memeorandum: Health Care Reform: Some Basic Principles (George Lakoff/The Huffington Post)

2:55 PM ET, May 8, 2009

Top Items:

CIA Admits That Info About Torture Briefings For Dems May Not Be Accurate — As I noted below, newly released documents appear to show that according to the CIA, officials briefed Nancy Pelosi and other Democrats back in 2002 about the use of torture techniques on terror suspects.

Discussion: The Atlantic Politics Channel, Think Progress, American Street, The Daily Dish, Democrats.com, Emptywheel and Raw Story

Domenico Montanaro / MSNBC:

FIRST THOUGHTS: JOBS, JOBS, JOBS — From Chuck Todd, Mark Murray, Domenico Montanaro, and Abby Livingston — *** Jobs, jobs, jobs: The big news today is the latest unemployment number. It stands at 8.9% with another 539,000 jobs shed. It's the highest unemployment number since 1983 and is up from last month's 8.5 percent.

Discussion: The New Republic, The Campaign Spot and The Plank

Josh Gerstein / Josh Gerstein's Blog:
40 Hill briefings on interrogations disclosed

Discussion: Sister Toldjah, White House Watch, Secrecy News, Commentary, THE WEEK News & Opinion, PoliGazette and Shakesville

Paul Kane / Capitol Briefing:
CIA Says Pelosi Was Briefed on Use of ‘Enhanced Interrogations’

Discussion: Neptunus Lex, The Moderate Voice, Power Line, Right Wing News, QandO, Scared Monkeys, The Foundry, Betsy's Page, Wake up America, Jules Crittenden, Majikthise, Balloon Juice and Instapundit

Greg Sargent / The Plum Line:
CIA Documents Don't Prove Pelosi Was Told Of Waterboarding

Discussion: Weekly Standard, Talking Points Memo, Politics Daily, MoJo Blog Posts, Human Events, Taylor Marsh, Raw Story, Political Byline, Democrats.com and Daily Kos

Paul Kane / Washington Post:
Memo Says Pelosi Was Briefed on Use of Harsh Interrogation Tactics in 2002

Discussion: TPMMuckraker, Democracy in America, Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal, Newsweek Blogs, Emptywheel and The Note

Dan Eggen / Washington Post:

Diminished Conservative Groups Gear Up for Supreme Court Nomination Battle — Conservatives Prepare For Underdog Role — When John G. Roberts Jr. was nominated to the Supreme Court as chief justice, a pro-Republican group called Progress for America had $18 million in the bank.

Discussion: Politics Daily, The Hill, Political Punch, MSNBC, The Fix, New York Times, The BLT and Right Wing Watch

Satyam Khanna / Think Progress:
Sessions flip-flops: Gay Supreme Court nominee would be a ‘big concern.’

Discussion: The Plum Line, Washington Monthly, AMERICAblog News, The New Republic and Pam's House Blend

The Huffington Post:
Sessions: Gay Supreme Court Nominee “Would Be A Big Concern”

Discussion: The Daily Dish and The Plum Line

Susan Donaldson James / ABCNEWS:
Gay Advocates Eye Supreme Court

Discussion: Townhall.com

TPMDC: Sessions Subordinate: I Thought I'd Be Fired If I Objected To Being Called ‘Boy’

CNN:

Palin pulls out of White House Correspondents' Dinner — WASHINGTON (CNN) — Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin will miss a chance to chat up President Obama this weekend because she's cancelling plans to attend the White House Correspondents' dinner, but she's got a good excuse.

Discussion: Anchorage Daily News, Think Progress, The Politico and TPMDC

Mary Ann Akers / The Sleuth:
Gonzo Goes (Back) to Washington

Discussion: The Swamp, Newsweek Blogs, Think Progress and Raw Story

Nate Silver / FiveThirtyEight:
It Ain't Easy Being a Governor — In Tuesday's post on Tim Pawlenty …

Discussion: The Daily Dish, Democratic Strategist and Swing State Project

Satyam Khanna / Think Progress:

Obama sends handwritten letter to gay soldier ousted from the military promising to repeal DADT. — In January, Sandy Tsao, an army officer based out of St. Louis, MO, told her superiors that she is gay — a violation of the Don't Ask, Don't Tell law. Tsao then wrote to President Obama …

Discussion: Taylor Marsh, Washington Monthly, Salon, Raw Story, glaadBLOG.org, The Bilerico Project and Democracy in America

Brutally Honest:

Someone at Best Western gets it — If this ad doesn't present a story worth telling, nothing does: — With props to Bob McCarty.

Discussion: Dr. Melissa Clouthier

Haaretz:

Jerusalem worried over breakdown of U.S.-Israel cooperation under Obama — Senior officials in Jerusalem expressed concern recently over the sharp decline in the coordination between Israel and the United States on security and state affairs since President Barack Obama's entered the White House …

Discussion: Mere Rhetoric, Commentary, PoliGazette and Little Green Footballs

Michael Hirsh / Newsweek:

Train Wreck Ahead? — Why the U.S. and Israel may be headed for a collision. — For Israeli leaders, a public break with the United States is the third rail of politics. The possibility that Israelis might lose the support of the one nation that can guarantee their security awakens …

Paul Krugman / New York Times:

Stressing the Positive — Hooray! The banking crisis is over! Let's party! O.K., maybe not. — In the end, the actual release of the much-hyped bank stress tests on Thursday came as an anticlimax. Everyone knew more or less what the results would say: some big players need to raise more capital …

Discussion: Buck Naked Politics, The Washington Independent, D-Day, THE WEEK News & Opinion, The Baseline Scenario, marbury, The Bellows and CNNMoney.com

Dean Baker / American Prospect:
Background on the Stress Tests: Anyone Got an Extra $120 Billion?

