my del.icio.us

• No Way. No How. No Brennan. (Sullivan, Atlantic/DailyDish)
  "We haven't fought for decency and reform and a return to American values for so long to be turned back now. We didn't work our butts off to elect Obama only to get Bush another four years at CIA. If Brennan emerges as the pick, those of us against the continuation of war crimes and the prosecution of war criminals will have to oppose him strenuously in the nomination process. We will, in fact, have to go to war with Obama before he even takes office. And if Obama doubts our seriousness, I have three words for him. Yes we can."
• Four philosophical questions to make your brain hurt (Bain, BBCNews)
  Nicely laid out philosophical chestnuts. I liked the quote at the end: "…the end of our exploring, Will be to arrive where we started, And know the place for the first time." -- TS Eliot
• Torturing Democracy (PBS)
  "Impatience with the rule of law – and the firm conviction that the commander in chief had the authority to ignore it – would become a hallmark of the war on terror." PBS documentary on how far we've fallen. Let's not let the John Brennans keep us from getting back up. (Transcript at http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/torturingdemocracy/documents/td_transcript.pdf.)
• Obama and privacy: some early disquieting signs (Pincus, Liminal States)
  Catalist voter info may be shared with likeminded groups; vetting process uses ChoicePoint -- private company end run on what government can't do as easily or at all itself.
• Obama And The Presidency (60 Minutes, video, CBSNews.com)
  Looking at "how do we sequence [economy, health care, energy] in a way that we can actually get them through Congress."
• The Washington Post drinks Dick Cheney's Kool-Aid (Noah, Slate)
  No, no, no, no, no, no, no: "Some, like the jobs that will turn over in the vice president's office, are not included because the office technically is not part of either the executive branch or the legislative branch."
• Obama Team Faces Major Task in Justice Dept. Overhaul (Johnson, WaPo)
  "At a conference in Washington this week, former department criminal division chief Robert S. Litt asked that the new administration avoid fighting old battles that could be perceived as vindictive, such as seeking to prosecute government officials involved in decisions about interrogation and the gathering of domestic intelligence. ... "It would not be beneficial to spend a lot of time calling people up to Congress or in front of grand juries," Litt said. "It would really spend a lot of the bipartisan capital Obama managed to build up."" What an idiot. Bipartisanship isn't a good in itself, it's a means to an end -- and its price should never be sweeping war crimes and crimes against the rights of Americans under the table. Shame on Robert Litt.
• Post-partisan harmony vs. the rule of law (Glenn Greenwald, Salon.com)
  "[Former Clinton official Robert Litt's] belief is that Bush officials should be protected from DOJ proceedings even if they committed crimes. And his reason for that is as petty and vapid as it is corrupt: namely, it is more important to have post-partisan harmony in our political class than it is to hold Presidents and other high officials accountable when they break the law." Yes, that is apparently the consensus, Obama shouldn't be a part of it -- but I'm afraid he will.
• Vast Obama network becomes a political football (Wallsten, Hamburger, LAT)
  "Now, as Obama turns from campaigning to governing, his advisors are struggling to harness this potent web of supporters to help him move his agenda over the next four years."
• How to End the Recession (Pollin, The Nation)
  "[A green public-investment stimulus ] would generate many more jobs--eighteen per $1 million in spending--than would programs to increase spending on the military and the oil industry... [which] generate only about 7.5 jobs for every $1 million spent.