The Justice Department’s Office of Professional Responsibility reportedly is recommending that the department open investigations of CIA abuse and torture of terrorism suspects. President Obama already has said that he doesn’t want to focus on the past, but it will be difficult for Attorney General Eric Holder to overlook violations of U.S. law and the recommendation of the department’s ethics office, which has spent several years reviewing the cases. That said, Jeffrey Smith, a former general counsel for the CIA, makes some good arguments for why the investigations might do more harm than good, including that the techniques reportedly were authorized by President Bush and approved by the Justice Department (albeit using shoddy legal reasoning).
State Budget Director Duane Goossen asked state agencies last week to look for an additional $250 million in future budget cuts. Some GOP lawmakers think the deficit next fiscal year could be twice that size. Either way, it will be difficult to trim that much out of the state budget when many programs and services already have been cut. And if everything is really on the table, as officials often say, then lawmakers also should consider revenue options, such as delaying the phase-in of tax cuts and eliminating some sales-tax exemptions.
The “Louise” in the HillaryCare-killing “Harry and Louise” commercials really is named Louise — Louise Caire Clark. And it turns out that she had campaigned for Bill Clinton in 1992 and really wanted reform in 1994. With the couple’s recasting as supporters of health reform in new ads, Clark told the New York Times’ Judith Warner, “I hope I get to be part of helping it happen this time.” She’s trying to mend her acting career, too. “One casting director said: ‘Go home. I’m not having someone who wrecked the Clinton health plan,’ ” she said. “My face was so well-known that I couldn’t go and do commercials selling cars.” Clark is even a fan of socialized medicine, having lived in Australia in the 1980s. “I’m familiar with what it’s like to take a 4-year-old to the emergency room in Sydney late at night on a rainy night and have five doctors standing at the door and not get a bill.”
“Ninety percent of all paper money in this country (has) traces of cocaine. Talk about your stimulus money. At least American money is worth something again.” — David Letterman
“Bill Clinton had a separate meeting with Barack Obama, and then Hillary Clinton had a separate meeting with Barack Obama. I mean, something is going on with the Clintons. Obama can’t even get them together in the White House for a beer.” — Letterman
“I’d be the first president to wear eye shadow since Nixon” and “I’d lure Osama out of hiding with the irresistible scent of my new fragrance, ‘Circus Fantasy.’” — Britney Spears, reading “Top Ten Ways the Country Would Be Different If Britney Spears Were President” on Letterman
