Reliability and the UK's Guidelines on Using Torture
The Guardian has liberated the UK's policy on cooperating with liaison services that torture. ((h/t Rosalind) As the Guardian explains the policy basically sets up a bureaucracy to weigh whether the value of the information outweighs the imperative…
Judge Brinkema Cites Espionage Act to Protect Reporter's Privilege
Charlie Savage tells the headline story from Leonie Brinkema's opinion on whether or not James Risen must testify in Jeffrey Sterling's leak trial.
“A criminal trial subpoena is not a free pass for the government to rifle through a reporter’s…
Buffalo Hangs Its Head In Shame as L'il Luke Laughs at Slaves and Dead Workers
Susie linked to this clip.
And while she's right to point to all the evidence that L'il Luke Russert is an ignorant toad about how many jobs Obama's trade deals will send overseas, I'm more amazed by his arrogant response to being asked…
Links, 8/3/11
Our Dying Economy
The National Employment Law Project has a report showing how this Depression is hollowing out middle class jobs, with 8.4% of all middle wage jobs gone (and that's on top of a process that had already started before…
Tornadoes, Austerity, and Food Stamps
In one of my posts on drones, I noted that we have had more deaths this year in AL (238) and MO (159) because of extreme tornadoes the severity of which is probably at least due partly to climate change than we have from terrorism.
But there's…
The Omnivore Bites Back
Okay, okay, I should have used a pun on "Echelon" for my title here, not "Carnivore." After all, it was that earlier SigInt program that the US and its Anglophone partners used to steal industrial secrets in the 1990s.
The point being that,…
Mark Warner Thinks It's Bold for a $200M Man to Cut Seniors' Pensions
I suggested the other day that Mark Warner's position on the Gang of Six might bode poorly for SuperCongress being anything but a pre-gamed attack on Social Security and Medicare.
Well, it turns out he has already been running around to the…
Links, 8/2/11
Justice and Injustice
Amanda Terkel describes how the state-level budget cuts are putting courts and justice out of the reach of Americans.
Dahlia Lithwick transcribes highlights of the remarkable panel she moderated over the weekend.
The…
Obama's Efforts to Create Korean--Not American--Jobs Gets More Cynical
As I noted this morning, Obama plans to "pivot to jobs" by creating them in Korea. (This video came from his statement today after the deficit ceiling bill got through.)
But his call on Congress to pass trade deals with Korea, Panama,…
Mitt Romney Names Two Torture Lawyers to "Justice Advisory Committee"
The headline news about Mitt Romney's new advisory committee of 63 lawyers is that Robert Bork is co-chairing it.
But even more troubling is that he has named two of the lawyers that okayed torture--Steven Bradbury and Tim Flanigan--to it.
Bradbury,…
The "Pivot to Jobs" Will Be an Attempt to Sell Trade Deals
A number of liberals are sitting around today puzzling through the deal that just happened yesterday. And one thing they're asking is, "how will Obama pivot to jobs?" One of the many lame excuses the White House has offered for the urgency…
Shock Doctrine International
In the middle of the debt ceiling debate yesterday, Naomi Klein tweeted a link to this article, describing how the sovereign debt crisis in Europe is eroding democratic and labor rights.
The economic, and democratic, crisis in Europe raises…
Links, 8/1/11
Our dying economy
Hendrik Hertzberg catches Louie Gohmert stealing Leon Trotsky's dustbin.
HSBC is closing a bunch of branches in the US, apparently having decided the US is not longer the land of opportunity for profit.
Yves Smith…
Is Mark Warner the Designated Social Security Killer?
The propaganda the Administration has put out to spin the debt capitulation as a win--"victory!" "bipartisan!" "compromise!"--would be amusing if the deal weren't so dangerous. In addition to all the language claiming that cutting expenditures…
Yet More Proof Big Business Is Unamerican
The WaPo notes with some curiosity that the business community did almost nothing to get the debt ceiling passed. It's a remarkable story: perhaps unintentionally noting that while our banana republic status was being confirmed, the Chamber…
The Unstated Constitutional Problems With Obama "Using the 14th"
As about everyone knows by now, the great debate is still ongoing on the issue of the debt ceiling. The frustration of those on the left with the intransigence of the Republican Tea Party, coupled with the neutered Democratic Congress, has led…
Grijalva: We Just Got Thrown Under the Bus
My biggest complain about this statement from Raúl Grijalva is that he doesn't say who threw Democrats and the people they champion under the bus: President Obama.
That said, his comments about the crossroads facing the Democratic Party…
Third Cave's a Charm
Kudos to Ezra for admitting he was dead wrong last year when imagining the Republicans might allow a deal that would let Bush tax cuts lapse.
A year ago, I was less concerned about the Bush tax cuts. I assumed, as did many in Washington, that…
Richard Ben-Veniste Calls out Obama for Spiking the Privacy Board
I just watched a scintillating panel at the Aspen Security Forum. It featured former LAPD Chief Bill Bratton, Alberto Gonzales, ACLU's Anthony Romero, John Yoo, and David Cole, moderated by Dahlia Lithwick.
The panel itself was notable…
F1 Hungarian Grand Prix and The Return of Football Trash!!!
Well, you knew sooner or later the Masters of the Football Universe (MOTFUs) would prove their superiority to the mental midgets in Congress and get the deal done so as to not cook the golden goose. For once, Daniel Snyder is looking better…