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Happy birthday, belated to TD Niece (now… is it 3 already?), and, not belated, to TD Dad.

Well, they could be remote shangri-las, or perhaps third-world sh*t-holes, depending on one’s perspective, but the Swat Valley and Buner regions of Pakistan, closest points less than two days’ walk from Islamabad and nearby Rawalpindi (respectively, political capial and military h.q./ home of nuclear program) of Pakistan, should have the world’s complete and total support to shore them up against Taliban onslaught… but this WaPo report makes it clear that things is very, very bad there. The Pakistani government remains conflicted over whether the cancerous political monster (largely of its own creation and nurturing), the fundamentalist-Sunni Muslim Taliban, are its...

It should come as no surprise that after years of being told that their children were in mortal danger of being killed by terrrrrorists and that brutal torture of likely innocent men was the only way to keep them safe from the scourge of Islamo-fascism… a slight (50-46) majority of Americans polled recently believe that the use of such torture was justified. Naturally, this is given as an explanation of why the Obama Administration will tread lightly on complying with its own obligations at law (and by treaty) to thoroughly investigate official wrongdoing… although politicians will feel free to ignore...

Somehow, your talking dog managed to avoid the storms traveling up the East Coast just long enough to complete the Cox Rhode Race Marathon in Providence, RI in my standard issue time… representing state 12/marathon 23… Regular readers know that on this blog… it’s always about me. Anyway, while many are suffering the agony of either swine-flu or swine-flu like symptoms… I sit in agony as a result of my own actions (including the drive home… through those storms)! Speaking of agony… we’ll talk about agonizing… And we’ll move on to one of my obsessions, GTMO, which, Candace may yet...

Certainly, this occasion purportedly for the workers of the world to celebrate the achievements of the labor movement… may not quite work out that way this year, with riots all over Europe, ostensibly fueled by the financial and economic crisis now gripping the globe. While millions of Americans are feeling the hit here (and indeed, millions have lost their jobs here just in the last few months)… by and large, Americans seem eerily nonchalant about it… just as we seem to be eerily nonchalant about everything else… such as… Well… we can talk about the financial and economic crisis it...

The bizarre extra-legal saga of Ali Saleh Al-Marri [the second most important case of our lifetimes, after Padilla’s] appears to be at an end, with America’s last stateside “enemy combatant” pleading guilty to purportedly providing support to Al Qaeda, with sentence to follow of up to 15 years (with some significant credit for time-served, presumably). For background on this bizarre case, check out my interview with Al-Marri’s attorney Jonathan Hafetz. The obvious question is… after six years of the inhuman cruelty of holding Al-Marri in total isolation is… why was this so damned hard? When presented with the possibility of...

We’ll start with the explosive news story of the day (Ha! It’s not that Keystone State Turncoat! The guy who felt free to condemn Jim Jeffords’ 2001 switch to independent!. And no… it’s not about swine flu, either… despite pork producers’ insistence that the name is hurting business. And indeed, it’s not even the confirmation, finally, of a Health and Human Services Secretary, former Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius… an HHS Sec in place for the signature health care program of the Administration… perhaps…) It IS this story: the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals’ rejection (as in IN YOUR FACE, OBAMA...

Ivan Eland, correctly, tells us that the whole “100 days” thing is grossly overrated; I agree. But on with the opera… Let’s just say I’m glad that I missed “the live performance” of this one: low flying jetliners that buzzed within window rattling distance of skyscrapers in lower Manhattan this morning, that were nothing more than a freaking photo op to have Air Force One’s picture taken over the Statue of Liberty; the President was not on board, and purported to be not amused. By deciding to err on the side of secrecy, untold numbers of office workers in both...

Glenn Greenwald has a great interview with Manfred Nowak, United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture. Professor Nowak assures us that our President’s proposal for an advance blanket amnesty of torturers is right out: all nations that signed the Torture Conventions (and that includes the United States) have an obligation to investigate allegations of torture. Period. Professor Nowak tells us that the investigations, at least, do not have to be criminal in nature, but if crimes of torture are uncovered during those investigations, they must be referred to prosecutors who, in the course of their discretion, may or may not prosecute...

The elevator may not have gone to the top in the Bush Administration… but, as McClatchy is now reporting, memos obtained revealed that the authorization for torture did go right to the top: former Vice President Dick Cheney and then-national security advisor Condi Rice. [H/T to Make them Accountable for many of today’s items, btw.] To his credit, former President George W. Bush is maintaining a low profile these days, knowing that the impetus to accountability against him personally may just not be there, as his own role is arguably somewhat murky, and he can always have the dodge of...