A brief reference to the U. of Michigan fight song, after this weekend’s visit to Ann Arbor, where, notwithstanding an early asthma attack and a late foot problem with my big toe, completed the Ann Arbor Marathon in more or less the usual time, for my second marathon since I turned 50, 36th marathon finish overall and 20th state. The song presumably does not apply to the Obama Administration, nor to its newest public enemy no. 1, former NSA/CIA employee and whistleblower Edward Snowden, now bizarrely seeking refuge in Chinese controlled Hong Kong.. Snowden merely confirmed what I certainly thought...

Evidently it will cost $450,000,000, or roughly $2.5 million per prisoner to maintain and “upgrade” the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, according to a Pentagon budget request. Considering 86 or so– the majority– of the 166 men still held there have been cleared for release by our own government, that means we’ll be spending over $200 million to hold men our government tells us are innocent and shouldn’t be there. The sheer financial cost of political cowardice and national ignorance and apathy mixed with complacency is impressive, to say the least. My prediction remains that Guantanamo will ultimately be shut...

Benjamin Wittes at the Lawfare Blog gives us this piece noting the perplexing nature of the President’s recent press conference comments on Guantanamo and indefinite detention. In this piece, Wittes notes his unusual meeting of minds with Glenn Greenwald on this matter. In short, the President, whose own policies mesh well with Wittes’s general view (which diverges from that of Greenwald.. and myself…) that there are circumstances where GTMO-style indefinite detention is appropriate policy, nonetheless asserts liberal sounding claptrap to the effect that somehow he [Obama] himself disagrees with these policies (and by implication its that mean old Congress that’s...

Eric Lewis is a partner at the Washington, D.C. law firm of Lewis Baach, PLLC. Mr. Lewis previously represented four British nationals detained at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and currently represents a Pakistani national detained at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan. On April 19, 2013, I had the privilege of interviewing Mr. Lewis by telephone. What follows are my interview notes, as corrected by Mr. Lewis. The Talking Dog: Where were you on Sept. 11, 2001? Eric Lewis: I was in London. I was the U.S. counsel to the liquidators of BCCI, and I was working on that case. At that...

Two bombs exploded near the finish of yesterday’s Boston Marathon, killing at least three people (including an eight year old boy), and injuring around 120 people. The results of the explosions included numerous amputations (including loss of limbs… in some cases involving runners who were just completing their dream-of-a-lifetime race, only to have their legs blown off, and/or their loved ones maimed or killed). Not quite as well-reported here, an American “off target” bomb managed to kill over 30 people at an Afghan wedding, during more ongoing and pointless carnage… somewhere else. Total casualties of killed and injured were believed...

That the two notable figures (who ably served their respective Imperia) that would pass away on the same day would be Margaret Thatcher and Annette Funicello? Sometimes, stuff just happens.

Ordinarily the 1st of April is a high note here at the talking dog; but events of 2013 have taken a lot of wind out of a lot of sails… even ours. Speaking of sailing, Candace at least has a happy thought for the day…

I’m pleased to report that the simple expedient of downloading Google Chrome has addressed my home blogging woes. For those of you who are still there. The post title does not refer to, say, Harvard, the university with the largest endowment in the universe, finally spending enough money to get a basketball team capable of winning an NCAA tournament game. But it’s close to that. For our link today, we’ll go with this LATimes piece that could be called “the rich are different– they have more money.” Its theme, unsurprisingly, is that people of means (defined as say 8 digits...

Still having “technical problems” with the home server… but one of these days… as the Governator said… I’ll be back. We’ll comment further on “the sequester,” the new Dow Jones high, the elevation of torture mavens to CIA director and Tea Party Senators (literally) standing up for the Constitution, and the rest of the topsy turvy alignment of our political universe, and its economic overlords, and my standard ongoing advice (stock up on food and water, learn edible gardening, lower your expectations)… remains in effect. Cheers.

I promise… more blogging soon… More than, say… none at all!