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Justice denied

Wednesday, August 06, 2008 10:12 PM
Salim Hamdan was convicted today of providing material support to terrorists in a sham kangaroo court convened at Guantanamo. His "trial" included the admission of inflammatory, irrelevant evidence such as the 1998 African embassy bombings and the 9/11
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David Neiwert on the TVUUC shooting

Tuesday, July 29, 2008 9:50 PM
David Neiwert, who has written extensively about eliminationist rhetoric from the right wing against liberals, had this to say about Sunday's tragedy in Knoxville: In reality, of course, rhetoric like this has historically played a critical role in some
Posted by RussMcBee | 4 Comments

The day after

Monday, July 28, 2008 8:50 PM
Yesterday, a senseless act of non-random violence struck this city. A man, mad at the world and blaming liberals for his personal ills, targeted the innocent congregants of a progressive church in Knoxville, killing two and wounding seven. Like everyone
Posted by RussMcBee | 5 Comments

A new Church Committee?

Wednesday, July 23, 2008 10:29 PM
Salon has obtained a confidential memo written for certain members of Congress that outlines a proposal for an inquiry modeled on the Church Committee ; this modern version of Church would focus on the malfeasance of the Bush administration, and it hints
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Taking the FISA fight to the next level

Thursday, July 10, 2008 9:50 PM
I've often thought that President Bush probably read " The Trial " and " 1984 " at some point and mistook them for how-to manuals. Today's signing of the FISA bill tends to support that theory. On the heels of yesterday's capitulation by the Senate on
Posted by RussMcBee | 2 Comments

A silver lining?

Wednesday, July 09, 2008 8:15 PM
The Senate predictably caved today and passed the FISA reform bill, which included immunity for the telecommunications companies that had conspired with intelligence agencies to spy on Americans without warrant. Bruce Afran, an attorney representing plaintiffs
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Feingold speaks on the FISA travesty

Tuesday, June 24, 2008 8:50 PM
In this interview with Amy Goodman , Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI) promises to filibuster the horrid FISA amnesty bill when it reaches the Senate. First, he outlines the most potent objections to the bill: Sen. Russ Feingold : Well, this is a great blow
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AP follows RIAA and MPAA into the gutter

Monday, June 16, 2008 9:40 PM
Last week, the Associated Press sent seven DMCA take-down notices to the Drudge Retort (a liberal counterpoint to that other Drudge) based solely on the fact that they had posted short excerpts of AP wire stories. After some pretty significant blowback
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Chalk one up for the Constitution

Thursday, June 12, 2008 1:10 PM
This morning, the US Supreme Court handed down its decision in Boumediene v. Bush , holding that Guantanamo detainees have the right to challenge their detention in US civilian courts. As SCOTUSblog said: The Court, dividing 5-4, ruled that Congress had
Posted by RussMcBee | 2 Comments

Why a McCain vote is a bad idea, reason #3,744

Wednesday, June 04, 2008 11:01 PM
As if we needed another reason why McCain would be a horrid president : If elected president, Senator John McCain would reserve the right to run his own warrantless wiretapping program against Americans, based on the theory that the president's wartime
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Marsha Blackburn and other wingnuts sign off on theocracy

Wednesday, May 21, 2008 10:50 PM
Thirty-one members of the US House of Representatives seem to think the establishment of an American theocracy is a more urgent matter than any of the economic, military, or environmental problems we face. Those 31, including Tennessee's own resident
Posted by RussMcBee | 4 Comments

The kangaroo courts begin to collapse

Tuesday, May 13, 2008 9:30 PM
The sham "trials" of detainees at Guantanamo have always been legally and Constitutionally invalid, but they were continuing anyway. Now, the process of these show trials has met some blowback from within the Pentagon (in contrast to civilian trials,
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Another Yoo torture memo

Thursday, May 08, 2008 11:40 PM
In August 2002, John Yoo wrote an infamous memo on behalf of the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel which attempted to justify the use of torture by the CIA. The memo has since been released ( PDF here ), widely circulated, and then disavowed
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Bizarre story of FBI abusing its power

Tuesday, April 15, 2008 10:04 PM
The FBI has always had the ability to obtain evidence through subpoenas issued by judges. In a case tangentially related to the 2005 London bombings, an FBI agent lawfully obtained a subpoena for the seizure of certain records from a suspect at North
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The distraction du jour: Obama's comments on alienation

Saturday, April 12, 2008 9:25 PM
Barack Obama said this yesterday : "In a lot of these communities in big industrial states like Ohio and Pennsylvania, people have been beaten down so long. ... The jobs have been gone now for 25 years, and nothing's replaced them. And they fell through
Posted by RussMcBee | 2 Comments

Two howlers on domestic surveillance

Wednesday, April 02, 2008 9:34 PM
Two stories came out today on the deepening problem of unwarranted and unconstrained domestic surveillance in the ongoing War On Your Liberty; each of the two stories contains assurances by government officials that don't even pass the snicker test. The
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Tactical foot-dragging by the Bush gang

Saturday, March 29, 2008 8:15 PM
Two stories from yesterday illustrate the Bush administration's use of foot-dragging as a tactical maneuver in their war against the proper role of government. First, the EPA is refusing to comply in a timely manner with a Supreme Court decision from
Posted by RussMcBee | 0 Comments

Watchlist purgatory

Sunday, March 23, 2008 8:45 PM
I missed a couple of stories this week on the shoddy, ineffective, and inaccurate compilation of federal "terrorism" watch lists, and the consequences of unfettered government surveillance without appropriate oversight. First, this story details two reports
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Trampling the First Amendment

Monday, March 17, 2008 10:36 PM
A federal judge in DC is holding a reporter for USA Today in contempt of court for refusing to divulge her sources for a series of stories she wrote on the unsolved 2001 anthrax attacks . Toni Locy wrote a series of articles for her paper that were skeptical
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NSA involvement in domestic spying greater than previously thought

Tuesday, March 11, 2008 10:34 PM
According to this Wall Street Journal article , the NSA's involvement in warrantless spying on Americans is even greater than previously disclosed: According to current and former intelligence officials, the spy agency now monitors huge volumes of records
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