After hearing testimony from CIA Acting General Counsel John A. Rizzo, Rep.
Peter Hoekstra (R-MI) indicated yesterday that CIA official Jose A. Rodriguez
Jr. “ordered the destruction of videotapes depicting agency interrogation sessions even
though he was directed not to do so.” Rodriguez was previously said to never have
been “instructed to preserve them.”
The Americans for Legal Immigration Political Action Committee, a group dedicated
to fighting
illegal immigration, launched an effort to draft CNN’s Lou Dobbs into
the presidential race as an independent.
In recognition of the difficulty in passing timelines for withdrawal from Iraq, anti-war
groups will instead “push for legislation to prevent President Bush from entering
into a long-term agreement with the Iraqi government that could keep significant
numbers of troops in Iraq for years to come.”
Americans are “revved up — and ready to vote.” According to a new
USA Today/Gallup poll, 62 percent of voters “say they’re more enthusiastic about voting
than usual. That’s 17
percentage points higher than at this point in 2000 and 6 points higher than in
2004 — a year in which November turnout was the highest in a generation.”
Asked about an incident this month involving Iranian speedboats and U.S. warships in
the Strait of Hormuz, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said “he did
not know who was responsible for a threat made over the radio that brought the
United States and Iran close to confrontation.”
The number of abortions has “plunged to 1.2 million a year, down
25% since peaking in 1990,” according to a new report by the Guttmacher Institute.
Pro-choice advocates noted that women “may be avoiding unwanted pregnancies, thanks
in part to the morning-after pill, emergency contraception that is sold without
a prescription to women 18 and older.”
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke “told lawmakers that he can support
tax cuts or spending measures to stimulate the economy” that are “quick and
temporary,” even “if
they increase the budget deficit.” Bernanke refused to comment on linking “a stimulus
package with a permanent extension of President Bush’s tax cuts,” which may disappoint
conservatives.
At an event in South Carolina yesterday, a questioner angrily confronted John McCain
about his support for removal of the Confederate flag from the state
Capitol. “My answer to that is I
can’t be more proud of the overwhelming majority of the people of this state who
came together in taking that flag off the top of the Capitol,” said McCain to a standing
ovation.
68 percent: Americans who “say individuals
should be required to have medical insurance, with government help for those who
cannot afford it,” according to a new poll by The Commonwealth Fund. In the survey,
even 52 percent of Republicans said they support health care mandates.
And finally: Yesterday, Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) “tried another career on
for size: flight attendant.” Playing flight attendant on a chartered 737 carrying
her staff and members of the media, Clinton said over the loud speaker, “Good afternoon
ladies and gentlemen, and welcome aboard the
maiden flight of Hill Force One.” She joked that the FAA prohibits the use of
electronic devices “that may be used to transmit a negative story about me” and added
that the “in-flight entertainment” would be her “stump speech.” (Video here.)
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/01/17/thinkfast-january-17-2008/
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