What Bush was up to...

Oh, please, please, please, can't we prosecute?

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

New documents show the CIA destroyed nearly 100 tapes of terror interrogations, far more than has previously been acknowledged.

The revelation Monday comes as a criminal prosecutor is wrapping up his investigation in the matter.

The acknowledgment of dozens of destroyed tapes came in a letter filed by government lawyers in New York, where the American Civil Liberties Union has filed a lawsuit seeking more details of terror interrogation programs.

"The CIA can now identify the number of videotapes that were destroyed," said the letter by Acting U.S. Attorney Lev Dassin. "Ninety two videotapes were destroyed."

Yeah, but wait, there's more. You also get a suspension of First Amendment rights...

the memo from the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel—along with others made public for the first time Monday—illustrates with new details the extraordinary post-9/11 powers asserted by Bush administration lawyers. Those assertions ultimately led to such controversial policies as allowing the waterboarding of terror suspects and permitting warrantless wiretapping of U.S. citizens—steps that remain the subject of ongoing investigations by Congress and the Justice Department. The memo was co-written by John Yoo, at the time a deputy attorney general in the Office of Legal Counsel. Yoo, now a professor at the Boalt Hall School of Law at the University of California, Berkeley, has emerged as one of the central figures in those ongoing investigations.

In perhaps the most surprising assertion, the Oct. 23, 2001, memo suggested the president could even suspend press freedoms if he concluded it was necessary to wage the war on terror. "First Amendment speech and press rights may also be subordinated to the overriding need to wage war successfully," Yoo wrote in the memo entitled "Authority for Use of Military Force to Combat Terrorist Activity Within the United States."

CONTINUE READING...

Not that we didn't know this...

Obama says his office had no role in Illinois governor scandal:

"Obama said the vacant Senate seat is not for 'any politician to trade,' and he said he had never spoken to the governor on the subject.

He said he was confident that 'no representatives of mine would have any part of any deals related to this seat.' The Senate seat 'belongs to the people of Illinois and they deserve the best possible representation,' he said."

CONTINUE READING...

Good, clean, dirty, old corruption

We've all had the same reaction.

Says K-Lo at the National Review: "This Illinois Senate-seat news is outrageous and shameful. That said, it warms my heart. Finally, a political scandal you can talk to your children about. No room at the Mayflower. No myspace page. No Gay-American announcement. Just good and evil and money and power corrupting."

From Slate: As the old bulls retire from the Senate and Change with a capital C comes to Washington, it's quaint to see a throwback to 19^th- (or 20^th-) century money-grubbing. It's a little incredible that prostitutes weren't involved (or aren't yet, at least). Perhaps even more staggering is that the man at the center was so reckless while simultaneously aware of the advances in modern surveillance.

CONTINUE READING...

Obama shows his quality

Slate notes that Obama looks great in Gov. Rod Blagojevich's indictment:

"The person who looks great in this sordid affair, in fact, is Barack Obama, whom Blagojevich refers to by another name. According to the indictment:

ROD BLAGOJEVICH said that the consultants ... are telling him that he has to 'suck it up' for two years and do nothing and give this 'motherfucker [the President-elect] his senator. Fuck him. For nothing? Fuck him.'

According to the indictment, 'Blagojevich said he knew that the President-elect wanted Senate Candidate 1 for the open seat but 'they're not willing to give me anything except appreciation. Fuck them.' ' (Senate Candidate No. 1 seems to be Valerie Jarrett, a senior adviser to Obama.) In another passage, Blagojevich fumes that if Obama doesn't show him some love, he'll appoint a person Obama doesn't want. Obama comes off as good as he could possibly have hoped for: He's behaving well even when you don't think anyone is watching."

CONTINUE READING...

Blagojevich helping to save the Tribune?

Both Eric and I had the same reaction: "Wow! Old School! A bribery and corruption scandal."

I mean, really, no inappropriate texting to interns, no sex with young boys, no airport bathrooms--just good old-fashioned "pay-to-play." Guys wearing wires and tapping phones and not-so-veiled hints that someone should take out a newspaper editor. Da Chicago way.

Loves it.

And a moment , if you please, for the Tribune, whose parent company made news by filing for bankruptcy just yesterday. This should boost their circulation numbers and give them some cred.

"It's like a Brian dePalma period piece!" says Eric.

