Remainders

Stuff related to the economy, some of it actually useful, is further down the page.

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AP: "Justice Department lawyers showed ''poor judgment'' but did not commit professional misconduct when they authorized CIA interrogators to use waterboarding and other harsh tactics at the height of the U.S. war on terrorism, an internal review released Friday found." And here's the New York Times report on the Justice Department's letting the torture memo writers Yoo & Bybee off the hook, a story that came out of last night's docudump. Here's the Washington Post's version. The report is here (pdf)....

Steven Pearlstein of the Washington Post: President Obama must explain to a "confused" public why they can't have their cake & eat it, too.

CW: if you want your wacky legal questions answered, Justice Scalia is up for it. Bad news for Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who probably thinks Scalia is the greatest justice ever: Scalia gives a big thumbs-down to secession. Thanks to Ben Smith of Politico for the link....

Ken Gude of the Center for American Progress writes, "Criminal courts are a far tougher and more reliable forum for prosecuting terrorists than military commissions.... Many conservative critics are simply seeking to exploit terrorism for political gain with specious attacks on President Barack Obama."

Here's a stunning DailyKos poll of self-identified Republicans, a significant percentage of whom are totally out of touch with reality.

New York Times: "Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Nigerian man accused of trying to blow up a jetliner bound for Detroit on Dec. 25, started talking to investigators after two of his family members arrived in the United States and helped earn his cooperation." He has been talking non-stop since last week.

     ... AP Update: Adm. Mike Mullen said, speaking for himself, that gays should be allowed to serve openly in the military; it is "the right thing to do." He told the Senate Armed Services Committee "he is deeply troubled by a policy that forces people to 'lie about who they are in order to defend their fellow citizens.'" More from the New York Times.

New York Times: the reclusive author J. D. Salinger has died. The New Yorker's Louis Menand on the life & letters of J. D. Salinger. The New Yorker published 13 Salinger stories; all are available to subscribers only here. Don't tell anybody, but here's a pirated copy of "Pretty Mouth & Green My Eyes" in a rather unpleasant typeface & format. Freeweb.com has more Salinger stories here. Adrian McKinty of the London Times on "the books in Salinger's safe." Lillian Ross, an extraordinary tattletale, reflects on her friendship with Salinger. I don't think Ross's take is ever to be precisely trusted, but this brief memoir of Salinger is still illuminating.

A Congressional Quarterly study finds that "In his first year in office, President Obama did better even than legendary arm-twister Lyndon Johnson in winning congressional votes on issues where he took a position."

In a New York Times op-ed, attorney Thomas Geoghegan makes the case that the Senate filibuster is unconstitutional. "The founders...were dead set against supermajorities...."

Yikes! Maj. Gen. Michael Flynn writes a devastating report on U.S. "intelligence capabilities" in Afghanistan. Read his report here. Bottom line: we don't know squat about the locals. (Thanks to Michael Sherer of Time for the link.)

Andy Worthington has the definitive list of Guantanamo prisoners: (Part 1, with links to Parts 2, 3 & 4):

... George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld established a prison in which the overwhelming majority of those held — at least 93 percent of the 779 men and boys imprisoned in total — were either completely innocent people, seized as a result of dubious intelligence or sold for bounty payments, or Taliban foot soldiers, recruited to fight an inter-Muslim civil war that began long before the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001....
-- Andy Worthington

AP: "The Vatican sought...to quell its latest public dispute with Jewish groups, saying the pope's decision to move Pope Pius XII closer to sainthood isn't an act of hostility against those who say he failed to sufficiently denounce the Holocaust." New York Times story here.

"Suffering Is Redemptive." David Dayan of Firedoglake on the U.S. Roman Catholic Bishops' new directive "that would ban any Catholic hospital, nursing home or hospice program from removing feeding tubes or ending palliative procedures of any kind, even when the individual has an advance directive to guide their end-of-life care."

