Archive for May, 2006

Lay And Skilling Guilty

By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Law

Good riddance.
HOUSTON (CNNMoney.com) – Enron former chief executive Jeffrey Skilling and founder Kenneth Lay were found guilty Thursday of conspiracy and fraud in the granddaddy of all corporate fraud cases.
On the sixth day of deliberations, a jury of eight women and four men convicted the former executives of misleading the public about the true financial [...]

May 25th, 2006 | Permalink| 10 Comments »

True?

By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Cartoons, Immigration
May 23rd, 2006 | Permalink| 16 Comments »

Did Libby Lie?

By Justin Gardner | Related entries in The Plame Game

Well, judging from the noise being made by two CIA agents, the answer is yes. This could mean dark days are ahead for Libby.
From the NY Daily News:
WASHINGTON – Two top CIA officials will bolster prosecutors’ charge that Vice President Cheney’s chief aide lied to them, court papers show.
Prosecutors say disgraced Cheney chief of staff [...]

May 23rd, 2006 | Permalink| 1 Comment »

Sully On The Wall

By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Immigration

His words. My thoughts.
If it’s possible to secure the border, why not? One of the core responsibilities of government is law and order, and protecting and controlling borders is a basic duty. A real wall might even alleviate some of the hostility to Hispanic immigrants, by removing the stigma of illegality. Yes, I’m also in [...]

May 23rd, 2006 | Permalink| 7 Comments »

Vets’ Records Stolen

By Justin Gardner | Related entries in War

As if they needed more to worry about, now Vets have to deal with some idiots stealing all of their personal information?
From the AP:
WASHINGTON – Thieves took sensitive personal information on 26.5 million U.S. veterans, including
Social Security numbers and birth dates, after a Veterans Affairs employee improperly brought the material home, the government said Monday.
The [...]

May 22nd, 2006 | Permalink| 5 Comments »

Discuss

By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Discuss, Education, The War On Terrorism
May 22nd, 2006 | Permalink| 51 Comments »

Wired Publishes Source Documents In NSA/AT&T Surveillance Case

By Bob Aman | Related entries in Bad Decisions, Breaking News, Corporate Business, In The News, Law, Technology

Well here’s an interesting development. Wired Magazine has published the full text of some of the documents that Mark Klein has provided against AT&T. The court had placed a gag order on the Electronic Frontier Foundation to prevent the information from being released to the public, ostensibly because it contained proprietary technical information, [...]

May 22nd, 2006 | Permalink| 4 Comments »

“A cascading series of misjudgments by White House and Pentagon officials”

By amba | Related entries in Bad Decisions, Foreign Policy, The War On Terrorism, The World, War

You can’t read this story about the botched, cut-rate training of the Iraqi police without getting very, very, very angry. Even if you thought going in and deposing Saddam was the right thing to do, the arrogance and willful ignorance (they had the information, they ignored it) and the sheer incompetence with which it [...]

May 21st, 2006 | Permalink| 5 Comments »

In English or Espanol, It’s no Problemo

By Alan Stewart Carl | Related entries in Immigration

No, I do not intend to start using Spanish in the titles of all my posts, but I wanted to make an additional comment in regards to my early post about English as our national language.
A blog called Right on the Right, quoted my passage about all the Spanish I see here in San Antonio [...]

May 21st, 2006 | Permalink| 7 Comments »

Simplifying Immigration: The Orange Card?

By amba | Related entries in Discuss, Immigration, Legislation

As the immigration bill, Hagel-Martinez S. 2611, works its way slowly through the Senate, numerous amendments fasten onto it like barnacles and pilotfish, then are put to a vote and either firmly secured to the bill or sheared off. This Thursday list of some of those amendments and their fates, posted at the unabashedly [...]

May 20th, 2006 | Permalink| 19 Comments »

Word!

By amba | Related entries in History, Smart Things Said By Smart People, The War On Terrorism

Senator Pat Roberts: “I am a strong supporter of civil liberties. But you have no civil liberties if you are dead.”
What the Senator is saying is that saving lives trumps all else. And I cannot disagree more.
Saving lives trumps much. And how much it trumps is a valid area for discussion and disagreement. But there [...]

