Marcy Wheeler is an independent journalist writing about national security and civil liberties. She writes as emptywheel at her eponymous blog, publishes at outlets including Vice, Motherboard, the Nation, the Atlantic, Al Jazeera, and appears frequently on television and radio. She is the author of Anatomy of Deceit, a primer on the CIA leak investigation, and liveblogged the Scooter Libby trial.
Marcy has a PhD from the University of Michigan, where she researched the “feuilleton,” a short conversational newspaper form that has proven important in times of heightened censorship. Before and after her time in academics, Marcy provided documentation consulting for corporations in the auto, tech, and energy industries. She lives with her spouse in Grand Rapids, MI.
In their stories on the way the NYPD’s intelligence programs profile religious and ethnic minorities, Goldman and Apuzzo have repeatedly noted that the only entity providing oversight of the programs is the City Council. The department has dispatched undercover officers, known as “rakers,” into minority neighborhoods as part of a human mapping program, according to […]
Last week, Ari Berman chronicled what he termed a war on voting. All told, a dozen states have approved new obstacles to voting. Kansas and Alabama now require would-be voters to provide proof of citizenship before registering. Florida and Texas made it harder for groups like the League of Women Voters to register new voters. […]
I decided to compare these numbers after I read this story about an Iraqi veteran patrolling a suburban VA golf course, armed with a Glock, mace, and handcuffs, making $16/hour (h/t Balloon Juice): Total cops in the US (2009): 883,600; median wage (2008): $51,410 Total security guards (2009): 1,028,830; median wage: $23,820 Total prisoners (2009): 1,613,740 […]
There are a number of reasons to read this entire article–Republican Mike Lofgren’s explanation of why the TeaParty convinced him to leave his congressional staffer position after 30 years: the pithy descriptions of Republican nut-jobs (like the quote I’ve taken for my title, which he uses to describe Steve King, Michele Bachman, Paul Broun, Patrick […]
Journalists and human rights groups found a collection of damning–but not the most damning–records of Libya’s cooperation with the CIA and MI6, all wrapped up in binders with labels marking CIA and UK collaboration. Documents found at the abandoned office of Libya’s former spymaster appear to provide new details of the close relations the Central […]
Because after the bomb they just dropped on the finance world, I would imagine Geithner will be busy. Here’s the listof banks they’re suing: Ally Financial Inc. f/k/a GMAC, LLC Bank of America Corporation Barclays Bank PLC Citigroup, Inc. Countrywide Financial Corporation Credit Suisse Holdings (USA), Inc. Deutsche Bank AG First Horizon National Corporation General […]
American Banker has an article suggesting that Tom Miller will be able to use the results of HUD’s investigations into servicing problems to craft a settlement with the banks. The state attorneys general have a secret weapon in their negotiations with the largest mortgage servicers: the results of a HUD investigation into the banks’ robo-signing […]
I’m a bit slow in revving up today; I’ve changed my main Farmer’s Market day from Saturday to Friday (not actually a good crowd-avoidance strategy before a 3-day weekend, as it turns out) and it has thrown my rhythm a bit. So while I’ve been learning how this year’s big rains make for a bunch […]
[Youtube]3KmfXupi9cg[/Youtube] The CEO of T-Mobile thinks the government, in suing to stop its merger with AT&T, simply didn’t understand how merging with AT&T would benefit customers. (h/t mistermix) By now you have heard the news that the Department of Justice (DOJ) has filed a lawsuit to block the AT&T and T-Mobile merger in U.S. District […]
The 9/11 Commission released a 10-year report card on the recommendations they made back in 2004. And one of three recommendations that remains entirely unfulfilled–the only one that is entirely the responsibility of the executive branch–is implementing a board to defend civil liberties. “[T]here should be a board within the executive branch to oversee adherence […]