Judge Vaugn Walker has issued an extremely significant decision in the illegal wiretapping case of al-Haramain v. Bush/Obama. He has awarded damages and attorney fees to the plaintiffs on their claims of illegal and unconstitutional surveillance by the US government.

The Obama administration is preparing an executive order that would formalize indefinite detention without trial for some detainees at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, but allow those detainees and their lawyers to challenge the basis for continued incarceration.

In case you have not heard, some guy who last week was not a starting quarterback will suddenly start for the Minnesota Vikings tonight on Monday Night Football against the Chicago Bears. Who knows what this untested and unknown quarterback can bring to the game, time will tell. He will have to do it without [...]

Merriam-Webster has made “austerity” it’s word of the year for 2010. Topping the list is austerity, defined as “enforced or extreme economy.” Lookups for austerity peaked dramatically several times throughout the year, as people’s attention was drawn to global economic conditions and the debt crises in Europe, but lookups also remained strong throughout the year, [...]

The WaPo rolled out one last story to shore up their “Top Secret America” Pulitzer bid before the end of the year. I agree with Glenn’s overall assessment of this latest installment: As was true of the first several installments of their “Top Secret America,” there aren’t any particularly new revelations for those paying attention to [...]

While I’ve been in moving hell (one more day, a long drive, and then!!! relax), there have been two developments in the FBI’s efforts to fearmonger in the DC Metro. As I first reported several weeks ago, TSA Director and former FBI Deputy Director John Pistole testified to Congress that we need to implement searches [...]

Yakkety Yak, Take Out The Papers and the Trash

The AP has a story on Mitchell and Jessen’s torture defense. The lead of the story describes how CIA protected the torturers both by paying all of their defense costs–up to $5 million–as well as paying it directly out of CIA funds. But there’s an interesting sub-narrative. The piece describes how, in addition to just [...]

Do dogmatic conservative religious nutjobs ever stop to think how insane they sound? No. Now they are whining that teh gay are stealing the rainbows.

Just a quick post while I’m packing so you all have fresh thread to unwind. And also to note that Halliburton did manage to convince Nigeria to give them a half-off special for Dick Cheney’s freedom, though they had to bring Poppy Bush and James Baker in to close the deal. Nigeria’s anti-corruption police have [...]