Something stinks about Porter Goss’ claim to have stood against torture in December 2005: Robert Grenier, head of Counterterrorism, was fired a month later for being insufficiently pro-torture.

After four months of Republicans calling Obama every name in the book and less than a few weeks removed from the National Day of Teabagging That Would Change Everything, Obama is still hugely popular. Not a dent. So since the Full Rushbo obviously didn’t work, Republicans are panicking, and they’re polishing the turd retooling their message.

The Credit Card Holders Bill of Rights passed the House last week, and now we have an answer to the question — Nancy Pelosi and Barney Frank don’t want caps on credit card interest rates. This despite the fact that TARP recipients like BofA and JP Morgan (Chase) have received billions of dollars in taxpayer bail out funds and have doubled credit card interest rates on some customers.

The Beltway media has accepted without question that the Republicans are the missing “opposition party” a healthy democracy needs to remain vibrant. Hence, we should worry about how the Republicans Party will revive. This is wrong; the debates our country needs have nothing to do with Republicans.

If Condi had said, “By definition, if it was authorized by the President, it did not violate our obligations in the Convention Against Torture,” to the NYT via anonymous sources, THEN would they consider it news?

Glenn Greenwald: “Two of the most extremist and discredited entities in the United States are Commentary Magazine and Accuracy in Media. Someone who is smeared by those two groups immediately has their credibility enhanced. Don’t you have Barack Obama’s birth certificate to hunt down and Hillary Clinton’s sex life to sniff around in?”

Linda Greenhouse, former NYTimes legal correspondent now teaching at Yale Law, talked SCOTUS the other day. This rings a number of bells for me: I foresee a bit of a struggle inside the Democratic coalition as to how persuasive a liberal a recommendation they want. Many think, “We need our Scalia” — which is to say a staunch ideological justice, but for the progressive side — but others think …

• A second wave?
• Good news.
• More good news.
• If only the press were as tough as a 4th grader.
• Specter: the GOP base is crazy.
• Palin and parental consent.
• Updated Senate rankings from Nate.
• We can hope, anyway.

Let’s give nuclear technology to whoever isn’t Iran. Oh, good plan.

A Camp’s video ‘Stronger Than Jesus’ and a Happy 90th Birthday to Pete Seeger who spent a little time last week with his grandson Tao, and New Orleans Preservation Hall Jazz Band.