"Pro Life" Republicans Trying to Kill 70,000 Children
At the same time as Republicans are trying to force the IRS to audit abortions (even while forbidding use of the word "uterus"), they are trying to cut Obama's request for international aid by 16%. Doing so, USAID Rajiv Shah testified yesterday,…
Goldman's Lies and Jamie Dimon's Piggy Bank
After a drawn out battle to liberate the records of the Fed's discount window lending, they've finally been released. Bloomberg (who led the legal fight to liberate them) has made the records available here.
While it's going to take a while…
Uterus: (Yew-Tur-Us), N, A curse word meaning "not a corporation."
Apparently, the children in the GOP party in Florida are offended that a Democratic state Representative uttered the word "uterus" on the House floor:
During last week's discussion about a bill that would prohibit governments from deducting…
How the "Most Transparent Administration Ever" Worsens Transparency with Transparency Effort
The Director of National Intelligence has floated a "shockingly bad" proposal on how much review GAO will be permitted within the intelligence community. According to Steven Aftergood, because the proposal defines the intelligence community…
Where Will Obama Try Himself for Material Support for Terrorism?
I consider this a wicked brain teaser:
The Obama administration is engaged in a fierce debate over whether to supply weapons to the rebels in Libya, senior officials said on Tuesday, with some fearful that providing arms would deepen American…
Scott Bloch Headed To Prison
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bmazFormer Bush Special Counsel Scott Bloch's attempt to get out of his guilty plea has been denied and he will be sentenced to prison today.
The Mackinac Center's Assault on Academic Freedom Is a Stunt
As TPM first reported, MI's institution of wingnut stupid, the Mackinac* Center, has FOIAed the labor studies departments of three universities.
A free enterprise think tank in Michigan -- backed by some of the biggest names in national conservative…
Mark Bittman: "I stopped eating on Monday"
NYT's food columnist Mark Bittman has given up food:
I stopped eating on Monday and joined around 4,000 other people in a fast to call attention to Congressional budget proposals that would make huge cuts in programs for the poor and hungry.
By…
PJ Crowley Explains Why Manning's Treatment Is Ridiculous, Counterproductive, and Stupid
PJ Crowley has a very important Guardian piece on why he said the treatment of Bradley Manning was ridiculous, counterproductive, and stupid. After explaining that Manning, if convicted, "should spend a long, long time in prison," and then claiming…
Frontline Ignores Most Embarrassing "Cause" of WikiLeaks Leak
Greg Mitchell has a preview of the Frontline piece on Bradley Manning today. He points out that the big "scoop" of the story--that Manning's stepmother called the cops in 2006 after Bradley pulled out a knife during a family fight (but then…
The Colonized Advises the Colonizer on What to Do When You Go Broke
I'm catching up today, so no substantive post yet.
But in the meantime, I wanted to point to this AP piece, describing former Brazilian President Lula warning Portugal not to take the IMF bailout it's about to be offered.
"The IMF won't…
In Re Sealed Case and the Goldsmith Memo
In addition to what I laid out here, comparing the 2006 White Paper with the May 6, 2004 Goldsmith memo on the warrantless wiretap program made me realize that the White Paper relies more frequently on In re: Sealed Case than Goldsmith does,…
Finally! Our Declining Manufacturing Base Becomes a National Security Issue
I have long argued that the way to address the big problems our government is currently all-but-ignoring, not least jobs and climate change, is to talk about how our current policies put us at significant national security risk. If nothing else,…
Are 95% of People Investigated Under New FBI Guidelines Innocent, but Entered into Database?
The NYT liberated the specific answer to a question that Russ Feingold asked in March 2009, but which DOJ didn't respond to until November 2010, when Feingold was a lame duck Senator. At issue were new investigative guidelines Attorney General…
Bill Keller: True = False, But Better False Than Left or Right
As you read Bill Keller's latest exercise in public masturbation, keep in mind how the NYT long refused to correct its credulous and ultimately, factually false, reporting on James O'Keefe III's ACORN videos (Update: here's BradBlog's coverage…
Celebrating 10 Years of the Rights Associated with Marriage
The Third Way thinks it learned something worthwhile by offering a bunch of apparently straight people who have full civil rights a chance to judge the motivations of those who don't.
At Third Way, for example, we went beyond traditional polling…
F1 Trash: Circus Starts Anew, 50 Years On From the Yankee Champion
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bmazWelcome to the start of the 2011 Formula One season. Today we look at the state of the F1 circus at the start of the campaign and take a look back at the memorable 1961 championship season for Phil Hill as well.
In 2004, the White House Considered FISA's Exclusivity Provision to Be Top Secret
As I have noted before, there are a number of paragraphs in the May 6, 2004 Goldsmith memo authorizing warrantless wiretapping that appear to be badly overclassified. Not only were many of the same paragraphs printed, almost verbatim, in unclassified…
The Abu Zubaydah Standard in Obama's Miranda Memo
Here are the claims the Bybee Two memo premised its authorization to torture Abu Zubaydah on:
As we understand it, Zubaydah is one of the highest ranking members of the al Qaeda terrorist organization,
[snip]
Our advice is based upon…
BREAKING!! White Terrorists to Be Treated Like Brown Terrorists!!
All the discussion about the wisdom or legality of Eric Holder's unilateral change to Miranda procedure for "operational terrorists" (Evan Perez story, Charlie Savage story, bmaz post) seems to be missing a stunning detail.
The memo laying…