Death by Public Defender. Diane Jennings in the Dallas Morning News: a study by Dr. Scott Phillips found that in Harris County (Houston), Texas, "None of those [defendants] who hired [an attorney] ever got sentenced to death." You can read Prof. Phillips' stunning report here (pdf).

Dick Dementia. The AP adds it up: in his DOJ, FBI interview on the Valerie Plame leak, then Veep Dick Cheney answered "I can't recall" or some variation thereof seventy-two (72) (LXXII) times. CW: see "Remainders" at the bottom of this column for the backstory....

... Clueless. AP: Dick Cheney told FBI & DOJ investigators, including U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, that he had no idea who leaked Valerie Plame's identity. You can view the documents, which CREW obtained as a result of an FOIA suit, on this page of CREW's website.

AP: Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, who hasn't asked a lawyer a question during oral presentations in nearly 4 years, says other Justices should shut up & quit "badgering attorneys." He says -- get this -- he already knows how he's going to rule before the argument phase since he's read the briefs, so he "refuses to participate" in oral arguments. CW: why show up at all?

Meghan Daum in the Los Angeles Times: Col. Om Prakash wins the ever-so-popular Joint Forces Quarterly essay contest & it becomes "a breakout hit"; the title of his winning entry? "The Efficacy of Don't Ask, Don't Tell." Col. Prakash concludes DADT ain't efficacious AT ALL. Here's Prakash's winning essay (pdf).

Genealogist Megan Smolenyak & the New York Times uncover some of Michelle Obama's fascinating family history; includes this fabulous interactive family tree & links to related documents.

DADT, Girl. So the military are not just homophobes; they're misogynists, too. Big surprise. CNN reports that "Women were dismissed from the military for being gay at a [much] greater rate than men last year, according to new statistics obtained by a California research group."

Ceci Connolly of the Washington Post: the U.S. trails other industrialized nations & has been falling further behind over the past decades in preventing "preventable deaths"; the U.S. ranks near the bottom on preventing "premature deaths caused by illnesses such as diabetes, epilepsy, stroke, influenza, ulcers and pneumonia."

Garry Wills in the New York Review of Books: Obama takes up where Bush left off; yet another imperial presidency cloaked in secrecy, crime coverups, "extraordinary renditions," signing statements & all the really bad stuff Americans thought they had voted out.

Profs. Peter Dreier & Christopher Martin concentrate on coverage of ACORN in this scholarly study about media manipulation. (pdf)

Reuters: Harvard Med School researchers say that nearly 45,000 people die in the U.S. every year largely because they lack health insurance, more than die because of drunk driving & homicide combined;  adults under age 64 without health insurance have a 40% higher risk of death than those with coverage.

AP: the SEC released its full inspector general's report on how the agency botched investigations of Bernard Madoff for nearlly two decades. CW: here's the full report (pdf) from the SEC site.

Washington Post: a scathing report issued by SEC Inspector General David Kotz indicates the agency repeatedly failed to heed warnings that Bernie Madoff was running a Ponzi scheme. New York Times story here. The Times has the text of the summary report (pdf); the full report will be released within the week.

Video of the private wake for Sen. Ted Kennedy is available on the Kennedy website. This event lasts 3 & a half hours & has many wonderful moments. If you don't have hours to watch, treat yourself to the remarks of Sen. John Culver, which begin at about 2:24:50.

Sidney (Australia) Morning Herald: at Arlington National Cemetery, Cardinal Emeritus Theodore McCarrick read aloud a letter from Sen. Edward Kennedy which President Obama delivered to Pope Benedict XVI in July; the Cardinal also read part of the Pope's response. The paper reports portions of the letters. Full texts of the letters from the Boston Globe.

The Kennedy family has established a Twitter account which they're updating, and a classy, informative website that includes information about Ted Kennedy's legacy & his memorial services.

The Boston Globe has a nice slideshow of photos from the funeral.

     Washington Post Update: thousands lined the Mall to bid farewell to Sen. Kennedy as the hearse carrying his body drove slowly through the streets of Washington, D.C. AND Sen. Kennedy is laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery near the graves of his brothers President John Kennedy & Sen. Robert Kennedy. New York Times story here.

