Russ McBee

Today, President Bush rescinded an executive order signed by his father which affirmed the ban on offshore oil drilling (with the exception of a small area off Southern California and a specific region of the Gulf of Mexico). The move was almost entirely symbolic (and political), since federal law also bans offshore drilling (except in those two ...

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 telecom immunity and warrantless spying, President Bush wasted no time in signing this abrogation ...

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 suing the telecom companies over their collaboration, described today's vote as ...

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 to the rights of the American people. And much of the publicity has been about a very ...

Major General Antonio Taguba, who conducted an extensive inquiry into the Abu Ghraib torture scandal, has spoken out again on the Bush regime's lawlessness. In his preface to a new report from Physicians for Human Rights, he says this: In order for [detainees] to suffer the wanton cruelty to which they were subjected, a government policy was ...

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 not validly taken away habeas rights. If Congress wishes to suspend habeas, it must do so ...

Contrary to the will of the American people, the US Congress, the Iraqi parliament, the Iraqi president, and the Iraqi people, George Bush is engaged in secret negotiations with Iraqi president Nouri al-Maliki to establish fifty permanent US military bases inside Iraq. Bush is excluding Congress from these negotiations, and he thinks he can sign ...

The Republican Party seems to be ensnared in a slow-motion downward spiral of late. Party unity on Capitol Hill has all but evaporated, the rank and file are disassociating themselves from the White House like rats from a sinking ship, and the prospects of an anti-GOP electoral slaughter in November grow ever brighter. I love it. Yesterday, both ...

The pending House appropriations bill that would provide ''emergency'' funding for the continued occupation of Iraq is certain to draw a veto from the White House (and how much longer is this five-year-old occupation going to be falsely labeled an ''emergency'' so it can be funded off the books, outside the normal accounting of the ...

Following a speech in Missouri yesterday, President Bush engaged in an exceedingly rare question-and-answer session with employees of the company where he was speaking. Among other topics, he repeated his threadbare spin of ethanol as a viable fuel source: ''As you know, I'm a ethanol person,'' he said, explaining his belief that it can help ...