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.
The White House was okay with Robert Gibbs attacking the Professional Left and their Catfood Commission Co-Chair attacking, well, everyone. But they wouldn’t let Steven Rattner’s claim that Rahm Emanuel had attacked the UAW go unanswered. Rattner depicts White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel as a force to be reckoned with who disparaged unions […]
At Rosalind’s request, I’m putting up this working thread on the emails that OLC just turned over to CREW. There’s nothing all that exciting there because this search did not include “paper or electronic documents of Mr. Yoo available elsewhere in the Department.” Like on the classified servers. I’m actually on strike until I get […]
The day after Obama declared victory (sort of) in Iraq, the Administration announced a whole package of sanctions against the Pakistani Taliban, Tehrik-e Taliban. The sanctions: Designate TTP as a Foreign Terrorist Organization Designate TTP as a Special Designated Global Terrorist Organization Designate TTP’s two leaders, Hakimullah Mehsud and Wali Ur Rehman, as Special Designated […]
In honor of Steve Rattner’s revelation that Rahm Emanuel wandered around during the auto bailout saying “fuck the UAW,” I’ve renamed the “Cadillac tax” the “Fuck the UAW” tax. Which is appropriate timing given that the Kaiser Family Foundation is out with a study today they should have done during the health care debate, showing […]
Following closely on the reporting that Wall Street has resigned itself to having Elizabeth Warren recess appointed to head the Consumer Finance Protection Board, the WaPo reports that she has backed out of teaching a Harvard class at the last minute. “I’m writing to let you know that Professor Jerry Frug will be teaching your […]
In 30 days, changes to Part II (Rules) and IV (Punitive Articles) of the Courts Martial Manual will go into effect. Only, we don’t know what those changes are because the annex that describes them appears to be classified. All we get is this Executive Order noting the change–and explaining that nothing in yesterday’s order […]
Yesterday, the SEC told ratings agencies they mean business. They will prosecute agencies for fraud. In the future. It did so in a report of investigation into explicit fraud on the part of Moody’s in which the SEC declined to prosecute for jurisdictional reasons. At issue is a programming error that caused Moody’s to give […]
Charlie Savage noted an interesting part of yesterday’s DC Circuit ruling upholding the detention of Ghaleb Nassar al-Bihani: it explicitly disagreed with earlier assertions made by Janice Rogers Brown and Brett Kavanaugh that international law could not bind presidential authority. On Tuesday, all nine judges on United States Court of Appeals for the District of […]
Jake Tapper hammered Robert “a recovery that got our economy moving again” Gibbs yesterday on whether the Administration is not doing more for the economy because of political paralysis. After four attempts to avoid answering the question or focus exclusively on blaming Republicans, Gibbs finally suggested there wasn’t all that much the Administration can do […]
From a joint press release: The American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) today filed a lawsuit challenging the government’s asserted authority to carry out “targeted killings” of U.S. citizens located far from any armed conflict zone. The authority contemplated by the Obama administration is far broader than what the Constitution […]