Discussion: Matthew Yglesias, New Yorker, The Atlantic Business Channel, MoJo Blog Posts, MoJo Blog Posts and Economix

Katherine Mangu-Ward / Reason:

Your Yard Sale Is Illegal — Thinking of having a yard sale this weekend? Before you do, be sure to consult CSPC Publication #254 [PDF]. — This handy 28-pager from the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) reminds the American people that, thanks to the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act …

Discussion: QandO, Fausta's Blog and Moe Lane

Evan Halper / Los Angeles Times:

U.S. threatens to rescind stimulus money over wage cuts — The Obama administration threatens to rescind billions in stimulus money if Gov. Schwarzenegger and lawmakers do not restore wage cuts to unionized home healthcare workers. — Reporting from Sacramento — The Obama administration …

Discussion: No Sheeples Here!, Hot Air, The Strata-Sphere, Shot in the Dark, The Volokh Conspiracy and Pajamas Media

Michelle Cottle / The New Republic:

It's Church not Prayer That Makes Us Good — Mike Gerson has a column up today laying out some of the key findings to be featured in Bob Putnam and David Campbell's upcoming book, “American Grace,” that I mentioned on Wednesday. — In a nutshell, writes Gerson:

Discussion: MoJo Blog Posts

Michael Gerson / Washington Post:
The Book ‘American Grace’ and How the Young View Religion

Discussion: Reason

Jack Healy / New York Times:

U.S. Jobless Rate Hits 8.9%, but Pace of Losses Eases — The United States economy lost 539,000 jobs in April, the government reported on Friday, a sign that the relentless pace of job losses was starting to level off slightly. — A year ago, the loss of more than half a million jobs …

Discussion: Associated Press, Outside The Beltway, NewsBusters.org, MoJo Blog Posts, The Caucus, Washington Monthly, Newshoggers.com, Matthew Yglesias, Economix, JammieWearingFool and AMERICAblog News

Matthew Barakat / Associated Press:

Ex-contractor given probation in slaying of Afghan — ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — A former military contractor was sentenced Friday to probation for shooting and killing a handcuffed prisoner in Afghanistan. — Don Ayala of New Orleans pleaded guilty to manslaughter charges that normally would carry up to eight years in prison.

Discussion: SWJ Blog

Frank Newport / Gallup:

Democrats Do Best Among Generation Y and Baby Boomers — Republicans do better among Generation X — PRINCETON, NJ — Although Democrats currently enjoy a party identification advantage over Republicans among Americans at every age between 18 to 85, the Democrats' greatest advantages come among …

Discussion: The Hill's Blog Briefing Room, Poll Tracker and Politics Nation

DealBook:

Dissident Chrysler Group to Disband — The decision to dissolve the unofficial group was made in connection with the withdrawal of OppenheimerFunds and Stairway Capital Management, said Glenn M. Kurtz, a White & Case partner representing the bloc. With those two firms pulling out …

Discussion: Clusterstock, Zero Hedge and Felix Salmon

Myglesias / Matthew Yglesias:

Are We Turning Japanese Deliberately? — A disapproving Atrios quotes Bloomberg: “Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is betting that U.S. banks can do something their Japanese counterparts were unable to accomplish in that country's “lost decade” of the 1990s: earn their way out of trouble.”

Discussion: MoJo Blog Posts

John Consoli / Hollywood Reporter:

Obama drama — Nets take a stand against primetime pre-emptions — By and large, they personally forked out for his campaign, they voted for him, and they know he is capable of boosting TV ratings just by making an appearance. — But executives at the Big Four broadcast networks …

Discussion: MoJo Blog Posts, Taegan Goddard's … and PoliticalBase.com Blog

Debra Burlingame / Wall Street Journal:

Obama and the 9/11 Families — The president isn't sincere about ‘swift and certain’ justice for terrorists. — Printer — Friendly — In February I was among a group of USS Cole and 9/11 victims' families who met with the president at the White House to discuss his policies regarding Guantanamo detainees.

Discussion: Weekly Standard, Power Line, Wake up America, Pundit & Pundette, TigerHawk and Flopping Aces

Andrew Sullivan / The Daily Dish:

The NYT Finally Prints “Torture” — Here we have it in broad daylight: the New York Times' cowardice in the face of its own government. In an obit today, the editors manage to use the word “torture”. It's in an obit. The obit runs: — Col. Harold E. Fischer Jr. …

Discussion: Salon, New York Times and Prairie Weather

Kevin Carey / Washington Monthly:

Transformation 101 — Technology is driving down the cost of teaching undergraduates. So why are tuition bills going up? — On August 6, 2008, the Washington Post reported that tuition and fees at public colleges in Virginia will increase by an average of 7.3 percent this year.

Discussion: Matthew Yglesias

David A. Skeel Jr / AMERICAN.COM:

Why the Chrysler Deal Would Horrify a New Dealer — The use of a sham sale of the sort the New Dealers thought they had forever eliminated will cause mischief in future bankruptcy cases. — The Obama administration has closely patterned itself on the famous opening year of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal.