MONDAY’S MINI-REPORT…. Today’s edition of quick hits:
* Hot off the presses: “The Obama administration on Monday released additional portions of a long-classified CIA report on the agency’s interrogation of high-level Qaeda detainees. The document contains new allegations of detainee abuse at secret prisons around the world and seems likely to prolong a debate about the legality and effectiveness of employing coercive methods to elicit intelligence from terrorist suspects…. The report, presciently, noted that ‘the agency faces potentially serious long-term political and legal challenges as a result of the . . . program, particularly its use of [Enhanced Interrogation Techniques] and the inability of the U.S. Government to decide what it will ultimately do with terrorists detained by the agency.’”
* Afghanistan’s Finance Minister, with unofficial results, said President Hamid Karzai has won re-election with 68% support.
* The High-Value Detainee Interrogation Group: “President Obama has approved the creation of an elite team of interrogators to question key terrorism suspects, part of a broader effort to revamp U.S. policy on detention and interrogation, senior administration officials said Sunday.” The CIA seems rather pleased with the development.
* The Obama administration has decided to break with Bush-era rules and will notify the International Committee of the Red Cross about the names of detainees held by U.S. Special Operations forces.
* The H1H1 flu vaccination campaign will be “unprecedented in its scope.” Preparations include “more than 2,800 local health departments have begun recruiting pediatricians, obstetricians, nurses, pharmacists, paramedics and even dentists, along with a small army of volunteers from churches and other groups.”
* Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) says he really does support a public option.
* New twist: health care reform supporter shows up at a public event with a gun.
* On a related note: “Chris Broughton, the man who brought an assault rifle to an Obama event in Arizona earlier this week, and William Kostric, who protested outside a presidential forum in New Hampshire armed with a handgun last week, are both listed as “team members” of the Arizona chapter of the We The People organization.”
* A spokesperson for Rep. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.) said he will not file a lawsuit challenging the president’s citizenship, but the right-wing lawmaker thinks it’s “ridiculous” that the president hasn’t “produced” his birth certificate. (Franks isn’t the sharpest tool in the shed.)
* Michael Tomasky on health care reform and the left: “[L]iberals have to fight hard for something they’re not terribly excited about. A health bill will likely have a very weak public option or it won’t have one at all. But liberals will have to battle for that bill as if it’s life and death (which in fact it will be for thousands of Americans), because its defeat would constitute a historic victory for the birthers and the gun-toters and the Hitler analogists. In the coming weeks, building toward a possible congressional vote in November, progressives will have to get out in force to show middle America that there’s support for reform as well as opposition, even though they may find the final bill disappointing.”
* How anyone could consider Fred Barnes anything but a sad joke is beyond me.
* The addition of Laura Rozen has instantly made the Politico a stronger publication.
* I’m actually going to miss Slate‘s “Today’s Papers” feature, and think the magazine is making a big mistake by getting rid of it.
* As of this morning, Glenn Beck has lost 33 advertisers.
* Fox News probably shouldn’t promote right-wing activist gatherings quite this much. It’s almost as if it weren’t really a “news” network at all….
Anything to add? Consider this an open thread.
