It Starts With: "Hello. I am a Prosecutor in Nigeria ...
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Mary[Ed. note: Mary provides some background on what may be up with Nigeria's announced plan to charge Dick Cheney.]
… ready to sue your Vice President. Please send 130 Million Dollars by reply mail to …"
After the news about charges against…
Prop 8 Judge Tells H8ters to Get Lost; Denies Motion to Disqualify
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bmazJudge Stephen Reinhardt has denied the spurious motion to disqualify the hating Proponents of Proposition 8 filed against him in the 9th Circuit appeal on Perry v Schwarzenegger.
Dick Cheney to Face Criminal Charges
Not for war crimes or torture, mind you. But for the bribery allegedly committed while at Halliburton that has been bubbling along for years. (h/t scribe)
Nigeria will file charges against former U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney and officials…
DOJ Investigations into Torture as a Diplomatic Stunt
I'm back into moving hell this week, so I haven't looked as closely at all the WikiLeak cables that have come out. But I wanted to add one point to David Corn's story on a cable showing the discussions about a potential Spanish prosecution of…
The Leaked Cables I Want to See
As you've no doubt heard, on Wednesday, both Amazon.com and Ecuador decided they didn't want to be associated with Wikileaks.
In Amazon.com's case, it's not entirely clear they would have known Wikileaks had switched to their servers on Sunday.…
FBI Entrapment Leads to TSA Pat-Downs
A couple of weeks back, I pointed to John Pistole's testimony that directly justified the expansion of VIPR checkpoints to mass transport locations by pointing to a recent FBI-entrapment facilitated arrest.
Another recent case highlights the…
Senate Banking Commitee on Foreclosure Fraud
Follow along on CSPAN or the Committee Site.
Dodd started by noting the increasing evidence that foreclosure fraud is a giant mess, both by referencing the Bank of America testimony that notes did not get sent to trusts during the securitization…
SEC Inspector General: Yes, BoA Got Special Treatment
The WaPo reports that an SEC Inspector General report shows that the SEC gave Bank of America lenient treatment when it fined BoA for its funny business surrounding the Merrill Lynch acquisition, but did not place limits on BoA's ability to…
Condi and Khalid El-Masri: Perhaps We're Not the Ones to Teach Afghans about Rule of Law?
I chuckled to myself when I read Steven Aftergood's post on our efforts to instill rule of law in Afghanistan. Not that I don't support the goal, mind you. But I question whether the United States is in a position anymore to be teaching others…
Glenn Fine Stepping Down as DOJ Inspector General
Back during the FISA Amendment Act, Jay Rockefeller tried hard to prevent DOJ's Inspector General, Glenn Fine, to have any role in overseeing the revamped domestic surveillance program. I always assumed that was because Fine, unlike the other…
Vampire Squid Pissy about Response to Data Octopus Demands
We've discussed US negotiations with Europe over the SWIFT database at length here. Basically, after the Lisbon Treaty went into effect last year, the EU Parliament balked at giving Americans free run of the SWIFT database. The EU and US put…
Excellent Panel Announced for Perry Prop 8 Appeal
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bmazWhen the appeal in Perry v. Scwarzenegger was initially lodged, I put forth the possibility that the panel assigned to hear the full merits appeal in December might be the earlier panel of Judges Wardlaw, Fisher and Berzon, which had heard substantive…
Can White People Be Charged with Use of a WMD?
Let's look at the following two examples of men arrested in the last week to see how the federal crime "Use of a Weapon of Mass Destruction" is used.
Mohamed Osman Mohamud: Mohamud was arrested Friday on charges of "attempting to use a weapon…
WikiLeaks Cable Dump Goes Live
Here's the NYT overview. Here's one interesting detail:
Clashes with Europe over human rights: American officials sharply warned Germany in 2007 not to enforce arrest warrants for Central Intelligence Agency officers involved in a bungled operation…
John Bellinger: If the War Is Illegal, Just Change the Law
John Bellinger has been publicly suggesting the Obama Administration had exceeded the terms of the AUMF for some time. So it is unsurprising that he took the opportunity of a Republican House, the incoming Armed Services Chair's explicit support…
Did the US Issue a Prior Restraint Request to the NYT, Too?
Skdadl, who has been tweeting up a storm on the upcoming WikiLeaks dump, noted that the British government has issued D-notices regarding the upcoming dump, which is basically a non-binding request on editors to brief the government before doing…
The German "I Told You So"
The next WikiLeaks dump is about to reveal to the world what the United States really thinks of the world leaders it pretends to like and the degree to which it overlooks corruption among friends (it sounds like the reports will include confirmation…
Correlation Does Not Equal KochNation
I wasn't going to write a post debunking this Nation article on the opposition to gate grope. Sure, it was a specious hit on John Tyner, the "Don't touch my junk" dude. But I figured as soon as anyone read this passage:
Tyner attended private…
Turkey Trash: Eat the Bird and Pass the Damn Ball
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bmazEat turkey and watch football; it is what was contemplated by the primordial ooze!
Ireland Cuts Minimum Wage 11.5% to Protect 12.5% Corporate Tax Rate
The Fianna Fail government in Ireland has released the austerity plan it promised in response for the big bank bailout the rest of Europe forced on it.
There's a lot that's awful in it: big cuts in pension, huge increases in tuition costs,…
