Your Investment in the Republic of Georgia
Remember the humanitarian aid package declared by the current US administration in the wake of the August, 2008 war between Russia and Georgia? Today, the United States is pledging to make available $1...
View ArticleTwo Simple Steps Toward Justice for Arar
The InjusticeIn 2002 US officials conspired to send Canadian citizen Maher Arar off to Syria where they knew he would be tortured as a terrorist suspect. Arar survived the torture, and after Syria...
View ArticleThis Could Be Important
Today the New York Times ran an editorial: A prosecutor should be appointed to consider criminal charges against top officials at the Pentagon and others involved in planning the abuse. Yes, I know:...
View ArticleThis Was Not A joke
Don't wait for the punchline, because there isn't one: In my 44 years of wearing this uniform, I have never seen the American public and our military as bonded in understanding, purpose, and spirit as...
View ArticleWhatever Happened to those Republicans?
The who didn't run last year, who got out of the U.S. Congress last year, while the getting was good? I've been thinking that most of them might have had big plans, but maybe not:"It’s the land of...
View ArticleAn Easy Fix for Eric Holder
One of the many things the new Attorney General should consider doing is an easy one for him: order the Department of Justice (DoJ) Office of Inspector General (OIG) to finally implement the thorough...
View ArticleGet Serious
Stop pretending that we can continue to consume the things we do at the rate we do, forever.Give up the notion that we have a 'national mission' which trumps other countries' rights.Get over the idea...
View ArticleThe U.S. is Just Another Country
One thing that the current debate on U.S. torture policy proves is that the U.S. is just another country.Tom Friedman proves it when, along with virtually the entirety of the country's political,...
View ArticleHarold E. Fischer Jr. Dies at 83; Tortured by Chinese in 1950's
There's very little that needs to be said about this.Thanks to the New York Times, we know that Harold E. Fischer Jr., a Korean War ace captured by the Chinese, has died at the age of 83.In an...
View ArticleWhy Does the U.S. Want to Deploy an Unworkable Missile System in Europe?
The European missile defense system will provide no useful capabilities for defending either the continental United States or Europe against ballistic missile attack. That's what the East-West...
View ArticleWere Those the Pictures?
Last week, there was quite a bit of comment about the Obama administration's flip-flop on release of the photos which the ACLU wanted released and which the London Daily Telegraph quoted General Taguba...
View ArticleLBJ and Harry Reid
I've sometimes thought that Harry Reid's not responsible for the failure of the Senate Democrats to accomplish more with their overwhelming majority in the face of the moribund Republican caucus.But...
View ArticleI'd Like to Hear From My Lawyer
That is, not really my lawyer, but rather any lawyer who would be able to clear up questions raised by Joseph Finder's OpEd in today's New York Times. In the piece, "The CIA in Double Jeopardy",...
View ArticleSo?
That's what Dick Cheney said when Martha Raddatz told him most Americans thought the Iraq occupation wasn't worth it: In today's New York Times, David Brooks cited an opinion poll which likened current...
View ArticleBush Administration Lawyers Fight Chevron's Amazon Pollution Penalty
Chevron Corporation recently released a video purporting to show an Ecuadorian judge admitting prejudgment of an pollution case against the company. The people behind the legal defense at the company...
View ArticleChevron's New Heavies
Last year, Chevron Corporation released a video purporting to show an Ecuadorian judge in the act of being bribed and admitting bias in a pollution case against Chevron. The company has made the...
View ArticleRendered by U.S., Tortured by Syria, Degreed in Canada
Earlier this month, Maher Arar received his PHD in electrical engineering from Ottawa University.That's eight years after U.S. authorities snatched him from JFK and rendered him to Syria knowing he...
View Article(Non) Combat in Iraq
The administration and media are celebrating the withdrawal of combat troops from Iraq.But really, it's only the official mission that's changed, not the actual activity or the composition of U.S....
View ArticleKossacks play chess
Last year SuperbowlXX and others organized and supervised a Kossacks chess tournament - see SuperbowlXX's announcement of it here. The tournament was staged mostly on Chess.com.
View ArticleKossacks Chess - OkieLawyer Teaches Me A Lesson
Recently, I played against another Kossack, OkieLawyer, in the Kossacks-only chess tournament on Chess.com. Talk about a teaching moment. Follow me below for my comments and a game analysis by the...
View ArticleThe surveillance state loses a round in court.
On Thursday the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that a suit against the government can proceed, a case in which the plaintiffs allege that the National Security Agency engaged in “an...
View ArticlePlay Chess with the Kossacks
This diary is just a reminder that a group of chess-playing Kossacks is active on chess.com.
View ArticlePresident Obama, Publicly Pledge Not to Launch or Support a Surprise Attack...
There's really not much more to say that's not contained or implied in the title of this diary. No amount of discussion or thoughtful analysis can add anything important to the thought, so I'll leave...
View ArticleA Couple of Quaint Historical Things
I recently did an diary urging that President Obama foreswear launching or supporting a surprise attack against Iran. The diary didn't amount to much and got the attention that it deserved, but some...
View ArticleKossacks Chess: OkieLawyer v rhutcheson
You may know that there is a Kossacks chess team active on chess.com. This diary is a collaborative documentation by two members of the team, OkieLawyer and rhutcheson, of a recent game in which...
View ArticleJudge's Instruction: 'Presume the prosecution's case reliable and accurate'.
In U.S. criminal courts, juries typically get instructions before beginning deliberations something like this model jury instruction:The fact that a witness is employed as a law enforcement officer...
