From the New York Daily News, reporting on last night’s Dem debate:

Sen. Hillary Clinton scored with a Democratic audience last night by contradicting her husband’s belief that a terrorist could be tortured to foil an imminent plot - but what observers didn’t know is she was contradicting herself, too.

“It cannot be American policy, period,” Clinton (D-N.Y.) told debate moderator Tim Russert, who asked if there should be a presidential exemption to allow the torture of a terror chieftain if authorities knew a bomb was about to go off, but didn’t know where it was.

When Russert revealed ex-President Bill Clinton advocated such a policy on a recent NBC “Meet the Press” appearance, Hillary Clinton won huge applause from the Dartmouth College audience with a deadpan comeback:

“Well, I’ll talk to him later.”

She may have to give herself that talk, too.

Last October, Clinton told the Daily News: “If we’re going to be preparing for the kind of improbable but possible eventuality, then it has to be done within the rule of law.”

She said then the “ticking time bomb” scenario represents a narrow exception to her opposition to torture as morally wrong, ineffective and dangerous to American soldiers.

“In the event we were ever confronted with having to interrogate a detainee with knowledge of an imminent threat to millions of Americans, then the decision to depart from standard international practices must be made by the President, and the President must be held accountable,” she said.

Clinton’s campaign did not immediately respond to numerous requests for comment on the eye-popping contradiction.

And we thought flipping through John Kerry’s statements was fun.

• Two Thousand What? (Top-Tier Dems won’t guarantee withdrawal from Iraq by 2013)
• Ohio Data-Theft Drip Continues; Call in the Feds? (Yet more affected people and entities were identified this past week, including many from outside the state)

It’s about time (HT Hot Air).

Radicalism can be as much about tactics used as it is philosophical positioning. In tactics, MoveOn and Media Matters are indisputably radical. Old Media’s occasional willingness to serve as accomplices indicates that some of its players have radical sympathies, or perhaps are in the process of being radicalized themselves.

RELATED: O’Reilly and Bruce Discuss New ‘Gestapo’ in America Smearing Conservatives

UPDATE: It’s about time someone from the left invoked the M-Word, because it’s exactly what’s at work here (HT Taranto at Best of the Web) –

Wisconsin Rep. David Obey, a veteran Democrat, recounted how he left the Republican Party during the era of Sen. Joseph McCarthy, R-Wis., and said that lawmakers have an obligation to criticize their allies as well as their enemies when they go too far.

“I’ve got an obligation to be equally upset when that kind of juvenile debate emanates from the left,” Obey said.

That would put Obey directly at odds with this supposed non-radical. Boy, do I not miss the red-faced, finger-pointing, paranoid arrogance that used to pervade the White House.

Recap:
- The advance estimate in July was 3.4%.
- The preliminary estimate in August was 4.0%.

Expectations are for a slight pullback to 3.8% (scroll down most of the way) or 3.9%.

Final Result: 3.8%

Most valuable contributor: Nonresidential construction, up 27.7% (annualized)

Biggest drag: Residential construction, down 11.6% (annualized)

Overall: a good quarter, after four mediocre ones.

Looking ahead: Old Media’s preconceived notion that the 3rd quarter has slipped significantly is by no means a foregone conclusion.

NPR has turned down an interview with President Bush (HT Instapundit), because they wanted one of their anchors to do the honors instead of Juan Williams, whom the Administration requested. Williams will do the interview on Fox instead. Tee hee.
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Ahmadinejad can speak at Columbia. Jim Gilchrist, whose previous appearance there was broken up before it could begin by disruptive protesters who stormed the stage and were never punished, can’t do the same next month. Two words: Distance Learning.

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It’s official: Pennsylvania Senator Robert Casey has betrayed his father’s courageous prolife legacy — and deceived his state’s voters by posing as prolife last year.

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This is part of why a red state is in danger of turning blue.

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From Wednesday’s Wall Street Journal, in a subscription-only editorial on the imminent expiration of the Internet tax moratorium:

For Internet users, the scariest night of this year may fall on the evening after Halloween. On November 1, the federal Internet tax moratorium is due to expire, and no committee in Congress has acted to make it permanent.

A permanent ban should be a political lay-up. But the clock is winding down and Congress needs to take a shot.

Permanent is better, but I’d settle for a four- or five-year extension of a 100%, no-exceptions moratorium. One thing states don’t need is more tax revenues. In most states, they have soared way beyond inflation and population growth during the past 5 years.

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The UAW has tentatively settled with GM, and is taking over retiree medical care. As I said back in January when the idea was first floated (”careful what you wish for”), it’s going to be interesting to see how the union contains the growth in costs — as it will have to — and remains on speaking terms with retirees.

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NASA’s James Hansen, globaloney-promoting hero of the globalarmists, is so busted (HT LGF; a related IBD editorial is here):

Certainly Soros has a right to spend his own money. But NASA officials have a responsibility to accurate, unbiased, nonpartisan science. For Hansen to secretly receive a large check from Soros, then begin making unsubstantiated claims about administrative influence on climate science is more than suspicious — it’s a clear conflict of interest.

Note: The Daily Tech excerpt refers to “a large check” for a substantial amount, while the benefit IBD reports that Hansen’s enterprise received was likely either not in that form, or mostly not in that form. The Daily Tech excerpt also names an amount that could be interpreted to imply exactness, while the value of the benefit Mr. Hansen appears to have received is, according to the IBD editorial it referred to, likely not in the exact amount Daily Tech cited. Hansen’s “clear conflict of interest” appears to be supported by the evidence cited at the sources linked.

Oh, but Hansen’s motives are pure, because he’s trying to save the world. (/sarc) Update: More at this NewsBusters entry.

These were announced Tuesday by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation (HT MSNBC’s Wonderful World) –

They include a biomedical scientist, a blues musician, a forensic anthropologist, an inventor, a medieval historian, and a spider silk biologist. All were selected for their creativity, originality, and potential to make important contributions in the future. Each received a phone call from the Foundation with news of $500,000 in “no strings attached” support over the next five years.

The complete list of the 24 winners is here, with links to longer stories about each.