Russ McBee

Thirty-one members of the US House of Representatives seem to think the establishment of an American theocracy is a more urgent matter than any of the economic, military, or environmental problems we face. Those 31, including Tennessee's own resident wingnut Marsha Blackburn, have co-sponsored HR 598; the bill's stated purpose is: Supporting ...

This is just too funny: Telephone companies have cut off FBI wiretaps used to eavesdrop on suspected criminals because of the bureau's repeated failures to pay phone bills on time. [...] In at least one case, a wiretap used in a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act investigation ''was halted due to untimely payment,'' the audit found. FISA ...

Two reporters exposed the health risks of bovine growth hormone in US milk in a story for Fox News. Monsanto, makers of BGH, freaked out and ultimately managed to suppress the story. Fox helped Monsanto kill the story:

This Guardian headline reads like something from The Onion: German police use Stasi scent profiling on G8 protesters Unfortunately, it's real: Scent traces collected directly from everything from people's palm sweat to their vests and cigarette lighters have been made available to investigators so that sniffer dogs can detect potentially ...

Today in the Jose Padilla ''trial,'' an undercover CIA officer testified while wearing a disguise and using a pseudonym. The defense lawyers weren't allowed to learn his name, and the jury wasn't told he was using a fake name. Here's the essential problem, and it's become sadly typical of the Bush administration's disdain for the ...

The Jose Padilla ''trial'' started today, and it began on a particularly sour note for the First Amendment. Alongside all the other Constitutional abominations comprising this case, there's this unprecedented infringement (via FireDogLake): But court security officers are enforcing an unusual rule for the trial, which is set to get under ...