Glenn Greenwald: Interview with ACLU re: constitutional challenge to new FISA law

This afternoon, I spoke with Jameel Jaffer, the Director of the ACLU's National Security Project, regarding the two legal proceedings commenced today by the ACLU challenging the constitutionality of the new FISA law. The roughly 20-minute discussion can be heard here.

The ACLU filed one action in the FISA court, requesting that -- contrary to how the FISA court normally works -- all proceedings regarding the constitutionality of the FISA law be open to the public and transparent, and that the proceedings be adversarial (i.e., that the ACLU -- rather than just the Government -- can participate). The other action was filed in a federal court in the Southern District of New York, alleging that the provisions which vest vast new warrantless eavesdropping powers in the President are, for multiple reasons, violative of the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. The ACLU's lawsuits do not challenge the constitutionality of the telecom immunity provisions of the new FISA law because those sections will be challenged by EFF and local/affiliate ACLU groups in separate actions. The legal documents filed today by the ACLU are here.

How Much are You Willing to Work for Corporate Welfare?

By David Cay Johnston - July 11, 2008, 11:04AM

David's book captures the awakening of millions of Americans to the hard truth that Americans have been sold a bill of political goods. You can promise people and trick them for a long time in a wealthy democracy, but over time reality sets in and people start to ask themselves why things are not as they were told they would be, are not as they are being told they are. War is not peace. Ignorance is not knowledge. Stagnating incomes are not morning in America.

Michael Kinsley: Divided They Fall

Consider the Republican Party. Many Republicans dislike John McCain with a passion that has lasted for years. Asked to explain, they refer to the McCain-Feingold campaign-finance-reform law (which they thought, incorrectly as it turns out, would bite Republicans more than Democrats), or his opposition (since rescinded) to the Bush tax cuts, or what they regard as his tiresome and preening routine as a maverick. They resent his mutual love affair with the press (which he jokingly refers to as "my base"). They remember a lot of foolish talk a while back about how McCain might switch parties and become a Democrat. And yet almost all of these McCain haters will vote for him in November.

Now consider the Democratic Party. The one-on-one rivalry between Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama lasted only about three months from beginning to end. Their policy disagreements are negligible. For many Clinton supporters, the chance to elect an African-American President represents the culmination of a cause they have been fighting for all their lives. Yet almost half of Clinton supporters tell pollsters that they will not vote for Obama. And Clinton's big-money backers are deflecting money and energy away from their party's presumptive nominee.

Investment banks now blamed for spike in oil prices

By Kevin G. Hall | McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON — After months of pummeling oil industry executives, Congress is zeroing in on a new alleged villain for today's record oil prices: investment banks, the same ones who've been instrumental in the housing meltdown.

During two highly partisan hearings Thursday, Democratic lawmakers alleged that the lack of regulation for complex financial instruments is contributing to the oil price run-up, while Republicans defended the investment banks and their involvement in energy trading as merely reflective of supply and demand in world oil markets.

Regulators seize troubled IndyMac

Feds take over mortgage lender IndyMac. FDIC will seek buyer. May become most expensive bank collapse ever.

By Catherine Clifford and Chris Isidore, CNNMoney.com writers
Last Updated: July 11, 2008: 11:03 PM EDT

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- In what could turn out to be the most expensive bank failure ever, troubled mortgage lender IndyMac Bank was taken over by federal regulators on Friday.

The operations of the Pasadena, Calif.-based bank - once one of the nation's largest home lenders - were shut down at 3 p.m. by the Office of Thrift Supervision and transferred to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

Chomsky: Bush & Cheney Always Saw Iraq as a Sweetheart Oil Deal

By Noam Chomsky, Khaleej Times Online
Posted on July 12, 2008, Printed on July 12, 2008
http://www.alternet.org/story/91123/

The deal just taking shape between Iraq's Oil Ministry and four Western oil companies raises critical questions about the nature of the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq -- questions that should certainly be addressed by presidential candidates and seriously discussed in the United States, and of course in occupied Iraq, where it appears that the population has little if any role in determining the future of its country.

Negotiations are under way for Exxon Mobil, Shell, Total and BP -- the original partners decades ago in the Iraq Petroleum Company, now joined by Chevron and other smaller oil companies -- to renew the oil concession they lost to nationalization during the years when the oil producers took over their own resources. The no-bid contracts, apparently written by the oil corporations with the help of U.S. officials, prevailed over offers from more than 40 other companies, including companies in China, India and Russia.

The S&P 500's Bubble Trouble

Did the housing bust burn investors in the world's most important stock index?

By Daniel Gross
Posted Thursday, July 10, 2008, at 6:54 PM ET

The popular Standard & Poor's 500 index is effectively a stock-picker for millions of investors. At the end of 2007, some $1.5 trillion was invested in S&P 500 funds, Exchange Traded Funds, and other vehicles that mimic the index's composition, and $4.85 trillion were invested in funds whose performance is benchmarked to the S&P 500. But as I noted in Slate nearly six years ago, the methodology S&P employs to compile and maintain the index leaves it vulnerable to bubbles.

The composition of the index is always changing, as the companies comprising it merge, get bought by private equity funds, go bankrupt, or shrink to the point of irrelevance. When the S&P Index committee evaluates potential new members, it applies certain criteria: Companies must possess a market capitalization of at least $5 billion and show four consecutive quarters of profits. The committee also uses new additions to ensure that the index remains representative of a highly dynamic economy. If the economy is becoming more dominated by information technology, as was the case in the 1990s, the committee will be more likely to replace a shoe company with a software company.

White House Disavows EPA Plan on Emissions

By Juliet Eilperin and R. Jeffrey Smith
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, July 11, 2008; 2:19 PM

The Bush administration today disavowed its own proposal to seek comment on whether the government should regulate greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act, declaring that the proposed approach would be unworkable.

Under pressure from the Supreme Court, the Environmental Protection Agency has spent the past 15 months exploring how the government might regulate emissions linked to global warming, a matter that federal climate experts and international scientists have repeatedly said should be urgently addressed.

Bob Schaffer Helped Out With Kurdish Oil Deal Opposed By US State Department

By Andrew Tilghman - July 10, 2008, 6:26PM

Bob Schaffer voted for the war in Iraq in 2002, then left Congress and went to work for the oil men hoping to profit from it.

We recently learned that the energy company that the Colorado Republican went to work for in 2003, Aspect Energy, is among the handful of companies who signed deals with Iraq's Kurdish Regional Government last year.

Fannie, Freddie bailout would imperil budget, dollar

Fri Jul 11, 2008 1:32pm EDT

By Pedro Nicolaci da Costa - Analysis

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's rapid slide into the center of the global financial crisis has Wall Street frantically talking about a possible government takeover of the government-sponsored mortgage agencies.

But many also worry that a bailout of the GSEs would be so costly that it would cripple the budget and threaten an already badly bruised U.S. currency.

"A perception that the U.S. is no longer a safe haven for capital could produce tremendous strain on the dollar, as would fears of ballooning Treasury commitments associated with a bailout," said James Hamilton, economics professor at the University of California, San Diego.

FCC chief says Comcast violated Internet rules

(07-11) 04:31 PDT WASHINGTON, (AP) --

The head of the Federal Communications Commission said Thursday he will recommend that the nation's largest cable company be punished for violating agency principles that guarantee customers open access to the Internet.

The potentially precedent-setting move stems from a complaint against Comcast Corp. that the company had blocked Internet traffic among users of a certain type of "file sharing" software that allows them to exchange large amounts of data.

Alabama US Attorney denies any involvement in university editor's termination

This 'case is definitely about the first amendment,' says Harper's journalist

The abrupt dismissal of a veteran University of Alabama employee who blogged about the firing of seven US Attorneys has added a bizarre new twist to allegations that the state's US Attorneys targeted political opponents for prosecution.

Paul Krugman: Kennedy’s Big Day

It was the worst of days, it was the best of days. On Wednesday, Senate Democrats capitulated to the Bush administration on wiretapping — with Barack Obama joining the coalition of the craven.

Later that day, however, those same Senate Democrats won a huge victory on Medicare.

News reports stressed the cinematic quality of the event: Ted Kennedy, who is fighting a brain tumor, made a dramatic appearance on the Senate floor, casting the decisive vote amid cheers from his colleagues. (Only one senator was absent: John McCain.)

Giant vacuum cleaner leaves reefs thriving

Sucking problem algae from beneath the sea may sound like a futile task, but a trial shows the technique can help preserve coral reefs

Boeing supporters in Congress still suspicious of tanker deal

By Les Blumenthal | McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON — Despite assurances from a top Pentagon official that the new competition for a $35 billion contract for Air Force aerial refueling tankers would be conducted fairly and without bias, congressional supporters of Boeing remain suspicious that the Pentagon is maneuvering to award the contract again to Northrop Grumman and the European Aeronautic Defense and Space Co. (EADS).

"I am very troubled by this whole thing," Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Wash., told John Young, the Pentagon's undersecretary for acquisition, during a five-hour hearing Thursday on the contract. "What bothers me is that Congress has been misled."

A president desperately seeking a legacy

George W. Bush goes back to touting 'compassionate conservatism' and the 'successes' of his faith-based initiative

In 2004, at the annual White House Correspondents Dinner, President Bush's contribution to the evening's entertainment was his narration of a slide show that pictured him looking around the Oval Office for weapons of mass destruction. In one of the shots, Bush is looking under some furniture and remarked: "Those weapons of mass destruction have got to be here somewhere."

Juan Cole: Bhasin: Maliki and the Timetable: It's all about Blackwater

Madhavi Bhasin writes:

On July 7th the Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki in an Address before the Arab Ambassadors stated that his Government was looking at the necessity of terminating foreign presence on Iraqi land and restoring full sovereignty. The U.S. public diplomacy machinery began operating in full swing after the statement was released and has emerged with a self justifying explanation: the remarks of the Iraqi Prime Minister are reflective of the confidence in the stability and democratic progress of Iraq facilitated through the efforts of the Coalition Forces. The venue and timing of the comments are being considered crucial. The regional concerns over Iraq’s stability were expected to be put at rest, while convincing the local population of the independence of the Iraqi regime ahead of elections in autumn.

The more serious considerations behind the demand to begun negotiations for a withdrawal strategy and date have evaded popular attention.

Obama's surveillance vote spurs blogging backlash

By Scott J. Anderson
CNN.com Senior Political Producer

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Sen. Barack Obama's vote for a federal surveillance law that he had previously opposed has sparked a backlash from his online advocates, who had energized his campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination.

In October, Obama had vowed to help filibuster an update of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) that gave telecommunication companies that had cooperated with President Bush's warrantless wiretapping program immunity from lawsuits.

Fannie, Freddie `Insolvent' After Losses, Poole Says

By Dawn Kopecki

July 10 (Bloomberg) -- Borrowing at Fannie Mae, the U.S. government-sponsored mortgage company, has never been so expensive and it may not get better any time soon.

Fannie Mae paid a record yield relative to Treasuries on the sale of $3 billion in two-year notes yesterday amid concern the biggest provider of financing for U.S. home loans won't have enough capital to weather the worst housing slump since the Great Depression. The company's credit-default swaps show traders are treating the AAA rated debt as if it were five steps lower. Fannie Mae shares tumbled 13 percent yesterday in New York to the lowest level in almost 14 years.

As McCain Disavows Gramm, a Top Aide Implies Gramm Partly To Blame for the Economy

Phil Gramm is in the headlines today--being slammed by Democrats and disavowed by the McCain campaign--for complaining to The Washington Times that "we have sort of become a nation of whiners." Gramm, who chairs John McCain's campaign and who advises the presumptive Republican nominee on economic matters, pooh-poohed talk of a recession: "You've heard of mental depression; this is a mental recession." The former Republican Senator and current vice president of Swiss bank UBS dismissed talk of US economic woes and declared, "We've never been more dominant; we've never had more natural advantages than we have today. We have benefited greatly" from globalization.

Predictably, liberal bloggers and Democrats blasted Gramm for being out of touch with the real world. The McCain camp initially stood by their man but then distanced itself from Gramm's remarks, with a McCain spokesman saying, "Gramm's comments are not representative of John McCain's views."

Book Cites Secret Red Cross Report of C.I.A. Torture of Qaeda Captives

By SCOTT SHANE

WASHINGTON — Red Cross investigators concluded last year in a secret report that the Central Intelligence Agency’s interrogation methods for high-level Qaeda prisoners constituted torture and could make the Bush administration officials who approved them guilty of war crimes, according to a new book on counterterrorism efforts since 2001.

The book says that the International Committee of the Red Cross declared in the report, given to the C.I.A. last year, that the methods used on Abu Zubaydah, the first major Qaeda figure the United States captured, were “categorically” torture, which is illegal under both American and international law.

Living in a world without waste

By Roger Harrabin
Environment analyst, BBC News

The Mayor of Kamikatsu, a small community in the hills of eastern Japan, has urged politicians around the world to follow his lead and make their towns "Zero Waste".

He told BBC News that all communities could learn from Kamikatsu, where residents have to compost all their food waste and sort other rubbish into 34 different categories.

Residents say the scheme has prompted them to cut down on waste generally and food waste in particular.

Dow drops below 11,000 for 1st time in 2 years

Friday July 11, 1:00 pm ET
By Tim Paradis, AP Business Writer Stocks tumble on worries about Fannie, Freddie; Dow falls below 11,000 for 1st time in 2 years NEW YORK (AP) -- Wall Street sank further into a bear market Friday as investors dumped stocks in response to troubles at mortgage companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and oil's continuing climb into record territory. The Dow Jones industrials fell more than 200 points and slid below the 11,000 mark for the first time in two years.

Investors appeared unimpressed by a statement from Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, who said the government's focus is ensuring that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac remain as presently constituted to carry out their mission. Some investors had been hoping that the government would announce plans to take over one or both of the companies.

Daily Kos: Whistleblowers Speak Out on FISA

by mcjoan
Tue Jul 08, 2008 at 03:25:16 PM PDT

These are the people with perhaps the most important voices of all on the issue. They put their professional lives and reputations on the line, one more than thirty years ago, two during this administration. They were and are in a position unique in this debate--they saw up close what the government is capable of doing in secret and against the will of the Congress and the people.

Perhaps the most famous whistleblower of all, former intelligence officer Daniel Ellsberg, the whistleblower who in the early 1970s released the Pentagon Papers, has come out strongly against this FISA bill. He spoke with Tim Ferris of BoingBoing Gadgets about this legislation, the danger it poses, and what we should do about it.

New legal threat to teaching evolution in the US

BARBARA FORREST knew the odds were stacked against her. "They had 50 or 60 people in the room," she says. Her opponents included lobbyists, church leaders and a crowd of home-schooled children. "They were wearing stickers, clapping, cheering and standing in the aisles." Those on Forrest's side numbered less than a dozen, including two professors from Louisiana State University, representatives from the Louisiana Association of Educators and campaigners for the continued separation of church and state.