New York Times: Sen. Edward M. Kennedy has died. Boston Globe obituary. Washington Post obituary.

Go to this page for the Globe's very fine retrospective on Sen Ted Kennedy.

Here's Chapter 1 of the Boston Globe's serialized biography of Ted Kennedy. Click on the Globe's navigation bar near the top of the Chapter 1 page for subsequent chapters. With videos and slide shows.

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Here is the declassified, redacted CIA inspector general report (pdf), courtesy of the Washngton Post. NBC News: the newly declassified CIA report says interrogators threatened to kill the children of 9/11 suspect Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. Another interrogator told another suspect his mother would be sexually assaulted in front of him. This New York Times story on Eric Holder's appointment of a special prosecutor relates to stories (a) through (e) below, for starters. Eric Holder's statement on the torture review. Wall Street Journal: the report faults the CIA for failing to establish safeguards against abuse.

Jeff Sharlet writes the cover story for Harpers, the scariest story I have read in a long time, about the Christian fundamentalist crusade to take over the U.S. military, a movement that apparently has the backing of Gen. David Petraeus, National Security Advisor Jack Jones & Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, and the tacit approval of President Obama....

White Trash Populism -- an American Tradition. One of Andrew Sullivan's readers explains who the teabaggers are; a very thoughtful, realistic & discouraging essay.

Apocalypse 2003 -- the Prophet Ezekiel Speaks to George Bush. James Haught of the Council for Secular Humanism reports that then-President George W. Bush told French President Jacques Chirac in early 2003 that it was necessary to invade Iraq "to thwart Gog and Magog, the Bible’s satanic agents of the Apocalypse." Chirac says Bush told him,

Gog and Magog are at work in the Middle East…. The biblical prophecies are being fulfilled…. This confrontation is willed by God, who wants to use this conflict to erase his people’s enemies before a New Age begins.

Mark Mazzetti & David Johnston of the New York Times: based on a memo from John Yoo & Robert J. Delahunty to Alberto Gonzales, Vice President Dick Cheney & other top Bush officials argued that the military should be used on American soil to round up terrorist suspects, specifically men known as the Lackawanna Six then residing in a Buffalo, New York, suburb. Other Bush advisors, including FBI Director Robert Mueller, opposed the proposal, and the FBI ultimately arrested the men. Most legal scholars hold that using the military on domestic land violates the 4th Amendment & an 1878 law.

Washington Post: the CIA's program to assassinate Al Qaeda leaders came to the attention of CIA Director Leon Panetta because officials were proposing to activate the plan.

New York Times: since shortly after the 9/11 attacks, the CIA has had a secret program to assassinate Al Qaeda leaders using paramilitary teams, but under orders from then-Vice President Dick Cheney, the agency did not inform Congress of their plans.

New York Times: a report issued by five inspectors general finds that the Bush Administration's warrantless wiretapping program got too little legal review -- at DOJ, only John Yoo knew what it was about & wrote his "flawed" opinion after the program was underway -- & it was so ineffective that no one could cite an instance where it yielded any useful intelligence. CNN story here -- DOJ's Jay Bybee described Yoo as "the White House's guy." Washington Post story here.

AP: newly released DOD documents "portray a chaotic and sometimes violent operation" at Guantanamo.

Under the FOIA, the National Security Archive, a nongovernmental research institute, obtained 20 FBI interviews of Saddam Hussein, one of which is completely redacted. You can read them here. Glenn Kessler of the Washington Post hits the highlights, including Saddam's claim that he pretended to have WMDs to bolster his position against Iran.

Charles Blow of the New York Times: the hypocrisy of the holier-than-thou "family values" agenda goes beyond politicians; "it permeates the electorate."

Two entries explaining "Why We Won't Get Meaningful Healthcare Reform":

Common Cause: "major health care interests are spending more than $1.4 million a day to lobby Capitol Hill so far this year, and that those same health care interests have significantly ramped up campaign contributions, donating about $373 million to Members of Congress since 2000."

