Here is today’s column from USA Today. Yesterday, the D.C. Vote bill was temporarily pulled from the floor due to the threat of an gun rights amendment. The NRA has threatened to “score” the vote — meaning that members who vote against it would be given a lower score in the annual rankings. This is only a temporary withdrawal as Democrats scramble to deal with the challenge. A similar amendment passed in the Senate after being introduced by Sen. John Ensign of Nevada by a comfortable margin.
Continue reading “D.C.’s Speed Bump: The Constitution”
Category: Congress
The Bush Administration previously told a federal court that there were two tapes of interrogations destroyed showing waterboarding and other brutal treatment of detainees. It has now admitted that at least 92 tapes were destroyed in what appears a clear and knowing effort to destroy evidence.
Continue reading “CIA Admits to Destroying 92 (Rather Than 2) Tapes of Interrogations”
In a major policy change, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder has indicated that the Justice Department will end raids on pot dispensaries in California and allow states to set its own marijuana laws without further interference from the federal government. It is ironic that it took a liberal president to reinstate the guarantees of states rights in this area.
Continue reading “Attorney General Eric Holder Indicates Change in Policy on State Marijuana Laws”
While the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has been ridiculed for inefficiencies, waste, and absurd restrictions, it has taken a bold effort to close one of the greatest remaining threats to the homeland: muleskinners. Under a new anti-terror law, TSA has determined that mule skinners (who actually do not skin mules but drive them) must have criminal background checks.
Continue reading “The Mule Menace: TSA Moves Against Possible Mule-Skinner Mujahideen”
Sen. Jim Bunning (R., Ky) used the annual Hardin County Republican Lincoln Day Dinner to announce his diagnosis that Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, 75, will be dead from pancreatic cancer within nine months. While Bunning only holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from Xavier University and had a baseball career with the Detroit Tigers, he felt comfortable with the medical prediction and even more comfortable discussing Ginsburg’s imminent demise at a political dinner.
Newsweek is reporting that former Attorney General Michael Mukasey delayed a critical internal report on the conduct of senior Justice lawyers in the torture scandal, including Jay Bybee, John Yoo and Steven Bradbury. The delayed report not only adds another contradiction to Mukasey’s claims before Congress, but should add pressure on the Obama Administration to stop delaying a criminal investigation into the commission of war crimes by the Bush Administration.
The search is over. The end of a rainbow has been conclusively found, but there was a conspicuous absence of a pot of gold. It seems an unlikely coincidence that this missing pot is revealed on the day that Congress approves the roughly $800 billion stimulus package. Fortunately, thousands of lobbyists followed the rainbow and found almost $200 billion in highway funds at the end.
Continue reading “END OF RAINBOW FOUND: POT OF GOLD MISSING”
It appears that the cause of the Depression has been finally determined with certainty. The fault for the Depression, according to Rep. Steve Austria (R-OH), was Franklin Delano Roosevelt. This time traveling moment was all the more impressive since the Depression began in 1929 and Roosevelt took office in 1933.
Continue reading “Austrian History: FDR Caused The Great Depression”
Turley bloggers we have arrived. Stephen Colbert last night embraced my testimony against the D.C. voting rights bill with the type of clinging and infectious hug not seen since the Sadie Hawkins dances at the French Leper Colony.
Continue reading “With Friends Like This . . . : Stephen Colbert Endorses Turley Testimony”
Peanut Corporation of America owner Stewart Parnell has invoked his privilege against self-incrimination to refuse testimony before Congress. It was the smart move. Parnell is in the same position as Roger Clemens and other baseball players accused in the steroid scandal. The most likely charge that they faced was not from the original allegations but their testimony before Congress, the grand jury, or statements to investigators.
Continue reading “No Nut: Peanut Company President Parnell Takes the Fifth Before Congress”
This has been a uniquely bad week for civil libertarians. The Obama Administration appears to be rushing to dispel any notions that Obama will fight for civil liberties or war crimes investigations. After Eric Holder allegedly assured a senator that there would be no war crimes investigation and seemed to defend Bush policies, Harvard Law Dean Elena Kagan, Obama’s Solicitor General nominee, reportedly told a Republican senator that the Administration agreed with Bush that we are “at war” and therefore can hold enemy combatants indefinitely. In the meantime, Obama himself seemed to tie himself in knots when asked about investigating war crimes and leading democrats are again pushing for a symbolic “truth commission.” I discussed these issues in this segment of Countdown this week.
Continue reading “Top Obama Aides Embrace Bush’s War on Terror Rhetoric and Enemy Combatant Policy”
Further entries on Sunday will be delayed due to my deployment on the Cutter U.S.S. Taney (USCGC Taney (WPG/WHEC-37)).
My two eldest sons and I are scheduled to sleep over on the Taney on Saturday night. Men going off to sea on a warship is nothing new, but not since the Fighting Sullivan brothers has one family decided to serve in the same ship.
CIA director nominee Leon Panetta gave startling testimony in his confirmation hearings this week by retracting a statement critical of the Bush Administration’s rendition policy and proclaiming that CIA employees will not be punished for any war crimes that they committed. I discuss the testimony on this segment of Countdown.
Continue reading “Leon Panetta Pledges That No CIA Employees Will Be Prosecuted For War Crimes”
The appointment of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton and her recent confirmation as Secretary of State raises a very interesting constitutional question. As discussed previously here, the Constitution would appear to block Clinton from being able to serve in this capacity under Article I, Section 6. Now, Judicial Watch has filed a lawsuit on behalf of U.S. Foreign Service Officer and State Department employee David C. Rodearmel to make just such a case.
Continue reading “Hillary’s Emolument: Lawsuit Filed To Challenge Constitutionality of Clinton Confirmation as Secretary of State”
Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani has an interesting trickle down theory. According to Giuliani, the outrageous bonuses for Wall Street figures (many paid for by public funds) are a vital part of economic recovery for average New Yorker. According to Giuliani, the relatively few super rich recipients are a major source of money for the thousands of people who serve their whims and fulfill their wishes for exotic foods, fast cars, and impeccable service. It is basically the same economic theory advanced by that pre-Friedman scholar Marie Antoinette in the eighteenth century but under Giulianiomics, we don’t let the peasants actually eat the cake . . . just serve it.