DOJ official reportedly clears torture architects John Yoo and Jay Bybee.

Thinkprogress.org

Justice Department officials John Yoo and Jay Bybee were two of the main architects of the Bush administration’s torture program. As Bybee’s deputy, Yoo “was the author of much of the legal rationale for using waterboarding and other severe interrogation techniques.” He argued that interrogators who harm a prisoner would be protected “national and international version of the right to self-defense,” and illegal conduct must “shock the conscience.” Bybee headed the DOJ’s Office of Legal Counsel and signed off on the infamous 2002 torture memo. Newsweek now reports that a senior DOJ official has essentially cleared the two men of misconduct in an upcoming office of Professional Responsibility report:

While the probe is sharply critical of the legal reasoning used to justify waterboarding and other “enhanced” interrogation techniques, NEWSWEEK has learned that a senior Justice official who did the final review of the report softened an earlier OPR finding. Previously, the report concluded that two key authors — Jay Bybee, now a federal appellate court judge, and John Yoo, now a law professor — violated their professional obligations as lawyers when they crafted a crucial 2002 memo approving the use of harsh tactics, say two Justice sources who asked for anonymity discussing an internal matter. But the reviewer, career veteran David Margolis, downgraded that assessment to say they showed “poor judgment,” say the sources. (Under department rules, poor judgment does not constitute professional misconduct.) The shift is significant: the original finding would have triggered a referral to state bar associations for potential disciplinary action — which, in Bybee’s case, could have led to an impeachment inquiry.

Corporation Runs For Maryland Congressional Seat To Protest SCOTUS Campaign Finance Decision

Last week, “all five of the [Supreme] Court’s conservatives joined together…to invalidate a sixty-three year-old ban on corporate money in federal elections,” a move that Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL) said “opens the floodgates for the purchases and sale of the law” by big corporations. While progressives were outraged by the court’s judicial activism, many Republican politicians applauded the decision, with RNC Chairman Michael Steele even calling the ruling nothing more than “an affirmation of the constitutional rights provided to Americans under the first amendment.”

The progressive PR firm Murray Hill Inc. has announced that it plans to satirically run for Congress in the Republican primary in Maryland’s 8th congressional district to protest the Supreme Court’s disastrous decision. A press release on its website says that the company wants to “eliminate the middle man” and run for Congress directly, rather than influencing it with corporate dollars:

“Until now,” Murray Hill Inc. said in a statement, “corporate interests had to rely on campaign contributions and influence peddling to achieve their goals in Washington. But thanks to an enlightened Supreme Court, now we can eliminate the middle-man and run for office ourselves.”

“The strength of America,” Murray Hill Inc. says, “is in the boardrooms, country clubs and Lear jets of America’s great corporations. We’re saying to Wal-Mart, AIG and Pfizer, if not you, who? If not now, when?” [...]

Campaign Manager William Klein promises an aggressive, historic campaign that “puts people second” or even third. “The business of America is business, as we all know,” Klein says. “But now, it’s the business of democracy too.” Klein plans to use automated robo-calls, “Astroturf” lobbying and computer-generated avatars to get out the vote.

Murray Hill Inc. plans on spending “top dollar” to protect its investment. “It’s our democracy,” Murray Hill Inc. says, “We bought it, we paid for it, and we’re going to keep it.”

Murray Hill Inc. released its first campaign video Monday. A narrator in the video explains, “The way we see it, corporate America has been the driving force behind Congress for years. But now it’s time we got behind the wheel ourselves.” Watch it:

Senator Jim DeMint may have allowed suicide bomber on plane

By: David Phillips

Las Vegas Democrat Examiner

Could this past Christmas day attempted bombing by a terrorist have been avoided if Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC) would have allowed President Obama’s pick for Transportation Security Administration (TSA) administrator to be voted on? Did this suicide bomber manage to get on a plane with a bomb simply because DeMint was playing politics with our national security?

This past September President Obama nominated Errol Southers to be the administrator of the TSA and because DeMint fears that Southers might allow TSA workers to form a Union (DeMint really doesn’t know for sure), Senator DeMint won’t allow the Senate to vote for his confirmation.

The Republican party and their right winged media opinion echo outlets such as Fox News, have been quick to blame President Barack Obama for allowing Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, 23, of Nigeria to get on Northwest Flight 253 on Christmas day.

They echo their reasoning that because President Obama announced that he was closing the detainee facilities in Guantanamo Bay, trying them in US Federal courts, putting them in Federal prisons and ending the Bush/Cheney era of torture, we are less safe and that is why this man was able to get on the plane in the first place.

The republicans and their right wing spin machine won’t ever mention the FACT that Senator Jim DeMint may very well be responsible for allowing the bomber on the plane. They will NEVER mention what DeMint had done. All because they are against unionized labor in the United States, and they favor corporations over employees.

Right now you are thinking how could Senator Jim DeMint a Republican from South Carolina be responsible simply by blocking Errol Southers from being the TSA administrator.

