Emptywheel's Christmas Eve Mega Football Trash Talk
[Okay, for the most sacred honor and ritual, yes the meet and greet of Halas' Bears and Lambeau's Packers on the hallowed Tundra, I have cavalierly re-upped Trash Talk to the top of the totem pole pecking order until the conclusion of the sacred…
CIA: No Big Deal That We Trained NYPD to Conduct Domestic Spying
The CIA announced in September it was going to review a narrow aspect of the way CIA officers set up NYPD's domestic spying agency in the wake of 9/11. As I pointed out then, the investigation was scoped to ignore key parts of the NYPD's program.
The…
The Holiday Friday Document Dump Signing Statement
The Administration has, as expected, buried its signing statement for the Defense Authorization in a holiday Friday document dump.
Correction: As DDay corrects me, this is not yet the NDAA signing statement, which is still coming.
I'm…
Drone Pilots to Control Four Planes at Once: What Could Possibly Go Wrong?
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FK4nh5I0jpE[/youtube]
So soon on the heels of this week's disclosure that seventeen percent of US drone pilots show signs of clinical distress and the debacle of the RQ-170 Sentinel drone being recovered…
A Note About OWS and Pre-Trial Diversion in Los Angeles
I have seen a lot of garment rending on Twitter and in discussion forums I participate in about the Los Angeles Times report that a pre-trial diversion option is being offered to some Occupy Wall Street-Los Angeles protesters:
Many Occupy…
Early Christmas Trash: Running With The Devils
Well, you might not know it, but there is a HUGE bowl game tonight! Yes, it is the Grandaddy The All Except All The Others, the Maaco Las Vegas Bowl. From, of all places, Las Vegas! And in this fascinating game, my team, the Arizona State Sun…
Iranian Navy Plans Wargames for Saturday: Will the Filipino Monkey Show Up?
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRbYKKM5cAE[/youtube]
In January of 2008, at a time very similar to now (just under a year out from Presidential elections and with anti-Iran propaganda at a fever pitch in the US media), the Bush administration…
The Material Support of Hillary Clinton and Tarek Mehanna
18 USC 2339(A) and 18 USC 2339(B) proscribe the material support of terrorism and designated foreign terrorist organizations. In short, it is the "material support" law:
the term “material support or resources” means any property, tangible…
Obama Apologists Ignoring the Rotting Corpse of Anwar al-Awlaki
It's been amusing to see how Obama apologists have taken Lawfare's very helpful explainer on the NDAA's detainee provisions to pretend that their president isn't signing a bill that he believes authorizes the indefinite detention of American…
In Ferreting Out Science's Secrets, There Is No Room for Censorship
On Tuesday afternoon, the Washington Post announced that the National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity (NSABB) has officially asked two scientific journals to censor portions of manuscripts that are pending for publication:
The federal…
Fuck You To Jamie Dimon & His Plaintive Wail For The 1%
Pardon me for the Taibbi like insolence, but this is just fucking amazing. While most Americans are struggling to stay alive, employed, and their families fed and in their homes, much less celebrate a decent Christmas, the 1% Masters Of The…
Drone War Secrecy and Kill or Capture
As we stand on the doorstep of President Obama signing into law the new NDAA and its dreaded controversial provisions, there are two new articles out of interest this morning. The first is an incredibly useful, and pretty thorough, synopsis…
The Next Round of Looting
Here are three data points that will make you cranky.
First, the New Bottom Line has taken the bonus pool data the big banks have released from the first three quarters of this year to estimate what they'll be for the year. They are:
Next,…
Zardari Returns to Pakistan; Liaison Officers Return to Border Centers; Stage Set for Haqqani as Double Scapegoat
Two major steps toward stability in Pakistan and restoration of relations with the United States have taken place, as President Asif Ali Zardari returned to Pakistan yesterday while liaison officers have now returned to the border coordination…
Ahmed Warsame and StuxNet
Back in November, I suggested one intended purpose of the detainee provisions in the Defense Authorization is to require a paper trail that would make it a little harder for the Administration to disappear detainees on floating prisons. The…
Václav Havel: From the Prague Spring to the Velvet Revolution to the Year of the Protestor
We're an empire now. And when we act, we create our own reality. --Senior Bush Advisor to Ron Suskind
It can be said, therefore, that ideology, as that instrument of internal communication which assures the power structure of inner…
Tebowling For Columbine Trash
Not since Michael Moore's 2002 epic "Bowling For Columbine" has life in Denver been under such a national microscope. But even that is nothing compared to Tebowmania! which is running wild and rampant in the Mile High City. And good lawdy, here…
Mitch McConnell's Greatest Fear: DOJ Proved Him Wrong for 5% of the Cost
When the Obama Administration charged two Iraqis on al Qaeda related charges in Bowling Green, KY, Mitch McConnell wrote an op-ed wailing about all the fearful things that could happen as a result.
In short, these two are not common criminals…
Obama's Re-elect Strategy: Vote for Me, or Newt Will Have Authority to Indefinitely Detain You
Ken Gude, writing for the Democratic Party's house think tank, offers a thoroughly disgusting defense of Obama signing the Defense Authorization and its detainee provisions. In his first paragraph, he asserts that the detainee provisions don't…
Jay Carney: NDAA Still Doesn't Give the Courts Any Oversight Over Detention and Killing
Jason Leopold pointed out this language in Jay Carney's press briefing yesterday:
Q You had objections to the defense bill; you’ve dropped them. There’s still a lot of civil liberties experts who are convinced that that bill contains…
