bmaz

Our good friends at EFF have a big announcement. They have bagged a big win against the Bush Government on the improper use of National Security Letters.

Many of you have been asking many different questions about the OSC kerfluffle. I am fairly deep into this now and hope to have a serious piece ready by tonight. This is just a short post to run by all of you my current thoughts and ask you to post in comments any links to new and probative information you have run across (for other topics too if they are really noteworthy).

As you may have seen by now, the FBI has executed a full blown raid on the office and home of Scott Bloch, the DOJ head of the Office of Special Counsel. The questions regarding this raid are just beginning, and the web of conflicts raised is endless.

The first blow to land for the week did not fly in like a furious wind, it was a furious wind. Specifically a typhoon that blew a path of waste and destruction through the already destitute and oppressed tinderbox that is currently known as Myanmar, and was formerly known as Burma.

It was a nice quiet weekend; thankfully somewhat thin as to bad and/or outrageous news. Other than all the pollen and other allergens that are currently thick as soup in the air, the weather here is perfect; 90 degrees and not a cloud in sight. Perfect day to get the backyard and pool ready for the summer.

As I am minding the store while mom is away tilting kilts, I was party to a group discussion among several notable powers that be in the blogosphere early this afternoon, and the various blogs, all of which you are intimately familiar with, will be rolling out over the next few days somewhat of a battle plan on FISA/immunity.

Crikey, this is getting old. You may have seen by now that rumors of a new push on passage of FISA, and, of course, full retroactive immunity, are bubbling to the surface again. The bottom line is we know what the goal of the FISA push is (immunity), we know who wants it and why (the Bush/Cheneys because they have engaged in a mass criminal conspiracy), and we know the path the push will take (GOP assimilation of Blue Dogs). Really, the only part of this puzzle we do not yet know is what the precise nature of "the compromise" that will cravenly be peddled.

Yesterday, Judge Reggie Walton stirred things up a bit by indicating that President Bush undermined the rule of law when he pardoned (commuted) the sentence of Scooter Libby. He is absolutely right.

Are you ready for some football? Hot damn, I am. And guess what, there really is football to talk about. And lots of other things too, but let's start off with the gridiron. Trash talks are fairly infrequent these days, so go to town on any and all sports, and any other trashin you got on your mind.

By now, the story of the CIA's destruction of the "torture tapes" is well known. However, yesterday, an insufficiently noticed page A-16 story by Dan Eggen in the Washington Post, appears to put the lie to the defenses the Administration has posited to date and raise serious issues in relation to intentional, malicious destruction of evidence and obstruction of justice.