memeorandum: The Bible bill? — When the clock strikes midnight on Dec. 31 … (Victoria McGrane/The Politico)

10:15 PM ET, May 22, 2009

Top Items:

Ryan Pollyea / NBC Chicago:

Mancow Waterboarded, Admits It's Torture — “It is way worse than I thought it would be” — Shock jocks shock. — And so it went Friday morning when WLS radio host Erich “Mancow” Muller decided to subject himself to the controversial practice of waterboarding live on his show.

Discussion: Politics Daily, Washington Monthly, Crooks and Liars, Think Progress, Macsmind, Little Green Footballs, The BRAD BLOG, Taylor Marsh, pandagon.net, Peace Perspectives, Donklephant, Wonkette and American Power

Myglesias / Matthew Yglesias:

Conservative Radio Host Has Himself Waterboard to Prove It's Not Torture, Realizes He Was Wrong — Via John Chait, it seems that conservative talk radio host Eric “Mancow” Muller decided it would be a fun stunt to have himself waterboarded in order to prove that it's not really torture.

Discussion: The Plank, Ezra Klein, The Reaction and Balloon Juice

Raw Story:

Update with video: Conservative radio host gets waterboarded, lasts six seconds before saying it's ‘absolutely torture’ — 'If I knew... I wouldn't have' — Chicago radio host Erich “Mancow” Muller decided he'd get himself waterboarded to prove the technique wasn't torture. — It didn't turn out that way.

Discussion: Daily Kos and Seeing the Forest

Joe Gandelman / The Moderate Voice: Talk Show Host Mancow Waterboarded: Says It's “Absolutely Torture”

Kevin Allen / Sports Pros:
Mancow gets waterboarded

Discussion: Firedoglake and Progress Illinois

McClatchy Washington Bureau:

Cheney's speech ignored some inconvenient truths — WASHINGTON — Former Vice President Dick Cheney's defense Thursday of the Bush administration's policies for interrogating suspected terrorists contained omissions, exaggerations and misstatements. — In his address to the American Enterprise Institute …

Discussion: Raw Story, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, The Washington Independent, White House Watch, D-Day, At-Largely, AMERICAblog News, Firedoglake, Washington Post, Obsidian Wings, Newshoggers.com, NO QUARTER, Informed Comment, Jules Crittenden and the joshua blog

Alexander Mooney / CNN:

First on The CNN Ticker: Ridge disagrees with Cheney — (CNN) — Former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge told CNN former Vice President Dick Cheney's repeated charge the Obama administration has made the country less safe is wrong. — “Yeah, I disagree with Dick Cheney,” …

Discussion: David Corn, In the Right and Think Progress

US News:
Conservatives: Liz Cheney Should Run for Office

Discussion: The Politico, Hot Air, RedState and JammieWearingFool

Noel Sheppard / NewsBusters.org:
Olbermann Calls Dick Cheney ‘As Insane As Any Terrorist’

Discussion: PoliGazette, Hot Air, Raw Story and MSNBC

Ray Reed / News & Advance:

Kaine calls on LU to reconsider Democratic club ban — Liberty University president Jerry Falwell Jr. made his first public comments today about the university's suspension of the campus Democratic party club. — “That club still has the right to exist,” Falwell said, although it cannot use the university's name in its activities.

Discussion: CBS News, The Moderate Voice, Think Progress, PoliGazette, Newsweek Blogs, Pharyngula, Hot Air, Raw Story, On Deadline, Pam's House Blend and MSNBC

Ben Smith / Ben Smith's Blog:
Liberty U. bans Democrats

Discussion: AMERICAblog News and INSTAPUTZ

Michael Calderone / The Politico:

The GOP's new tool: Huffington Post — When Tom Coburn wanted to pitch his criticism of the Democrats' health care plan last month, the senator's office considered sympathetic media outlets like The Wall Street Journal and the conservative blog RedState. — Instead, the Oklahoma Republican went with The Huffington Post.

