NSA Managers Modified or Supressed Studies on ThinThread and Trailblazer
As bmaz reported while I was looking at flowers in Northern MI, POGO liberated via FOIA the Inspector General report central to the Thomas Drake case.
While much of the report is redacted (except for, perhaps unsurprisingly, a number of comments…
James Risen's Community of Interest
I'll probably have several things to say about the James Risen filings of the past week. But for the moment, I wanted to focus on his assertions about the government's access of his phone records.
Remember, these assertions are not new: Josh…
Trash Talk: Fox TV Sucks a Bag Of Big Honking Salted Dicks
Americans were denied the ability to watch the Grand Prix of Europe live and have no alternative but to watch it on tape delay long after the checkered flag dropped for Sebastian Vettel. This is just craven and malignant jackassery by Fox.
BoGlo Proclaims RomneyCare Successful at Transferring Wealth from Consumers to Big Health Care
Okay, I'm getting ahead of myself.
The central thesis of this Boston Globe article is not, in fact, that RomneyCare effected a wealth transfer from consumers to big health care.
Rather, the article proclaims that RomneyCare "achieved its…
Anonymous Sources Claim Polish President Didn't Know of Torture Site
Remember the Polish prosecutor who got fired as he was preparing to charge top members of the Democratic Left Alliance party for their complicity in America's torture site? The same newspaper that broke that story--Gazeta Wyborcza--just reported…
New York's Enlightenment & Some Thoughts On Perry Prop8 Case
New York gets it done on marriage equality, and it will have many profound, and positive, ramifications for the Perry Prop 8 case.
Thomas Drake Proved To Be Bloody Well Right
Thanks to POGO's FOIA release here, we now know that not only was the persecution of Tom Drake by the DOJ completely bogus and vindictive, Tom Drake was bloody well right about TRAILBLAZER versus THIN THREAD to start with. Who couldda predicted?
Russ Feingold Was Proved Fucking Right
A number of you have been asking for my intro of Russ Feingold last Thursday. Here it is. Now that I've had a chance to see it I realize I had a number of misstatements (and a number of places where I glossed necessary detail--I guess I…
Still Fishing
If you haven't already figured this out, after Netroots Nation I dragged bmaz up to northern Minnesota to count lakes, counting backwards from 10,000. We only got down to 9,976, but I understand there are actually far more than 10,000 lakes…
Obama War Powers Treachery and The Founders' Remedies
If our society and political discourse cannot seriously discuss impeachment for the type of executive perfidy demonstrated by Barack Obama in relation to Libya and the War Powers Resolution, and could not discuss it during the Bush/Cheney crimes, then the impeachment provision of the Constitution has no meaning and should be stricken.
Going Astray - Obama and Nato Bombings in Libya
EW and probably bmaz as well will likely have more to say on this one when they free up.
Charlie Savage reported on Friday that Obama rejected advice from both Jeh Johnson (Pentagon general counsel) and, even more significantly, Caroline Krass…
Netroots Nation Recap: Saving the Middle Class
Sorry to be AWOL for most of Netroots Nation. bmaz says I've been offline for the last few days because we've been drunk and busy, but it seems to me I've just been incredibly busy for five days straight. There were a lot of conversations, but…
Feingold For Governor: Scott Walker & WI GOP's War On Good Beer
Scott Walker and the Wisconsin Republicans are declaring war on quality craft beer, and that is why I am supporting Russ Feingold in a recall election against Walker, and you should too.
Another NSA-Private Sector Partnership
Ellen Nakashima reports on a partnership between the NSA, defense contractors, and their Internet service providers to find hackers before they hack.
The National Security Agency is working with Internet service providers to deploy a new generation…
Netroots Nation: Marcy Wheeler Introduces Guest of Honor Russell Feingold
Please join me, Firedoglake, Netroots Nation, and the progressive enterprise as Marcy Wheeler welcomes one of us: Senator Russell Feingold.
DOJ: Calling Out Government Lies Would Endanger National Security
No matter how you look at this attempt to suppress and ignore the WikiLeaks material, it is bizarre and somewhat comical. The WikiLeaks Gitmo Detainee files genie is out of the bottle; it would behoove the US government to join the battle and arguments on the merits and facts instead of trying to cram the genie back in and play hide the bottle.
Investigating Juan Cole Rather than Ahmed Chalabi
James Risen reports that Glen Carle, a former CIA officer, says the Bush Administration was looking for dirt on Juan Cole in 2005. In one incident, Carle's supervisor asked whether the CIA had anything on Cole.
Mr. Carle said that sometime…
Hassan Ghul's World Travels
Adam Goldman significantly fleshes out the story of what happened to Hassan Ghul after he was picked up in Iraq in 2004. It appears that Ghul may have been freed by the Pakistanis sometime after January 2007 because of his ties to Lashkar-e-Taiba,…
Jon Tester: Get Out of My Trash
Jon Tester is, to the best of my knowledge, the first member of Congress to complain about FBI's new investigative guidelines allowing agents to--among other thing--search potential informants' trash.
As a strong believer in government accountability…
Robert Mueller: Civil Liberties Don't Need a "Fresh" Review
This exchange last Thursday between Senator Al Franken and FBI Director Robert Mueller was frustrating enough--Senator Franken's questions were the only ones on civil liberties Mueller faced, and the Director seemed pretty miffed to be questioned…