Edward Epstein of CQ Politics: "Nearly four dozen members of Congress have spouses employed in the health care industry — ties that lawmakers acknowledge are influencing their thinking about how the health system should be overhauled."

New York Times: the National Archives has released 154 hours of audio tapes and tens of thousands of document pages from the Nixon administration. You can navigate to the tapes at this Nixon Presidential Library site. They also have a small sampling of the documents online. The rest are available at the Library in Yorba Linda, California, or College Park, Maryland (as indicated for each collection).

Wall Street Journal: a new Government Accountability Office study "says most firearms recovered in drug violence in Mexico come from the U.S."

Listen to & read Jake Tapper's story of Lakhdar Boumediene, most famous for his successful Supreme Court challenge to the Bush administration, & see if you agree with President Obama that we should "put all this behind us." Video & print stories.

Wall Street Journal: a new Government Accountability Office study "says most firearms recovered in drug violence in Mexico come from the U.S."

Listen to & read Jake Tapper's story of Lakhdar Boumediene, most famous for his successful Supreme Court challenge to the Bush administration, & see if you agree with President Obama that we should "put all this behind us." Video & print stories.

Glenn Greenwald writes a masterful piece on right-wing tribalism that has broader applications. CW: tribalism & an inability to receive & adapt to new information are the two primary pathologies of the right & two of the main causes for all of the world's ills.

Ali Frick of Think Progress: Dick Cheney blames Richard Clarke for 9/11: "He missed it."

If you have been persuaded by arguments against late-term abortions, please read Digby's column. Read it all.

Nancy Gibbs & Michael Scherer write the cover story for Time about Michelle Obama; the presumptuous title, "The Meaning of Michelle Obama."

Ari Shapiro of NPR reports that months before the Bush DOJ wrote its first interrogation memo, then-White House counsel Alberto Gonzales provided almost daily "legal guidance" to CIA contractor James Mitchell; Gonzales' "guidance" permitted Mitchell to use "harsher and harsher" treatment on prisoner Abu Zubaydah.

CW: Matt Taibbi speaks for me: "Being Anti-Torture Doesn't Make You Pro-Terrorist." By way of explanation, here's part of correspondence I got from a well-known center-right columnist. I am withholding his name because I think some day he'll be embarrassed about being an apologist for torturers and an all-around asshole:

I hope that if and when that comes, people like you will have a little time to reflect on your odd allocation of outrage as between those who went to extremes to defend the country and those who are trying to murder you.... I will waste no more time reading your drivel.

The Truth about Torture. Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, former Chief of Staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell, & a Republican, puts the lie to Veep Cheney's argument about "keeping us safe." A must-read.

Andrew Sullivan explains how torture "works": it forces the victim to tell you something you already think you know -- an excellent essay on the folly of Dick Cheney & his band of merry men.

Worse than Iran. Al Jazeera cameraman Sami al-Haj -- six years. AP photograph Bilal Hussein -- two years. Reuters/free lance photographer Ibrahim Jassam -- still imprisoned. The U.S. held these journalists without charges or trials. There are others. Please read Glenn Greenwald's column.

Greg Miller of the Los Angeles Times highlights what the CIA meant by "sleep deprivation."

Susan Thistlethwaithe, in the Washington Post: "The more often you go to church, the more you approve of torture." Thistlethwaithe says some conservative Christians have devised a faulty theological foundation favoring torture.

The First 100 Days of the Ex-President -- every one a million-dollar day. George W. Bush, who doesn't read much, collected a million dollars a day for a library so others can read all about HIM....

...AND Time has an excellent day-by-day gallery that captures the events of the first 100 days. With photos, videos & copy. It starts here. Time also has a series of 77 mostly behind-the-scenes photos by Callie Shell of the President's first 100 (or so) days in office.

 

DAMON WINTER, New York Times photo. CLICK ON PHOTO TO VIEW LARGER IMAGE.