Discussion: Hot Air

Victoria McGrane / The Politico:

The Bible bill? — When the clock strikes midnight on Dec. 31, 2009, Rep. Paul Broun (R-Ga.) hopes you'll be ringing in “the Year of the Bible.” — It's probably just wishful thinking. — Broun's simple congressional resolution aimed at honoring the Good Book has produced a push …

Discussion: Crooks and Liars, Say Anything, La Shawn Barber's Corner and Hot Air

John Bresnahan / The Politico:
Some fear Pelosi attacks may backfire

Discussion: Hot Air, The Swamp, The Sundries Shack, Matthew Yglesias and Crooks and Liars

Anne Reynolds / NBC Washington:

Sobbing Kindergarteners Snubbed for Steelers? — Kids locked out of White House; officials say they were too late — Thursday was supposed to be the highlight of the year for more than 100 kindergarteners from Stafford County, Va. They got up early and took a chartered bus to the White House for a school field trip.

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, NewsBusters.org, Fausta's Blog, The Sundries Shack, JustOneMinute, Right Wing News, The Atlantic Politics Channel, Moe Lane, No Sheeples Here!, Say Anything, Verum Serum, The Hill's Blog Briefing Room and Rumproast

Wendy Wright / Human Events:

Obama Aide: Not Our Goal to Reduce Abortions — Author's Note: Because of the Obama speech at Notre Dame and the widespread misunderstanding that this Administration has fostered, others have urged me to make public what the White House official in charge of finding “common ground” stated in our meeting.

Discussion: Hot Air, The Brody File, Political Punch and Flopping Aces

Ali Frick / Think Progress:

Steele: Obama ‘Was Not Vetted Because The Press Fell In Love With The Black Man Running For The Office’ — Apparently unable to learn from egregious mistakes from the recent past, RNC Chairman Michael Steele once again took to the radio airwaves today as a guest host for Bill Bennett.

Discussion: 24Ahead, Washington Monthly, DownWithTyranny!, Donklephant, The Atlantic Politics Channel, TPMDC, Ben Smith's Blog and MSNBC

Zachary Roth / TPMMuckraker:

The Newburgh Four — And The Goverment Mole Who Betrayed Them — We're starting to get a rich picture of the four hapless Jihadis who were arrested Wednesday night for plotting to bomb two New York synagogues, as well as the FBI informant who deceived them.

Discussion: The Nation, New York Post, New York Times, NY Daily News, PoliGazette, TalkLeft, Talking Points Memo, City Room, Daily Kos and D-Day

New York Post:
PATH TO RADICAL ISLAM BEGAN IN JAILS

Discussion: Power Line, New York Times, Gothamist and NY Daily News

Rick Casey / Houston Chronicle:

Mayor quits job for gay illegal immigrant he loves — It was, simply put, the most stunning abdication since King Edward VIII in 1936 gave up the British throne for Wallis Simpson, the twice-divorced American socialite. — Only two weeks after being elected to serve his fourth term …

Discussion: The Other McCain, Moe Lane and Swampland

The Huffington Post:

Jesse Ventura Challenges Hannity On Waterboarding: “I'll Get Him To Say Obama Is The Greatest President” — Jesse Ventura, the former Minnesota governor and presidential candidate, vows that if he waterboarded Sean Hannity, he'd get the right-wing Fox News host to say that “Barack Obama is the greatest president.”

Discussion: The Swamp, TVNewser and VetVoice

Glenn Greenwald / Salon:

Facts and myths about Obama's preventive detention proposal — [Updated below - Update II (Interview with ACLU) - Update III - Update IV - Update V ] — In the wake of Obama's speech yesterday, there are vast numbers of new converts who now support indefinite “preventive detention.”

Discussion: Lawyers, Guns and Money, Washington Post, TalkLeft, The Moderate Voice, New York Times, RedState, ProPublica, Room for Debate, MoJo Blog Posts, White House Watch and The Daily Dish

Marc Ambinder / The Atlantic Politics Channel:
The Rubicon Of Indefinite Detention

Discussion: Salon, TalkLeft and The Moderate Voice

Steve Benen / Washington Monthly:

NEPOTISM REIGNS.... Mid-day yesterday, I noticed that Mark Halperin had a headline that read, “Round 2: Liz Cheney vs Axe.” Round 1, apparently, was President Obama and former Vice President Cheney, and Round 2's “Axe” refers to David Axelrod, Senior White House Advisor to the president.

