Weekly Standard:
American Heroes  —  That's what we ought to call the men and women who interrogated the worst of the worst.  For those most committed to the ridiculous crusade for terrorist rights, “enhanced interrogation” is not only immoral and illegal, it's ineffective.  That argument, like Khalid Sheik Mohamed, doesn't hold water.
Discussion: The American Scene and Hot Air
New York Times:
Yemen Dispute Slows Closing of Guantánamo  —  The Obama administration's effort to return the largest group of Guantánamo detainees to Yemen, their home country, has stalled, creating a major new hurdle for the president's plan to close the prison camp in Cuba by next January, American and Yemeni officials say.
Pew Research Center:
Obama at 100 Days: Strong Job Approval, Even Higher Personal Ratings  —  Better Ratings for Foreign Policy than Domestic Issues  —  As he approaches the 100-day mark of his presidency, Barack Obama's job approval ratings are higher than those of his most recent predecessors.
Faiz Shakir / Think Progress:
Bill O'Reilly's response to waterboarding: ‘Torture, my ass.’  —  Last night on The Factor, Bill O'Reilly hosted Newsday columnist Ellis Henican, who criticized O'Reilly's tolerance of torture.  “You disappoint me, you disappoint me,” Henican said, pointing his finger at O'Reilly.
Discussion: Shakesville
Cliff May / The Corner:
News Bulletin  —  A Corner exclusive: How many times have you read and heard in the mainstream media that terrorists were waterboarded more than 180 times?  It turns out that's not true.  What is?  According to two sources, both of them very well-informed and reliable (but preferring to remain anonymous) …
Discussion: Commentary
The Huffington Post:
Hannity Offers To Be Waterboarded For Charity (By Charles Grodin!)  —  Oh, well.  This is, I believe, a “golden moment” in the history of televised media.  Sean Hannity had actor Charles Grodin on his show tonight, and the two men actually had some genuinely good natured sparring with each other over the news of the week.
Media Matters for America:
Political History 101: O'Reilly falsely claimed Nixon never met with Mao … On the April 22 edition of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor, host Bill O'Reilly falsely claimed that President Richard Nixon never met with Chinese leader Mao Zedong.  —  While discussing President Obama's handshake …
Kos / Daily Kos:
Lots of unpatriotic Texans want out of the union  —  With numbers like these, it's obvious why Texas Gov. Rick Perry is talking secession in the runup to what will be a tough primary battle against Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson:  —  Research 2000 for Daily Kos. 4/20-22.  Likely voters.
Joe Klein / Time:
Sizing Up Obama's First 100 Days  —  The President almost seemed apologetic.  “This may be a slightly longer speech than I usually give,” he told his audience at Georgetown University on April 14.  “This is going to be prose and not poetry.”  What followed, as promised, was not poetry.
Steve Benen / Washington Monthly:
CHU WASN'T THE ‘BAFFLED’ ONE.... Arrogance is almost always unseemly, but I think there's an important distinction to be made between conceit and misplaced arrogance.  The prior is merely unseemly; the latter is humiliating.  —  Yesterday, at a hearing of the House Energy and Commerce Committee …
Discussion: TPMDC, D-Day and The Huffington Post
 
 
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 More Items: 
Emptywheel:
Liz Cheney: I'm Proud My Daddy Is the Prime Mover of Torture
Devlin Barrett / Associated Press:
Holder won't selectively release terror memos
Matthew Dallek / The Politico:
Waning GOP needs its moderates
Discussion: Hot Air
Brian Montopoli / CBS News:
Tiger Woods In The White House
Discussion: Wonkette and Top of the Ticket
Roger Cohen / New York Times:
No Time for Retribution
Discussion: Democrats.com
Associated Press:
AP Poll: Americans high on Obama, direction of US
Discussion: The Fix and The Daily Dish
Josh Marshall / Talking Points Memo:
Devil in the Details  —  A poll was released today showing …
Discussion: The Plank
Lindsey Ellerson / The Note:
Rep. Paul Ryan: Up to Obama to Bring Bipartisanship
Discussion: Wonk Room
 Earlier Items: 
David Rogers / The Politico:
Obey rains on Obama's parade
Discussion: Commentary
Rory Carroll / Guardian:
Paraguay president in triple paternity row
Samuel Maull / Associated Press:
Author Jared Diamond sued for libel
Paul Bond / Hollywood Reporter:
Drama at GE shareholders meeting
Discussion: The FOX Nation, News Hounds and Hot Air
Greg Mitchell / Editor and Publisher:
U.S. Soldier Who Killed Herself—After Refusing to Take Part in Torture
Discussion: The Daily Dish and Democrats.com
Pew Research Center:
Fox News Stands Out as “Too Critical” of Obama
Discussion: Media Blog
Karl Rove / Wall Street Journal:
The President's Apology Tour
Discussion: Liberal Values and At-Largely