“The Math”

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FWIW, I think this morning’s NYT article naming Olson as Bush’s nominee to be AG was just a plant floated by conservatives pushing the Administration to make this nomination into a confrontation. David Johnston is very susceptible to this kind of planted leak. And Mike Allen, who has better ties to the White House than Johnston, names Olson as just one candidate among five (though the one favored by conservatives)–and he quotes an SAO saying there is "no clear frontrunner" (Laura Jakes Jordan says precisely the same thing).

But now that Harry Reid has thrown down the gauntlet, saying "I intend to do everything I can to prevent him from being confirmed as the next attorney general," lets do a little quick math, shall we?

Ted Olson was confirmed in 2001 with a 51-47 vote, after having been technically defeated in SJC with a 9-9 vote. But because this occurred during the 50-50 split in the Senate, Trent Lott was able to get Olson a vote on the Senate floor. The only two Democrats who voted for Olson were Zell Miller and Ben Nelson. That means Pat Leahy, Ted Kennedy, Joe Biden, Herb Kohl, DiFi, Russ Feingold, Chuck Schumer, and Dick Durbin–all Read more →

If the UC Regents Are So Susceptible to Political Pressure…

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Then perhaps they could be persuaded to fire unitary laughingstock John Yoo?

Normally, I find it inappropriate to engage the David Horowitzes of the world on their McCarthyist ground. But if the UC system is comfortable rescinding an offer they’ve made to Edwin Chemerinsky, then it seems fair to ask them to fire the lawyer who has elicited–by far–the most controversy in recent years (and that’s coming from someone who lives in Jeffrey Fieger‘s state)–John Yoo.

After all, Jack Goldsmith makes it pretty clear in his book. John Yoo’s opinions–which served as the basis for the dismantling of significant parts of our Constitution–were, um, "flimsy." And that’s coming from a fellow conservative.

Chemerinsky may be liberal, but he’s not a "flimsy" liberal. You’d think a strong law school like Boalt Hall would be embarrassed about having Professor Flimsy Yoo floating around its halls; if they want to employ a lawyer who shredded the Constitution, they could at least look for one whose opinions were rigorous.

So perhaps the UC Regents, having set this precedent, might use the precedent to rid the UC system of its biggest embarrassment, Flimsy Yoo.

Free Press Asks for Details

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Ask and someone shall FOIA it for you…

A couple of days ago, I wondered why it was that DOJ would decide to intervene against Net Neutrality–months after the comment period to do so closed. Well, Free Press was wondering the same thing and has submitted a FOIA request to find out. They’re asking for:

  1. All shared or public calendars of the above-named employees for the above-noted dates, including, but not limited to, entries listing all meetings with non-government individuals, businesses, trade associations and/or other organizations and the subject of the meeting.
  2. All email or print correspondence, during the above-noted dates, to or from any of the above-named employees concerning the FCC’s Broadband Industry Practices inquiry, or including the words “network neutrality,” “net neutrality,” or “broadband industry.”
  3. All email or print correspondence on any subject during the above-noted dates between the above-named employees and any employee of, or attorney, government relations specialist, or lobbyist for: AT&T, Verizon, Comcast, Time Warner, Hands off the Internet, NetCompetition.org, Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association, US Telecom Association, Qwest, Cisco Systems, and Corning Inc.
  4. Any studies, assessments, reports, or factual data (or drafts of studies, assessments, reports, or factual data) gathered, during the above-noted time period, by the above-named Read more →

Invite Admiral Fallon to Tell Us if We’re Safer

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You’ve no doubt heard that General Petraeus has no fucking clue whether sustaining the surge and succeeding in Iraq will make us safer. (To some degree, this is appropriate, because his command is limited to Iraq, and his job is to do the best job in Iraq he can.) You’ve also probably heard that some at the Pentagon have their own plan to get us out of the Iraq, fast.

NEWSWEEK has learned that a separate internal report being prepared bya Pentagon working group will “differ substantially” from Petraeus’srecommendations, according to an official who is privy to the ongoingdiscussions but would speak about them only on condition of anonymity.An early version of the report, which is currently being drafted and isexpected to be completed by the beginning of next year, will “recommenda very rapid reduction in American forces: as much as two-thirds of theexisting force very quickly, while keeping the remainder there.” Thestrategy will involve unwinding the still large U.S. presence in bigforward operation bases and putting smaller teams in outposts. “Thereis interest at senior levels [of the Pentagon] in getting alternativeviews” to Petraeus, the official said. Among others, Centcom commanderAdmiral William Fallon is known to want to draw down faster Read more →

Holy Joe Bewails Free Speech

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Petraeus8_3MoveOn has a hot new ad in today’s NYT pointing out that Petraeus’ statements differ from all the known metrics out there. And boy has it made Sanctimonious Joe pissed. Not surprisingly, Joe is trying to call in those chits he got for agreeing to caucus with the Democrats in January.

The personal attack on Gen. David Petraeus launched today byMoveon.org is an outrageous and despicable act of slander that everymember of the Congress — Democrat and Republican — has a solemnresponsibility to condemn.

General Petraeus has served hiscountry honorably and selflessly for over thirty-five years. He hasrisked his life in combat and accepted lengthy deployments away fromhis family to defend our nation and its citizens from its enemies. Forthis, he deserves the respect, admiration, and gratitude of everyAmerican — not the disgraceful slander of Moveon.org.

Ithas been widely reported that Moveon.org has worked closely over thepast months with many members of the Democratic Party in coordinatingtheir efforts to derail the strategy that General Petraeus has beenleading in Iraq.

[snip]

As a member of the Senate Democratic caucus, I therefore call on SenateMajority Leader Harry Reid and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi todenounce Moveon.org in no uncertain terms for its Read more →

Why Would DOJ Oppose Net Neutrality … Now?

