Vaughn R. Walker, the chief judge for the Northern District of California, issued an interesting ruling yesterday in the federal judiciary’s ongoing “Slap the Lawless Bastards Down” campaign against the Bush administration’s pathological presidential powers over-reach.
In one stroke, the judge ruled that FISA is the exclusive means for the president to eavesdrop on Americans, and […]
For the last nine months, when retroactive immunity has surfaced, we have been able to delay its passage.
We were able to stop it in December because I had an army behind me.
Two months later, it stalled again — this time in the House.
And last week, we managed to delay action one last time.
But when the […]
Reuters:
The number of Americans who would condone torture, at least when used on terrorists in order to save lives, has risen over the past two years and now stands at over 40 percent, according to a new opinion poll.
I’ve always wondered what people who took this stand were thinking in their heads as the question […]
And no doubt in a secret CIA prison somewhere, being regularly motivated to advise the Bush administration on how to treat Guantanamo detainees.
On Monday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit determined that Huzaifa Parhat, who has been detained in Guantanamo Bay for more than six years, is not an enemy […]
Barack Obama has been the subject of some unfair criticism over the promise he made last fall, when campaign spokesman Bill Burton offered this crystal-clear statement:
To be clear: Barack will support a filibuster of any bill that includes retroactive immunity for telecommunications companies.”
People have accused him of going back on his word, because now […]
Maj. David Frakt is a military lawyer assigned to defend Mohammad Jawad, “a minor when he was captured in Afghanistan after allegedly throwing a hand grenade that wounded two U.S. soldiers and their Afghan interpreter”.
These are excerpts from the powerful and eloquent closing argument Frakt presented at a pretrial hearing before a military commission at […]
Another federal court has just slapped the Bush administration in the face again over its detainee treatment policies.
A federal appeals court announced Monday that it has overturned the Pentagon’s classification of a Guantanamo Bay detainee as an enemy combatant.
In the first Guantanamo Bay case to be reviewed, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District […]
Both Matt and I raised the question today: where the hell is Barack Obama as the Democratic House and Senate leadership prepares to once again bravely cave in to Bush on the FISA and telecom immunity issue?
Well, Obama has stood up and let himself be counted. As best as I can make out, the […]
We’ve all been hearing for years about the evidence the government has against Guantanamo detainees. This is the evidence George Bush and his band of obedient henchmen have sworn by all these years, the evidence that proved the detainees were terrorist die-hards, the evidence that justified holding them indefinitely in Guantanamo, the evidence […]
Maybe part of the fascination people have with politics — apart from the fact that it impinges on our life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness — is that so much of it makes so little sense?
Yes, I know I said that just yesterday, but I can’t help it if it seems to be equally […]