Here’s why. Last month the father of  Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, went to the U.S. embassy in Abuja, Nigeria to let them know that his son is mixed up with radicals and should be watched, but he had no specifics according to congressional sources speaking to the Boston Globe. In the same article in the Boston Globe it also says; “congressional official said Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a 23-year-old Nigerian, popped up in U.S. intelligence reports about four weeks ago as having a connection to both al-Qaeda and Yemen.”

So why wasn’t he put on the “No Fly List”, intelligence reports linked him to al-Qaeda.

Because Senator DeMint held up President Obama’s pick who would  administrate and enact security changes and updates to the “No Fly List”.

The current airport security and the TSA policies were all placed into action by former President Bush.

For years now we have known about problems with the “no fly list”, peoples names going on the list that shouldn’t be there in the first place, like Senator Edward Kennedy who was stopped because his name appeared on the “no fly list”. We have heard similar stories about others

There are currently four different lists that suspected terrorists names appear on;

“Terror Identities Datamart Environment” (TIDE) has 550,000 names
“Terrorist Screening Data Base” (TSDB) has 400,000 names
“Selectee List” has 14,000 names
“No Fly List” has 3,400 names

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab’s name appears on the TIDE list, if Senator Jim DeMint hadn’t stopped the vote for President Barack Obama’s nominee, the flow of intelligence and the administration of the problems that are well known with the lists might have prevented the suicide bomber from getting on the plane in the first place.

Leslie Phillips, a spokeswomen for Senator Joe Lieberman’s (I-CT)  Homeland Security Committee said that Lieberman believes the hold is "contrary to the public interest." Phillips went on to say, "The head of TSA is a key player in the government's efforts to safeguard the American people from terrorism."

And on top off all of this, Republicans also opposed funding for the TSA, including money for screening operations and explosives detection systems.

Senator Reid said that he will call for a Roll Call vote on the President’s nominee as soon as the Senate reconvenes in January.

Have a safe flight, and don’t forget to buckle up the seat belts.

Obama's $3.8 trillion budget heading to Congress
Press Writers Andrew Taylor And Martin Crutsinger
Associated Press Writers 20 mins ago

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama's proposed budget predicts the national deficit will crest at a record-breaking almost $1.6 trillion in the current fiscal year, then start to recede in 2011 to just below $1.3 trillion.

Still, the administration's new budget to be released Monday says deficits over the next decade will average 4.5 percent of the size of the economy, a level that economists say is dangerously high if not addressed.

A congressional official provided the information, which comes from a White House summary document circulating freely on Capitol Hill and among Washington's lobbyists. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the spending proposal is not supposed to be made public until tomorrow.

Details of the administration's budget headed for Congress include an additional $100 billion to attack painfully high unemployment. The proposed $3.8 trillion budget would provide billions more to pull the country out of the Great Recession while increasing taxes on the wealthy and imposing a spending freeze on many government programs.

Administration projections show the deficit never dropping below $700 billion, even under assumptions that war costs will drop precipitously to just $50 billion in some years instead of more than three times that this year and next.

Tea Party Convention Organizers Send Angry Email

US News | Sun, Jan 31, 2010 at 1:14:48 pm PST

Hidden camera pimp James O‘Keefe arrested, tries to bug Senator’s phone
By: David Phillips
Las Vegas Democrat Examiner

James O'Keefe, the now infamous pimp with a hidden camera who is best known for his undercover set up of ACORN workers last year, was arrested with three others and were charged with entering federal property under false pretenses with the intent of committing a felony.

In an FBI affidavit James O'Keefe, Joseph Basel, Stan Dai and Robert Flanagan  were arrested Monday. Special Agent Steven Rayes said O’Keefe was helping two others, Joseph Basel and Robert Flanagan, who were dressed as employees of a telephone company and attempted to interfere with the office’s telephone system, The Times-Picayune of New Orleans reported Tuesday on its Web site.

The FBI claim that the four plotted to wiretap Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu's office in the Hale Boggs Federal Building in downtown New Orleans.

According to the FBI affidavit, Flanagan and Basel entered the federal building at 500 Poydras Street about 11 a.m. Monday, dressed as telephone company employees, wearing jeans,  fluorescent green vests, tool belts, and hard hats. When they arrived at Landrieu's 10th floor office, O'Keefe was already in the office and had told a staffer he was waiting for someone to arrive.

When Flanagan and Basel entered the office, they told the staffer they were there to fix phone problems. At that time, the staffer, referred to only as Witness 1 in the affidavit, observed O'Keefe positioning his cell phone in his hand to videotape the operation. O'Keefe later admitted to agents that he recorded the event.

After being asked, the staffer gave Basel access to the main phone at the reception desk. The staffer told investigators that Basel manipulated the handset. He also tried to call the main office phone using his cell phone, and said the main line wasn't working. Flanagan did the same.

They then told the staffer they needed to perform repair work on the main phone system and asked where the telephone closet was located. The staffer showed the men to the main General Services Administration office on the 10th floor, and both went in. There, a GSA employee asked for the men's credentials, after which they stated they left them in their vehicle.

Federal Marshalls arrested the four soon after.

There is no end to the illegal activities right wingers will go discredit Democrats and now O‘Keefe the darling of Fox News and his gang  will be facing federal charges.