Since other unions outside the AFL-CIO are working the yo-yo on the trigger, Trumka is the lone holdout.  He’s the mainstay, and there is tremendous pressure building within the AFL in response to arm twisting from the White House for him to cave.  And if he falls, it’s going to be difficult for the rest of the veal pen not to follow suit.  So, he’s being directly threatened. 

The message is clear:  “Get in line or we pay for your precious ‘public option’ by fucking you on health care benefits.”

If Trumka suddenly starts singing the praises of triggers (even if they instantly “yo-yo” it back and insist he was misquoted), you’ll know it worked.

The CIA”s description of the OGC review it conducted in December 2002 to make sure the interrogation of Abu Zubdaydah didn’t break the law dances carefully around whether or not this was a “review” or an investigation.

Two of my favorite things are coming together next week: national parks and Ken Burns.

While perusing websites having to do with agriculture and the environment, I’ve been running across lots of obviously-spammed, lie-filled comments bashing Obama for cutting off water to California farmers. Guess what: The misinformation in them can be traced back to Sean Hannity and corporate lobbyists Burson-Marsteller.

Meet and Greet with DeVeria: Good morning everybody! This is our first Saturday together and I am anxious to get to know everyone. We will miss Christy greatly, but we are going to do all we can to get her to stop by and check in on us, right?

Featuring Cotton Jones and Frank Turner.

FDL Action has started running ads in Ross’s district, and across Arkansas, asking fellow Democrats to hold their Representative (and their Senator, Blanche Lincoln) accountable to the folks members of Congress are supposed to represent—the voters. Ross’s friends in the pharmaceutical industry have now tried to counterpunch with ads of their own. Can you help FDL Action make sure that the voice that Arkansas hears is the voice of the people?

Just when you think the right wing’s ability to freak out over imaginary outrages can’t possibly get any more ridiculous (death panels, Obama’s fake birth certificate, census data being used to take our guns away and put us all in FEMA interment camps), they go and top themselves again:

If one is looking for a smoking gun in the torture scandal, in my opinion one doesn’t have to look much farther than this. The quote below is from the April 22, 2009 Senate Intelligence Committee narrative of the Office of Legal Counsel’s opinions on the CIA’s interrogation program.

Sen. Kent Conrad misinformed the Senate Finance Committee that health care systems in Europe, including France and Germany, did not have government-run insurance systems. But he also underestimated how much Americans would support such systems to achieve universal care.