How things really work in this country

During the meeting, Roark says, she warned Hayden that no court would uphold the program. Curiously, Hayden responded that he had already been assured by unspecified individuals that he could count on a majority of “the nine votes”—an apparent reference to the Supreme Court. According to Roark’s notes, Hayden told her that such a vote might even be 7–2 in his favor.

Roark couldn’t believe that the Supreme Court had been adequately informed of the N.S.A.’s transgressions, and she decided to alert Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, sending a message through a family friend. Once again, there was no response. She also tried to contact a judge on the FISA court, in Washington, which adjudicates requests for warrants sanctioning domestic surveillance of suspected foreign agents. But the judge had her assistant refer the call to the Department of Justice, which had approved the secret program in the first place. Roark says that she even tried to reach David Addington, the legal counsel to Vice-President Dick Cheney, who had once been her congressional colleague. He never called back, and Addington was eventually revealed to be one of the prime advocates for the surveillance program.

“This was such a Catch-22,” Roark says. “There was no one to go to.” In October, 2003, feeling “profoundly depressed,” she left Washington and moved to a small town in Oregon.



Read more http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/05/23/110523fa_fact_mayer?printable=true#ixzz1Mc9HzGnd

Remnick redeems himself a bit

The New Yorker's coverage of West Asia was quite bad leading up to the Iraq war, so it's a good thing, though culturally an easier thing, that he does some plain speaking here.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

The most important number on earth

350 ppm


From Dr Saini's Cardioblog, which is here.

McKibben is building a mass movement quite well.

Some of my elderly friends have told me they don't want to live long enough to see the outcome, but those of us who have no choice have no choice.

This speech is good.

Don't forget about Fukushima even if the media have

I am not certain this means what I think it means. But it is very sobering and requires attention.....


Busby - Fukuparticles2

There are many roads to socialism

From the Associated Press:

China, one of Cuba's biggest backers, praised the island's ruling Communist Party on Tuesday for approving sweeping economic and social reforms.


[SNIP]


Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said those decisions were sure to have a "profound and far reaching impact on the development of socialism in Cuba."

I'm sure Brecht would do outstanding flashmobs

But everyone is still learning, with interesting results.

Bill Black on the Intersection of Stupidity and Injustice

I end on the fundamental problems with Geithner’s immunity doctrine and Yglesias’ support for it. The policy represents the intersection of the curves of injustice and stupidity at their respective maxima. Those curves have intersected to produce Secretary Geithner’s policy of protecting from prosecution the elite C-suite criminals who caused the financial crisis and the Great Recession. It is stupidity of truly epic proportions to leave felons in charge of banks. Doing so cannot stabilize a financial system – it is certain to cause recurrent, intensifying crises. When I was a regulator during a financial crisis our agency’s top priority was to prevent frauds from controlling S&Ls. Our second priority was to support the prosecution of those fraudulent leaders.

The injustice of Geithner’s “elite frauds go free” doctrine is every bit as extreme as the stupidity of believing that giving fraudulent CEOs de facto immunity is the road to financial stability. It is a travesty that I have to defend the importance of integrity and justice. No nation can be great if it allows its elites to loot with impunity and prosecutes its whistleblowers. Geithner is destroying the things that made America great. He did so as part of Bush’s wrecking crew and he is doing so now as part of Obama’s wrecking crew.

Bill Black serves as one of the key people documenting the viability of an alternative -- not for current politics, which is too far gone for rehabilitation, but for the historians. The whole post at Naked Capitalism is worth a read.