Jello Jay Gets Into the Act

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emptywheel
Following up on Henry Waxman's attempt to gather information, Jello Jay has started seeking info on the insurance industry as well.

Will the Release of SpecialOps Detainee Names to ICRC End our Policy of Disappearances?

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emptywheel
DOD has changed their policies on detainees, which at least on paper means detainees can be kept in Special Operations camps for just two weeks before they will be identified to the Red Cross.

Republicans Are Really Good at Clearing Brush

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emptywheel
If you follow me on twitter, you know that I've been anticipating the Republican attack on the Obama vacation by pointing out what Bush was doing 8 years ago (ignoring the PDB) or Cheney was doing 7 (claiming Iraq was close to having nukes). So I want to give Andrea Mitchell kudos for--as I hoped reporters would do yesterday--calling out this bogus attack.

Waxman's Methods

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emptywheel
While Rahm has been loudly flailing in his attempts to push through health care, Henry Waxman has been preparing for battle.

Marc Ambinder's Cave

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emptywheel
I was going to leave well enough alone--to take Marc Ambinder's limited apology for labeling DFHs who believed the threat level system to be politicized as "gut haters," accept that he is at least thinking about these things, and move on. But given Ambinder's follow-up, I'd like to use it to make a point of Village journalism methods. But there are a couple of passages from his post that really embody the things that--as I said before-make his take on the threat levels an excellent example of what I
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Hiding al-Nashiri's Torture

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emptywheel
I've been saying for over 18 months that the IG Report was the precipitating factor in the CIA's decision to destroy the torture tapes. It looks increasingly like I was right.

The Republican Stimulus Package

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emptywheel
Why does the Republican party keep paying its leaders to have affairs?
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Intimidating the Defense Attorneys

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emptywheel
It was bad enough that the Bush Administration did away with attorney-client privilege via their warrantless wiretap program. Now the Obama Administration appears to be trying to intimidate lawyers defending Gitmo detainees by threatening them with prosecution for trying to ascertain the identities of those involved in abusing their clients.

Why Send Andy Card and Frances Fragos Townsend to Rebut Ridge?

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emptywheel
To rebut Tom Ridge's confirmation that the terror alert system was politicized, the Dead-Enders have rolled out the woman who was not told about the warrantless wiretap program and the guy who rolled out the Iraq War like a new season of clothing.
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Rick Scott Aspires to Do as al Qaeda Did

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emptywheel
In 2001, terrorists capitalized on George Bush's inattention and extended vacation to strike at America. Now, Rich Scott's Conservatives for Patients' Rights believes it can adopt al Qaeda's tactics by attacking the President and our country while he's on vacation. "Even on vacation, the President will get no quarter on the public option from Conservatives for Patients' Rights." And they're running an ad that somewhat bizarrely tries to mock Obama's vacation. There

Christie's AUSAs Still Won't Respond to Corzine's FOIA Requests

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emptywheel
Jon Corzine's campaign wants some more information about just what Chris Christie was doing at the US Attorney's office while he was handing out multi-million dollar deals to his friends. So the Corzine campaign has submitted 18 FOIA requests for information on Christie's tenure as US Attorney. They have submitted them, each time, to the Executive Office of US Attorneys, which keeps kicking the FOIAs down to the NJ US

700,000 Cars in One Month

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emptywheel
Cash for Clunkers will, on Monday at 8 PM, have silica liquid injected in its engine and stopped. The U.S. government will shut down its cash-for-clunkers program at 8 p.m. Monday, in a bid to avoid car dealers and shoppers from claiming more than the $3 billion set aside for the program.The decision means that the program originally expected to generate 250,000 vehicle sales over three months will have likely triggered more

Scahill on the Blackwater Rent-an-Assassin Service

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emptywheel
Scahill argues that the Blackwater revelations mean Blackwater had a more integral part in building the Bush era counterterrorism strategy than did Congress.

Ambinder: Sorry I Was So Stupid, But I Was Right To Be Stupid

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emptywheel
Maybe I'm just getting tired of Ambinder's concern trolling. But his recent post excusing himself for being a chump on terrorist alerts really encapsulates what is wrong with journalism.

Blackwater's Nay-Sayer in HPSCI: Crazy Pete Hoekstra

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emptywheel
You know how Crazy Pete Hoekstra has led the chorus of those who claim Leon Panetta should never have briefed Congress on the secret assassination squads? To his credit, he's doing it even now that Blackwater's role has been revealed. “I think there was a little more drama and intrigue than was warranted,” said Representative Peter Hoekstra of Michigan, the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee. Um, yeah.
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The Wind And The Lion: Ted Kennedy Mans Up To Mortality

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emptywheel
Literally generations of politically active American citizens have been motivated to study and participate in the process by the men, and women, in the Kennedy family (I am one). The last of a kind is nearing the end, and he is thinking of his constituents until his last breath.
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