This Reuters article is going to get a lot of play today. Isn’t it good to see that America’s crappy reporting is continuing to reinforce erroneous myths about our torture program?

Republicans got an extra spot because Ron Wyden got a late invitation. In addition, Olympia Snowe was asked to the summit, but she declined because her leadership didn’t ask her to attend. Instead, they asked Stupak.

In a PowerPoint presentation released as part of the Congressional investigation into Toyota’s “unintended acceleration” problems, the car manufacturer reveals that the delay of the Employee Free Choice Act was a “win” for its Washington lobbying office.

Weiner acknowledged that the strategy for actually passing a comprehensive health care bill remained fuzzy, saying “I’m not sure what we’re doing, and I’m pretty tied in.”

Kent Conrad (D-ND) basically declared the current Senate bill–with a plan to pass fixes using reconciliation–dead. Conrad said the only way forward is that the Senate bill must first pass completely unchanged in the House. There is simply not (nor will there be) the votes for that in the House.

Anthony Weiner just made a fiery speech in the middle of the House debate on repealing the insurance industry’s anti-trust exemption. Angered by a motion to recommit, he lashed out, saying “the Republican Party is a wholly owned subsidiary of the insurance industry!” While continuing on this theme, Republicans asked that the words be taken down, an attempt to rule Weiner’s remarks out of order and ban him from speaking on the floor for the rest of the day. Weiner then asked unanimous consent to substitute remarks, and after withdrawing the initial ones, said “Every single Republican I have ever met in my entire life is a wholly owned subsidiary of the insurance industry!”

The White House bipartisan summit on health care reform is set to take place tomorrow between 10:00am to 4:00pm eastern. Firedoglake will be liveblogging the event to provide realtime political and policy analysis. Seminal regular Bill Egnor and I will be with you for every word, from the opening remarks to the closing group hug (OK, maybe just a few individual handshakes).
Please join us here tomorrow for full coverage. The event will be televised live on C-SPAN 3.

John McCain just put out a silver platter gift to his primary opponent in Arizona, one that could very easily lead to the end of his political career.

In How America Can Rise Again, author (and former Jimmy Carter speechwriter) James Fallows explores the question of “whether America is finally going to hell”, but in the tradition of the jeremiad, he offers possibilities for overcoming the massive problems he diagnoses.

Dick Morris has shown an unusual talent for contradicting himself over the course of several columns. But today, he’s taken that gift to a whole new level.