Obama Had 60 Votes For Dawn Johnsen's Confirmation Last Year; Johnsen Stalled Again This Year
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bmazThe failure of the Obama Administration to support the Dawn Johnsen nomination, a far less than good faith effort that finally resulted in Johnsen's nomination being killed by operation of Senate Rule, was not due to a lack of 60 votes for cloture on the nomination, but instead was to permit the abuse of the OLC, just as the Bush Administration before them, in order to cover up governmental illegality.
ZOMG! A Congressperson Accuses CIA of Lying to Congress
Just take a look at these traitorous accusations a certain Congressperson made about the CIA yesterday:
misleading and some might say lying to Congress by the intel community
The [intelligence] community covered it up,
this committee…
Assassination Permission Slips and Hall Passes
Yesterday, Dennis Blair gave the House Intelligence Committee an explanation of the "specially permission" that the Government grants itself before it places a US citizen on its kill list.
The U.S. intelligence community policy on killing American…
Google Boondoggle With No Such Agency
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bmazGoogle is entering a partnership with the NSA.
Holder to Republicans: Stop Being Such WATBs about Miranda Warnings and Mukasey's Decisions
Eric Holder just sent the following letter to a bunch of whiny Republican Senators trying to make an issue about Americans respecting the rule of law. (I'm posting the whole thing bc there's a lot of excellent smack down in it.)
Dear Senator…
Frank Luntz's Ideal Small Businessperson: Democratic Congressman Mark Schauer
You know that Frank Luntz memo telling Republicans how to kill Wall Street reform?
Republican message guru Frank Luntz has put together a playbook to help derail financial regulatory reform.
In a 17-page memo titled, "The Language of…
Breaking! A Month of Interrogation Works Better than Waterboarding Someone 183 Times
As Admiral Mullen just testified to Congress, Underwear Bomber Umar Abdulmutallab has been cooperating with the FBI.
The blood-thirsty right, of course, has been screaming all month that Abdulmutallab wasn't taken immediately to a military…
The House Will Vote to Eliminate Health Insurance's Anti-Trust Exemption Next Week
I just got off a conference call with Speaker Pelosi. While she had a lot of optimistic things to say about the passage of a Senate plus sidecar bill, the big piece of news is that the House will pass (meaning, I presume she has the votes) a…
The Republican Base Rejects Prop 8 Family Vision, but not Prop 8
Fresh off the Prop 8 trial, I was interested in what Markos' latest poll--of 2003 Republicans--says about equal rights for gay men and women in this country.
First, the poll shows that Republicans think gays should be allowed or not allowed…
The Jobs Bills: The Battle for COBRA
Congress has not yet seen fit to give Americans health care. But there's a new health care battle heating up right in the middle of the jobs bills that will be the next focus of Congress.
The jobs bill the House passed in December extended…
TeaBugger Victimology
Oh, this is rich. Chief TeaBugger, James O'Keefe is preparing to argue that, the whole time he was sitting in jail with the son of the acting US Attorney for Shreveport, the US Attorney for New Orleans was abusing his rights.
Interviewed on…
OPR Report Timeline
In response to the news that David Margolis spiked the misconduct conclusion in the OPR Report on OLC justifications for torture, I wanted to put together a timeline of its construction. Two things stick out. First, the role of Mary Patrice…
What Glenn Greenwald Said On American Terrorism Cowardice
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bmazJust go read it. Because every word Glenn Greenwald wrote in his post today, entitled Nostalgia for Bush/Cheney Radicalism, the gospel truth. It is rare that you will see a post here just pointing you somewhere else because the other source says it all. This is one of those times.
Revisiting the al-Harithi/Derwish Assassination
I wanted to expand on this comment, because the discussion of whether Anwar al-Awlaki is on both the JSOC and CIA kill lists or not has focused new attention on the assassination, on November 3, 2002, of Abu Ali al-Harithi and Kamal Derwish.
Greg…
LAT: The CIA Hasn't Yet Added al-Awlaki to its Kill List
The most interesting thing about Greg Miller's story on whether Anwar al-Awlaki has been added to the CIA's list of assassination targets is how it differs from the two stories already written on this subject. Miller says that al-Awlaki has…
Rahm's Authorization to Use Military Force
Is Rahm planning on using Rove's tactics to get a crappy health insurance reform passed using the urgency of the upcoming election?
OPR Report Altered To Cover Bush DOJ Malfeasance
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bmazThe OPR Report has been leaked, and it looks like the Obama DOJ has watered it down to protect Bush malfeasants.
TeaBugger O'Keefe: Liberate the Tapes!! (No, Not THOSE Tapes!)
There's a real irony in James O'Keefe's latest explanation for why he committed an alleged felony in an attempt to embarrass Mary Landrieu. He is now calling for the FBI to release the tapes that he and his accomplices made while in Landrieu's…
ODNI Funded the Author of the "Penis Monologues" to Try to Interest Women in Spying
As Lindsay reported the other day, the TeaBugger who used to work for a college-based intelligence program, Stan Dai, spoofed the Vagina Monologue in college.
In college, Stan Dai co-wrote a satirical work entitled The Penis Monologues, apparently…
The Poodle's Prevarications
Tony Blair testified today at the Chilcot inquiry into the Iraq war, and while it sounds like he didn't admit any huge lies, his answers were riddled with inconsistencies. As the Times points out, for example, Blair told Parliament Saddam's…
