What Thomas Nephew said.

Wesley Powell is a partner in the New York City office of the law firm of Hunton & Williams, specializing in antitrust law and securities litigation. Mr. Powell represents a number of detainees held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as well as a number who have previously been released. On April 4, 2008, I had the privilege of interviewing Mr. Powell by telephone. What follow are my interview notes, corrected as appopriate by Mr. Powell. The Talking Dog: I’ll start with my usual first question, where were you on September 11, 2001? Wesley Powell: I was in the very building I’m...

That’s right: the winner this evening by Hillary Clinton’s likely single-digit margin of victory (now 8 points with 51% of precincts reporting at around 21 00 EDT) is none other than Republican nominee John McCain (who FWIW won the PA Republican primary itself). Why? Because once again, thanks to race-baiting which played well among Whites (some of whom have behaved in a charming manner), and Clinton-favoring demographics (PA being an older and Whiter state than most of the country– the two factors that have consistently favored Sen. Clinton in other states), and some the first big misplays by Team Obama...

Robert sends us this link to a lengthy Vanity Fair piece by Philippe Sands, discussing the genesis, thesis and synthesis of various American torture policies in the aftermath of 9-11, including the role played by GTMO JAG officer Lt. Col. Diane Beaver, to wit, “brainstorming” to come up with clever torture ideas derived from the Fox sitcom 24. (It’s on the tube, right? So it must be real. Beaver also wrote a troublesome memo later lambasted by Navy General Counsel Alberto Mora, as noted by Jane Mayer here.) Of course, in the current Administration, whether it be the-out-of-the-loop-commanding-general at Abu...

In polite liberal circles, just about the closest one can get to defining, well, the antichrist, is Pittsburgh newspaper publisher, financial-empire-scion and right-wing propagandist Richard Mellon Scaife, who has spent decades and untold millions financing various right wing propaganda, and in the process, undermining any semblance of responsible, sane government. Indeed, Scaife famously funded much of the movement that led to the impeachment of Bill Clinton. Naturally, less than 48 hours before his own state’s potentially make or break Democratic primary… he and his paper (the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review) are endorsing Hillary Clinton. I mean, we already have her posing with...

Some of you psychically predicted that I’d get round to putting up a picture of Raven, especially now that she has some movie coming out. Well, good guess everybody! And I didn’t even have to have Sean Hannity suggest it to me (whoever that is… Daddy!) Anyway, Daddy is still amused that his hard-hitting commentary and original interviews on the war on terror get like 1/10 as much traffic as my putting up pictures of teeny-bopper celebrities. That’s the internet for you. Daddy keeps trying to relive those college glory days through that lame debate he didn’t watch this week;...

The Grey Lady treats us to this lengthy report on the Pentagon’s efforts to recruit “independent” analysts to network news (most frequently Fox, but all the broadcast networks are guilty) from the ranks of retired military officers, who turned out to be little more than shills working for contractors or lobbyists seeking to expand their own influence. The coordination efforts described in the Grey Lady piece do make it sound like the retired generals, colonels, et al. were often little more than Administration marionettes. But that seems a little unfair. They were but one piece of a vast public relations...

There is no other conclusion one can draw from a study prepared by the National War College, what this McClatchy news service report calls the Pentagon’s premier military institute. That report goes on to insist that our nation’s glorious and totally successful engagement in Iraq (Central Front In The War On Terror [TM]) is somehow “a major debacle” with the “outcome in doubt.” Somehow, the report notes the over 4,000 deaths of American (and allied foreign– but mostly American) troops, tens of thousands wounded, nearly 100,000 confirmed dead Iraqis, over $450 billion in cost to date and counting… and says...

With baseball season upon us, I suggest the following: Alan Greenspan is the Barry Bonds of the American economy. Bill Clinton is the Alex Rodriguez of American politics. Discuss.

Extra kudos to Mrs. TD for that post-title, relevant to the amusing revelations that a Sox-fan construction worker buried a David Ortiz Red Sox jersey under the new Yankee Stadium (as reported by Rupert’s Post). The jersey was eventually unearthed, after not insubstantial effort. Even more amusing (aside from the back and forth with Yankees’ acting owner Hank “Hankenstein” Steinbrenner to the effect that the fellow construction workers of Gino Castignoli should kick has ass), are the revelations that Mr. Castignoli had once previously pleaded guilty to involvement in a gambling operation with ties to the Gambino crime family. Lost...