In an entirely unsurprising move, the five conservatives on the Supreme Court have once again weakened the minimal safeguards in the Bill of Rights for those accused of a crime. Specifically, they said that you don’t really have a right to remain silent until you’re informed of or have explicitly invoked that right. Tejinder Singh, who (if it’s the same person) was one of the best college debaters in the country a decade ago, gives the background on the case:
Jun 19 2013
SCOTUS Weakens 5th Amendment. Again.
Jun 19 2013
Arming Syrian Rebels: A Scary Prospect
Late last week, President Obama made an abrupt policy shift and decided to start sending arms to the rebels in Syria fighting against Bashar al-Assad. He did so after Bill Clinton publicly called him out and after the CIA determined, supposedly definitively, that Assad had used chemical weapons against the rebels. I’m not too happy about the whole situation, though I doubt Obama is either.
Jun 19 2013
Url Geller: Super Spy
Uri Geller, the spoon-bending “psychic” con man from Israel, is now claiming to have been a CIA agent during the Cold War, helping the CIA counter the Soviet Union’s non-existent ability to use their minds in warfare. And apparently there’s a whole new documentary about it.
Jun 19 2013
DEA Using Informant Fired for Perjury
The use of confidential informants is a system prone to massive abuse, especially when there’s a big financial incentive for them to lie in order to get paid. USA Today reports that the DEA is now using an informant again who was previously blacklisted because he had lied in numerous cases.
Jun 19 2013
Dick Cheney: Wrong, But Consistent
President Obama, Sean Hannity and many others may be changing their position on the NSA’s data mining programs out of political necessity or partisan convenience, but Dick Cheney is not. In an interview with Chris Wallace, he said he’s just fine with what the NSA is doing:
Jun 19 2013
Beck: Book of Mormon Says This is the End
Jun 19 2013
Cliff Claven Wants Allen West to Spread His Seed
When I saw that John Ratzenberger, the actor who played Cliff Claven on Cheers, was going to appear at last weekend’s Faith and Freedom Coalition conference, I kind of chuckled. Turns out he was there to introduce Allen West and his comments were a bit…unusual.
Jun 19 2013
Another NSA Data Mining Hypocrite
Jun 19 2013
The United States of Ronald Reagan
While the rest of the country was concerned with the state of the economy and the recent revelations of government overreach in the war on terror, the House Subcommittee on Fisheries, Wildlife, Oceans and Insular Affairs was holding hearings on HR 553, a bill submitted by Rep. Darrell Issa to name the nation’s “economic zone” after Ronald Reagan.
Jun 19 2013
A Tale of Two Lawsuits
In the wake of the most recent revelations about NSA data mining, two groups have filed lawsuits against the federal government. One is the ACLU. The other is Freedom Watch, which is Larry Klayman with a P.O. Box. The ACLU is thinking strategically in their case:
Jun 19 2013
Retired Judge: FISA Court Little Comfort
Retired U.S. District Judge Nancy Gertner, now a professor at Harvard Law School, is challenging the idea that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, set up under the FISA law to operate in secret to handle some cases involving national security, is much of a meaningful safeguard for our privacy or our liberty. She got up at a talk the other day and said:
Jun 18 2013
Rand Paul Cares About Christian Persecution
Jun 18 2013
Meet Murray’s New Book — Same as the Old Book
William Murray, the fundamentalist evangelist son of the late Madalyn Murray O’Hair, has a new book out. Naturally, the Worldnutdaily is helping to promote it. And predictably, it’s just the same old litany of tired Christian right arguments about how terrible it is that they can’t force kids to pray in school anymore.
Jun 18 2013
Religious Privilege and Citizenship
Here’s another law that privileges religious beliefs by giving believers an opt-out from a generally applicable law, resulting in clear and obvious discrimination against non-believers. Margaret Doughty applied for US citizenship and was asked the standard question of whether she would be willing to take up arms to defend the country. Her reply:
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