emptywheel is outdoing herself with her Yoo Memo analysis. She notes that John Yoo nowhere mentions the YOUNGSTOWN CO. v. SAWYER case which addresses the limitations of Presidential powers. The bottom line: … Congress has not thereby lost its exclusive constitutional authority to make laws necessary and proper to carry out the powers vested by […]
Lincoln Chaffee recalls Cheney saying the campaign was over and that our actions in office would not be dictated by what had to be said in the campaign shortly after the 2000 election. Sometimes, a single phrase confirms something you’ve known for a very long time, but never been able to put your finger on […]
’03 U.S. Memo Approved Harsh Interrogations The Justice Department in 2003 gave military interrogators broad authority to use extreme methods in questioning detainees and argued that wartime powers largely exempted interrogators from laws banning harsh treatment, according to a memorandum publicly disclosed on Tuesday. In a sweeping legal brief written in March 2003, when the […]
emptywheel has a fine post up about the recently released John Yoo Torture Memos from the Office of Legal Counsel in the DoJ. What struck her was that John Yoo wrote his memos on the day after he was appointed acting head of OLC to replace Jay Bybee. Yoo’s memos [1][2]are dated March 14th, 2003. […]
I think I detect a pattern here. I’m looking at this because I ran across yet another place where Bush was talking about making his tax cuts permanent. And then I read about his non-responses to the "overborrowing" problem. It’s hard for me to understand how he can even think of concretizing his tax cuts […]
GOP to go on Iraq message offensive As Congress prepares for next week’s testimony by Army Gen. David Petraeus and Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker, House Republicans are launching what they call a “full-fledged assault on the misinformation campaign promoted by Democratic leaders,” whom they accuse of trying to “legislate defeat” by calling for troop […]
Good sign for John McCain Conservative James Dobson says he’ll vote Nov. 4 James Dobson, the founder of Focus on the Family, a conservative, nonprofit organization that wields widespread influence among Christian Republicans, has come, oh, so close to endorsing the presumptive Republican nominee, Sen. John McCain. For the past year Dobson, who endorsed George […]