ACLU: "No Prohibition against Monstrous Conduct" without Ajudication of Torture
Obama talked a lot about consequences today. But as the ACLU pointed out in a conference call, the Administration is doing everything it can to prevent any consequences for those who tortured in the name of the United States.
Eric Schmidt: PATRIOT Means You Have No Privacy
Eric Schmidt implies that all your searches are available to the Feds.
Arpaio And Thomas: The Most Unethical Sheriff And Prosecutor In America Conspire To Abuse Power And Obstruct Justice
Sheriff Joe Arpaio and Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas use and abuse their positions of authority and public trust to pursue personal and political desires and, if questioned or challenged, use their offices to attack and cripple their enemies, whether they be private individuals or elected officials and judges. Today, in just such an egregious display, they have done so again by wrongfully charging a Presiding Maricopa County Judge with criminal charges in an attempt to obstruct and intimidate the rule of law.
Sotomayor Refuses to Give Government Privilege for Me But Not for Thee
The government tried to use a case reviewed this year to get SCOTUS to buy off on their larger claims of privilege. Thankfully, Justice Sotomayor declined to do that.
Springsteen on the State Level Politics that Matter
Bruce Springsteen begged off of appearing at Chris Christie's inauguration by saying he doesn't get involved in state politics. Except he does--for issues that matter.
Don't Let the Americans Know They're Killing the Globe
General interest readers in America, apparently, can't be expected to face the fact that our Congress is not only ruining our own country, it is ruining the globe.
Conyers v. Obama: The "Demeaning Team"
John Conyers is like the rest of progressives who fell in love with Obama the person and not Obama the moderate.
Why We Can't Fix Wall Street
A couple of articles explain why Congress continues to be unable to reel in Wall Street.
Yoo to OPR: Law is “Largely Irrelevant”
John Yoo attempts to explain why he has been ignoring Ex parte Milligan all these years. In essence Yoo claims that, when the courts try to impose law on the Executive branch, both the President and Congress will respond by disenfranchising and enfeebling the courts, so if courts know what is good for them, they’ll butt out.
FBI Asks William Webster to Look Closer at Nidal Hasan Analysis
As interesting as the news that FBI has asked William Webster to review the analysis of Nidal Hasan before the Ft. Hood killing are some other details from the story.
Joe Lie Even Pissed Off the League of Women Voters
I didn't even know the League of Women Voters advocated on political issues.
But here they are, spanking Sanctimonious Joe. (h/t joejoejoe)
The League of Women Voters will launch a anew advocacy campaign next week that asks Senator Joseph Lieberman…
Assymmetrical Self-Gagging
Seton Hall has a new report out today on the purported suicides of three Gitmo detainees--Yassar Talal Al Zahrani, Mani Shaman Turki Al Habardi Al Tabi, and Ali Abdullah Ahmed--who all died on June 10, 2006. The report catalogs the many reasons…
The Spying Industrial Complex
Chris Soghoian, whose post on 8 million times the government has used GPS tracking on Sprint's customers in the last year, has apparently flushed out the spying policies of many of the nation's telecoms. Cryptome has them posted--though (as…
"Made in China, Where Contents and Labor Practices Don't Matter"
Howie Klein linked to this ad trying to pitch products made in China as being "Made in the World." (Apparently, it has yet to supplant all the frigging diamond ads during football, so I haven't seen it.)
Made in China with American sports…
The New SWIFT Agreement
Last night I went to bed before I looked at the new SWIFT Agreement giving the US access to all of Europe's finance data to track for terrorists. Here's that agreement and here's a Q&A document about what the agreement does. The agreement…
All Yurp's Data Belongs to US
Remember how the Germans were trying to delay agreement on a deal giving the US access to European bank data until there was time for a debate? They caved.
Things Republicans Think Merit Investigation More than Torture: ACORN
Lamar Smith thinks it's more important to investigate lead tests for low income people than torture.
Late Night: Max Tax Baucchanal Grabs The Dental Floss
Max Baucus takes a walk on the wild side, shags his aide, fluffs her with government perks and hilarity ensues.
The 7 Lies of Lieberman
Steve Benen has been cataloguing all the lies Joementum has given to explain his opposition to the public option. Here are the first six...
Believe it or not, we're up to seven arguments over seven months, none of which makes sense.
In June,…
Trash Talk: Old Man River Showdown
Um, we're a bit tardy throwing up trash this week, seeing as how Pittsburgh already has a 31-17 lead on Cincinnati. Only, we're not that tardy--the game in question is in the Big East, not the AFC North, where Pittsburgh has already lost twice…