That was on 21 May, when Forrest testified in the Louisiana state legislature on the dangers hidden in the state's proposed Science Education Act. She had spent weeks trying to muster opposition to the bill on the grounds that it would allow teachers and school boards across the state to present non-scientific alternatives to evolution, including ideas related to intelligent design (ID) - the proposition that life is too complicated to have arisen without the help of a supernatural agent.

Coal-generated CO2 captured in Australia -- a first

In a first for Australia, carbon dioxide (CO2) has been captured from power station flue gases in a post-combustion-capture (PCC) pilot plant at Loy Yang Power Station in Victoria’s Latrobe Valley.

9 July 2008

CSIRO Energy Technology Chief, Dr David Brockway, said the milestone followed the Garnaut Report’s recognition that Australia has an important role to play in developing low emission coal technologies such as PCC.

“PCC uses a liquid to capture CO₂ from power station flue gases and can potentially reduce CO₂ emissions from existing and future coal-fired power stations by more than 85 per cent,” he said.

The Persian Paradox

Washington Dispatch: Why is so much sensitive US military technology winding up in Iran?

By Laura Rozen

July 9, 2008

On June 12, 2005, acting on a request from US authorities, officials from Mexico's Federal Investigation Agency arrested Arif Ali Durrani as he was leaving the restaurant he ran in a shopping mall in the Mexican border town of Playas de Rosarito, near the San Diego-Tijuana border. Ordered deported back to his native Pakistan, Durrani, then 55, soon found himself on a plane whose intermediate stop was Los Angeles. There at Los Angeles International Airport on June 15, 2005, officials with the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement bureau intercepted his plane, arrested Durrani, and took him into custody. The warrant accused him of two counts of violating the Arms Export Control Act for selling fighter-jet parts to Iran.

Glenn Greenwald: Congress votes to immunize lawbreaking telecoms, legalize warrantless eavesdropping

The Democratic-led Congress this afternoon voted to put an end to the NSA spying scandal, as the Senate approved a bill -- approved last week by the House -- to immunize lawbreaking telecoms, terminate all pending lawsuits against them, and vest whole new warrantless eavesdropping powers in the President. The vote in favor of the new FISA bill was 69-28. Barack Obama joined every Senate Republican (and every House Republican other than one) by voting in favor of it, while his now-vanquished primary rival, Sen. Hillary Clinton, voted against it. John McCain wasn't present for any of the votes, but shared Obama's support for the bill. The bill will now be sent to an extremely happy George Bush, who already announced that he enthusiastically supports it, and he will sign it into law very shortly.

Tomgram: Why Cheney Won't Take Down Iran

Reality Bites Back

Why the U.S. Won't Attack Iran
By Tom Engelhardt

It's been on the minds of antiwar activists and war critics since 2003. And little wonder. If you don't remember the pre-invasion of Iraq neocon quip, "Everyone wants to go to Baghdad. Real men want to go to Tehran..." -- then take notice. Even before American troops entered Iraq, knocking off Iran was already "Regime Change: The Sequel." It was always on the Bush agenda and, for a faction of the administration led by Vice President Cheney, it evidently still is.

Add to that a series of provocative statements by President Bush, the Vice President, and other top U.S. officials and former officials. Take Cheney's daughter Elizabeth, who recently sent this verbal message to the Iranians: "[D]espite what you may be hearing from Congress, despite what you may be hearing from others in the administration who might be saying force isn't on the table... we're serious." Asked about an Israeli strike on Iran, she said: "I certainly don't think that we should do anything but support them." Similarly, former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton suggested that the Bush administration might launch an Iranian air assault in its last, post-election weeks in office.

ACLU: U.S. blocking payments to Guantanamo attorneys

By Carol Rosenberg | Miami Herald

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVY BASE, Cuba — The U.S. government is blocking the American Civil Liberties Union from paying attorneys representing suspected terrorists held here, insisting that the ACLU must first receive a license from the U.S. Treasury Department before making the payments.

ACLU director Anthony Romero on Tuesday accused the Bush administration of "obstruction of justice" by delaying approval of the license, which the government argues is required under U.S. law because the beneficiaries of the lawyers' services are foreign terrorists.

Overfishing worse than thought

Tropical fishermen catch far more species than reported officially.

Mark Schrope

Global fisheries statistics generally paint a grim picture of ocean health, revealing rampant overfishing and declining fish catches in various regions. But a new study suggests that, in the tropics at least, the statistics have been telling only half the depressing story — if that.

The work, presented Tuesday at the 11th International Coral Reef Symposium in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, suggests that for fifteen of twenty tropical island nations and territories examined, subsistence and recreational fishing has gone almost completely unreported over the past half-century. Such fishing actually collects a volume of reef fish at least as great as official statistics show, and in most cases much more.

Thomas Frank: The GOP's Lame-Duck Push

July 9, 2008; Page A13

In his landmark 1938 study of political corruption, "The Politicos," Matthew Josephson recalled for his readers the final moments of the Republican 43rd Congress, meeting in a lame-duck session in early 1875. Although the party had just been defeated at the polls in what Josephson called "a great popular mandate for currency expansion," its leaders proceeded to pass a measure designed to contract the money supply.

It is in moments of defeat rather than those of triumph that politicians "show their real hand," Josephson observed. Masks are dropped in the stampede; brutal essence shoves aside compassionate appearance.

Thomas Frank: Charlie Black's Cronies

July 2, 2008; Page A11

Doing some research in the Library of Congress recently, an associate of mine came across a curious artifact of the Young Americans for Freedom, the high-spirited conservative group of the Vietnam era.

It is a songbook prepared for YAF's 1971 convention, and in its mimeographed pages you will find a lyric poking fun at "Adlai [Stevenson] the bald-headed Com-Symp," and another moaning that, in the State Department, "everyone's a Commie slave." All good clean fun, surely. Turn a few pages, though, and you will find that the righteous ones also lifted their young voices to warble "Cara al Sol," the humor-free anthem of Spanish fascism.

In reversal, Washington seeks more financial regulation

By Kevin G. Hall | McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON — After at least a quarter-century of pressing for deregulation of financial markets, economists and members of Congress are pushing for renewed regulation in hopes of heading off a collapse of the global banking system.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke on Tuesday became the latest official to call for additional government powers, saying that the Fed should be given more authority to determine how much cash investment banks are required to keep in reserve and to monitor how they manage the risk involved in their investments.

Online Movement Aims to Punish Democrats Who Support Bush Wiretap Bill

By Sarah Lai Stirland

Online activists from the right and the left announced an unprecedented campaign Tuesday to hold Democratic lawmakers accountable for caving in to the Bush administration on domestic spying.

A group of high-profile progressive bloggers and libertarian Republicans are rolling out a new political action committee called Accountability Now to channel widespread anger over pending legislation that would legalize much of the president's warrantless electronic surveillance of Americans, and grant retroactive legal immunity to telephone companies that cooperated with the spying when it was still illegal.

Glenn Greenwald: August 8, 1974 v. July 9, 2008

The votes in the Senate on various amendments to the FISA “compromise” bill and to the underlying bill itself were originally scheduled for today, but have been postponed until tomorrow (Wednesday, July 9) to enable Senators to attend the funeral of Jesse Helms. Rejection of the amendments — including the Dodd-Feingold-Leahy amendment to strip telecom immunity from the bill — is all but certain, and final passage of the bill (with the support of both presidential candidates) is guaranteed.

Once passed by the Senate, the FISA bill will then immediately be sent by the Democratic Congress to an eagerly awaiting and immensely pleased President Bush, who will sign it into law, thereby putting a permanent and happy end to the scandal that began when — in December, 2005 — he was caught spying on the communications of American citizens in violation of the law. The only real remaining questions are (a) whether Bush will host Steny Hoyer and Jay Rockefeller at a festive, bipartisan White House signing ceremony to celebrate the evisceration of the Fourth Amendment and the rule of law, and (b) whether Bush, when he signs the bill into law, will append a signing statement decreeing that even its minimal restraints on presidential spying are invalid.

YouTube Censors Videos Exposing Hagee's Pro-War & anti-Jewish Sermons

By Bruce Wilson Tue Jul 08, 2008 at 11:10:43 AM ES

Last week, on July the 1st, I received notice from YouTube that eight of my videos on YouTube's website had been taken down, allegedly for copyright violations. The videos included the notorious "God Sent Hitler" video which caused sufficient scandal, because it got shown widely on American and international TV, to force John McCain to renounce the political endorsement of Pastor John Hagee. JHM Ministries also targeted videos from Max Blumenthal, from People For The American Way and even from a Christian fundamentalist ministry critical of Hagee's "Prosperity Gospel" teaching. According to a Huffington Post story just posted by Sam Stein, in all over 120 videos were taken down at the request of John Hagee Ministries

Ex-EPA official: Cheney wanted cuts in climate testimony

WASHINGTON (AP) — Seeking to downplay the effects of global warming, Vice President Dick Cheney's office pushed to delete references about the consequences of climate change on public health from congressional testimony, a former senior EPA official claimed Tuesday.

The former official, Jason K. Burnett, said that White House was concerned that the proposed testimony last October by the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention might make it tougher to avoid regulating greenhouse gases.

Surveillance Deal: Same Bad Law, New Bad Arguments

By Madison Powers, Guest Columnist

The bill revising the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) goes to the Senate floor for a vote today after being caught in the crunch of stalled legislation prior to the July 4th recess. It grants civil immunity to telecom companies who have, or may again, violate the Constitution with regard to warrantless electronic eavesdropping, and it carves out huge exceptions to the usual safeguards that protect citizens from promiscuous government fishing expeditions.

It was a bad bill a week ago, and it is still a bad idea whose time apparently has come. All the bad arguments for the bipartisan compromise remain largely the same, but now even fewer people are paying attention, and some new bad arguments have been added over the long weekend.

Get Osama Bin Laden before I leave office, orders George W Bush

President George W Bush has enlisted British special forces in a final attempt to capture Osama Bin Laden before he leaves the White House.

Defence and intelligence sources in Washington and London confirmed that a renewed hunt was on for the leader of the September 11 attacks. “If he [Bush] can say he has killed Saddam Hussein and captured Bin Laden, he can claim to have left the world a safer place,” said a US intelligence source.

Ezra Klein: LIMBAUGH.

If you happened to be unaware that there's a guy named Rush Limbaugh who hosts a popular program on AM radio, then this New York Times's profile will be an incredibly illuminating read. But if you happen to be aware of that guy already, and are wondering about the implications of the most popular radio host in America being a global warming denialist and self-described "defender of corporate America," then the piece stands as an extraordinary act of editorial cowardice.

Michael Kinsley: Al Franken's Quandary

The Minnesota Senate candidate has been telling jokes for 30 years. How does he explain away the bad ones?

By Michael Kinsley
Posted Monday, July 7, 2008, at 11:56 AM ET

Americans say they want to be represented by "real people" and not by "professional politicians." But with their votes, they reward professionalism and drain the reality from politics. Real people haven't spent their lives plotting a political career, and therefore real people may have said things from time to time that an aspiring politician would not. Departures from the official script are called gaffes. This election year, the script has been more important than ever. Despite the Iraq war, despite the sinking economy, despite the price of gasoline, we have frittered away our politics in a round robin of gaffes, mock indignation, demands for apology, and more gaffes.

TPM: Today's Must Read

By Andrew Tilghman - July 8, 2008, 9:32AM

With all the talk about the new wiretapping law the Senate is expected to approve this week, there are many federal surveillance programs that are going largely unmentioned -- and unmonitored.

A story from the Baltimore Sun points out how limited the proposed FISA legislation is when considered against the whole alphabet soup of surveillance programs run by the federal government.

TPM: Wheel of Fortune

We finally got an interview with someone from BMW Direct, the GOP direct mail firm whose business model includes fleecing GOP donors on behalf of obscure, often minority, candidates and then skimming off most of the contributions for itself and its affiliates. Good work if you can get it.

Our calls to the firm last week went unreturned, but we got lucky when we called again late today and Jordan Gehrke, BMW Direct's director of development, answered the phone. We called to ask specifically about complaints we'd received from another BMW client whose campaign had seen precious little of the contributions it was paying BMW to solicit.

Fed study says home price drop 'necessary'

Large-scale government intervention in the US housing crisis would be counterproductive and prevent a "necessary" correction in home prices, according to a Federal Reserve study released Monday.

The study by economist William Emmons of the St. Louis Fed concluded that "government interventions directly in housing or mortgage markets are not necessarily the best policy responses."

AP: Right to free speech not guaranteed online

Americans are accustomed to taking their free speech rights for granted and assume that is the case on the Internet as well. However, with major websites owned by corporations whose primary concern may be to limit controversial content or meet the guidelines set by other nations, even United States citizens may find their Constitutional guarantees do not apply online.

As the public discourse increasingly move onto sites like MySpace, Facebook, and YouTube, any actions by the owners of those sites that limit free speech will thus have a fundamental impact on what can and cannot be openly acknowledged and discussed.

Bank stocks suffer on new worries about construction loans

By Rick Rothacker | Charlotte Observer

Construction loans on Monday became the latest source of angst wreaking havoc on bank stocks.

After Friedman, Billings, Ramsey Inc. analyst Paul Miller issued a report highlighting banks with the most exposure to these loans, a number of financial firms saw their shares nosedive. Among the biggest losers were Atlanta-based SunTrust Banks Inc. (down about 9 percent) and Memphis-based First Horizon National Corp. (down about 11 percent).

Bush: Telecom Immunity More Important Than Surveillance Powers

Posted by Kurt Opsahl

Today the Bush Administration released a letter threatening to veto the upcoming FISA legislation if it included the Bingaman Amendment, which puts both telecom immunity and the court cases on hold until after the Inspector General reports about the warrantless wiretapping program. If given the choice between new surveillance powers without immunity for telcos on the one hand, or surveillance under the existing law on the other, the Bush Administration said its choice was clear: keep with the existing law.

Even though the White House "strongly support[s]" the FISA bill, and contends it is necessary to provide "our intelligence professionals the tools they need to keep our Nation safe," and urges the Senate "to act as soon as it returns from its recess," the Bush Administration is willing to veto the legislation and forgo these tools unless the telecom immunity is given effect immediately.

AT&T Whistleblower: Spy Bill Creates 'Infrastructure for a Police State'

By Ryan Singel, June 27, 2008 | 1:14:59 PM

Mark Klein, the retired AT&T engineer who stepped forward with the technical documents at the heart of the anti-wiretapping case against AT&T, is furious at the Senate's vote on Wednesday night to hold a vote on a bill intended to put an end to that lawsuit and more than 30 others.

[Wednesday]'s vote by Congress effectively gives retroactive immunity to the telecom companies and endorses an all-powerful president. It’s a Congressional coup against the Constitution.

Compromising the Constitution

Congress has been far too compliant as President Bush undermined the Bill of Rights and the balance of powers. It now has a chance to undo some of that damage — if it has the courage and good sense to stand up to the White House and for the Constitution.

The Senate should reject a bill this week that would needlessly expand the government’s ability to spy on Americans and ensure that the country never learns the full extent of President Bush’s unlawful wiretapping.

