by Andy Worthington [courtesy of Politics on HuffingtonPost.com]

On June 12, when the Supreme Court ruled, in Boumediene v. Bush, that the prisoners at Guantánamo had constitutional habeas corpus rights, it was not...

by Robert Davey [courtesy of Politics on HuffingtonPost.com]

It's time to revisit the abduction of Spc. Alex Jimenez in Iraq, which provided a convenient peg on which McConnell and the rest could hang their specious claims about the flaws in FISA.

by Kagro X [courtesy of Daily Kos]

The President
The White House
July 11, 2008*:

Today, I have signed into law H.R. 6304, the FISA Amendments Act of 2008. The Act authorizes critical intelligence gathering activities designed to defend the United States and its interests at home and abroad and provides much-needed flexibility to manage effectively the personnel and taxpayer resources devoted to the national defense.

Section 301(b) of the Act purports to place require the Inspectors General of the Department of Justice, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the National Security Agency, the Department of Defense, and any other element of the intelligence community that participated in the President's Surveillance Program, to complete a comprehensive review of all of the facts necessary to describe the establishment, implementation, product, and use of the product of the Program; access to legal reviews of the Program and access to information about the Program; communications with, and participation of, individuals and entities in the private sector related to the Program; interaction with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court and transition to court orders related to the Program; and any other matters identified by any such Inspector General that would enable that Inspector General to complete a review of the Program, with respect to such Department or element.

The executive branch shall construe the requirements on the Inspectors General in section 301(b) as advisory in nature, so that the provisions are consistent with the President's constitutional authority as Commander in Chief and to supervise the unitary executive branch.

What then?

by Bob Barr [courtesy of Politics on HuffingtonPost.com]

I'm a former U.S. Attorney, and I believed it when conservatives said, "you do the crime, you do the time." But if you violate the Fourth Amendment, you can count on a bipartisan amnesty.

by Craig Newmark [courtesy of Politics on HuffingtonPost.com]

the folks at maplight.org look at what lobbyists get for what contributions in Congress. (mostly a press release, you judge for yourself:On March 14 of...

by mcjoan [courtesy of Daily Kos]

Once again, you've got to wonder about the political acumen of Democratic leaders who are so willing to capitulate on an issue that is working against the Republican nominee for President. Here's the Philadelphia Inquirer on John McCain:

Listen. What you are about to hear is the sound of John McCain flip-flopping his position on one of America's most cherished ideals.

A top McCain advisor says the Republican presidential candidate agrees with President Bush's outrageous program of wiretapping Americans' overseas conversations without warrants.

McCain previously had been critical of the Bush administration's unilateral decision, following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, to let the National Security Agency eavesdrop on untold numbers of citizens.

Before, McCain talked of the need for presidents to obey the law, just as other Americans must do.

But now he suggests that a McCain White House would pursue the same unchecked spy powers as Bush.

His flip-flop isn't as significant as the fact that McCain has gotten hold of the wrong end of the stick.

It's bad enough to think that the Dems would be willing to reward the Bush/Cheney administration for its subversion of the Constitution. But they have apparently so lost their ability to recognize a win that they'll give McCain the gift of not having to continue to tie himself up in knots on this issue. Go figure.

by The Huffington Post News Team [courtesy of Politics on HuffingtonPost.com]

The New York Times reports today on how John McCain has flipped his position on warrantless wiretapping to look very similar to George Bush's. Below...

by Meteor Blades [courtesy of Daily Kos]

Spies for Hire: The Secret World of Intelligence Outsourcing
By Tim Shorrock
Simon & Shuster, 2008
439 pages
$17.99

If your budget is limited or your spare hours are few, sit down at Barnes & Noble and read the first chapter of Tim Shorrock’s Spies for Hire: The Secret World of Intelligence Outsourcing. It’s hard to imagine anyone getting that far who won’t set aside the money and time to take the book home and devour the rest of it. Shorrock gives us as clear a picture of the business ties of the Intelligence-Industrial Complex as can be done by a guy without a TS/SCI, the highest security clearance.

These days, as he tells us, the majority of people who do have TS/SCIs aren’t employed by the government. They’re private contractors. And they didn’t get those clearances by talking about their work to outsiders, unless their specific task is disinformation. Despite zipped lips and unreturned phone calls, Shorrock has pried off lids and written a book as revealing in its own way as the seminal The Puzzle Palace, James Bamford’s great 1982 exposé about the National Security Agency.  

You won’t read the words "ruling class" in Spies for Hire, and I’m sympathetic, because few writers who want to be taken seriously will unhesitatingly employ those words in public discourse these days. Not so much out of fear that Patrick Buchanan will redbait them as that many post-Cold War liberals will do so. But a slice of the ruling class is who Shorrock describes throughout his book.

by mcjoan [courtesy of Daily Kos]

AT&T's 2007 Financial Review [pdf] includes this brief snippet: