Author Archive for: emptywheel
About emptywheel
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.
Entries by emptywheel
White House Brags about Exporting our Pyramid Schemes to Korea
/in Economics/by emptywheelThe list of statements of support for the Korea Trade Agreement the White House sent out last night tells you a lot about what you need to know about the trade agreement. Among others on the list are Tom Donohue, whose laundering of foreign money into election coffers had a significant role in the shellacking Democrats took in November. Then there’s the CEOs of credit card nation, Vikram Pandit and Jamie Dimon. But to me, the most telling endorser of this agreement is Dick DeVos, the CEO of Amway and perennially one of the biggest single funders of the Republican Party.
Mr. Obama’s Very Very Busy Week
/in Economics/by emptywheelSince Obama tried to sneak in a trade agreement making it easier to outsource jobs to Korea after the newspapers have gone to bed, I thought it wise to catalog what a “productive” (in the Frederick Taylor sense) week he has had: Freeze pay of federal workers Attack Social Security Cut taxes for the stinking […]
Jakubec Indicted in Federal Charges, Still No WMD Charge
/in Terrorism/by emptywheelAs TPM reported, yesterday the federal government indicted George Djura Jakubec–the guy who had so many terrorist-favored explosives at his house they’ve decided to burn down the house rather than collect it all. But just two of the charges focus on those explosives. The other six charges focus on four alleged bank robberies, two of […]
The Crooks Trying to Bail-Out Alberto Gonzales
/in Republicans, Torture/by emptywheelLet me start by stating that the words “legal” and “trust” don’t belong on a letterhead with Alberto Gonzales’ name blazoned at the top. But that’s not the most interesting part of the letter soliciting donations for a legal defense fund for AGAG (linked by Main Justice). It’s the number of signers who were deeply […]
The Chicken Shit in Your Neighborhood
/in Culture/by emptywheelLike Mark Bittman, I have rather obsessively been playing with this interactive map, showing where all the factory farms are in this country, broken out by county. In my case, the interest is personal. I moved from the hippie-Ag area around Ann Arbor, MI, to west MI, where much of the bigger Ag is located […]
Joe Lieberman Threatens to Put Dexter Filkins, Judy Miller in Jail to Fearmonger over Wikileaks
/in CIA Leak Case, Intelligence/by emptywheelJoe Lieberman has introduced what he claims to be a law targeted at Wikileaks. “The recent dissemination by Wikileaks of thousands of State Department cables and other documents is just the latest example of how our national security interests, the interests of our allies, and the safety of government employees and countless other individuals are […]
Dick Cheney to Face Criminal Charges
/in Republicans/by emptywheelNot for war crimes or torture, mind you. But for the bribery allegedly committed while at Halliburton that has been bubbling along for years. (h/t scribe) Nigeria will file charges against former U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney and officials from five foreign companies including Halliburton Co. over a $180 million bribery scandal, a prosecutor at […]
DOJ Investigations into Torture as a Diplomatic Stunt
/in Torture/by emptywheelI’m back into moving hell this week, so I haven’t looked as closely at all the WikiLeak cables that have come out. But I wanted to add one point to David Corn’s story on a cable showing the discussions about a potential Spanish prosecution of our torture lawyers. As Corn describes, the cable chronicles a […]
The Leaked Cables I Want to See
/in Intelligence/by emptywheelAs you’ve no doubt heard, on Wednesday, both Amazon.com and Ecuador decided they didn’t want to be associated with Wikileaks. In Amazon.com’s case, it’s not entirely clear they would have known Wikileaks had switched to their servers on Sunday. But on Tuesday, some of Joe Lieberman’s flunkies contacted the company to let them know that […]