President Obama announced at a press conference the other day, seemingly out of the blue, that he intends to try again to get the prison at Guantanamo Bay closed down. The chances of getting that through Congress are slim and none, but there are some things he can do on his own. Here’s part of …
Category Archive: Civil Liberties
May 03 2013
Fuck You, Mayor Bloomberg
Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York has rarely met an authoritarian policy he didn’t heartily endorse. Speaking against a bill that would appoint an inspector general to oversee the NYPD and give innocent victims of its stop and frisk program some legal recourse, he said:
May 01 2013
Corsi: ACLU Will Shut Down Churches!
Jerome Corsi continues the 2013 World Tour of Paranoid Delusions (alternatively, the 2013 World Tour of Lying His Ass Off) in support of his new anti-ACLU book. Appearing on Phyllis Schlafly’s radio show, he said that if the Supreme Court votes for marriage equality, the ACLU will try to shut down the churches.
Apr 25 2013
Wingnut on Wingnut Crime: McCarthy v Paul, Lee
Andrew McCarthy, one of the leaders of the right wingers who think that the constitution should be completely irrelevant when dealing with terrorism, has a column at NRO attacking Sens. Rand Paul and Mike Lee for supporting a prohibition on locking up American citizens in military prisons and denying them due process.
Apr 25 2013
Judge Bucking Obama DOJ on State Secrets Privilege
A federal judge appointed by Bill Clinton is not letting the Obama administration get away with its usual invocations of the State Secrets Privilege and demand that the courts just accept their judgment on what information can and can’t be introduced in a court case. The case involves a lawsuit filed over the placement of …
Apr 24 2013
Washington Continues a Fact-Free Rant on 14th Amendment
Ellis Washington is still ranting incoherently about the 14th Amendment and the incorporation of the Bill of Rights against the states. Now he’s complaining that freedom of speech and of the press can’t be violated by state and local governments due to evil liberals and the 14th Amendment. And saying bizarre things like this:
Apr 22 2013
Obama Gets Another Bill of Rights Issue Wrong
The Supreme Court heard oral argument on Wednesday in Salinas v Texas, a case that involves the question of whether a suspect’s silence during police questioning can be used as evidence of his guilt during trial. And once again, the Obama administration has taken a position identical to the standard right wing position. Lyle Denniston …
Apr 21 2013
Graham and McCain: Bill of Rights? What Bill of Rights?
Among the predictably ridiculous responses to the pursuit and ultimate arrest of one of the perpetrators of the Boston Marathon bombing was Sen. Lindsay Graham and John McCain saying that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev should not be covered by the Constitution now that he’s been arrested.
Apr 19 2013
The Boston Bombings and White Privilege
On Wednesday, a report came out that the FBI had a potential suspect in mind, a man who had dropped a backpack at the site of the second bombings shortly before they went off. Several reports said that the man was “dark-skinned,” though those same reports also said the man had already been arrested, which …
Apr 18 2013
Corsi Just Plain Lies About the ACLU
Jerome Corsi, the Worldnutdaily’s “investigative reporter,” has a new book out about the ACLU that is little more than a tired rehash of all the old lies about the group. But now he’s adding a few new lies of his own. On the Janet Mefferd show he claimed that the ACLU wants to normalize pedophilia …
Apr 17 2013
Washington’s Bizarre Argument on the 4th Amendment
When Ellis Washington gets going, reason goes right out the window. In his latest Worldnutdaily column he argues that the 4th Amendment is a crucial bulwark of freedom (which is true) and, simultaneously, that the states should be able to violate it at will without any constitutional limits.
Apr 15 2013
Corsi’s New Book Recycles ACLU-Communist Nonsense
The Worldnutdaily’s Jerome Corsi has a new book out about the ACLU. I’m sure it will have all the accuracy he has displayed with the Swift Boat Vets and with his birther crusade to prove that Obama is really a Kenyan Muslim who was in a gay marriage (before there was such a thing). Judging …
Apr 15 2013
IRS: 4th Amendment? What 4th Amendment?
In yet another example of the federal government thinking the constitution is a dead letter, the Internal Revenue Service apparently thinks that they can read your emails without bothering to get a warrant from a judge. They claim there is no expectation of privacy when sending email.
Apr 14 2013
SCOTUS Limits Government Immunity
In all the attention paid to the marriage equality cases, it was easy to miss a rare bit of good news from the Supreme Court when it comes to criminal justice and government immunity issues. On March 27, the court handed down a 9-0 ruling in Millbrook v United States limiting the immunity of prison …
Apr 14 2013
Greenwald’s New Documentary
Glenn Greenwald has done a great job of critiquing the National Security State in print and Robert Greenwald (no relation as far as I know) has a new documentary out called War on Whistleblowers: Free Press and the National Security State. Steven Rosenfeld discusses the documentary on AlterNet.
About the Author
Recent Comments