Derrick Ross took the term “cell phone” a bit too literally. Ross, 38, acquired a cell phone and charger while serving time at Coffeild prison in Texas. Due to Texas habitual offender laws, he has received an absurd 60 years for the violation.
Continue reading “Hidden Phone Charges: Texas Inmate Gets 60 Years For Possession of Cell Phone”
Minnesota Judge John Rodenberg has ruled in the case of Daniel Hauser, 13. We discussed this case earlier regarding the religious objections that the parents raised to chemotherapy for Daniel’s cancer –even though he has a 90 percent chance of survival with the treatment and little or no change of survival without it.
Continue reading “Court Overrules Parents in Religious Refusal of Chemotherapy for 13-Year-Old Boy”
Newt Gingrich found a new level of hypocrisy this week in insisting that the Congress has “an obligation” to investigate Speaker Nancy Pelosi. I have been highly critical of Pelosi who at a minimum appears to have abandoned her duties of oversight for political convenience and at worst is outright lying. However, Gingrich who says that Pelosi is acting in a “despicable, dishonest and vicious” way, does not believe that there is any need to call for an investigation into torture and the commission of both federal and war crimes.
Continue reading “Gingrich: House Has “Obligation” to Investigate Pelosi”
There is a truly disturbing story out of Atlanta, Georgia. Morehouse College student Joshua Brandon Norris shot another college student Rashad Johnson three times at a party. This weekend, Norris will be allowed to graduate after receiving an unbelievable light plea bargain while Johnson is at home recovering from his wounds.
CIA Director Leon Panetta struck back at Speaker Nancy Pelosi today in a memorandum to CIA employees saying that she was fully and truthfully briefed in 2002. He indirectly accuses Pelosi of “making hay out” of the CIA and misrepresenting her briefing for political purposes. I discussed the Pelosi story last night on this segment of Countdown.
Continue reading “Haymaker: Panetta Contradicts Pelosi and Says That She Was Fully Briefed”
President Barack Obama continued his replication of the Bush policies today with the disclosure that he will now restart the controversial Bush tribunal system — now to be called the Obama tribunal system. This follows Obama’s adoption of an even more extreme theory of executive privilege in court, the reversal of the decision to comply with a court order and turn over abuse photographs, the continuing effort to extinguish dozens of public interest lawsuits on privacy violations, and the proposed adoption of the Bush policy of holding detainees indefinitely without trial, here. In the meantime, he and Attorney General Eric Holder continue to block the appointment of a special prosecutor despite mounting evidence of war crimes committed by the prior administration. I will be discussing these recent developments tonight on Countdown.
Continue reading “Bush 2.0: Obama To Continue Military Tribunals”
A former high-ranking state department official has come forward with the explosive report that then Vice President Dick Cheney called for the torture of an Iraqi prisoner to establish a link between al Qaeda and Iraq in the midst of the political controversy over the misrepresentations that led to the Iraq invasion. Cheney was one of the main figures pushing this justification, which was found based on false intelligence. Lawrence Wilkerson, chief of staff for then-Secretary of State Colin Powell, adds yet another piece of evidence that the torture program was not based on a “ticking bomb” justification and was not based on the faux legal opinions of lawyers like Judge Jay Bybee and Professor John Yoo.
The Senate overwhelmingly rejected an effort to impose a 15 percent cap on interest rates for banks and credit card companies yesterday. The banking and credit card lobby had made this vote a priority with literally hundreds of lobbyists working members. It was an interesting alliance of Republican and Deomocratic members on a volatile issue.
Continue reading “Senate Votes Down Limits on Credit Card Interest Rate”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has continued her effort to explain past statements on torture and her failure to act to stop a war crime after she was briefed on the torture program. After being contradicted by both documents and one of her aides, Pelosi has now accused CIA officials misleading her in 2002.
Continue reading “Pelosi Now Claims That She Was Misled By CIA”
The Obama administration has already adopted extreme executive privilege arguments that dwarfed the arguments of George Bush. It has moved to kill dozens of citizens lawsuits to uncover criminal acts of the government. This week, it refused (despite a court ruling) to release embarrassing photos of detainee abuse. Now, in the continue morphing with the prior Administration, Barack Obama is considering a continuation of the Bush policy of indefinitely detaining suspects without trial. I will be discussing this and other issues today on the Ed Beck Show on MSNBC.
Continue reading “Obama Considering Continuing Bush Policy of Indefinite Detentions Without Trial”
As the United States continues to gush billions of dollars each week in Iraq and Afghanistan, states are selling off airports, parks, and other public areas to pay for basic services. This week, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will propose selling San Quentin Prison, the Los Angeles Coliseum and other state-owned properties.
Continue reading “Schwarzenegger To Call For Sale of San Quentin”
There has been a long controversy over the ability of the religious right to justify most any position of the GOP on the environment or civil liberties in terms of religious faith. However, the recent Republican effort to embrace and justify torture presented a bit of a problem for the faithful, particularly Christians who worship a man who was tortured to death on a cross. That presented no problem for Gary Bauer, a former Republican presidential candidate and leader of the religious right, who has announced that it would have been immoral for the Bush administration not to torture people.
Despite earlier indications that there would be a release of detainee photos, President Obama has ordered that the photos been withheld in defiance of a judicial ruling. I discussed the development on this segment of the Rachel Maddow Show.
Continue reading “Obama Reverses Decision and Refuses to Release Abuse Photos”
Ok, he was not actually there, but Fox News may report this differently. President Barack Obama is so popular that people are now breaking into homes to steal his picture. Marla Anderson, 24, was arrested for breaking into an Ohio home and wrestling with its owner to steal the picture as her alleged getaway driver, Tamika Cornwell, was waiting outside.
Continue reading “Obama Spotted in Ohio Home Invasion: Two Women Arrested for Allegedly Breaking Into Home to Steal Picture of President Obama”
The Justice Department finally succeeded in securing convictions against Miami men accused of plotting to blow up the Sears Tower in Chicago. Five defendants were convicted and one was acquitted. The prior two trials ended in hung juries and this trial was a close call with the replacement of a clearly pro-defense juror in the middle of deliberations. The case was always long on rhetoric and short on evidence — resulting in the expenditure of between $5 to $10 million to convict the group in a highly controversial prosecution.