I was quite literally “out in the wilderness” when the Padilla verdict came down (Hassan bar-Sinister phoned me while I was on a practice “run” on the Pikes Peak Marathon course). I think what matters, aside from the travesty of justice angle (Mona of Unqualified Offerings gives us some grounds for reversal) is the fact that the true significance of the Padilla case, which regular readers know that I consider the most important case of our lifetimes, indeed, a case so important that I actually interviewed two of Mr. Padilla’s attorneys (Donna Newman and Andrew Patel), will be deliberately obscured...

Sorry that some cat seems to have the talking dog’s tongue… blogging has been light non-existent of late, as your talking dog was on a personal physical and spiritual quest… to complete the Pikes Peak Marathon, believed to be one of the five hardest marathon races in the world, in an official time (i.e. less than ten hours, when the course is closed.) I am pleased to say… pointless mission accomplished! I trained extra hard, and had to leave the East Coast for the first time in six years… but in the end, when I was handed my finishers jacket...

Or some other fractured version of Shakespeare, that post-title seems to make about as much sense as the USA Patriot Act provision that removes the power to effectively determine the pace of state executions from federal courts, and hands it to… you got it… Attorney General Alberto “Fuck You, Congress” Gonzales. Defense attorneys are outraged. Like we care what they have to say! It is widely believed anathema to execute an innocent person. Except in the United States, where, let’s face it: if they were innocent, they would have been able to afford a decent defense attorney, now, wouldn’t they?...

From Rupert’s Journal, we give you this breaking news that Unindicted Co-Conspirator Karl Rove has announced his resignation from the government payroll, effective the end of August. Per how these things are done, he quite literally said “he wants to spend more time with his family”. Some highlights from the announcement, reflecting things that only Karl would have the nerve to say: In the interview, Mr. Rove said he expects Democrats to give the 2008 presidential nomination to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, whom he described as “a tough, tenacious, fatally flawed candidate.” He also said Republicans have “a very good...

Well, our friends at the Center for Constitutional Rights have brought suit in federal court in San Francisco to set aside the Protect America Act of 2007, a/k/a the bipartisan attempt to abrogate the Fourth Amendment by repealing FISA. Our interview with CCR’s President Michael Ratner may be found here, and the interviews of numerous attorneys working with CCR in representing Guantanamo detainees may be found on the side-bar (or check the end of this post, our recent interview with Mike Otterman). The CCR attorneys, of course, claim that their conversations were likely monitored, including presumably telephone calls overseas which...

Teddy Roosevelt said “Speak softly and carry a big stick”, presumably meaning (I think, anyway) that “actions speak louder than words…” or something like “if you have them by the balls, their hearts and minds are sure to follow.” George W. Bush’s mantra would be something like speak incoherently and bellicosely and bluff the ability to back it up, and failing that, just say “9-11” a lot. Or something. And spend ourselves into oblivion against enemies who pose no threat to us, opposing any conceivable good government could do for all but the super-rich on “philosophical” grounds… and otherwise run...

Coming as no surprise whatsoever given the Senate’s recent action described here, the Democratic-led House of Representatives, which has proven every bit as worthless as the Democratic-led Senate, joined the upper house in selling out further vast swathes of civil liberties to the Bush Administration and passed the “temporary” FISA repeal (thereby permitting unlimited electronic eavesdropping by the federal government, as long as an appropriate official utters the phrase “it’s to protect us against terrrrrrrrorists”), rather than take a vacation in August and be called bad names by those mean Republicans. Here’s the thing: in practical terms, the Bush Administration...

Ah, don’t we all remember August, 2002? We were all getting ready for that manly celebration of September 11th +1.0, when the President could tell us how manly he handled the whole thing because he showed up a week later with a bullhorn, kind of like how he did back at dear old Yale and Andover with the boy-cheerleader teams. Andy Card told us we didn’t roll out new products in August. And I concluded that a war in Iraq was being played for domestic political purposes, to wit, to corner Democrats into a no win situation of either supporting...

Not much to add to the commentary surrounding the tragic bridge collapse in Minneapolis yesterday that has killed at least four people. Others have expressed anger that America’s obsession with tax cuts at the expense of maintaining infrastructure has resulted in, well, this. I will simply recall that shortly after September 11th, one of my fears was crossing the bridges here, either into Manhattan or other points, for fear of terrorism. Turns out, of course, that as we learned from the steampipe explosion next to my old office building, or the bridge collapse in Minnesota… we need to be eternally...

Kenneth D. Ackerman practices law in Washington, D.C., and has served as a government official in both the legislative and executive branches of government. He is the author of four books, his most recent, “Young J. Edgar: Hoover, The Red Scare, and the Assault on Civil Liberties“, chronicling the response of then Attorney General Mitchell Palmer to a series of anarchist bombings and other violence around the United States in the aftermath of the First World War, including one at his own house that nearly killed him and his family. Palmer directed a series of raids to round-up, and eventually...