Pwned

There it is. The big bankers have it. You might have thought that an enormous red flag would have been the appointing of a treasury secretary who hadn't paid his income taxes.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

Abandon Hope All Ye

Yesterday, I treated this new Newsweek report that Eric Holder is "leaning toward appointing a prosecutor to investigate the Bush administration's brutal interrogation practices" as something to celebrate. But new facts about what that investigation would entail and, more importantly, would exclude -- facts added by today's Washington Post -- strongly suggest it's the opposite. At least if that article is to be believed -- and it seems clear that Holder dispatched his allies to leak his plans in order to gauge reaction -- the investigation will only target "rogue" CIA interrogators who exceeded the limits of what John Yoo authorized, and would not include high-level policy makers who authorized the torture tactics and implemented America's torture regime:

  Glenn Greenwald

Frankly, I wouldn’t have pegged Glenn Greenwald for someone so naïve as to believe Holder would actually be a hero of democracy and justice. Anyone who would is not in a position to do anything about it.

Like Fox Mulder, apparently Greenwald wants to believe.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

Yet Another Surprise

Scientists are not Republicans.

Ooh, Another Surprise

Dick Cheney was the driving force behind the decision to conceal an undisclosed CIA counter-terrorism program from Congress, according to a report published Sunday on the New York Times' website.

  Politico

Too Stupid for Comment

The federal government's most secure prison has determined that two books written by President Barack Obama contain material "potentially detrimental to national security" and rejected an inmate's request to read them.

Ahmed Omar Abu Ali is serving a 30-year sentence at the federal supermax prison in Florence, Colo., for joining al-Qaida and plotting to assassinate then-President George W. Bush. Last year, Abu Ali requested two books written by Obama: "Dreams from My Father" and "The Audacity of Hope."

But prison officials, citing guidance from the FBI, determined that passages in both books contain information that could damage national security.

  Google News

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

Flashback

Ever wonder why you never heard anything more about those truckloads of suffocated captives in Afghanistan way back at the Beginning of the End? I don't think you'll be surprised to find out why.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

Again: There's More

A new internal government report says President George W. Bush authorized secret intelligence activities shortly after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks that went beyond wiretapping without court orders.

Details of those activities remain classified, but are referred to in the newly released report as the President's Surveillance Program.

  TPM

Well, I can’t say I’m surprised, but I am certainly curious. Here’s the report should you desire to read it.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

Together Again

Yeah, yeah, if I don't have time, why am I posting something so silly as this? I can't help myself. That's why.

When I saw a picture of Obama and Popeman together, the first thing that popped into my mind was - God and the Devil are reunited. While I never thought of Obama as God incarnate, I have always thought of Razzo as the Devil. So what's this? God, the Devil and the Witch of Endor? What is she wearing for Pete's God's sake?

(click to enlarge)

I found some other interesting things looking for a better picture.

So Little Time, So Much Crap

Jumping right over the ongoing Palin saga and the ubiquitous adulterous congressmen stories...

Leon Panetta says the CIA knowingly lied to Congress. (No!!!)

Active duty Army suicides still rising.

Gays in the military - no way; white supremicists - okay.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

It's Even Worse

Spencer Ackerman yesterday attended a Senate hearing at which the DOD's General Counsel, Jeh Johnson, testified. As Ackerman highlighted, Johnson actually said that even for those detainees to whom the Obama administration deigns to give a real trial in a real court, the President has the power to continue to imprison them indefinitely even if they are acquitted at their trial. About this assertion of "presidential post-acquittal detention power" -- an Orwellian term (and a Kafka-esque concept) that should send shivers down the spine of anyone who cares at all about the most basic liberties -- Ackerman wrote, with some understatement, that it "moved the Obama administration into new territory from a civil liberties perspective." Law professor Jonathan Turley was more blunt: "The Obama Administration continues its retention and expansion of abusive Bush policies — now clearly Obama policies on indefinite detention."

  Glenn Greenwald

Such a change we're getting.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

Cyber Woes

You know things are bad when Microsoft is trying to draw attention to its latest security flaw. A new vulnerability is affecting Internet Explorer users who are running Windows XP or Windows Server 2003 (do the latter even exist anymore?), allowing hackers to take control of victims' PCs remotely.

[...]

The flaw lies in how Internet Explorer and its notorious ActiveX controls handle video playback. Microsoft is encouraging users to disable the vulnerable ActiveX controls -- even in versions of Windows not known to be affected by the security problem -- until it can release an emergency patch later this month.

  Switched

Here’s where Vista users are happy for once. But the US Government isn’t quite so thrilled.

WASHINGTON – A widespread computer attack that began July 4 knocked out the Web sites of the Treasury Department, the Secret Service and other U.S. government agencies, according to officials inside and outside the government.

[...]

The U.S. government Web sites, which also included those of the Federal Trade Commission and the Transportation Department, were all down at varying points over the holiday weekend and into this week.

[...]

An initial investigation found that many personal computers were infected with a virus ordering them to visit major official Web sites in South Korea and the U.S. at the same time, Korea Information Security Agency official Shin Hwa-su said.

  Yahoo

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

Sarah, Oh, Sarah

I’m convinced she lives by the motto that there is no such thing as bad publicity.

Shannyn Moore held a press conference on Sunday in front of the governor’s mansion in Juneau to denounce Palin, who announced her resignation as Alaska governor on Friday, as a “coward and a bully.”

“On the Fourth of July, when Americans everywhere were celebrating our most sacred national holiday with parades and barbeques, Governor Sarah Palin was busy having me, Shannyn Moore, declared an Enemy of the State,” Moore told a press scrum. “In a rambling quasi-legal letter, the most powerful person in this state accused me of defaming her for pointing out the fact that there have been rumors — rumors — of corruption, rumors that have been around for years.”

[...]

“The governor’s massive overreaction … should make any reasonable person wonder what’s wrong with her. The Lady protests way too much. Eventually we’ll all find out why she really walked off the job.”

On Saturday, an attorney representing Palin threatened not only Moore, but Brad Friedman of BradBlog and a number of mainstream news sources with defamation suits if they continued to publish speculation that a corruption probe was behind Palin’s decision to resign as governor.

  Raw Story

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.