Obama on Bush's Torture Memos: Will Prosecutions Come Next?

Our daily look at stories and topics that are lighting up the Internets:

Prosecuting Torture?

Everybody and their mother has been talking about the fallout from President Obama's release last week of the Bush torture memos. Here's how Jon Stewart took on the controversy. John W. Dean wonders whether the lawyers who wrote the memos should be impeached, a common question circling the blogosphere after Obama sent mixed signals on prosecuting the torturers. Shaun Mullen himself wonders "whether the young president is tough enough to see his way out of the dilemma he alone has created by doing the right thing while understanding that doing so will cost valuable political capital." Philip Zelikow writes a good piece on the absurdity of Bush's torture policy from the perch of his experience in government here. He writes: "The evidence against most—if not all—of the high-value detainees remains damning. But the issue is not about who or what they are. It is about who or what we are." Another conservative, Philip Klein, echoes Cheney's odd call for the release of the rest of the memos. So does Josh Marshall. Conservative Dan Spencer thinks Obama's inflicted damage on the intelligence community that can't be undone. And Thomas E. Ricks is talking to Yoo.

Earth Day

Bloggers have been anticipating Earth Day for quite some time. Take this Easter-Earth Day blogpost on the connection between faith and the environment, for example. With the occasion taking place tomorrow, more and more are throwing in their two cents' worth. Dave Burdick explains the history of Earth Day. Liberal Caryl Rivers takes on Sarah Palin for not being green enough, lambasting her environmental policies for standing in the way of progress. Conservative Jonah Goldberg thinks the left is hogging all the protest experience (but he thinks this is a good thing). Money quote: "While the Left has created a sizable protest-industry over the last half-century or so, conservatives have had these things called 'jobs.' " The New Yorker's Elizabeth Kolbert thinks the day is just not what it used to be: "Earth Day has lost its edge and, with that, the sense that a different world is possible." Liberal Meteor Blades talks about the anti-Earth Day movement, while conservative Iain Murray bemoans the cost of protecting the environment: "The fact is that the policies the event is protesting are not just harmful to the economy, but will represent real harm to millions—perhaps billions—around the world by stifling innovation, cutting off the most achievable route to development, and miring the most vulnerable in poverty." Alex Leo compiles the best Earth Day jokes of the decade. And now: famous people planting trees.

...Meanwhile...

Rod Blagojevich's reality show never had a chance... We so should have posted this yesterday... Why Gossip Girl really matters... And Bohemian Rhapsody gets old school and techie: Scaramouche, Scaramouche, will you do the Fandango?