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
The EPA’s History of William Reilly
/36 Comments/in Energy Policy, Environment/by emptywheelI was going to go clean the house and forget about the BP disaster for a few hours. But then I saw the EPA files on William Reilly, the Republican Obama appointed to co-chair his BP Disaster “Looking Forward” Commission. From the EPA’s institutional perspective, he sounds like a nice guy: a Republican conservationist of […]
Obama’s BP Disaster Commission: Looking Forward with No Subpoenas
/117 Comments/in Energy Policy, Environment/by emptywheelAs promised Obama signed an executive order forming a presidential commission to study the BP disaster today. I thought it’d be instructive to compare what he just formed with what Edward Markey and Lois Capps proposed. Starting with this detail: Sec. 4. Administration. (a) The Commission shall hold public hearings and shall request information including […]
Greenhouse Eats Offal for Breakfast
/36 Comments/in Law/by emptywheelI was at a loss for words about Arlen “Never Know Whether He’s Haggis or Scrapple” Specter’s loss on Tuesday. In the Village, our tragic figures never have the glory of Shakespeare or the Greeks, but rather only the tawdriness of Hollywood, and the whole thing really just made me sad–sad about the state of […]
DC Circuit Helps Obama Turn Bagram into Black Hole
/52 Comments/in Gitmo Show Trials/by emptywheelThe DC Circuit just overturned a District Court opinion that granted three Bagram detainees who were captured outside of Afghanistan (though the government contests this claim for one of the detainees) the right to a habeas proceeding. It based its argument on three factors the Supreme Court listed in deciding in Boumediene that detainees at […]
Congress’ 30-Day Deadline for Rubber-Stamping Exploration Plans
/31 Comments/in Energy Policy, Environment/by emptywheelThe other day, when Sheldon Whitehouse asked Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar why BP had gotten an exemption from the full-blown NEPA process from which it presumably should have been categorically excluded, Salazar referenced a 30-day deadline from Congress to approve exploration plans. Senator, there has been significant environmental review, including Environmental Impact Statements that […]
The Inexplicable Timing of Dennis Blair’s Ouster
/48 Comments/in Intelligence, Terrorism/by emptywheelI’m thoroughly unsurprised by the news of Dennis Blair’s ouster. After all, it’s an impossible job that appears to serve one purpose: to provide a deck chair you can rearrange every two years as a scapegoat for our continuing inability to detect terrorists even with all the surveillance toys we’ve got. (Actually, if you’re Michael […]
How the Government Explains Uninterrupted Access to Faisal Shahzad
/24 Comments/in Terrorism, Unitary Executive/by emptywheelClose to midnight on May 3, authorities arrested Faisal Shahzad for attempting to bomb Times Square. Over the following two weeks, the authorities questioned Shahzad, even as Pakistani intelligence detained Shahzad’s family members. The government told the press that Shahzad had waived his right to be charged in court and (though no one focused on […]
BP Goes There: “No One Could Have Predicted…”
/48 Comments/in Energy Policy, Environment/by emptywheelYeah, I know. Of course BP is saying, “no one could have predicted.” Of course, BP had a big incentive not to predict these things: one of the reasons it was able to get an exemption from an individualized Environmental Impact Study is that it estimated the largest possible spill from this well to be […]
John Hall Questions BP’s Greenwashing Campaign
/28 Comments/in Energy Policy, Environment/by emptywheelIn yesterday’s Transportation Committee hearing, John Hall hammered BP American President Lamar McKay about something a number of others have, as well: the amount of money BP has spent on greenwashing of late. The answer? $10-12 million last year and $20 million this year. So it’s roughly probably about the same or maybe a little […]