Nothing To Be Done But Blame Republicans

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emptywheel
Jake Tapper hammered Robert "a recovery that got our economy moving again" Gibbs yesterday on whether the Administration is not doing more for the economy because of political paralysis. After four attempts to avoid answering the question or…
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ACLU and CCR Sue to Stop Targeted Killings

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emptywheel
From a joint press release: The American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) today filed a lawsuit challenging the government's asserted authority to carry out “targeted killings” of U.S. citizens located…

More Stupid Housing Policy on the Way?

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emptywheel
Great news! My house goes on the market today — at the same price the house next door sold as a foreclosure a few years ago. Okay — it's mostly good news insofar as I don't have to drive back to Ann Arbor every weekend and instead can…
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Sparky Takes a Dump, Produces Turd Named McCain and Other News and Notes From Wingnut Hell In Arizona

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bmaz
Yes, that is Sparky the Sun Devil and the small turd next to him is John McCain. As you may have heard, the Arizona primary was last Tuesday and McCain squeaked by the "serious challenge" of gasbag extraordinaire J.D. Hayworth. McCain beat Hayworth by 25 points; this and other news and notes from the Arizona primary election.

Obama Administration Tries to Get Out of Its Khadr Problem

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emptywheel
Add this to the list of things I might laugh about if it weren't so damned sad and awful. The Administration has now realized trying a Canadian accused of murder for killing someone in an active battlefield as a teenager exposes the Gitmo show…

Trash Is Back!

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emptywheel
I'll admit it. I've got ulterior motives for posting trash two weeks before the regular season begins. First, I will once again be mostly away from the Toobz this weekend as I continue to experience the joys of moving. So I wanted to leave…
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CIA: Money Is Fungible, Except When It Is Our Money

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emptywheel
Keep in mind as you read these four paragraphs from WaPo's follow-up on NYT's story on Mohammed Zia Salehi that the person quoted is almost certainly from the same CIA that profiles terrorist organizations that, regardless of the charitable…

Extend and Pretend about to Bite the Banksters in the Butt

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emptywheel
I would be laughing my ass off at this if I weren't about to put my home on the market for what the house next door sold as a foreclosure several years ago. (h/t CR) By postponing the date at which they lock in losses, banks and other investors…

Military Commissions Good Enough for Teen Acting in Self-Defense, But Not Alleged Cole Bomber

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emptywheel
The WaPo reports that the Administration has shelved plans to try Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri in military commissions. The decision at least temporarily scuttles what was supposed to be the signature trial of a major al-Qaeda figure under a reformed…

Chris Dodd's Newfound Concern about Management Experience

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emptywheel
Federal bureaucracies which, according to the confirmation hearing questions he asked of prospective directors, Chris Dodd believes require no management experience to run: Securities and Exchange Commission Housing and Urban Development Federal…
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Dexter Filkins' Busy Week

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emptywheel
Dexter Filkins' story reporting that a top, corrupt, Hamid Karzai aide is on the CIA payroll is not, by itself, all that interesting. Mohammed Zia Salehi, the chief of administration for the National Security Council, appears to have been…

New Wikileak: CIA Admits US Exports Terror

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emptywheel
Wikileaks has posted a single new document--a CIA Red Cell report contemplating what would (will?) happen if other countries begin to see the US as an exporter of terrorism. The document admits several cases where the US has exported terror--such…

What Irrational Exuberance Looks Like

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emptywheel
Go read this Kevin Drum post. The important takeaway is this picture, showing that home prices had been, except for the last decade, utterly flat since World War II. Kevin spends his post providing a bunch of reasons why people are so silly…
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"It was the privatization of warfare."

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emptywheel
I owe ROTL a hubcap, apparently, because while I've been distracted with the joy of moving in a historically bad housing market, the US won its long extradition battle over Viktor Bout. Coincidentally, I actually found Douglas Farah's book…

Funny How All Those Peace Negotiations Seem to Fail...

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emptywheel
Dexter Filkins confirms today something that had been suggested in earlier reporting: Pakistan cooperated in our capture of Abdul Ghani Baradar in January to disrupt peace talks in Afghanistan. Now, seven months later, Pakistani officials are…

"We the Parasites" Benefiting from HAMP

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emptywheel
You've probably already read DDay's and Atrios's pieces on what some Treasury officials admitted about HAMP the other day. But partly because I want to link to this really comprehensive account of the entire meeting and partly because I want…

Gitmo Judge: Rape Threats Are Okay If They Don't Work

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emptywheel
Here's what the military judge in the Omar Khadr trial, Colonel Patrick Parrish, said to justify admitting Khadr's own confessions as evidence. (h/t Carol Rosenberg, whose story on this ruling is here) There is no credible evidence the accused…

In First Act as DNI, James Clapper Adds to Redundancy Competitive Analysis

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emptywheel
When James Clapper testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee, he rejected one of the central criticisms in the WaPo's Top Secret America series--that the redundancy in the Intelligence Community contributed to waste and intelligence…
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US Paramilitaries in Colombia: Now Twice as Illegal

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emptywheel
Remember that Jeremy Scahill report that listed Colombia among the 75 places where JSOC has deployed? The Nation has learned from well-placed special operations sources that among the countries where elite special forces teams working for…

Why Does Anthony Kennedy Hate Lindsey Graham?

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emptywheel
This is a rather interesting public statement from the guy who--at least before Elena Kagan and her obscure views on executive power got sworn in--was the swing vote on SCOTUS. (h/t fatster) "Article III courts are quite capable of trying these…
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