The State Secret Protection Act

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emptywheel
A number of Congressmen have submitted the State Secret Protection Act, modeled on CIPA, in an attempt to rein in the use of State Secrets to avoid criminal prosecution.

CEO's Eating Their Own Toxic Products

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emptywheel
The Peanut CEO's response to being invited to eat his own toxic product was invoking his Fifth Amendment Rights. But the bank CEOs? No one has yet asked them to eat their own toxic products.

Maybe We've Got Each Other By the Nuts...

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emptywheel
Is Geithner trying to recruit "private investors" in the form of Sovereign Wealth Funds by threatening to devalue their significant stash of dollars with inflation?

Senate Stimulus: Steal from the Poor to Give to the Affluent

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emptywheel
ProPublica has done a comparison of the House and Senate stimulus packages which shows in stark fashion the degree to which the Senate bill steals from the poor to give to the affluent. The Senate bill gives more in tax cuts to the upper middle class--in the form of the AMT patch and the house flipping subsidy--than they give in all the programs targeted to the poor.

Foul Balls: The Legal Fixation On Athletes

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emptywheel
The Washington DC juggernaut is at it again with the persecution/prosecution of athletes. Today it is announced that charges have been filed against Houston Astros, and former Baltimore Orioles and Oakland Athletics, shortstop Miguel Tejada. Funny that they have time for this rinky-dink stuff, but not to go after Alberto Gonzales and other serious malfeasants.
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Leahy: Congress Will Do Truth Commission with or without POTUS

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emptywheel
Patrick Leahy says Congress will do a Truth Commission with or without the Obama Administration.

The MI GOP: Leading Their National Party to Twit Failure

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emptywheel
The Chair of the VA GOP just on-upped Crazy Pete Hoekstra in his Twitter idiocy: He botched an attempt to flip the Senate by tweeting about it first.

Is Geithner Planning on a Public-Private Partnership with the Sovereign Wealth Funds?

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emptywheel
Tim Geithner used the gimmick of a public-private partnership to avoid nationalizing the banks today. But that gimmick may well depend on the continued investment from Sovereign Wealth Funds--the investment arms of nations like China, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Kuwait, South Korea, and UAE. That seems to present many more potential problems down the road.

Mary Beth Buchanan's Going Away Present: Jack Murtha?

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emptywheel
Is Mary Beth Buchanan refusing to step down as US Attorney because she intends to take down Jack Murtha before she leaves?

Boy, That Anthrax Attack Sure Led to an Expansion of Our Anthrax Program, Huh

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emptywheel
At the still-unsolved anthrax attacks in 2001, people were raising concerns that we were breaking our treaty obligations not to do such research. But the attack led directly to a ten-fold expansion of our program.

USAMRIID Can’t Keep Track of Its Microbes

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emptywheel
Now, what do you make of the fact that USAMRIID, the lab at which Bruce Ivins was alleged to have made the anthrax used in the 2001 attacks, is having problems cataloging and tracking their high-risk microbes and biomaterials (h/t Danger Room)? The…

Pat Leahy Calls for Truth Commission

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emptywheel
I want prosecutions for Bush era wrong-doing. But barring that, we need to have some accounting for what was done. Today, Pat Leahy joined others in calling for such an investigation.
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BREAKING: Obama Continues Bush Policy On State Secrets

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emptywheel
Earlier this morning, Looseheadprop wrote about the case of Binyam Mohamed, the British subject tortured at the hands of the United States at Gitmo, including having his genitals carved selectively with a scalpel. The Mohamed case is of critical significance for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is the fact that there was an oral argument in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco this morning in which the Obama Administration has shown its true colors and continued the assertion of state secrets to conceal US torture policy.

USAMRIID Can't Keep Track of Its Microbes

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emptywheel
Remember how one key to the FBI case against Bruce Ivins is their claim that only he had access to the flask that contained the anthrax strain used in the attack--and that they're sure that there were no other flasks of the strain? Well, it turns out that Ivins' lab, USAMRIID, shut down all research on Friday because they don't have a good inventory of all their high-risk microbes.

Comings and Goings and Dealings at the SEC

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emptywheel
One of the contemptuous SEC officials who pretty much blew off Congress last week will be resigning today. And, all of a sudden, the SEC is going after Madoff for financial penalties, perhaps reflecting the elimination of Chris Cox-era rules that made it hard to do so.

The Surge's Virgin Birth

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emptywheel
Thomas Ricks tells a tale of how Ray Odierno is the father of the surge. Problem is, Ricks' story still has obvious holes, leaving open the question of who actually birthed the plan.

The Grassley-Isakson-Coburn-Collins-Bad Nelson Bill

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emptywheel
We really shouldn't be calling the Senate stimulus bill the Collins-Nelson compromise bill. We ought to be calling it the Grassley-Isakson-Coburn-Collins-Bad Nelson bill, to memorialize where all the stupid comes from in the bill.
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