May 20th, 2006 | Permalink| 6 Comments »

Rudeness on the Left [UPDATED]

By amba | Related entries in General Politics, In The News

John McCain was booed, heckled and mocked as he gave the commencement address at the New School in New York today. Some faculty members behaved as childishly as students:
[D]ozens of faculty members and students turned their backs and raised signs in protest and a distinguished student speaker pointedly mocked him as he sat silently [...]

May 19th, 2006 | Permalink| 11 Comments »

Iran “Badges” Story Said To Be Incorrect

By Justin Gardner | Related entries in The World

Hold the phones people. This story may not be the real deal.
From 940news:
The National Post is sending shockwaves across the country this morning with a report that Iran’s Parliament has passed a law requiring mandatory Holocaust style badges to identify Jews and Christians.
But independent reporter Meir Javedanfar, an Israeli Middle East expert who was born [...]

May 19th, 2006 | Permalink| 10 Comments »

Trying on the Hitler suit

By Sean Aqui | Related entries in Breaking News, Foreign Policy, Religion, The War On Terrorism, The World

Canada’s National Post is reporting that Iran’s parliament has approved a law that would require religious minorities to wear colored bands identifying their faith.
The law mandates the government to make sure that all Iranians wear “standard Islamic garments” designed to remove ethnic and class distinctions reflected in clothing, and to eliminate “the influence of the [...]

May 19th, 2006 | Permalink| 2 Comments »

CIA squelches CIA lawsuit. Huh?

By Sean Aqui | Related entries in Foreign Policy, Law, The War On Terrorism

A judge has dismissed a lawsuit against the CIA’s “extraordinary rendition” program, saying a trial would compromise national security.
Judge T. S. Ellis 3d ruled in favor of the Bush administration, which had argued that the “state secrets” privilege provided an absolute bar to the lawsuit against a former C.I.A. director and transportation companies. Judge Ellis [...]

May 19th, 2006 | Permalink| 3 Comments »

Se Habla Ingles?

By Alan Stewart Carl | Related entries in Immigration

Should English be our national language? Yesterday, the Senate voted yes. Of course, they also voted that English is our nation’s “common and unifying language,� a different phrasing meant to be less restrictive than simply calling English our “national language.�
As usual with the Senate, rhetoric trumps practicality as both statements could now become law without [...]

May 19th, 2006 | Permalink| 23 Comments »

The Mistake We Won’t Make This Time.

By amba | Related entries in Military, War

The last time this nation was bitterly divided over a war, the blameless got the blame. Soldiers who were selflessly serving came home to be reviled for their service by those whose self-interest in staying safe aligned — conveniently or coincidentally — with their opposition to the war. Even those who remain convinced [...]

May 19th, 2006 | Permalink| 4 Comments »

Daily Kos On The Air

By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Elections, General Politics

Markos Moulitsas, the kos in Daily Kos, is starring in a new commercial for the guy who wants to unseat Lieberman in Connecticut. Personally, I think the one with Markos as the centerpiece is pretty damn cheesy. Also, the candidate Ned Lamont is pretty stiff and reminds me of Howard Dean.
However, the “underdog” [...]

May 19th, 2006 | Permalink| 11 Comments »

Hear No Evil…

By Justin Gardner | Related entries in The War On Terrorism, War

Iraq has gone sideways. Why? Well, we’re starting to get more and more stories about early warnings that were ignored.
Here’s another one, courtesy of Harper’s:
The New York Times and others have reported that in 2003, the CIA station chief in Baghdad authored several special field reports that offered extremely negative assessments of the situation on [...]

May 19th, 2006 | Permalink| 3 Comments »

Dean and Gays

By Callimachus | Related entries in Dumb Things Said By Smart People, General Politics, Sexuality

So if John McCain took heat from moderates for going to Liberty University, what punishment ought to be meted out to Howard Dean for his appearance on the “700 Club?”
A natural political step, courting an important segment of the voting population, keeping the party’s doors open to everyone. Yes, yes, but what he said …

Dean [...]

May 18th, 2006 | Permalink| 15 Comments »