Extend and Pretend about to Bite the Banksters in the Butt
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
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
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…
Dexter Filkins' Busy Week
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
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
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…
"It was the privatization of warfare."
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...
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
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
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
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…
US Paramilitaries in Colombia: Now Twice as Illegal
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?
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…
The Timing of the Ramzi bin al-Shibh Tapes
I wanted to point out two details of timing on the Ramzi bin al-Shibh tapes:
The tapes were made after CIA started getting worried about making interrogation tapes
The tapes were disclosed after the CIA started trying to figure out what…
How a Previously Qualified Elizabeth Warren became Unqualified, According to a Previously Progressive Chris Dodd
July 27: Chris Dodd says of Elizabeth Warren, "She's qualified, no question about that"
August 9: Katrina vanden Heuvel tweets that several sources have told her Elizabeth Warren would be nominated "next week"
August 12: Warren meets…
Blago Lesson: It's Okay to Sell a Senate Seat, So Long as You Don't Lie about It
All you Californians ought to be getting awfully nervous about Senate-Select Carly Fiorina about now. Because the lesson I take from the Rod Blagojevich verdict--he was found guilty of just one charge of lying to the FBI, while the jury remained…
Were the Ramzi bin al-Shibh Tapes Altered Like the Abu Zubaydah Tapes Were?
Given that the AP has filled in some details about the Ramzi bin al-Shibh tapes someone had hidden under a desk at CIA, I wanted to look back at the letter DOJ wrote to Leonie Brinkema in 2007, when the government first admitted it had been…
CIA Stores Their Torture Tape the Same Place Judy Miller Does!
Remember how Judy Miller stored the notes showing that the Vice President's lackey had leaked Valerie Plame's identity to her under her desk in a shopping bag? Remember how we mocked that kind of record keeping? Well, the AP reports that the…
Breaking News: Perry Prop 8 Stay Granted By 9th Circuit
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bmazThe 9th Circuit has granted the request for stay in the Perry Prop 8 case.
Our Paramilitaries and Their Militia Play Doctor
Jim White has an important observation about the increasing militarization of our aid operations in Afghanistan.
When the medical teams come from the very same organization that disappears innocent people in the middle of the night, the US…