Today’s edition of quick hits.
* TP: “Jose Rodriguez, the CIA official who reportedly ordered the destruction of the torture tapes, ‘has indicated he may seek immunity from prosecution in exchange for testifying before the House intelligence committee.’ Rodriguez is ‘determined not to become the fall guy’ for the White House, according to intelligence sources.”
* No one can say the State Department wasn’t warned about Blackwater: “The U.S. government disregarded numerous warnings over the past two years about the risks of using Blackwater Worldwide and other private security firms in Iraq, expanding their presence even after a series of shooting incidents showed that the firms were operating with little regulation or oversight, according to government officials, private security firms and documents. The warnings were conveyed in letters and memorandums from defense and legal experts and in high-level discussions between U.S. and Iraqi officials. They reflected growing concern about the lack of control over the tens of thousands of private guards in Iraq, the largest private security force ever employed by the United States in wartime.” It wasn’t until after the Sept. 16 shootings that the administration considered substantive action.
* A step backwards for union workers’ right to organize: “The National Labor Relations Board has ruled that employers have the right to prohibit workers from using the company’s e-mail system to send out union-related messages, a decision that could hamper communications between labor unions and their membership. In a 3-to-2 ruling released on Friday, the board held that it was legal for employers to prohibit union-related e-mail so long as employers had a policy barring employees from sending e-mail for “non-job-related solicitations” for outside organizations. The ruling is a significant setback to the nation’s labor unions, which argued that e-mail systems have become a modern-day gathering place where employees should be able to communicate freely with co-workers to discuss work-related matters of mutual concern.”
* A stunning account of a man who subjected himself to waterboarding so he could report on the experience: The water fills the hole in the saran wrap so that there is either water or vacuum in your mouth. The water pours into your sinuses and throat. You struggle to expel water periodically by building enough pressure in your lungs. With the saran wrap though each time I expelled water, I was able to draw in less air. Finally the lungs can no longer expel water and you begin to draw it up into your respiratory tract. It seems that there is a point that is hardwired in us. When we draw water into our respiratory tract to this point we are no longer in control…. At the time my lungs emptied and I began to draw water, I would have sold my children to escape. There was no choice, or chance, and willpower was not involved.
* Remember those Judith Regan tapes, that might have an impact on her lawsuit against News Corp? The scuttlebutt continues: “Now the tale has taken another intriguing and potentially explosive twist with the sudden emergence of a mysterious tape recording…. [W]ord of the tape’s existence, if not the tape itself, has reached the highest levels of News Corp., say four sources, who declined to be identified discussing a legally sensitive matter. In fact, the tape may be the catalyst for what publishing executives describe to Newsweek as a recent resumption of negotiations between News Corp. and Regan to settle their battle out of court. News Corp. confirmed that it is again in ‘conversations’ with Regan.”
* Did Paul Krugman stretch things a bit by suggesting that Barack Obama is insufficiently supportive of unions? Probably.
* Tony Snow, still not the sharpest crayon in the box.
* Maybe John McCain knows something we don’t — after blowing off Iowa for months, and polls showing up between fifth and sixth place, all of a sudden the Arizona senator is planning a swing through Iowa. Hmm.
* And let this be a lesson to White House reporters: if Bush is calling on you, it’s probably because he thinks you’re a pushover. “In the last month, CNN’s Ed Henry has aggressively questioned Press Secretary Dana Perino about the White House’s deceptive statements about Iranian intelligence and its evasiveness about its role in destroying the torture tapes. Fishbowl DC reports that at his year-end press conference last Thursday, Bush did not call on CNN, ‘making CNN’s Ed Henry and Helen Thomas (who almost never gets called on by Bush) the only two front-row journos not to be called on.'”
Anything to add? Consider this an end-of-the-day open thread.