The New York Times has a fabulous slideshow of photos by Damon Winter who just won the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography for his work capturing the Obama campaign. 

Los Angeles Times: the CIA did not conduct an assessment of the effectiveness of harsh interrogation techniques even though its own inspector general called for one as early as 2003 in a report that raised "deep concerns" about waterboarding and other techniques.

McClatchy News: the CIA's inspector general reported in 2004 that there was no conclusive proof harsh interrogation techniques helped stop any "specific imminent attacks," which undercuts claims to the contrary from Dick Cheney & other Bush Administration officials.

Washington Post: the military agency that provides advice on interrogation techniques told top Pentagon lawyer William Haynes in 2002 that imposing extreme duress on subjects constituted torture & that it produced "unreliable information."

Philip Zelikow, counsellor to the Bush State Department, director of the 9/11 commission & now a history professor, teaches a lesson on why "enhanced" interrogation methods are not in our national interest. With his unique insider perspective, Zelikow provides a powerful rebuttal to the Cheney-Rumsfeld torture advocacy.

Ali Soufan in the New York Times. Read this. A former FBI agent on how we got into the torture business.

Philip Zelikow, in Foreign Policy. Zelikow, an attorney inside the Bush State Department, pushed back against the torture memos with one of his own that found fault with the legal "reasoning." Zelikow of course did not prevail, and, "The White House attempted to collect and destroy all copies of my memo."

"A Perfect Storm of Ignorance & Enthusiasm": New York Times: top officials opt for torture without knowing anything about it.

New York Times: A newly declassified Senate report provides the most detailed evidence yet that the military’s use of torture harsh interrogation methods on terrorism suspects "was approved at high levels of the Bush administration." Links to report pdf. Wall Street Journal story here. the Journal story includes a John Yoo sidebar in which he argues that the presidency was created to authorize torture.

Washington Post story here: the CIA was preparing to torture harshly interrogate enemies even before they had captured their first high-level suspect & long before they had legal approval.

McClatchy: the Senate report reveals that Bush administration officials put "relentless pressure" on interrogators to use harsh interrogation methods in part to elicit evidence of an Al Qaida-Iraq connection.

Mark Danner in the New York Review of Books on "the Red Cross Torture Report -- What It Means." "When it comes to torture, it is not what we did but what we are doing." Here's the report, which is awful reading (pdf).

Washington Times: Crown Publishers will abridge President Obama's Dreams from My Father for middle-school-aged children. (Don't mind the stupid, breathless tone of the article, whose author tries -- and fails -- to find an ethical lapse here.)

Update: odds are, Crown will edit out this:

In case you're wondering, that is Barack Obama on the audio. Get the backstory here in an article titled, "Barack Obama is tired of your motherfucking shit."

David Savage of the Chicago Tribune: Bush memos on presidential powers shock legal experts, left & right.

Jeff Smith & Dan Eggen of the Washington Post: Office of Legal Counsel memoranda reveal numerous "major legal errors." Neil Lewis' New York Times story here.

Fabulous First Ladies (&/or their Fotographers) Think Alike:

This was Mrs. Kennedy's first official White House photo.

 

Economic Stuff:

ABC News: "The Obama administration's $787 billion stimulus bill created up to 2.1 million jobs during the final three months of last year, according to a new report from the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office."

Business Week: in 2007, the super-rich got richer, paid fewer taxes.

Reporter David Leonhardt of the New York Times writes a largely positive article about the impact of the Recovery Act a/k/a the stimulus bill. And so does Vice President Joe Biden (pdf). Update: Alec MacGillis of the Washington Post reports. Louise Radnofsky of the Wall Street Journal: the bulk of the stimulus hasn't been spent yet.

New York Times: "President Obama’s proposed budget would bring this year’s deficit to nearly $1.6 trillion, but help lower annual deficits over the next decade, according to analysts. More on the budget from the Washington Post. You can read the full budget here (pdf's).

