Entries by emptywheel

The Five Star Hotel Was on the Taypayer’s Dime

That five star hotel that Tommy K was staying in in Greece? You and I are paying for it, it looks like.

A federal judge allowed a New York man who has admitted bribingformer North County U.S. Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham to remain free onbond, after an Assistant U.S. Attorney said at a hearing this morningthat the man’s recent trip to Greece was at the direction of federalagents.

U.S.

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Why Keisler

Wildarseguess here. But I have a hypothesis for why Bush pulled his Clement-Keisler headfake this morning.

Recall that, just last week, BushCo made an unusual intervention into the FCC’s deliberations over Net Neutrality.

Well, a lot of people have noted that Keisler’s most notable achievement at DOJ was his role in spiking the tobacco settlement.

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Clement Headfake

So Paul Clement was Acting Attorney General for all of four hours this morning. But then Bush replaced him with the former (re-current?) head of the Civil Division, who had resigned but I guess is sticking around for a while (hat tip Pontificator).

It’s a pivotal time for our nation, and it’s vital that theposition of Attorney General be filled quickly.

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Mukasey

A lot of you have asked what I think of the Mukasey nomination. I’m in the middle of day job stuff at the moment, so let me point you to what Glenn and looseheadprop have to say on Mukasey (which is really more valuable than what I could say anyway, since they’re the ones with JD after their name–LHPJD; it’s like a secret code!

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Security

If you win the battle to keep the troops in Iraq, but then get forced to withdraw your pet security firm, have you actually won the battle to keep troops in Iraq?

The Iraqi government said Monday that it was pulling the license of anAmerican security firm allegedly involved in the fatal shooting ofcivilians during an attack on a U.S.

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Too Late

Two more exhibits in too little, too late to keep the Republican party in the mainstream. First, Chuck Hagel calling General Petraeus General Betray-Us Bush’s used car salesman.

Maher: Isn’t a dirty trick on the American people when you send a military man out there to basically do a political sell-job?”

Hagel: It’s not only a dirty trick, but it’s dishonest, it’s hypocritical, it’s dangerous and irresponsible.The fact is this is not Petraeus’

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12 People

The AP reveals how it is that a top legal scholar can be un-hired by the University that just signed him.

A conservative Los AngelesCounty politician asked about two dozen people in an e-mail last monthhow to prevent the University of California, Irvine from hiringrenowned liberal scholar Erwin Chemerinsky as its founding law schooldean, a spokesman for the politician said Friday.

Making Chemerinsky the head of the law school “would be likeappointing al-Qaida

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Domestic Spying

I’ve got more questions about the Patriots spy scandal than I do answers. Will the Pats do measurably worse now that the league is going to be watching for them videotaping their opponents defensive calls?Are the great halftime coaches really just users of illegal spy techniques, as is the logical progression of Brian Dawkins’ thoughts?

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Public Intellectual

Kudos to Hugh Hewitt and Douglas Kmiec, who criticized Michael Drake’s decision to “un-hire” Erwin Chemerinsky.

“Even though I agree with him on only about one out of 100 issues, Ibelieve he is one of the top legal minds in the United States,” saidHugh Hewitt, a law professor at Chapman University and host of a dailyradio talk show.

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It’s All Zapruder’s Fault

Jay Rosen posts and comments on a letter from an anonymous member of the WH press corps. Said anonymous journalist tells you everything you need to know about the WH press corps: It’s all Zapruder’s fault. Zapruder, of course, was the guy–the only guy–who filmed all of Kennedy’s assassination. And apparently, the press corps has to subject itself to continual abuse from the Administration because once upon a time, some average

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