You can't whine about being pegged as potential rightwing extremists and also hold up signs like this: Imagine if that sign had been carried by a participant at a CAIR event? UPDATE: Again, I'm sure this doesn't speak for a majority of the Tea bag protesters, but still, this type of "America-loving" speaks for some of them: Another … Read More
Right Wing Bloggers Angry At Homeland Security For Monitoring Right Wing Extremists
It all started, as these things often do, with Michelle Malkin: Yesterday, Roger Hedgecock and the Liberty Papers posted an unclassified DHS Office of Intelligence and Analysis report titled: Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment. Malkin called the DHS report (from “Obama’s” DHS) “a sweeping indictment of conservatives.” She seems to think this … Read More
More On The Pirates
Not that anybody except law geeks like me care, but the national and international laws regarding piracy is remarkably well-developed. Of course, it all stems from the 18th century, but it's still good valid law. Also, this account of the pirate takedown is kind of, well, movie-like. The setting is the small craft (the main ship's "lifeboat") where three pirates … Read More
Over The Weekend
(1) I guess the big news was that the U.S. Navy rescued that skipper from the pirates. Skipper? Pirates? This sounds like a bad episode of "Gilligan's Island". But no, it happened. Obviously, it is a good thing since (1) Obama's first serious military rescue operation was a success [guess those concerns about the 3 am call were unfounded]; (2) … Read More
Defense Department Doing The Right Thing
These two graphs on United States defense spending are worth 2000 words: Yeah, there's a war on terrorism and we're in Iraq and Afghanistan, but do we really need to spend over $400 billion, or 20% of our budget on defense? Now, defense secretary Robert Gates' proposed defense budget hasn't actually cut defense spending, but he seems to have … Read More
But It Works So Well For Jack Bauer
Right wingnuts must be unhappy to read this: When CIA officials subjected their first high-value captive, Abu Zubaida, to waterboarding and other harsh interrogation methods, they were convinced that they had in their custody an al-Qaeda leader who knew details of operations yet to be unleashed, and they were facing increasing pressure from the White House to get those secrets … Read More
No More “Enemy Combatants”
Announcement just out from the Justice Department: In a filing today with the federal District Court for the District of Columbia, the Department of Justice submitted a new standard for the government's authority to hold detainees at the Guantanamo Bay Detention Facility. The definition does not rely on the President's authority as Commander-in-Chief independent of Congress's specific authorization. It draws … Read More
Will The Next Terrorist Attack Come From Muslim Extremists….
…or domestic right-wing extremists? Beware the latter: Trust fund millionaire James G. Cummings, an American Nazi sympathizer from Maine who was slain by his wife Amber in December, allegedly had the radioactive components necessary to construct a "dirty bomb," a newly released threat analysis report states. The man, allegedly furious over the election of President Obama, purchased depleted uranium over … Read More
The Bush Legal Memos
As much as possible, I've resisted Bush-bashing since he was ushered out of office. He's gone, let's go forward I figure. But certain legal memos of the Bush Administration, released yesterday, really are truly frightening. Michael Isikoff from Newsweek gives an example: In perhaps the most surprising assertion, the Oct. 23, 2001, memo suggested the president could even suspend press freedoms … Read More
What Hath Rush, Hannity And O’Reilly Wrought?
James Adkisson has been sentenced to life behind bars for the deaths of Greg McKendry and Linda Kraeger, the Unitarian Universalist church-goers who died during his assault on their church in Knoxville, TN last July. What Adkisson left behind is his four-page handwritten manifesto, which can be read here (PDF format). It's a reiteration of the talking points of Rush Limbaugh, … Read More
The “Obama Is Dangerous” Meme Starts
Over at The Corner, Mark Thiesson (former Bush speechwriter) gripes: Less than 48 hours after taking office, Obama has begun dismantling those institutions without time for any such review. The CIA program he is effectively shutting down is the reason why America has not been attacked again after 9/11. He has removed the tool that is singularly responsible for stopping … Read More
Change I Can Believe In
The Office Of Legal Counsel is an important executive position. The OLC gives legal advice to the president and, by extension, the executive branch. Among other things, it informs the CIA and the Department of Interior what it judges to be permissible under the laws, and its opinions are binding. Most people had never heard of the OLC before the Bush … Read More
“He Kept Us Safe”
Associated Press: President George W. Bush, ever focused on his legacy, said Wednesday "there can be no debate" about his record of preventing another terrorist attack. Rrrrright. And I guess he's entitled to a mulligan on that first one that happened under his watch.
Supremes To Hear al-Marri Case
Background: al-Marri is a citizen of Qatar. He was in the United States, studying at Bradley University. He was arrested in Peoria, Illinois, in December 2001 on charges of credit card fraud, identity fraud, and a few other things. This charges were dropped when Bush declared him an "enemy combatant" in 2003. He's been sitting in Naval Consolidated Brig, Charleston in South … Read More
Something To Look Forward To
A blue-ribbon panel of experts assembled by Congress (and you know they are qualified, because they got the blue ribbon) predicts there will most likely be a biological terrorist attack by 2013, with devestating results. Have a nice day.