Entries by emptywheel

What a Difference a Year Makes

I’m having a little bit of deja vu this morning. When I did my post on the background to Cheney’s Old Man Shooting Party, I reviewed the fundraiser that attracted Bush Pioneers from all over the country–including Katharine “Where’s Waldo of Republican Warmongering” Armstrong, who owns Dick’s shooting range–the annual fundraiser at the Broken Spoke Ranch.

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How Many Terrorists Does One F-16 Get You?

Fred Kaplan tries to teach BushCo a lesson about cooperating with unsavory regimes by pointing out the central role Pakistan played in yesterday’s big terrorist bust.

There’s a broader lesson here, and it speaks to the Bushadministration’s present jam throughout the Middle East and in otherdanger zones. If the British had adopted the same policy toward dealingwith Pakistan that Bush has adopted toward dealing with, say, Syria orIran (namely, it’s an evil

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GOP Domestic Spying and "Trepidation"

Amidst the hoopla about threats to America yesterday, a Walter Pincus story about a different kind of threat to America kind of fell through the cracks. Pincus reported that the top two officials of the Counterintelligence Field Activity, CIFA, abruptly announced their resignation (effective the end of the month). Justin Rood at TPMM managed to get a copy of the resignation email, which basically described how two guys decided to resign

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What Would Joe Do for $17,000?

Scout Prime has a really superb post up on this WaPo article, which in turn talks about the big contractors that failed miserably in their Katrina response, but which have just gotten new contracts for further hurricaine response. From Scout Prime’s post:

Companies that received 4 FEMA Katrina contracts “repeatedly faulted”by the DHS inspector general, congressional auditors and the Senatereceived 4 new FEMA contracts for future hurricane work.

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Marty Marty Marty

I’m going to take a guess and say that Marty Peretz has been designated as the guy who will give Joementum cover for joining the Republican party, in fact if not in name. I say that for two reasons. First, there’s this little bit of nuttiness:

Worse can besaid of Bill Clinton’s stumping in Connecticut for Joe (and Hillary’sendorsement, too.) When Clinton came into the state, Lieberman andLamont were running dead even

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Unsound Methods

Via Steve Gilliard I see we’re still using unsound methods to create ourselves some informers.

The story of the San Francisco resident [Yassine Ouassif] — a security guard andpart-time engineering student — is in some ways unremarkable. He is oneof many immigrants investigated, yet not charged or deported, in thepost-Sept. 11 era.

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How to Lose

About one thing the squalling Neocon Democrats are consistent. They claim that their positions–centrism and hawkishness–are the winning positions. But they ignore that in both recent elections and recent wars, those “winning” policies brought Democrats and the US only failure.

Which is about all you need to know about Marty Peretz’ latest straw man op-ed, beyond the fact that is filled with nasty name-calling.

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Dot Dot Dot, Dash Dash Dash, Dot Dot Dot

Oh man. I can think of no greater, pathetic, fitting, hysterical, sad symbol for the state of our country than the news that the NSA is running out of power.

The demand for electricity to operate its expanding intelligencesystems has left the high-tech eavesdropping agency on the verge ofexceeding its power supply, the lifeblood of its sprawling 350-acreFort Meade headquarters, according to current and former intelligenceofficials.

Agency officials anticipated the problem nearly a

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Pat Lang's Four Questions and Hezbollah

What a dirty trick Pat Lang played, sending his friends a list of four issues with the US-French peace plan, but not addressing those four issues himself.France and the United States are not at war with each other. They cannot agree to end the fighting.Hizbullah thinks it is winning both tactically and strategically.Why will it agree to anything other than a cease-fire in place?Such a cease-fire will be a victory

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Can You Hear Me NOW?

The NYT’s blockbuster story on Brent Wilkes is most interesting, IMO, for the delicate dance of threat and technical legal denial it portrays. Wilkes leaves little doubt as to why he agreed to the interview.

Ms. Luque said her client’s legal problems were a battle that he “will fight and win.”

Shesaid federal prosecutors told her in January that they were notinterested in Mr.

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