Here's what the Tribune had to say:

"Tribune Editor Gerould W. Kern said today that the newspaper delayed publishing some stories at the request of the U.S. attorney's office during the course of reporting on the accelerating investigation of Blagojevich.

'On occasion, prosecutors asked us to delay publication of stories, asserting that disclosure would jeopardize the criminal investigation.' Kern said. 'In isolated instances, we granted the requests, but other requests were refused.'"

The Tribune has published this helpful timeline which should assist the Pulitzer Committee in evaluating the storyline.

CONTINUE READING...

IL Blagojevich arrested!?

Illinois' Rod Blagojevich is arrested and charged for taking bribes as he considers who should replace Obama in the Senate. Seriously?

A) Who wrote the complaint? David Mamet?

In another call between ROD BLAGOJEVICH and Deputy Governor A that occurred a short time later on November 3, 2008, ROD BLAGOJEVICH and Deputy Governor A discussed an editorial from the Chicago Tribune regarding the endorsement of Michael Madigan and calling for a committee to consider impeaching ROD BLAGOJEVICH.

During the call, ROD BLAGOJEVICH’s wife can be heard in the background telling ROD BLAGOJEVICH to tell Deputy Governor A “to hold up that fucking Cubs shit. . . fuck them.” ROD BLAGOJEVICH asked Deputy Governor A what he thinks of his wife’s idea. Deputy Governor A stated that there is a part of what ROD BLAGOJEVICH’s wife said that he “agree[s] with.”

Deputy Governor A told ROD BLAGOJEVICH that Tribune Owner will say that he does not have anything to do with the editorials, “but I would tell him, look, if you want to get your Cubs thing done get rid of this Tribune.” Later, ROD BLAGOJEVICH’s wife got on the phone and, during the continuing discussion of the critical Tribune editorials, stated that Tribune Owner can “just fire” the writers because Tribune Owner owns the Tribune. ROD BLAGOJEVICH’s wife stated that if Tribune Owner’s papers were hurting his business, Tribune Owner would do something about the editorial board. ROD BLAGOJEVICH then got back on the phone. ROD BLAGOJEVICH told Deputy Governor A to put together the articles in the Tribune that are on the topic of removing ROD BLAGOJEVICH from office and they will then have someone, like JOHN HARRIS, go to Tribune Owner and say, “We’ve got some decisions to make now.”

ROD BLAGOJEVICH said that “someone should say, ‘get rid of those people.’” ROD BLAGOJEVICH said that he thinks that they should put this all together and then have HARRIS or somebody go talk to the Tribune owners and say, “Look, we’ve got decisions to make now. . . moving this stuff forward (believed to be a reference to the IFA helping with the Cubs sale) . . . someone’s gotta go to [Tribune Owner], we want to see him. . . it’s a political fuckin’ operation in there.” Deputy Governor A agreed and said that HARRIS needs to be “sensitive” about how he does it. ROD BLAGOJEVICH said there is nothing sensitive about how you do it and that it’s “straight forward” and you say “we’re doing this stuff for you, we believe this is right for Illinois [and] this is a big deal to [Tribune Owner] financially” but what ROD BLAGOJEVICH is doing to help Tribune Owner is the same type of action that the Tribune is saying should be the basis for ROD BLAGOJEVICH’s impeachment. ROD BLAGOJEVICH said Tribune Owner should be told “maybe we can’t do this now. Fire those fuckers.”

Deputy Governor A suggested that ROD BLAGOJEVICH say, “I’m not sure that we can do this anymore because we’ve been getting a ton of these editorials that say, look, we’re going around the legislature, we gotta stop and this is something the legislature hasn’t approved. We don’t want to go around the legislature anymore.” ROD BLAGOJEVICH agreed and said that he wants HARRIS to go in and make that case, “not me.” Deputy Governor A agreed and said that he likes it. ROD
BLAGOJEVICH asked Deputy Governor A to put the list of Tribune articles together.

B) Is anyone really surprised?

Read it here. And read more from the NY Times.

CONTINUE READING...

Illinois Governor Suspends Business With Bank Of America

Illinois Governor Suspends Business With Bank Of America:

"Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich announced Monday that he is asking all Illinois government agencies to suspend business with Bank of America. Blagojevich contended that Bank Of America received a multi-billion dollar bailout from the government and should accordingly restore credit to the Republic Windows & Doors company in Chicago"

CONTINUE READING...