• The Rude Pundit calls in at 9:30am ET / 6:30am PT to talk about the lingering effects of the Senate’s torture report

• Eric Boehlert of Media Matters for America calls in at 10am ET / 7am PT to talk about how the GOP is shortchanging veterans

• Voice Deity Jim Ward joins us in the Los Angeles Bureau at 11am ET / 8am PT for Maximum Mookage Mondays

• Five people have fled from a Sydney, Australia cafe where a gunman took an unknown number of hostages at the height of Monday morning rush hour. Two people inside the cafe were earlier seen holding up a flag containing an Islamic declaration of faith.

• The Senate passed a sweeping $1.1 trillion spending package Saturday night to stave off a government shutdown after days of high drama, legislative maneuvers, and an unusual weekend session that put the Republicans’ most conservative members at odds with their own party.

• Former US vice president Dick Cheney on Sunday defended America’s now-banned program that tortured Al-Qaeda suspects, praising the CIA operatives who ran it as heroes. Cheney said there is “no comparison” between the tactics and the deaths of American citizens on September 11, 2001.

• Police arrested 45 people Saturday in the hours after thousands of protesters took to the streets of San Francisco and Oakland in largely peaceful protests, joining in a national demonstration against police killings.