Bloomberg: e-mails show that the New York Fed, then led by Tim Geithner, told AIG to withhold details from the public about its payments to banks. Geithner or his staff crossed out language proposed by AIG which revealed they were paying banks like Goldman Sachs 100 cents on the dollar for credit-default swaps they bought from the firm.

Thank You, George W. Bush. Washington Post: "The past decade was the worst for the U.S. economy in modern times, a sharp reversal from a long period of prosperity that is leading economists and policymakers to fundamentally rethink the underpinnings of the nation's growth."

Thank You, Congress (& Your Banker Buddies, too). Robin Sidel of the Wall Street Journal: "The nation's banks will be bombarding customers with new fees and products in 2010 as they try to replace more than $50 billion in revenue wiped out by new rules that clamp down on certain business practices."

Christmas Eve News Dump. Washington Post: the Obama Administration pledged yesterday to provide unlimited financial assistance to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, at the same time Fannie & Freddie "disclosed they had received approval from their federal regulator to pay $42 million in Wall Street-style compensation packages to 12 top executives for 2009."

Merry Christmas, Fat Cats. Washington Post: the government (whoever that is) announced yesterday that the two top executives at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, company which have already received $121 billion in bailouts, "could be paid up to $6 million each for their services this year. In total, the top 12 executives at the two firms are in line to receive up to $42 million in 2009 alone."

University of Michigan study: "...banks with connections to members of congressional finance committees and banks whose executives served on Federal Reserve boards were more likely to receive funds" from the TARP" & "that TARP investment amounts were positively related to banks' political contributions and lobbying expenditures, and that, overall, the effect of political influence was strongest for poorly performing banks."

Brady Dennis of the Washington Post: a report to Congress issued by TARP inspector general Neil Barofsky says that while president of the New York Fed, Tim Geithner gave 100 cents on the dollar to AIG's creditors, some of the world's largest financial firms (CW: & Tim's best buddies) while letting taxpayer-funded bailouts swallow the company's losses. See also David Goldman's CNN Money report. CW note: the banks were paying Geithner's salary at the time he "negotiated" with them. Here's the report itself (pdf), courtesy of the New York Times....

Silla Brush of The Hill on TARP watchdog Neil Barofsky's report, which has more harsh criticism for the Treasury Department's handling of TARP funds. And more from USA Today. Here's the link to the report (pdf).

Matt Apuzzo & Daniel Wagner of the AP: an analysis of Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner's phone logs show he always makes time for his bailed-out banker buddies, even when the President is calling.

I Always Rely on the Wisdom of Strangers. At a Midtown bar, Calvin Trillin meets a man who explains why the financial system collapsed; CW: Trillin can't find any flaws in the theory, & neither can I.

"A Failure of Management." Daniel Wagner of the AP: Neil Barofsky, the TARP watchdog, told the House Oversight Committee...that Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner is "ultimately responsible" for regulators' failure to rein in massive bonus payments at AIG, noting that Geithner's subordinates at the New York Fed were aware of the $1.75 billion in AIG bonus in November 2008, AFTER the September 2008 bailout, & Geithner did nothing to stop them.

Tomoeh Murakami Tse of the Washington Post: New York AG Andrew Cuomo released a report titled, "No Rhyme or Reason: the 'Heads I Win, Tails You Lose' Bank Bonus Culture" which demonstrates that compensation practices at the nation's largest banks have become "unmoored" from their financial performance. "Two firms, Citigroup and Merrill Lynch, suffered losses of more than $27 billion each but paid out $5.3 billion and $3.6 billion in bonuses, respectively.... Together, they have received TARP funds totaling $55 billion." New York Times story here. The Times posts a pdf of the report here.

... AND Nobel Laureate & former Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers Joseph Stiglitz in the New York Times: the Geithner plan is HORRIBLE & makes "resusitating the economy...even harder."

 

The Congressional Budget Office reports that the gap between the nation's rich & poor is the highest since they've been keeping records, & part of the cause is Bush Administration tax policy (surprise!).