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Mcjoan has a post on how the DOJ intervened all of a sudden into the FCC’s consideration of Net Neutrality. As she points out, there’s something unusual about DOJ’s intervention: it came after the comment period had closed.

It was a curious filing, as IP Democracy’s Cynthia Brumfield describes:

What’s curious about the filing is that, first, it’s an ex parte, orlate, submission in the FCC’s Inquiry on Broadband Practices, mostcommonly known as the FCC’s net neutrality proceeding. DOJ could havefiled comments along with the rest of the world by July 16, thedeadline for all submissions, but it didn’t. Why DOJ waited until nowis an interesting, probably unanswerable question.

A number of people in the comments suggest DOJ intervened as pay-off for the telecoms’ help on our NSA spying program. But I don’t think that can explain why DOJ missed the deadline. I can understand not wanting to file anti-net neutrality comments right before Congress debates whether or not to give the telecoms retroactive immunity for helping our government to spy on us illegally. So that might explain why DOJ wouldn’t submit its comments in mid-July, when Congress was busy discussing amendments to FISA.

Except that Congress is again about to discuss amendments Read more →

Our Latest Rent-a-Thuggish-Sheikh in Iraq

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Bush_and_risha_2I have little wisdom to add to this Abu Aardvark post, but I wanted to make sure people saw it:

It’s kind of lost in the shuffle of the coming battle over thevarious Iraq reports, but I find myself morbidly fascinated by thephotos and reports which have circulated in the Iraqi press aboutBush’s meeting in Anbar with the controversial head of the AnbarSalvation Council Sattar Abu Risha.   The pictures themselves speakvolumes:  look at Bush’s shit-eating grin and Abu Risha’s detachedcontempt, and figure out which is the supplicant in this scenario. 

An hour with Bush was really quite a coup for Sattar Abu Risha.   The head of the Anbar Salvation Council has a rather unsavory reputation as one of the shadiest figures inthe Sunni community, and as recently as June was reportedly on his way out.  As a report in Time described him,

Sheikh Sattar, whose tribe is notorious for highway banditry, is alsobuilding a personal militia, loyal not to the Iraqi government but onlyto him. Other tribes — even those who want no truck with terrorists —complain they are being forced to kowtow to him. Those who refuse riskbeing branded as friends of al-Qaeda and tossed in jail, or worse. Read more →

The ACLU Begins to Win Back Our Country

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If you haven’t given to the ACLU in a while, here’s the donate button. The ACLU (with some help) has scored some important wins this week, starting with today’s decision that National Security Letters are unconstitutional.

The ACLU said it was improper to issue so-called national securityletters, or NSLs — investigative tools used by the FBI to compelbusinesses to turn over customer information — without a judge’s orderor grand jury subpoena. Examples of such businesses include Internetservice providers, telephone companies and public libraries.

Yusill Scribner, a spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney’s office, said prosecutors had no immediate comment.

JameelJaffer, who argued the case for the ACLU, said the revised law hadwrongly given the FBI sweeping authority to control speech because theagency was allowed to decide on its own — without court review –whether a company receiving an NSL had to remain silent or whether itcould reveal to its customers that it was turning over records.

Here’s the decision for your reading pleasure.

And just the other day, a different judge ruled that DOJ had to provide specifics about the documents it was refusing to turn over in FISA. Maybe the ACLU will pull of a hat trick and get the FISC rulings from earlier Read more →

The Purpose of Homeland Security

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Silly GAO! Silly bloggers! The purpose of the Department of Homeland Security is not to gather together all the resources of homeland security in one coordinated whole. The purpose of DHS is not to improve off of our performance on 9/11. And so you really shouldn’t worry too much about any silly little GAO report.

The GAO states that after the largest government merger in more thanhalf a century, the DHS met fewer than half of its performanceobjectives, or 78 of 171 directives identified by President Bush, Congress and the department’s own strategic plans. The department strongly disputed the report.

In one of its harshest conclusions, the 320-page document states thatthe DHS has made the least progress toward some of the fundamentalgoals identified after the 2001 attacks and again after HurricaneKatrina in August 2005: improving emergency preparedness; capitalizingon the nation’s wealth and scientific prowess through "Manhattan project"-style research initiatives; and eliminating bureaucratic and technical barriers to information-sharing.

Rather, the purpose of DHS is to gather together a bunch of contracting money under one partisan hack to create another government funding outlet for crony capitalists. Which is why Senator Lieberman’s stance on the report is a truly heroic attempt to make more money available Read more →

The Decider on Iran

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Aside from the boorishness of discussing more war with bread crumbs all over your chin, Bush’s pathetic simplification of our relationship with Iran–in a monologue he calls "strategic thinking"–is pretty alarming, even coming from Bush.

"The job of the president," he continued, through an ample wad of breadand sausage, "is to think strategically so that you can accomplish bigobjectives. As opposed to playing mini-ball. You can’t play mini-ballwith the influence we have and expect there to be peace. You’ve gottathink, think BIG. The Iranian issue," he said as bread crumbs tumbledout of his mouth and onto his chin, "is the strategic threat right nowfacing a generation of Americans, because Iran is promoting an extremeform of religion that is competing with another extreme form ofreligion. Iran’s a destabilizing force. And instability in that part ofthe world has deeply adverse consequences, like energy falling in thehands of extremist people that would use it to blackmail the West. Andto couple all of that with a nuclear weapon, then you’ve got adangerous situation. … That’s what I mean by strategic thought.

Okay. The Iranian issue is the strategic threat facing this generation of Americans. As opposed to, say, China? Because, while I don’t advocate bombing the Read more →