What’s on your mind?
The birthers have a new obsession. I’m beginning to think their obsession is rooted in something else…
The may be some new torture allegations in the much-delayed CIA report to be released soon. Remember, this is the report that Cheney says proves torture gave good information.
A long-suppressed report by the Central Intelligence Agency’s inspector general to be released next week reveals that CIA interrogators staged mock executions as part of the agency’s post-9/11 program to detain and question terror suspects, NEWSWEEK has learned.
According to two sources—one who has read a draft of the paper and one who was briefed on it—the report describes how one detainee, suspected USS Cole bomber Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, was threatened with a gun and a power drill during the course of CIA interrogation. According to the sources, who like others quoted in this article asked not to be named while discussing sensitive information, Nashiri’s interrogators brandished the gun in an effort to convince him that he was going to be shot. Interrogators also turned on a power drill and held it near him. “The purpose was to scare him into giving [information] up,” said one of the sources. A federal law banning the use of torture expressly forbids threatening a detainee with “imminent death.”
In the never-ending health insurance reform soap opera, a new idea has been floated: split the bill into two parts. One part would have the most popular parts of the legislation, the consumer protections, and the second part would have the budget measures, including the public option and Medicaid expansion.
Democrats hope a split-the-bill plan would speed up a vote and help President Barack Obama meet his goal of getting a final measure by year’s end.
Senators on the Finance Committee are pushing ahead with talks on a bipartisan bill. Democratic leaders say they hope those talks succeed but increasingly are preparing for the possibility that they do not.
Most legislation in the Senate requires 60 votes to overcome a filibuster, but certain budget-related measures can pass with 51 votes through a parliamentary maneuver called reconciliation.
I think this is the way to get the best bill possible. The Republicans won’t play ball with a bipartisan bill, or it will be so weak as to be useless. I think the popular part of the bill will get Republican support, especially ending the pre-existing condition discrimination. Before any Republicans start whining and calling this the “nuclear option,” remember – Bush’s tax cuts were passed through budget reconciliation (that’s why they sunset) and reconciliation was been used 25 times in 35 years. It’s not new. That won’t stop the Republican hissy fit, though.
LOL. Does anyone remember that Mark Sanford was writing a book?
Unfortunately for the publisher, Viking, the proofs for its Spring 2010 catalog had already gone to press, complete with a glowing write up of Within Our Means.
TPM has now obtained the entry from the catalog, which was apparently just released. Touting the book as “a conservative manifesto from one of the Republican Party’s rising stars,” the catalog anticipates “national publicity,” “author tour,” and “radio interview campaign.”
Sanford would have explained through “personal” examples “how the GOP went astray over the last eight years.” One can only imagine.
“Governor Sanford’s down-to-earth voice and common sense principles will give conservative readers a much-needed sense of hope,” the catalog promises.