My aversion to this bill goes beyond retroactive immunity for the telecoms. Above all, the new FISA powers are an affront to privacy and civil liberties. In a floor address to the Senate yesterday, Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV)–a stalwart supporter of FISA extensions plus the immunity amendment–inadvertently made that point clear:
Unlike traditional [Foreign Intelligence Surveillance [...]
In a soon-to-be-released book called The Commission: The Uncensored History of the 9/11 Investigation, New York Times reporter Philip Shenon challenges the objectivity of the Commission’s Executive Director Philip Zelikow.
DC blogger Max Holland has read the book. Here are the shocking details he provides:
Zelikow was a friend and former colleague of then-national security adviser [...]
Brink Lindsey of the CATO Institute criticizes fears over immigration and terrorism, calling them ‘manufactured and overblown.’
Fears of both topics are rooted in truth. We have a problem with illegal immigration and terrorism. I don’t see any room to doubt that assertion as fact. Thus, I can’t agree that these problems are manufactured. Unless, of [...]
In the midst of a major celebration here at brianmcguigan.com, I realized that today is my last opportunity to post this video.
[Hat tip to Brian's Brain for the find.]
Early reports indicate that irregularities are being found in the New Hampshire recount. All conspiracies aside–Hillary won–We’re seeing discrepancies between the election night vote and the hand recount. Although the differences seem to be relatively minor across the state, they cumulatively pose serious questions about the voting process there.
You can see the differences for yourself [...]
[Note: There's a discussion taking place on Blue Oregon that has to be carried over here because they're blocking my posts.]
T.A. Barnhart: I did a little research on you.
I found that you’re a poet, that you support Barack Obama, and write on Blue Oregon. I also found that despite how learned you wish to make [...]
Larry O’Donnell agrees with my analysis of John Edwards’ candidacy:
John Edwards is a loser. He has won exactly two elections in his life and lost 31. Only one of his wins and all of his losses were in presidential primaries and caucuses. He remains perfectly positioned to continue to lose with a Kucinich-like consistency. Nothing [...]
This is Oregon’s very own David Wu speaking in a house session one year ago this week.
Mike Huckabee’s response to a question of whether or not he supports wife submission appears to be answered smoothly. I’m struck by his body language though, particularly his blinking. If you just look at his eyes while he answers, you’ll see what I’m talking about. He blinks an inordinate amount of times.
I consulted an article [...]
Yesterday I spoke about how the Democratic Party employs super-delegates to “supply some Establishment stability to the nominating process.” I realize that I didn’t spell out the impact this could have on the nomination in 2008.
This post by Jeff Mapes of the Oregonian makes it clear why super-delegates could sway the outcome:
I just got off [...]
After two contests, the Democratic delegate count is not as it appears. Hillary Clinton has a massive delegate lead, not because of her win in NH, but because of her political connections:
WASHINGTON - It’s called the Democratic Party, but one aspect of the party’s nominating process is at odds with grass-roots democracy.
Voters don’t choose the [...]
The Democratic primary is a match between change and convention. Barack Obama embodies the hope for change for all Americans–the hope to right our broken political system. His counterpart, Hillary Clinton is the candidate of convention–promising change but ensuring a continuation of the established Washington system.
Meanwhile, John Edwards is running as the man angry [...]
What Bill Clinton doesn’t understand is that people like ‘fairy tale’s.’ One would think the man from Hope, Ar would know this considering his 1992 campaign benefited largely from the same sentiment. Regardless, he’ll see tonight just how potent dreams–not the pejorative ‘fairy tales’–are to voters in New Hampshire.
Gary Kamiya over at Salon.com has this to say about Obama this morning:
Barack Obama’s stunning victory in Iowa was a moment of national alchemy. It represented an outpouring of righteous Democratic anger, and its simultaneous transformation into hope. That double process — the cathartic expression of rage, and its purification — is exactly what Democrats [...]
From the UK Sunday Times, the story of a former FBI translator. Her story has been told online for about a year–this is the first mainstream coverage. Needless to say, it’s scandalous:
A WHISTLEBLOWER has made a series of extraordinary claims about how corrupt government officials allowed Pakistan and other states to steal nuclear weapons secrets.Sibel [...]
NYT Magazine plans to run a devastating recap of e-voting failures tomorrow.
Here’s a preview:
As the primaries start in New Hampshire this week and roll on through the next few months, the erratic behavior of voting technology will once again find itself under a microscope. In the last three election cycles, touch-screen machines have become one [...]
John McCain said yesterday that US troops could be in Iraq for the next 100 years:
(Hat [...]
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