Maliki Stunner: He Wants US Pullout Timetable

posted by Robert Dreyfuss on 07/07/2008 @ 12:21pm

The long-running showdown over the proposed US-Iraq treaty, aimed at legitimizing the American occupation of Iraq, is coming to a head, and it doesn't look good for the United States.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki tossed a bombshell today. In a news conference about the still-secret US-Iraqi talks, which began in March, Maliki for the first time said that the chances of securing the pact are just about nil, and instead he said Iraq will seek a limited, ad hoc renewal of the US authority to remain in Iraq, rather than a broad-based accord.

AlterNet's Weekly Zeitgeist List -- The 10 Hottest Issues of the Day

By Don Hazen, AlterNet. Posted July 8, 2008.

A pilot feature of AlterNet on key questions of the day -- is Obama really tacking to the center, and why gas is so damn pricey.

Send comments to feedback@alternet.org.

1. Is Obama shifting rightward? What should supporters do?
As Arianna Huffington put it, in the words of Molly Ivins: "'You got to dance with them what brung you.' Voters longing for hope, inspiration, a new kind of politics, and fundamental change are 'them that brung you' to the big dance. Don't let the pundits, the advisors, and the cowards convince you to let someone else cut in."

Memo to Obama: Moving to the Middle Is for Losers
By Arianna Huffington

2. Is the economy in free fall?
The labor market is deteriorating as jobs are cut; the stock market is in bear territory; and the mortgage crisis continues. Are we facing impending economic doom? So far Obama and McCain are offering tinkering around the edges -- save a few mortgages, extend unemployment, etc. Where are the bold ideas?

Bush Economy Sheds 62K Jobs in June; Sixth Straight Monthly Decline
By Dean Baker

From the bad to the really sinister

By The Mogambo Guru

The first half of the year is over, and now all those brokerage accounts and retirement accounts will be sending out statements to hapless account holders, and it is bad news in spades. This is why (I assume) the Plunge Protection Team (composed of the US Federal Reserve, the Treasury and bank insiders) tried to drive the stock markets up on Monday, June 30 - to make those account statements look not quite as bad, and, hopefully, prevent people from dumping all of their stock and bond holdings in a desperate attempt to save something before the whole idiotic, fiat-currency, unlimited-fractional-banking thing just collapses.

All the oil news that's fit to print

On June 19, the New York Times broke the story in an article under the headlines "Deals with Iraq Are Set to Bring Oil Giants Back: Rare No-Bid Contracts, A Foothold for Western Companies Seeking Future Rewards". Finally, after a long five years-plus, there was proof that the occupation of Iraq really did have something or other to do with oil. Quoting unnamed Iraqi Oil Ministry bureaucrats, oil company officials and an anonymous American diplomat, Andrew Kramer of the Times wrote: "Exxon Mobil, Shell, Total and BP ... along with Chevron and a number of smaller oil companies, are in talks with Iraq's Oil Ministry for no-bid contracts to service Iraq's largest fields."

The news caused a minor stir, as other newspapers picked up and advanced the story and the mainstream media, only a few years late, began to seriously consider the significance of oil to the occupation of Iraq.

Mortgage rescue plan draws Senate support

By JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVIS, Associated Press Writer
2 hours, 20 minutes ago

A mortgage rescue plan to save hundreds of thousands of homeowners from foreclosure drew overwhelming Senate support, inching toward passage despite Republican objections.

The Senate voted 76-10 Monday to advance the bill, a broad array of housing measures including overhauls of the Federal Housing Administration, the Depression-era mortgage insurer, and government-sponsored home loan giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Its centerpiece is a new $300 billion FHA program to allow debt-ridden homeowners who are currently too financially risky to qualify for government-backed loans to refinance into safer, more affordable mortgages.

Paul Krugman: Behind the Bush Bust

By huge margins, Americans think the economy is in lousy shape — and they blame President Bush. This fact, more than anything else, makes it hard to see how the Democrats can lose this election.

But is the public right to be so disgusted with Mr. Bush’s economic leadership? Not exactly. We really do have a lousy economy, a fact of which Mr. Bush seems spectacularly unaware. But that’s not the same thing as saying that the bad economy is Mr. Bush’s fault.

On the other hand, there’s a certain rough justice in the public’s attitude. Other politicians besides Mr. Bush share the blame for the mess we’re in — but most of them are Republicans.

Glenn Greenwald: The Political Establishment and Telecom Immunity — Why It Matters

Nancy Soderberg was deputy national security advisor and an ambassador to the United Nations in the Clinton administration. Today, she has an Op-Ed in the Los Angeles Times defending the FISA bill and telecom amnesty. The entire Op-Ed is just a regurgitation of the same trite, vague talking points which the political elite are using to justify this bill, accompanied by the standard invocations of “National Security” which our Foreign Policy elite condescendingly toss around to justify whatever policy they’re claiming is necessary to protect us. But it’s the language that she uses — and the brazenness of the lying (and that’s what it is) to justify this bill — that’s notable here.

It’s notable because the political establishment is not only about to pass a patently corrupt bill, but worse, are spouting — on a very bipartisan basis — completely deceitful claims to obscure what they’re really doing.

