Eric Cantor's Nuclear Failure
As I noted last week, the VA earthquake last week happened in Eric Cantor's district, just miles from a nuclear power plant. I reported then that the plant had lost power and switched to backup diesel generators.
But it turns out that…
Links, August 25, 2011
I got really behind on these for a few days, so some of these are dated.
A senior military officer claims they've finally "got our arms around" contracting to Afghan contractors. But if that doesn't work, a senior congressional staffer says,…
Jamie Dimon's Company Fined $88.3 Million for Trading with the Enemy
That's not the technical term for violating economic sanctions against Cuba, Sudan, Iran, and Liberia (and FWIW I think the sanctions against Cuba are stupid).
Nevertheless, that's basically what the sanctions JP Morgan Chase just admitted…
Paul Kanjorski: Government Can't Control Multinationals Anymore
I confess. When I read Zach Carter's account of his interview with Paul Kanjorski, my first response was to wonder why HuffPo had decided an interview with the former Congressman would make for the (admittedly very fascinating) article that…
How Would States Divvy Up the Foreclosure Settlement?
For the record, I still doubt the 50-State-Less-the-Rule-of-Law-AGs Settlement will happen. A year in, they haven't even agreed on the underlying guidelines for the settlement, like what they do with MERS.
But this line in the LAT's coverage…
Turns Out Cheney Was Never Really Vice President After All
I regret to inform you--and I do mean regret--that I'm going to have set aside a good deal of the next week "looking backward" at Dick Cheney's career. His book is out next week and already he's dropping some bombs, as only Dick can drop bombs.
Such…
The Timing of the Schneiderman Attack
I find this article odd for the way it mentions nothing of Bank of America's attempts to game the legal system to stay in business, much less Tom Miller, Shaun Donovan, and Kathryn Wylde's increasing attacks on Eric Schneiderman. Because his…
NYPD's Spooks Didn't Find Two of the Most Significant Terrorists to Attempt Attacks on NYC
The AP's Goldman and Apuzzo have another blockbuster counterterrorism article, this time describing how the NYPD has built its own intelligence service to target Muslims. It's long, but it's worth reading the whole thing. Keep an eye out for…
In Last Two Years, FBI Developed Intrusive Files on 77,100 Innocent Americans
Charlie Savage has a story reporting on the number of assessments the FBI opened in the last two years that turned into preliminary investigations. It shows that over the period, the FBI has conducted assessments of 77,100 Americans whom they…
IA AG Tom Miller: Playing "Survivor" with Homeowners' Futures
You may have heard that the Obama Administration and IA Attorney General are playing a giant game of Survivor with the homes of struggling Americans as the grand prize: they've kicked NY AG Eric Schneiderman off the island.
The New York Attorney…
CantorQuake: Trembling at the Heart of GOP Claims We Don't Need Government
Back in March, after the Japanese earthquake, Eric Cantor defended Republican plans to cut funding from the USGS and warning systems to help in case of a disaster.
This is the epicenter of the freak 5.9 Richter earthquake that just hit Virginia.
Here's…
The FBI's File on Antiwar.com
As I reported yesterday, the FBI conducted a threat assessment into Antiwar.com in April 2004 in conjunction (apparently) with a terrorist watch list posted on the site. I briefly reviewed what they found, but I wanted to look in more detail…
The Other Auto Bailout: Ford, Toyota, ... and Harley Davidson?
As I noted yesterday, Bloomberg has made some really cool visual tools showing the lending the Fed did over the years.
So I wanted to use it to show the other auto bailout: lending to Ford and Toyota at a time when the auto market was fragile…
FBI Conducts Threat Assessment on Antiwar.Com Journalists for Linking to Publicly Available Document
Antiwar.com has a troubling story detailing how what appears to be either an FBI counterintelligence investigation of suspected Israeli spies or an attempt to track down everyone who had posted terrorist watch lists online led to the FBI to…
Fed Lending: Bailing Out Banks over People
Bloomberg has a good summary and even better visual database of the various forms of Fed lending that have been revealed over the years since the bailout.
I encourage you to go play around in the database. For example, check out this summary…
The Global Crisis of SOME Institutional Legitimacy
Felix Salmon has a worthwhile (but, IMO, partly mistaken) post on what he deems "the global crisis of institutional legitimacy." I think he's right to see this as a significant challenge to our current political economy.
While watching another…
2 Funny Things about Obama Administration's Effort to Pressure Eric Schneiderman
The NYT has an article about efforts to strong-arm Attorney General Schneiderman to get him to put rule of law aside for yet another bank bailout.
First, it quotes HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan as saying,
The disagreement is around whether…
Is this Why DOJ Is Sheltering Colombian Terrorists?
Karen DeYoung has an important article reporting that the Colombian intelligence agency implicated in political crimes, Department of Administrative Security, had support from the CIA.
American cash, equipment and training, supplied to elite…
Tony Fratto's Post Office Field Trip
Ex-Bush flack Tony Fratto set me off on a rant this morning when he tweeted this:
Over the past 10 yrs I might have visited a post office 10 times, total.
(FWIW, Ed Henry also doesn't frequent post offices, he mused from the luxury of Martha's…
Trash Talk: I'm Still Mad In Memphis West Edition
For any that carelessly stumble in here without having read the earlier Emptywheel blog ice pick into the temple of southern comfort regarding the West Memphis Three and the obliteration of fundamental fairness occurring in an American court…