memeorandum: The president of the ACLU wants Obama to pardon the torturers (Digby/Hullabaloo)

11:50 AM ET, December 9, 2014

Top Items:

Mark Fallon / Politico:

Dick Cheney Was Lying About Torture — The Senate report confirms it doesn't work. As those of us on the inside knew. — It's official: torture doesn't work. Waterboarding Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind of 9/11, did not in fact “produce the intelligence that allowed us to get Osama bin Laden …

Discussion: Outside the Beltway and Washington Free Beacon

Anthony D. Romero / New York Times:

Pardon Bush and Those Who Tortured — BEFORE President George W. Bush left office, a group of conservatives lobbied the White House to grant pardons to the officials who had planned and authorized the United States torture program. My organization, the American Civil Liberties Union, found the proposal repugnant.

Discussion: emptywheel, RedState, The Dish, Daily Signal and Daily Kos

New York Times:

White House and Republicans Clash Over C.I.A. Torture Report — WASHINGTON — On the eve of a long-awaited Senate report on the use of torture by the United States government — a detailed account that will shed an unsparing light on the Central Intelligence Agency's darkest practices …

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Washington Monthly, Washington Post, Reuters, BBC, Prairie Weather and First Draft

Brian Bennett / Los Angeles Times:

Dianne Feinstein leaving intelligence job amid clash on tactics report — As head of the Senate Intelligence Committee since 2009, Sen. Dianne Feinstein has spent hundreds of hours in secret briefings and seen thousands of pictures from battlefields in Syria, Iraq and Yemen. She keeps two images with her.

Discussion: Wall Street Journal and Addicting Info

K.T. McFarland / Fox News:

CIA interrogation report: Democrats want to punish America, blame Bush — In its ideological zeal to punish America, the outgoing Democratically-controlled Senate, plans to make public a report that, according to Fox News will examine “the alleged use of torture by the CIA.”

Discussion: The Dish, Liberty Unyielding, Daily Kos, Hot Air and The PJ Tatler

Digby / Hullabaloo:
The president of the ACLU wants Obama to pardon the torturers

Discussion: Crooked Timber

Glenn Greenwald / The Intercept:
Live Coverage of the Senate Torture Report

Discussion: emptywheel, Reuters, Politico, ABC News, Washington Post, Taylor Marsh, The Dish and TalkLeft

Peter Baker / New York Times:
Dismissing Senate Report, Cheney Defends C.I.A. Interrogations

Discussion: Talking Points Memo

Jose A. Rodriguez Jr. / Washington Post:
Today's CIA critics once urged the agency to do anything to fight al-Qaeda

Discussion: TIME, National Review, Bloomberg View, The Huffington Post, NO QUARTER USA NET, Hit & Run, Foreign Policy, ABC News and New York Times

Daniel W. Drezner / Washington Post:
The insane narrative you are supposed to believe about the torture report

Discussion: New York Times, The Verge, Hit & Run, No More Mister Nice Blog, Bloomberg View, CBS News, Balloon Juice, Washington Examiner, The Atlantic Online, Techdirt, The Dish, The Agonist and NBC News

Dylan Scott / Talking Points Memo:

Issa To Gruber: ‘Are You Stupid?’ — House Oversight Committee Chair Darrell Issa (R-CA) cut right to the chase in his questioning of MIT professor Jonathan Gruber's comments on the “stupidity of the American voter” at a Tuesday oversight committee hearing.

Discussion: Political Wire and Bloomberg Politics

Tom Howell Jr / Washington Times:

Gruber to face hostile House panel, tea party 'I'm with Stupid' T-shirts — Democrats shun Obamacare architect after ‘stupidity of the American voter’ comments

Discussion: Truth Revolt and The Gateway Pundit

Sarah Ferris / The Hill:
Circus set for Gruber at Capitol

Discussion: Politico and Fox News

James Kirchick / The Daily Beast:

The Rise and Fall of Chris Hughes and Sean Eldridge, America's Worst Gay Power Couple — Chris Hughes and Sean Eldridge have always been entitled brats. And now the media has finally noticed. — Just three years ago, Chris Hughes and Sean Eldridge were the toast of the liberal establishment.

