Ted Kennedy with Brain Cancer, on (Probably) Morphine, and in Excruciating Pain Can STILL Read a Teleprompter Better than McCain
According to the NYT, Ted Kennedy was suffering from kidney stones last night during his speech. Wow.
Annette Taddeo on the State of Her Race
Annette Taddeo explains why this is the year she will beat Ileana Ros-Lehtinen.
Denied! Bates Refuses to Stay Order in Miers/Bolten Suit
Harriet Miers just got one step closer to a date with HJC: Judge Bates denied the White House request for a stay of his order requiring her to
Enhanced Surveillance Techniques and The Police State
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bmazTwo things have caught my eye this morning. Both have to do with security surrounding the two political conventions. Are the enhanced surveillance techniques just rolled out by the DOJ and Mukasey already exhibiting their heavy hand?
Senator Leahy Is Not Satisfied with the Anthrax Investigation
Do you think Ivins acted alone? Are you convinced Ivins sent the anthrax letters.
No, I think someone was involved either before or after. I'm not satisfied with the answers I've gotten.
He said SJC will do a hearing with Mueller in mid-September. Leahy expects some hard questions from both Democrats and Republicans.
We Have Met The WMD Terrorists, And They Are US
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bmazThe Bush Administration leaned on the Swiss government to destroy crucial evidence in a broad investigation into the nuclear proliferation network of AQ Khan because the information would implicate the CIA and US Government in a web of entangled activities. As a result, innumerable criminal investigations have been compromised, if not destroyed altogether. And Khan and the others walk free.
So, Why Were The US Attorneys Fired?
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bmazFor so long now we have been eagerly awaiting the results on the DOJ IG/OPR investigation into the curious and unprecedented firing of nine US Attorneys by the Bush Administration. Today the Washington Post has a report out that gives the lie to the Bush Administration's previously stated reason for firing Arizona US Attorney Paul Charlton. If the reasons stated on the record are not accurate, why were the US Attorneys fired?
What Would You Do with 50,000 Tickets to the Acceptance Speech?
Even with 75,000 tickets available for the acceptance speech on Thursday, ordinary swing voter Denver residents probably won't get to attend.
When The Levee Breaks
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bmazIn the face of what ought to be the most serious and profound Presidential election in the last 75 years, and with the opening of the Democratic Convention on the brink, it seemed appropriate to recalibrate for a moment. Hurricane Katrina formed over the Bahamas on August 23, 2005. Three years ago to this very day. And it is being forgotten in the inane headlong rush to argue over tangential trivia.
Road Trip: Arrival in Denver
Damn our country is beautiful! Here's a pic for you all while I catch up on what has happened while I was taking the beauty in.
Malevolence In Mississippi
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bmazIll winds have been blowing through the Mississippi political and legal scene for a long time now. There is Trent Lott and his son-in-law Dickie Scruggs. A real soap opera there. There is a never ending list of of political takedowns being performed in Mississippi, and neighboring Alabama, on Democratic attorneys and politicians at the hand of the politicized Bush Department of Justice.
The Strange Case of Hiwa Abdul Rahman Rashul (Part 2)
In part 1, I laid out the facts surrounding the detention and illegal transfer of Hiwa Abdul Rahman Rashul. In this post, I want to demonstrate why this case matters. There is a pattern to the Bush/Cheney Administration's illegal usurpation of executive power. Because the pattern broke down in this case, the strategy behind that power grab is laid bare. The struggle within the administration over the disposition of Rashul and the way it was resolved helps to illuminate the true nature of the current regime. Perhaps it leaves an opening to unravel the authoritarian infrastructure that has been built within our country in the last eight years.
FISA Redux Again: The Slippery Slope Leads Down A Rabbit Hole
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bmazFive days ago, in the post we discussed the new set of domestic spying protocols that the Bush Administration is determined to entrench into law and practice before leaving office, and learned that Attorney General Mukasey would release new guidelines within weeks to streamline and unify FBI investigations of criminal law enforcement matters and national security threats. Well, that didn't take long; they're here, and it is a chilling grab by the Bush Administration of unheard of domestic police state powers, emasculating the Constitution in the process.
Rolls Royce And The Incomparable Imperialists
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bmazJudge Royce Lamberth has had the guts and determined conviction to to make tough, fair and necessary rulings that question authority and stand up to big government and behind the common citizen. Today, he does it again by calling the Bush Administration out for their bad faith delay and obstruction actions in dealing with the Habeas Corpus applications of the Guantanamo detainees filed pursuant to the Boumediene decision recently issued by the Supreme Court. In other news, the Bush Administration has shown once again why they are the polar opposite of Lamberth by enacting yet more police state surveillance modalities.
Sprinting To Teh Finish: Missing Email Edition
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bmazThe White House is missing as many as 225 days of e-mail dating back to 2003 and there is little if any likelihood a recovery effort will be completed by the time the Bush administration leaves office. And the nation yawns. Who could have predicted such mendacious obstructionistic bunk from the Bush/Cheney Administration? If the DC District Court can hold Toni Locy in contempt, I wonder if perhaps they can find some maximum hurt contempt provisions for a few of the White House Mafiosi too?
The Gitmo Shrinks Find Their Super Ego And Cowboy Up
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bmazAs several of you have noted, there has been a rather significant event at the Gitmo Show Trials. Lt. Colonel Diane M. Zierhoffer, a US Army psychologist who ordered the illegal torture of a juvenile, Mohammad Jawad, invoked her right not to incriminate herself and refused to testify in the case of Mohammad Jawad.
The Strange Case of Hiwa Abdul Rahman Rashul (Part 1)
In June 2004, Hiwa Abdul Rahman Rashul had his 15 minutes of fame when Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld answered questions at a press conference about the detainee known to American soldiers only as Triple X, the first ghost detainee transferred from CIA custody to the U.S. military. Rashul was suspected of being a member of Ansar al-Islam, a violent Kurdish Sunni Islamist movement opposed to the dominant Kurdish groups of northeastern Iraq. The real story of Hiwa Abdul Rahman Rashul wasn't his terrorist past or his time as a ghost detainee of the DOD, but his treatment by the CIA in between.
The Bates Decision: A Question Unasked And Unanswered
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bmazFirst off, a mea culpa. I thought Judge Bates would mostly refuse to get involved in the contempt issue at this point, which he easily could have done. I was wrong. That said, the dark hats of Miers, Bolten and Bushco predictably want to delay until the next of never on the appeal. But the white hats of Conyers' House Judiciary Committee have a response to that. And there is another facet to this equation that has been bugging me. Despite how good Bates' decision is, why did it not address the refusal by the DOJ to prosecute a duly constituted and valid on it's face contempt citation referred by the United States Congress?
FISA Redux: The Slippery Slope Becomes A Mine Shaft
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bmazThe FISA pigeons have come home to foul the roost. The passage of the FISA Amendments Act was a designed gutting of the 4th Amendment, and now what was left of the body of American's right to individual privacy is bleeding out. The Bush/Cheney Justice Department has proposed new domestic spying measures that build upon the already enacted broad surveillance powers to form essentially a complete police state.
Sticky Fingers McCain Does It Again
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bmazJohn McCain is an angry, mercurial, petulant and self serving man that believes that John McCain is entitled to say, do or take whatever John McCain wants and John McCain needs. That doesn't sit real well with Jackson Browne, who is suing McCain for stealing his music. When McCain gets furious, veins start bulging in his neck and he turns red with anger. He won't ever be Jackson's friend, but lets hope that Browne causes another patented redneck explosion.