Mark Twain: Our Original Superstar

What, if anything, about this benighted moment of American life will anyone in the future look back on with nostalgia? Well, those of us who have cable are experiencing a golden age of sarcasm (from the Greek sarkazein, "to chew the lips in rage"). Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, Bill Maher and Keith Olbermann are digging into our direst forebodings so adroitly and intensely that we may want to cry, "Stop tickling!" Forget earnest punditry. In a world of hollow White House pronouncements, evaporating mainstream media and metastasizing bloggery, it's the mocking heads who make something like sense.

Decades Later, Toxic Sludge Torments Bhopal

By SOMINI SENGUPTA

BHOPAL, India — Hundreds of tons of waste still languish inside a tin-roofed warehouse in a corner of the old grounds of the Union Carbide pesticide factory here, nearly a quarter-century after a poison gas leak killed thousands and turned this ancient city into a notorious symbol of industrial disaster.

The toxic remains have yet to be carted away. No one has examined to what extent, over more than two decades, they have seeped into the soil and water, except in desultory checks by a state environmental agency, which turned up pesticide residues in the neighborhood wells far exceeding permissible levels.

Doctors Press Senate to Undo Medicare Cuts

By ROBERT PEAR

WASHINGTON — Congress returns to work this week with Medicare high on the agenda and Senate Republicans under pressure after a barrage of radio and television advertisements blamed them for a 10.6 percent cut in payments to doctors who care for millions of older Americans.

The advertisements, by the American Medical Association, urge Senate Republicans to reverse themselves and help pass legislation to fend off the cut.

How to pay doctors through the federal health insurance program is an issue that lawmakers are forced to confront every year because of what is widely agreed to be an outdated reimbursement formula. But the dispute, which showcases the continued potency of health care issues, has reached a new level of urgency this year. Some doctors are reassessing their participation in the program and powerful interests on all sides are in a lobbying frenzy.

Bush-Cheney Crony Got Iraq Oil Deal

By Jason Leopold
July 6, 2008

Ray Hunt, the Texas oil man who landed a controversial oil production deal with Iraq’s Kurdistan regional government, has enjoyed close political and business ties with Vice President Dick Cheney dating back a decade – and to the Bush family since the 1970s.

Despite those longstanding connections – and Hunt’s work for George W. Bush as a member of the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board – the Bush administration expressed surprise when Hunt Oil signed the agreement last September.

At that time, administration officials said Hunt Oil’s deal with the Kurds jeopardized delicate negotiations among competing Iraqi sects and regions for sharing oil revenues, talks seen as vital for achieving national reconciliation.

Ruined by 401[k] Predators

By Mara Der HovanesianThu Jul 3, 8:08 AM ET

Stan Morrill was confident his nestegg would provide for him and his wife for the rest of their lives. After all, the Eastman Kodak (NYSE:EK - News) veteran, a factory worker for 31 years, had attended the free financial seminar recommended to him by co-workers. Morrill says the host, Michael J. Kazacos, one of Morgan Stanley's (NYSE:MS - News) top brokers, dazzled him with a plan that would let him retire at 49. Morrill just had to roll over his pension and 401(k) into a tax-deferred account managed by Kazacos. After that, he could safely withdraw $36,000 a year -- plenty to cover his bills -- without ever touching the $320,745 principal. "I saw no reason why I should stay and work," says Morrill, who signed on in 1998.

But he says the strategy, which assumed unusually high investment returns of up to 14%, didn't pan out. Morrill's balance now stands at just $57,559, and with little other savings, he's scrambling. At 59, Morrill doesn't yet qualify for Social Security benefits, so he has taken a job as a janitor at a local school paying $9.50 an hour. In April 2007 he and his wife, Cathy, sold the five-bedroom Victorian house in a suburb of Rochester, N.Y., where they had raised their two kids, and unloaded some inherited land in Florida. Now they own a modest ranch house on the outskirts of town. "It's all gone," says Morrill. "I've had thoughts of suicide."

The buck doesn't stop here; it just keeps falling

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Things in the U.S. sure are tough. Brother, can you spare a euro? Signs saying "We accept euros" are cropping up in the windows of some Manhattan retailers. A Belgium company is trying to gobble up St. Louis-based Anheuser-Busch, the nation's largest brewer and iconic Super Bowl advertiser.

The almighty dollar is mighty no more. It has been declining steadily for six years against other major currencies, undercutting its role as the leading international banking currency. The long slide is fanning inflation at home and playing a major role in the run-up of oil and gasoline prices everywhere.

Frank Rich: Wall-E for President

SO much for a July Fourth week spent in idyllic celebration of our country’s birthday. This year’s festivities were marked instead by a debate — childish, not constitutional — over who is and isn’t patriotic. The fireworks were sparked by a verbally maladroit retired general, fueled by two increasingly fatuous presidential campaigns, and heated to a boil by a 24/7 news culture that inflates any passing tit for tat into a war of the worlds.

Let oil soar above $140 a barrel. Let layoffs and foreclosures proliferate like California’s fires. Let someone else worry about the stock market’s steepest June drop since the Great Depression. In our political culture, only one question mattered: What was Wesley Clark saying about John McCain and how loudly would every politician and bloviator in the land react?