Political Discourse

[Alex G]

* The military commission system is back: "The White House said on Friday that some Guantánamo detainees would be prosecuted in a military commission system that was a much-criticized centerpiece of the Bush administration's strategy for fighting terror." Obama has expanded the legal rights of defendants, banned evidence via torture, restricted evidence from hearsay, and extended more flexibility to defendants to choose their own lawyers.

* CIA Director Leon Panetta encouraged his agency today to "ignore the noise," in reference to the media and the dust-up with House Speaker Pelosi. Sounds like good advice.

* Former Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Bob Graham (D-Fla.), who has a well-earned reputation for honesty, said Pelosi is right and the CIA did not brief lawmakers on waterboarding in September 2002.

* 1,100 GM dealers are poised to lose their franchises.

* Lakhdar Boumediene is leaving Gitmo and headed to France.

* Hospitals and insurance companies are already backpedaling a bit on this week's health care breakthrough with the White House. Obama Budget Director Peter Orszag and Jonathan Oberlander say we shouldn't worry too much about this.

* Works for me: "New York City Health Commissioner Thomas R. Frieden, known for his aggressive and sometimes controversial efforts to limit smoking and consumption of trans fats in the nation's largest metropolis, has been chosen by President Obama to direct the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the White House said this morning."

* Rep. Rick Boucher (D-Va.), a key House centrist, has endorsed a compromise climate-change bill after negotiations with Henry Waxman (D-Calif.). Al Gore seems encouraged by the bill, calling it "a good start."

* As of this afternoon, 57 senators support Dawn Johnsen's OLC nomination, with four undecided on whether to let the Senate vote on her confirmation: Olympia Snowe, Susan Collins, Arlen Specter, and Ben Nelson.

* Tucker Carlson and Dana Perino have joined the Fox News payroll? It's almost as if the network likes hiring people of a certain ideological bent.

* It appears that former astronaut and retired Marine Corps Gen. Charles Bolden has emerged as the president's likely choice to head NASA.

* I'm glad to see Schumer take an interest in those "extend your car warranty" spam calls.

* And finally, Michael Steele and Michele Bachmann are teaming up to attack ACORN. With intellectual firepower like that, what could possibly go wrong?

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_05/018199.php