Congress votes to investigate economic collapse by Agence France-Presse Proposed panel to be modeled after 9/11 CommissionThe US House of Representatives on Monday passed legislation to battle financial fraud and create an independent commission to investigate the causes of the global financial meltdown.Lawmakers voted 338 to 52 for the bill, which now goes to US President Barack Obama to sign into law.
Secret memo reveals Bush was given humane, legal alternative to harsh interrogation by John Byrne The Bush administration was given clear and unequivocal advice encouraging a detainee interrogation system that followed humane practices that adhered to US and international law, a previously secret memo reveals.A detailed memorandum authored by a counselor to former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in 2005 also reveals that the Bush Administration was offered a comprehensive alternative to its use of torture techniques. The author, Rice deputy Philip Zelikow (along with then-acting deputy secretary of defense Gordon England), asserted that the adoption of a clear and humane approach to interrogation would pay dividends for the US in the years to come.
NYT's Dowd Admits Plagiarizing Blog by CBS News (AP) New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd has admitted to using a paragraph virtually word-for-word from a prominent liberal blogger without attribution.Dowd acknowledged the error in an e-mail to the Huffington Post on Sunday, the Web site reported. The Times corrected her column online to give proper credit for the material to Talking Points Memo editor Josh Marshall.
The Perfect, the Good, the Planet by Paul Krugman In a way, it was easy to take stands during the Bush years: the Bushies and their allies in Congress were so determined to move the nation in the wrong direction that one could, with a clear conscience, oppose all the administration’s initiatives.Now, however, a somewhat uneasy coalition of progressives and centrists rules Washington, and staking out a position has become much trickier. Policy tends to move things in a desirable direction, yet to fall short of what you’d hoped to see. And the question becomes how many compromises, how much watering down, one is willing to accept.
Tamil Tigers Admit Defeat After Battle Reaches 'Bitter End' by Jeremy Page Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels admitted defeat today after a final flurry of suicide attacks on the government forces which have surrounded them in a tiny patch of coconut grove on the northeastern coast.The Tigers' surrender -- after 26 years of fighting for an ethnic Tamil homeland -- was announced in a statement by Selvarasa Pathmanathan, their chief of international relations, on the pro-rebel Tamilnet web site.
Foreign Policy: don't tell Pakistan where its threats lie - Musharraf lets loose by Aimee Kligman Pervez Musharraf is one of the most interesting and complex individuals to come out of Pakistan. Even though he is banned from participating in his country's government for six more months, he is very much on the cutting edge of events when it comes Pakistan, a land he loves dearly as borne by his comments to Fareed Zakaria this afternoon.
A shotgun blast to the chin and other alternatives to Prozac by Jane Stillwater Aside from Viagra, anti-depressant medications are among America's top-selling drugs. Why is this true? What, exactly, have Americans got to be so depressed about? We have the highest standard of living in the world. We own hundreds of thousands of flat-screen TVs. We have iPods. We have Disneyland!
