memeorandum: Still cooking the ObamaCare books (Betsy McCaughey/New York Post)

7:15 AM ET, December 10, 2014

Top Items:

David Edwards / Raw Story:

Fox melts down after torture report: ‘The United States of America is awesome, we are awesome!’ — DON'T MISS STORIES. FOLLOW RAW STORY! — Fox News analysts, hosts and reporters on Tuesday wasted no time in blasting Democrats after Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein …

Discussion: Jezebel and rubber hose

Caitlin MacNeal / Talking Points Memo:

WATCH Fox Host Lose It Over Senate Torture Report: ‘We Are Awesome!’ — After the Senate Intelligence Committee released a report on the torture techniques used by the CIA, the hosts of Fox News' “Outnumbered” lashed out at Senate Democrats' for publicizing CIA interrogation methods.

Discussion: Mediaite, The Daily Banter, Daily Kos, The Moderate Voice, Hullabaloo, Raw Story, New Yorker and Unfogged w/ Comments

Wall Street Journal:

CIA Interrogations Saved Lives — The Senate Intelligence investigators never spoke to us—the leaders of the agency whose policies they are now assailing for partisan reasons. — The Senate Intelligence Committee has released its majority report on Central Intelligence Agency detention and interrogation in the wake of 9/11.

Discussion: Betsy's Page, The Federalist, Hot Air, The Moderate Voice, New York Times, NBC News, Guardian, Hit & Run, Talking Points Memo, Twitchy, Washington Free Beacon and rubber hose

Andrew Sullivan / The Dish:

Darkness Visible: Live-Blogging The Torture Report — 5.00 pm. Since we're now in our sixth hour of live-blogging, I'm going to wrap it up for the time being. But I want to end on a positive note. Everything that happened in this damning report is because of Americans.

Discussion: Telegraph, Bloomberg Politics, New York Times, Guardian, Raw Story, Hullabaloo, emptywheel, Bloomberg View, Washington Post and The Intercept

Michael Hirsh / Politico:

Michael Hayden Is Not Sorry — The Senate report rakes Bush's former CIA director over the coals. He fires back in an exclusive interview. — Though the CIA's “enhanced interrogation” program long predated his takeover of the agency in 2006, former Director Michael Hayden has found himself …

Discussion: Newsmax and The Hill

mccain.senate.gov:

FLOOR STATEMENT BY SENATOR JOHN McCAIN ON SENATE INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE REPORT ON CIA INTERROGATION METHODS — Washington, D.C. - U.S. Senator John McCain (R-AZ) today delivered the following statement on the floor of the U.S. Senate on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence report on CIA interrogation methods:

Discussion: New York Times, The Seattle Times, The Daily Caller and Bloomberg View

Adam Chandler / The Atlantic Online:
This Is How a Prisoner of War Feels About Torture

Discussion: United States Senator …, Talking Points Memo, PoliticusUSA and Vox

Mark Mazzetti / New York Times:
Panel Faults C.I.A. Over Brutality and Deceit in Terrorism Interrogations

Ed Kilgore / Washington Monthly:
Remind Me Who It Is the CIA Works For?

Discussion: Telegraph, Booman Tribune, Hot Air and Balloon Juice

ABC News:
Torture Report: Former CIA Directors Say Interrogation Program ‘Saved Thousands of Lives’

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit, Wall Street Journal, Hit & Run, Yahoo! News and Hot Air

Scott Shane / New York Times:
Report Portrays a Broken C.I.A. Devoted to a Failed Approach

Discussion: Politico, Daily Kos, Samizdata, Prairie Weather and Guardian

Josh Gerstein / Politico:
Obama's long arc on torture

Discussion: ABC News, Little Green Footballs, First Draft, American Prospect, NBC News, TIME, ABC News, Reuters, Washington Free Beacon and The Dish

New York Times:
7 Key Points From the C.I.A. Torture Report

Discussion: The Moderate Voice, ProPublica and Politico

Shane Harris / The Daily Beast:
The Most Gruesome Moments in the CIA ‘Torture Report’

Discussion: National Review, Latest, Gawker, Politico, Washington Post, No More Mister Nice Blog, Talking Points Memo, Guardian and Lawyers, Guns & Money

Hilary Sargent / Boston Globe:

Harvard Business School Professor Goes to War Over $4 Worth of Chinese Food — Ben Edelman (left) and Ran Duan (right) — Ben Edelman is an associate professor at Harvard Business School, where he teaches in the Negotiation, Organizations & Markets unit.