View ArticleWho Can the President Order Killed? Any Idea?
In yesterday's State Department Daily Press Briefing, a reporter asked the spokesperson about the possibility of getting the Pakistanis to agree to the listing of the Haqqani Network as a Foreign...
View ArticleCourt Faults FBI for Unconstitutional Use of National Security Letters
The US District Court of Northern California has ruled that the some of the FBI's use of national security letters (NSLs) is unconstitutional. These NSLs are issued without judicial review to force...
View ArticleAmericans Oppose U.S. Intervention in Syria and North Korea
According to a New York Times/CBS News poll, a large majority of the public opposes U.S. intervention in Syria and only 15% say that North Korea is a threat which requires immediate action. That's...
View ArticleBill Keller Says: Why wait? Let's Go On Syria (This Time I Know I'm Right)
Bill Keller is an OpEd writer for the New York Times whose columns appear on Monday. In his previous career as executive editor of the Times, he played a starring role in the ginning-up of the Bush...
View ArticleSupport Barbara Lee's Bill to Repeal the AUMF
Representative Barbara Lee has introduced to the U.S. House of Representatives a bill to repeal the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF), which has provided the legal fig leaf for our...
View ArticleAnother Reason to Repeal the AUMF
As if we need another reason to repeal the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF), which has provided the legal fig leaf for our unending 'war on terror': The US Court of Appeals for the...
View ArticleMuslims Need Not Apply
That's the title of a report by the ACLU of Southern California which exposes yet another violation of the rule of law (to say nothing of fair play) associated with the endless 'war on terror': since...
View ArticleTwo things I didn't know about the push for attack on Syria.
From an article by David Bromwich for the London Review of Books: - James Clapper, the director of national intelligence, evidently refused to sign off on the intelligence report cited by John Kerry in...
View ArticleInternet Fails: They should have done it like the private sector!
Except they did:Error Creates Deals Too Good to Be True on Walmart’s Site: Certain products on the Walmart website displayed wildly low prices Wednesday morning, such as a kayak for $11 or a treadmill...
View ArticleMention Hitler, Make People More Willing to Intervene
That's the conclusion of a poll by YouGov.com. In the poll,We asked one half of our survey takers the standard sort of questions about U.S. involvement in Ukraine: "Do you think the U.S. should get...
View ArticleUS Senator Ron Johnson and Wisconsin Assemblyman Bill Kramer
Ron Johnson is the Republican Tea Party U.S. Senator from Wisconsin. Replaced Democrat Russ Feingold in 2010. Ignoramus.Bill Kramer is a Republican Wisconsin Assemblyman. Elected last year Majority...
View ArticleWhy Is the NBA Exempt from Anti-Trust Law?
The recent problem with Donald Sterling, owner of the LA Clippers, has led me to think again the exemption of the NBA and other national sports associations from the Sherman Antitrust Act. I wonder...
View ArticleIf Not Warren, How About Biden?
I've just read a great article, "The Biden Agenda: Reckoning with Ukraine and Iraq, and keeping an eye on 2016." by Evan Osnos in the July 28, 2014 New Yorker.It suggests to me that failing Warren...
View ArticleHere's an Example of Why Holder is Dangerous
As reported by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, theEFF is suing the NSA and other government agencies on behalf of AT&T customers to stop the illegal unconstitutional and ongoing dragnet...
View ArticleMy PR Letter From the White House
I'm on the distribution for some White House public relations emails. Here's the outline of one I just received, based on President Obama's 9/17/14 address to service men and women at McGill Air...
View Article'Intervention Fatigue' Indeed
Our ambassador to the United Nations delivered an address on Wednesday in which she said:I think there is too much of, ‘Oh, look, this is what intervention has wrought’… one has to be careful about...
View ArticleSign me up, Russ
This is a potential bright spot for me: "Progressive favorite Russ Feingold moves closer to a comeback," especially the part describing the less than positive polling numbers of the Republican dolt who...
View ArticleThis Speech Reminds Me Why I Worked For Obama
The President's speech at the City Club of Cleveland goes for the first 36 minutes of this CSPAN clip.This is the kind of thing I wanted from him, and he's delivered domestically, although he's also...
View ArticleYou Don't Get to Decide Yemen's Future
If you're like me, you know next to nothing about Yemen. You don't know its people or its history. Until fairly recently, you could barely find it on a map. Maybe, though, you still have an opinion...
View ArticleDon't Trade A Military Alliance With Israel for the Iran Nuclear Deal
I just saw Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-Ct) address the Senate on the Iran deal.He supports the deal on conditions that include committing to use of u>all means to prevent Iran from getting a...
View ArticleCrony Capitalism in Action
Carl Icahn, corporate raider, helped the incoming Trump administration to select cabinet nominees, particularly succeeding when the Senate acquiesced in the case of now-EPA director Scott Pruit. In...
View ArticleThe Daily Kos Standard for Attribution
Here’s a section of a front page entry from yesterday: Secretary of State Rex Tillerson called Trump a f*cking moron, but check out national security adviser H.R. McMaster:Here’s how the same story was...
View ArticleYou are reading the New York Times...
or the Washington Post, or Bloomberg, or Mother Jones, or Politico, CNN, MSNBC, CBS. If you are reading diaries here, you are getting summaries, excepts, aggregations from the MSM. If you doubt that,...
View ArticleWhat's Your Angle in Attacking Media For Not Saying Trump Lies?
There have been a few front-page diaries in the past few days which have attacked, with varying degrees of anger, the New York Times and other (primarily) newspapers because when they have broken news...
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