Mark Bittman: "I stopped eating on Monday"
NYT's food columnist Mark Bittman has given up food:
I stopped eating on Monday and joined around 4,000 other people in a fast to call attention to Congressional budget proposals that would make huge cuts in programs for the poor and hungry.
By…
PJ Crowley Explains Why Manning's Treatment Is Ridiculous, Counterproductive, and Stupid
PJ Crowley has a very important Guardian piece on why he said the treatment of Bradley Manning was ridiculous, counterproductive, and stupid. After explaining that Manning, if convicted, "should spend a long, long time in prison," and then claiming…
Frontline Ignores Most Embarrassing "Cause" of WikiLeaks Leak
Greg Mitchell has a preview of the Frontline piece on Bradley Manning today. He points out that the big "scoop" of the story--that Manning's stepmother called the cops in 2006 after Bradley pulled out a knife during a family fight (but then…
The Colonized Advises the Colonizer on What to Do When You Go Broke
I'm catching up today, so no substantive post yet.
But in the meantime, I wanted to point to this AP piece, describing former Brazilian President Lula warning Portugal not to take the IMF bailout it's about to be offered.
"The IMF won't…
In Re Sealed Case and the Goldsmith Memo
In addition to what I laid out here, comparing the 2006 White Paper with the May 6, 2004 Goldsmith memo on the warrantless wiretap program made me realize that the White Paper relies more frequently on In re: Sealed Case than Goldsmith does,…
Finally! Our Declining Manufacturing Base Becomes a National Security Issue
I have long argued that the way to address the big problems our government is currently all-but-ignoring, not least jobs and climate change, is to talk about how our current policies put us at significant national security risk. If nothing else,…
Are 95% of People Investigated Under New FBI Guidelines Innocent, but Entered into Database?
The NYT liberated the specific answer to a question that Russ Feingold asked in March 2009, but which DOJ didn't respond to until November 2010, when Feingold was a lame duck Senator. At issue were new investigative guidelines Attorney General…
Bill Keller: True = False, But Better False Than Left or Right
As you read Bill Keller's latest exercise in public masturbation, keep in mind how the NYT long refused to correct its credulous and ultimately, factually false, reporting on James O'Keefe III's ACORN videos (Update: here's BradBlog's coverage…
Celebrating 10 Years of the Rights Associated with Marriage
The Third Way thinks it learned something worthwhile by offering a bunch of apparently straight people who have full civil rights a chance to judge the motivations of those who don't.
At Third Way, for example, we went beyond traditional polling…
F1 Trash: Circus Starts Anew, 50 Years On From the Yankee Champion
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bmazWelcome to the start of the 2011 Formula One season. Today we look at the state of the F1 circus at the start of the campaign and take a look back at the memorable 1961 championship season for Phil Hill as well.
In 2004, the White House Considered FISA's Exclusivity Provision to Be Top Secret
As I have noted before, there are a number of paragraphs in the May 6, 2004 Goldsmith memo authorizing warrantless wiretapping that appear to be badly overclassified. Not only were many of the same paragraphs printed, almost verbatim, in unclassified…
The Abu Zubaydah Standard in Obama's Miranda Memo
Here are the claims the Bybee Two memo premised its authorization to torture Abu Zubaydah on:
As we understand it, Zubaydah is one of the highest ranking members of the al Qaeda terrorist organization,
[snip]
Our advice is based upon…
BREAKING!! White Terrorists to Be Treated Like Brown Terrorists!!
All the discussion about the wisdom or legality of Eric Holder's unilateral change to Miranda procedure for "operational terrorists" (Evan Perez story, Charlie Savage story, bmaz post) seems to be missing a stunning detail.
The memo laying…
USAMRID Lost Vials in 2003 AND 2009
Back in 2009, I noted that a report that USAMRID had lost track of its vials of anthrax sort of undermined the entire FBI case against Bruce Ivins.
One key to the FBI case against Ivins, after all, is that he had complete control over the…
Real Reason For US Deficit: GE Greed-$14.2B Profit, $0 Tax
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bmazFor all the caterwauling from the right, and stupifyingly from the Obama Administration and Blue Dog left as well, the real reason the United States has the sizable deficit issues it does is due in large part to the fact corporations like GE make billions in profit and pay no taxes.
The White Paper and the Classified Opinion
As has often been noted, the White Paper the Bush Administration released on January 19, 2006 largely repeats the analysis Jack Goldsmith did in his May 6, 2004 OLC opinion on the warrantless wiretap program. So I decided to compare the two…
Richard Clarke: The Chamber Broke the Law
I'm really deep in the weeds on the Jack Goldsmith memo right now (I should have a weedy post up later).
But in case you're bored w/bmaz's rant about the assault on Miranda rights, I thought I'd point to this TP post describing Richard Clarke…
DOJ's New Miranda Policy Betrays Constitution & Power of Judiciary
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bmazThe Obama Administration has sought to improperly alter Constitutional Miranda rights by administrative decree.
FBI's Shrinks-4-Hire: Stalkers Are Likely Bioterrorists
The FBI has linked to a redacted executive summary of the report some shrink contractors did on Bruce Ivins. While it is just the executive summary and even that is partly redacted, the report basically paints Bruce Ivins was a stalker which…
GM Squanders What Tax Payers Gave It
Let me say at the outset that the GM bailout was far, far better handled than the bankster bailouts. And as a Michigan resident whose family still has ties to the auto business, I am tremendously grateful for that bailout.
That said, this…