Discussion: Business Insider, Outside the Beltway, The Daily Caller, Power Line, Mediaite, New York Magazine, Guardian, Raw Story, Talking Points Memo, Gawker and National Review

Washington Post:

Congressional budget poised to partially block pot legalization in D.C. — An emerging deal to keep the federal government funded into next year would block the D.C. government from allowing legal sales of marijuana in the nation's capital, according to multiple congressional aides with knowledge of the negotiations.

Discussion: City Desk, Fox News, Hot Air and Talking Points Memo

National Journal:
Congress Will Say D.C. Can Legalize Pot, But Can't Tax or Regulate It

Discussion: ThinkProgress, The Daily Caller, Talking Points Memo, Washington Post, Hit & Run and Firedoglake

Burgess Everett / Politico:

Harry Reid makes push for nominees — Senate Democrats plan to squeeze every last drop out of their majority, threatening to extend the lame duck to approve key nominees of President Barack Obama before turning over Senate control to Republicans in January.

Ed O'Keefe / Washington Post:
Deal reached on $1.01 trillion spending bill

Discussion: The Daily Caller, PoliticusUSA and Power Line

Politico:
Mitch McConnell's Obamacare gambit

Discussion: Political Wire, Hot Air, Daily Kos and The Hill

Dana Milbank / Washington Post:

The Jonathan Gruber hearing was a zany coda to Darrell Issa's tumultuous tenure — A gaffe, under the oft-cited Michael Kinsley rule, is when somebody in Washington accidentally speaks the truth. But what happens when frankness leads you to say something so monumentally stupid …

Dylan Scott / Talking Points Memo:
Issa To Gruber: ‘Are You Stupid?’

Discussion: The Hill, Daily Kos, Bloomberg Politics and Washington Times

Fox News:
Gruber apologizes for ‘mean and insulting’ ObamaCare comments

Discussion: Hot Air, American Spectator and Washington Monthly

Ken Kurson / The New York Observer:

Source: Rolling Stone Deputy Editor Tendered Resignation; Wenner Declines — Deputy managing editor offered to resign in wake of UVA reporting brouhaha — Rolling Stone Managing Editor at Will Dana speaks onstage at the New York Public Library on October 17, 2013.

Discussion: Washington Post, Hot Air, New York Times, Daily Kos, Shots in the Dark, Mediaite, The Daily Caller, The Daily Banter, Talking Points Memo, Capital New York, Guardian and Poynter

New York Times:

Congressional Leaders Reach Deal on Spending — WASHINGTON — Congressional leaders reached a deal Tuesday on a more than $1 trillion spending package that would fund most of the federal government through the current fiscal year. — But because negotiations on the package dragged over policy details …

Discussion: New York Magazine

BuzzFeed:

Lena Dunham: Why I Chose To Speak Out — The ways I've been attacked for sharing my story show how far we have to go when discussing sexual assault. — Mike Marsland / WireImage / BuzzFeed — It has been almost a decade since I was sexually assaulted.

Discussion: Fox News, Mediaite and The Daily Banter

Daily Mail:

Teen 'gouged out girl's eye as she begged for her life before carving symbols into her body in bid to sell his soul to the devil' — A teenager who killed a girl in a Satanic ritual gouged out her eye as she begged for her life, a court has heard. — Jose Reyes from Houston, Texas …

Discussion: Latest and John Hawkins' Right Wing News