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, Think Progress, The Plum Line, Balloon Juice and The Page

David Kurtz / Talking Points Memo:
Larry v. Liz

Discussion: The Plum Line

Pamela Geller / Atlas Shrugs:

OBAMA TO APOLOGIZE TO GERMANY FOR WWII? — The latest inconceivable Obamaction is yet another unbecoming apology in Europe, this time in Germany for WWII. John Rosenthal suggests, “As bizarre as it may seem, President Obama's impending trip to Dresden suggests that German revisionists have a friend in the White House”.

Discussion: theblogprof, The Radio Patriot, Babalú Blog, American Power and Gateway Pundit

Bertrand Fan / Sunlight Labs:

Labs Contest — Apps for America 2: The Data.gov Challenge — What it Is — Apps for America is a special contest we're putting on this year to celebrate the release of Data.gov! We're doing it alongside Google, O'Reilly Media, and TechWeb and the winners will be announced …

Discussion: Sunlight Foundation, BuzzMachine, The Huffington Post, Threat Level and techPresident

Rich Lowry / National Review:

President Above-It-All — EDITOR'S NOTE: This column is available exclusively through King Features Syndicate. For permission to reprint or excerpt this copyrighted material, please contact: kfsreprint@hearstsc.com, or phone 800-708-7311, ext 246. — Put Barack Obama in front of a teleprompter …

Discussion: GINA COBB, JustOneMinute and Hot Air

Tami Luhby / CNNMoney.com:

Unemployment rate down in 21 states — Economic picture improves for some in April. Eleven states have no change in rate, while 18 and D.C. see jobless rate rise. Michigan still leads the nation. — NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — The employment situation in the states showed signs of stabilizing last month.

Toby Harnden / Toby Harnden's blog listings:

“Out of the loop” Joe Biden says decision to shut Guantanamo was “like opening Pandora's Box” — Thank goodness for Vice President Joe Biden. In one of the few amusing parts of the Wanda Sykes comedy routine at the White House Correspondents' Dinner, she said: “God forbid that Joe Biden falls …

Discussion: Agence France Presse, Weekly Standard, Newsweek Blogs, Say Anything, Commentary and RedState

BBC:

Outrage at Serbia ‘beating’ video — A young patient appears to be beaten repeatedly with a shovel (Video courtesy of Vreme magazine) — Officials in Serbia are investigating a rehabilitation centre affiliated to the Orthodox Church where drug addicts have allegedly been filmed being beaten.

Discussion: Pharyngula and Shakesville

Andrew Malcolm / Top of the Ticket:

Ka-blam! Obama gives Biden new White House duty: arms deliverer — Apparently they don't have enough guns, explosives and ammo in the Middle East. So, as long as he was in Kosovo and Serbia, etc. Vice President Joe Biden was tasked today with making the latest delivery of U.S.-made killing stuff to our side in Lebanon.

Discussion: Moe_Lane's blog and Moe Lane

Michael Tomasky / New York Magazine:

Obama's Real Hundred Days — With health care and climate change on the agenda, the next hundred are more important than the first. Get ready for the Summer of Shove. — During his proverbial hundred days, Barack Obama played the hand he was dealt. Not since FDR had a president entered office …

Evan Ramstad / Wall Street Journal:

Citizen Spies Lift North Korea's Veil — With Sleuthing and Satellite Images, Mr. Melvin Fills the Blanks on a Secretive Nation's Map — SEOUL — In the propaganda blitz that followed North Korea's missile launch last month, the country's state media released photos of leader Kim Jong Il visiting …

Discussion: Personal Democracy Forum blogs and Reason

Conor Friedersdorf / The American Scene:

“I don't know why your husband doesn't put a gun to his temple.” — En route to pick up a tux for a wedding I'm attending this weekend, I flipped on the radio in my mother's car, found it tuned to the AM dial, and heard a host so petulant that he is an outlier even on talk radio.