Posts

I'm going to be a panelist on a conference in Boston a week from tomorrow (Saturday). The conference is: No News Is Bad News A freeand independent press is essential for democracy. The press has aresponsibility to inform citizens about both the policies and theactions of the government and about credible challenges to thosepolicies and actions, to report on conditions that may require new ordifferent government initiatives, and to raise timely questions

From which we can take the following lessons:It's unclear that our political system has the fortitude to save itself anymore.If you're running for President, it's dangerous to take a stand against torture--even if, like John McCain, you've been tortured yourself.It takes a real beating--like the one Alberto Gonzales gave Richard (one good reason not to blog before coffee) Mark Pryor when he AGAG appointed Tim Griffin and attempted to "gum to

I get asked about press passes a lot--I guess because I once had one. And the more I think about it, the more I'm raring for a constitutional challenge to the way many press passes are assigned in this country. You see, historically, just about the only meaning of Freedom of the Press that would have made sense to our founders was freedom from having the government choose official reporters by licensing

I'm going to do a series on Pakistan--and how the blindness of the "serious people" got us into big trouble there. I'm going to use Matt Bai's inaccurate slam on me as a foil to show how the serious people allowed themselves to get distracted from a brewing crisis that carries real consequences.

Telecom lobbyist John Ashcroft is back on the influence circuit again, trying to admonish us that refusing the telecoms immunity will kill people. Only he usually doesn't refer to telecom immunity as such. Instead, he calls on Congress to "terminate" the lawsuits against the telecom companies. There are many complex and difficult issues associated with thesedebates, but whether to terminate the huge lawsuits that have beenfiled against the nation’s major telecommunications carriers

I haven't seen any bears. I found a few beers, though. Here's a quick hits list of things I may return to on Wednesday, when I resume normal blogging.The Pats beat the Colts ... ugly. Shane Harris reveals that the rationale for asking Qwest to break the law before 9/11 was hackers.

David Kurtz reports that the Mukasey nomination will come down to the Senate Judiciary Committee vote (and TPM is tracking votes so far). I believe this sets up some really interesting tension between Bush and Chuck Schumer. You see, events thus far have made it very important for Bush to get Mukasey approved.

Here's an interesting question from Dick Durbin to Mukasey. It addresses whom the Administration felt it needed to give buy-in before nominating Judge Mukasey: 11. According to the Washington Post, before you were confirmed you "spent part of the weekend meeting with leading figures in the conservative world, seeking to allay their concerns about [your] philosophy and suitability for running [the] Justice Department." a.

One of the sub-scandals that came out as part of the USA purge is that DOJ recently revised the manual on Election Offenses. Gonzales' DOJ basically removed the language restricting indictments just prior to elections--precisely the restriction that Hans Von Spakovsky violated when he brought indictments against former ACORN workers just before the 2006 elections.

Here's the letter from Ashcroft, Comey, Goldsmith, and Philbin that came up so often in today's SJC hearing. The key graf is this one, in which four top lawyers say, "to hell with the Courts, we've got two branches plus Cheney, who needs a third?" Finally, we note that we are familiar with the legal analysis conducted within the Executive Branch of intelligence activities allegedly connected to the lawsuits against telecommunications carriers