The $258 of Intelligence You Bought This Year
Congratulations to Steven Aftergood, whose persistent efforts to get the government to reveal the topline intelligence budget have finally paid off. Yesterday, the government officially announced that it spent $80.1 billion on intelligence in…
The Boys of War
One more boy got dragged into the horror of our country's war on terror today: Tanner Speer, the 8 or 9 year old son of Christopher Speer, whose death Omar Khadr confessed to. Tanner's mother read a note the boy wrote for (I think) Memorial…
Nobody Can Move for a New Job
Well, apparently just 6.9% can and did.
Just 6.9 percent of job seekers who found employment in the third quarter relocated for the new position. That was down from a relocation rate of 13.4 percent in the same quarter a year ago, according…
Some Questions on Principal Reductions
Both Felix Salmon and DDay are arguing that if the banks lower principal on some unspecified set of loans, it'll fix the "mortgage mess." Now, I agree that loan modifications are one of the things we ought to strive for to solve a number of…
Fidelity National Drops Nationwide Indemnity Requirement
This whole title insurance thing is getting confusing.
Fidelity National Financial Inc., the largest U.S. title insurer, canceled a requirement for lenders to guarantee proper foreclosure procedures amid “heightened review” processes…
"Profound Equities with Yemen in Terms of Counter-Terrorism" Justify Child Soldiers?
As the prosecutors in Omar Khadr's sentencing hearing try to undercut the testimony of a defense witness who believes Khadr can be rehabilitated, not least because of his age, an anonymous White House official justifies to Josh Rogin Obama's…
The Logical Outcome of Juan Williams' Legitimization of Irrational Fears
As Adam Serwer noted, a family apparently dressed in Muslim garb was removed from a plane and questioned by the FBI today.
Some cannot help but think their appearance had something to do with a family's removal from a plane Tuesday morning…
Polish Prosecutor Looks Backward; US Prosecutor Lets Statute of Limitations Tick Away
ACLU reports that Rahim al-Nashiri's lawyer's request to include their client's treatment at a black site in Poland in the country's investigation has been successful.
The Polish prosecutor will investigate the detention and torture of Abd…
NOW Fidelity National Is Heading in the Right Direction
According to MarketTicker via 4closureFraud, Fidelity National has done the thing (at least in Florida) that makes it demand that mortgage servicers warrant against mistakes-otherwise-known-as-fraud meaningful.
Eh, I have an update from Fidelity…
Khadr Prosecutors Trying Desperately to Hide Bigoted Article
I eagerly await Jeff Kaye's take on the defense cross-examination of Dr. Michael Welner, whose anti-Muslim bias Jeff laid out here. Thus far, the defense has shown Welner didn't read one of the studies he relied on for his Khadr profile, shown…
Do You Get the Feeling We're the Adversaries Deputy Defense Secretary Lynn Is Talking About?
After having managed the Wikileak dump as an opportunity to dial up another NYT A1 fearmongering Michael Gordon article against Iran, DOD has turned to complaining about Wikileaks again. But given the vagueness described in this complaint, I…
"We've never lost complete command and control and functionality of 50 ICBMs"
Only, as of this weekend, we have completely lost command and control of a whole bunch of ICBMs.
President Obama was briefed this morning on a power failure at F.E. Warren Air Force Base in Wyoming that took 50 nuclear intercontinental ballistic…
The Same Day US Gets Guilty Plea from Child Soldier, It Exempts Yemen and Others from Restrictions on Using Child Soldiers
The asshole in charge of shredding our Constitution has a really sick sense of humor. Yesterday, the same day the government got Omar Khadr to plead guilty to crimes that aren't crimes that occurred when he was a child, Obama issued this memorandum.
By…
One Reason We Don't Hear about Income Inequality: Media Execs Among the Richest
David Cay Johnston has a must-read piece on what the most recent payroll tax data shows about growing income inequality. He shows that total wages have fallen 5% since 2007, largely because so many fewer people are making any income.
Every…
Khadr's Confession and the Lies We Tell
Omar Khadr's confession makes me sad. Sad that we insisted on prosecuting a child soldier for defending himself. But also sad for the lies we included in his plea deal to prop up the government's dubious stories about Khadr and detainees generally.
For…
Debbie Stabenow v. Ben Nelson; Cherry Orchards v. Con Agra
This could be an interesting, beneficial outcome of this year's election: Debbie Stabenow ascending to Chair the Agriculture Committee.
As of his last calculation, Nate Silver gives the Democrats an 84% chance of keeping the Senate. But they'll…
The Investigative Process
Adam Levitin, one of the first people to tell investors how the foreclosure crisis may just point to much larger problems introduced by securitization, has this to say about what we need to do to get out of this mess.
I was glad to hear Ben…
How Does Frago 242 Relate to Our Collaboration with the Wolf Brigade?
The biggest headline from Friday’s Wikileaks dump (everywhere but the NYT, anyway) is that the “US ignored torture.” But the way in which an official policy ignoring torture was followed by collaboration with one of Iraq’s torture squads…
Wellstone Accused of Voter Fraud, Threatened with Death, Day before His Plane Crash
There's absolutely no reason to think that the barely literate postcard sent to Paul Wellstone's office the day before his plane crash had anything to do with his death.
The FBI files [released in FOIA to Minnesota Public Radio] reveal, for…
Are Iran's Bags of Euros for Daudzai Bigger than CIA's Bags of Dollars for Karzai's Brother?
The outage of the day is the report that Hamid Karzai's chief of staff, Umar Daudzai, receives a steady stream of bags of Euros from Iran.
One evening last August, as President Hamid Karzai wrapped up an official visit to Iran, his personal…
