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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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Knox County Commission admits to breaking the Sunshine Law

Monday, March 24, 2008 11:40 PM
As a consequence of this debacle in our local government, Knox County Commissioners are under a court order not to violate the Sunshine Law again, under penalty of fines and possibly even jail time. Given the events of the last year and a half in this
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The continuing crisis

Tuesday, February 12, 2008 9:33 PM
Today's updates on the continuing decline: The six Guantanamo detainees who are slated to be tried by the Bush administration's kangaroo courts are now facing the death penalty; if that's their sentence, they'll be executed at Guantanamo . The charges,
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Mukasey dances with the one that brung him

Friday, January 25, 2008 7:39 PM
Gosh, what a surprise : Attorney General Michael Mukasey said Friday he doesn't plan for a special prosecutor to investigate whether the CIA broke the law when it destroyed videotapes of terror interrogations, defying some in Congress who want an independent
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The topsy-turvy state of human rights

Friday, January 11, 2008 9:55 PM
Throughout the Cold War, propagandists in this country consistently painted the US as the world's champion of human rights and the rule of law, while the Soviet Union and its member states were cast as paragons of evil. Although neither characterization
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Justice to "investigate" CIA tape destruction

Wednesday, January 02, 2008 9:53 PM
Attorney General Michael Mukasey announced today that he has initiated an investigation into potential criminal wrongdoing by the CIA in its destruction of video tapes which showed the torture of detainees by US personnel : "Following a preliminary inquiry
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An eclipse of the sun

Wednesday, November 28, 2007 11:02 PM
( Cross-posted here . ) The "Open" Government Study Committee was empowered by the Tennessee state Legislature to study and recommend any needed changes to Tennessee's open records law and its open meetings law. Yesterday, the committee punted on the
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The world progresses while the US clings to the Dark Ages

Saturday, November 17, 2007 4:35 PM
This week, the UN's Social, Humanitarian, and Cultural Committee (the "Third Committee") approved a resolution calling for a global moratorium on the death penalty ; the resolution will go to the full General Assembly for consideration, possibly as soon
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Mukasey defends Bush's lawlessness

Thursday, October 18, 2007 10:45 PM
Michael Mukasey proved on Thursday that he is unfit to serve as Attorney General of the United States : President Bush's choice for attorney general, Michael B. Mukasey, embraced some of the administration's most controversial legal positions yesterday,
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First anniversary of a dark stain

Wednesday, October 17, 2007 9:57 PM
One year ago today, President Bush signed into law the Military Commissions Act of 2006 . This malignant, perfidious law gives the president the authority to suspend habeas corpus for anyone he chooses. It also sanctifies the admissibility of evidence
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Blowing away the fog of fear-mongering

Tuesday, October 16, 2007 10:05 PM
This pretty much says it all : The New York University Center on Law and Security has completed a review of cases classified by the federal courts as terrorism related, starting from September 11, 2001 and going up through September 11, 2006. The report
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Chalk one up for the police state

Tuesday, October 09, 2007 6:55 PM
The Bush Administration's use of torture got a big boost from the US Supreme Court today. This afternoon, the court refused to hear the appeal of Khaled el-Masri , a German citizen whom the CIA mistook for someone else, kidnapped, and sent off to Afghanistan
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Warrantless fishing expeditions

Saturday, September 08, 2007 4:48 PM
The FBI's warrantless surveillance and data mining of telephone records and email goes even deeper than previously acknowledged. Now, it's come to light that the FBI was using "national security letters" to fish through phone records of suspects as well
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Gonzales resigns

Monday, August 27, 2007 8:40 AM
Alberto Gonzales submitted his resignation to President Bush on Friday, and it was just announced this morning : Mr. Gonzales, who had rebuffed calls for his resignation, submitted his to President Bush by telephone on Friday, the official said. His decision
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Torturing whistleblowers

Saturday, August 25, 2007 7:15 PM
This article in Forbes (via Whitescreek ) tells the story of two Americans working in Baghdad who blew the whistle on some nasty illegal activity. After feeding the FBI documentation of illegal arms sales to civilians, the two whistleblowers were kidnapped
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Doctors speak out against torture

Sunday, August 19, 2007 10:40 PM
Finally : The American Psychological Association ruled Sunday that psychologists can no longer be associated with several interrogation techniques that have been used against terrorism detainees at U.S. facilities because the methods are immoral, psychologically
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Jose Padilla's conviction

Friday, August 17, 2007 10:45 AM
Jose Padilla was convicted yesterday on terrorism support charges, after spending five years in legal limbo. His guilt or innocence long ago stopped being the primary issue in this case; rather, the issue has been whether we as a society are willing to
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Follow-up on trusting Gonzo with the death penalty

Thursday, August 16, 2007 9:05 AM
Previously, I blogged about the new provisions in the revised Patriot Act which give the attorney general the power to put executions on the fast track. We're supposed to trust Alberto Gonzales with the responsibility of deciding when to short-circuit
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Spy satellites to be used domestically

Wednesday, August 15, 2007 9:37 PM
Today's Wall Street Journal reveals that the US government plans to expand the domestic use of spy satellites ; among other things, they plan to grant law enforcement the use of spy satellite imagery with no apparent judicial oversight or warrants: The
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Trusting Gonzo, part II

Tuesday, August 14, 2007 8:40 PM
First, we're told that we're supposed to trust Alberto Gonzales to certify that the government's warrantless spying on us is Constitutionally valid and not at all Orwellian. Now, it turns out that the revised Patriot Act requires us to trust Alberto Gonzales
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