Discussion: RedState, Althouse, The PJ Tatler, Talking Points Memo, The Federalist, Fox News, Mediaite, Brad DeLong's Grasping Reality, Advocate, Mashable, Washington Post, New York Times, Balloon Juice and The Huffington Post, more at Mediagazer »

Alexander Bolton / The Hill:

Republicans clash on reversing nuclear option in Senate — Republicans are split over whether to change the Senate's rules to allow filibusters on executive and judicial nominations. — As they head into a conference meeting on Tuesday, some Republicans say it's time to undo a wrong committed …

Discussion: The Hugh Hewitt Show, Hot Air and Outside the Beltway

Jonathan Martin / New York Times:

MoveOn.org Looks to Nudge Elizabeth Warren Into 2016 Presidential Race — WASHINGTON — Some Democrats are “Ready for Hillary.” MoveOn.org is ready for Elizabeth Warren. — The liberal group is poised to spend $1 million on a campaign to draft Senator Warren, the Massachusetts Democrat …

Discussion: PoliticusUSA, RedState and Political Wire

Kendall Breitman / Politico:
MoveOn.org announces bid to draft Warren

Discussion: The PJ Tatler

Margaret Talev / Bloomberg Politics:

Approval Ratings Hit 5-Year High for Republicans — Republicans are enjoying a five-year peak in popularity after their wins in the midterm elections, according to a new Bloomberg Politics poll, while President Barack Obama struggles with his lowest job approval rating, at 39 percent.

Discussion: Washington Free Beacon

NY Daily News:

Cops swarm Chabad-Lubavitch synagogue, shoot knife-wielding man after student gets stabbed (VIDEO) — WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT NYPD anti-terror officers swarmed Chabad-Lubavitch in Crown Heights after Israeli student Levi Rosenviat, 22, was stabbed during prayer early Tuesday.

Discussion: The Jawa Report, New York Magazine, Liberaland, Gawker, CNN, The PJ Tatler and Washington Free Beacon

Pew Research Center:

Sharp Racial Divisions in Reactions to Brown, Garner Decisions — Many Blacks Expect Police-Minority Relations to Worsen — The public has very different reactions to the recent grand jury decisions in two police-related deaths that have sparked protests in cities across the country.

Discussion: Jezebel and The Gateway Pundit

Susan Page / USA Today:
Poll: Americans back charges in Eric Garner death

Discussion: Prairie Weather

Stuart Rothenberg / Rothenblog:

Mary Landrieu's Loss and the End of Ticket Splitting — Louisiana Sen. Mary L. Landrieu's defeat in the Dec. 6 runoff certainly was no surprise. If anything, it seemed inevitable since the evening of Nov. 4, when it became clear a Republican rout was underway and Democrats would lose control of the Senate.

Discussion: Roll Call

Conor Friedersdorf / The Atlantic Online:

Applying ‘Broken Windows’ to the Police — In poorer neighborhoods, overly aggressive officers are too often a source of community anxiety. Their misbehavior contributes to disorder. — One of the most influential policing concepts of our era, the broken-windows theory …

Discussion: Washington Post

Vanessa Ogle / Brooklyn Daily: Full:

Drone strike! Our photographer injured by TGI Friday's mistletoe copter — Photo gallery — FLYING HIGH: David Quinones prepares the drone for flight. — Turns out a moment of awkwardness wasn't the worst that could happen when a popular family restaurant chain unleashed indoor aircraft …

Discussion: Telegraph, Raw Story, Boing Boing, Jezebel, New York's PIX11 and Gawker

WHAS-TV:

Rand Paul talks 2016 plans, Senate majority, bi-partisanship and marijuana — His decision whether he will enter the 2016 presidential race still months away, U.S. Senator Rand Paul is already navigating presidential waters. — CONNECT — HIGHLAND HEIGHTS, Ky. (WHAS11) …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo

Trevor Hughes / USA Today:

Colorado OKs marijuana credit union — DENVER — Colorado's marijuana businesses have a cash flow problem: Too much cash is flowing in and they've nowhere to put it. — Most banks refuse to work with marijuana businesses, which are legal in Colorado but remain illegal at the federal level.

Discussion: ThinkProgress and Truth Revolt

Allen McDuffee / The Atlantic Online:

De Blasio: Giuliani ‘Fundamentally Misunderstands the Reality’ of Race — The New York mayor today addressed the week in protests, and experience with his own son. — New York Mayor Bill de Blasio on Sunday admonished former Mayor Rudy Giuliani for his repeated recent comments that …

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit

Peter Beinart / The Atlantic Online:

How The New Republic Lost Its Place — The strangest thing about the calamity that last week struck my old magazine, The New Republic, is this: It wasn't about politics. When I was coming of age in the 1980s and 1990s, TNR was known for its intramural ideological brawls.