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Is It Time for Malpractice Reform?

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

American Prospect - By Joanne Kenen - Nov. 20 (News Analysis) - Year after year, Republicans try to pass legislation that would limit medical malpractice awards. Fix the tort system, they argue, and we fix rising health-care costs. And year after year, Democrats resist placing arbitrary caps on awards to people who may have suffered from an egregious medical error. The fight plays out like a predictable old Western -- good guys versus bad guys. Depending on your politics, the villain is either the greedy doctor or the greedy trial lawyer.

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Legislation to Limit Use of State Secrets Privilege an Uphill Battle

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

TruthOut - By William Fisher - Nov. 19 (Special Report) - The problems President Obama will likely face in this area may stem from his pledges - both during the campaign and currently - that he would make open government and transparency the hallmarks of his administration. But, in court cases, his lawyers have followed paths identical to those used by George W. Bush's Justice Department. This approach to secrecy, manifested in his use of the state secrets doctrine, has triggered widespread disappointment among the progressive wing of his supporters. These supporters are pushing hard for passage of legislation winding its way through Congress that would impose stricter limits on use of the privilege.

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Anti-Statism In America

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

New Republic - By John B. Judis - Nov. 11 (News Analysis) - Liberals and progressives have fared poorly in the face of this staunch anti-statist tradition, but there have still been periods when they have broken through and enacted major reforms--during Woodrow Wilson’s first term, Franklin Roosevelt’s first term, Lyndon Johnson’s first two years, and Richard Nixon’s first term. They succeeded for different reasons at different times, but several conditions recur.

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The Scene In The House When It Happened

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Huffington Post - By Ryan Grim - Nov. 08 (News) - The House floor erupted in one of the loudest cheers the chamber has heard in years when Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), an hour before midnight, cast the 218th and deciding vote on landmark health care reform.

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UN Panel Criticizes Russia on Human Rights

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

sptimes.ru - Nov. 03 (News Report) - Russia fails to protect journalists, activists, prison inmates and others at odds with authorities from a wide range of abuses, including torture and murder, the UN Human Rights Committee said Friday.

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Judge Finds Abusive Gitmo Interrogations Yield False Confessions, Bad Info

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Christopher Flavelle - Oct. 15 (News Report) - A few weeks ago, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia released a declassified version of a judge’s ruling in the case of Al Rabiah, a Kuwaiti citizen who has been held at Guantanamo for seven years. The judge, Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, found that the government could not credibly support its allegation that Al Rabiah was part of the Taliban or al-Qaida, and that the evidence against him wasn’t sufficient to justify his continued detention. She ordered the government to release Al Rabiah "forthwith."

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Spending Bill Includes Provision to Block Release of Abuse Photos

Sat, 10 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

TruthOut - By by: Jason Leopold, - Oct. 10 (News Report) - Conferees on the Senate and House Appropriations Committees released a Homeland Security spending bill summary, which includes a provision that would allow President Obama to authorize "the Secretary of Defense to bar the release of detainee photos," essentially exempting the images from Freedom of Information Act requests.

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Kobe Bryant or Anita Bryant? Who Is Big Ben’s Ideal Juror

Fri, 11 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Balkinization - By Dan Kahan - Sep. 11 (Special Report) - Cultural cognition refers to the tendency of people to conform their view of facts to their identity-defining group commitments. We all belong to groups that share basic understandings about how the world does and should work. Forming beliefs that undercut those understandings creates emotional dissonance and also threatens our connections with others whose good opinion we covet.

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Supreme Court Eyes Decades of Campaign Finance Laws

Wed, 09 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Independent - By Daphne Eviatar - Sep. 09 (News Analysis) - The Supreme Court on Tuesday will hear arguments in a case that could reverse major gains made in recent decades to reduce the influence of corporate money on federal elections. At first blush, Citizens United v. Federal Elections Commission appears to

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A Mugging on Lake Street

Wed, 09 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

chicagomag.com - By John Conroy - Sep. 09 (Special Report) - Hate crime or boredom attack, my injuries are the same. One thing about being hated, though—you have an identity. You’re a member of a distinct class who is important to the attacker. If you are attacked without reason, you’re nobody— you’re of no importance whatever. Mulling this over makes me question the whole notion of prosecuting hate crimes. Why is a racist thug more dangerous than the man who just feels like beating someone—anyone—up? The racist might send a message to a large population, but the nonracist sends a message to an even larger group, a message that says, “You count for nothing” and “No one is safe.”

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Working Without Laws

Mon, 07 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

The Nation - By Annette Bernhardt, Ruth Milkman, Nik Theodore - Sep. 07 (Special Report) - For the past thirty years, the gospel of lean and mean has reordered the world of work, setting off a race to the bottom in which employers circumvent and evade standards that once seemed inviolate. That race has now taken us to a logical low point: many employers are ignoring workplace laws altogether.

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Party Is Such Sweet Sorrow

Fri, 04 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

New Republic - By Jonathan Cohn - Sep. 04 (News Analysis) - During the past year, Republicans have frequently said they want to work with Democrats. But the real story of the last few months is how unserious those pledges turned out to be. Although you wouldn’t know it from their rhetoric or the media coverage, there are not one but two ostensibly bipartisan proposals out there right now. Either of them could be the template for successful reform if even a few Republicans started pushing them seriously. But, even the ostensibly reasonable Republican senators whom Democrats have tried to engage--Mike Enzi, Charles Grassley, and Hatch--just aren’t interested. And it appears they haven’t been for a while.

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Iraqi Journalist Detained for a Year Without Charge by US Forces Despite Iraqi Court Order to Release Him

Wed, 02 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman, Mohamed Abdel Dayem - Sep. 02 (News) - A year ago today, US and Iraqi forces raided the home of Iraqi journalist Ibrahim Jassam, a freelance photographer working for Reuters. Soldiers seized his computer hard drive and cameras. He was led away, handcuffed and blindfolded. For the past year the US military has held Jassam without charge. Ten months ago, the Iraqi Central Criminal Court ordered his release for lack of evidence, but the US military refused to release him, claiming he was a “high security threat.”

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Cheney Still Manipulating People -- Now In Public

Mon, 31 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Dan Froomkin - Aug. 31 (News Analysis) - When he was vice president, Dick Cheney got his way by secretly wielding the instruments of power. Now that he's no longer in government, Cheney is still pulling levers and pushing buttons - he's just doing it in plain view. And it's the media that he's manipulating.

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New CIA Docs Detail Brutal "Extraordinary Rendition" Process

Fri, 28 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Scott Horton - Aug. 28 (News Report) - the broader question is for the new panel that the Obama White House has set up to oversee renditions and interrogations policy: Why are procedures designed to secure intelligence from violent terrorists being used on businessmen involved in petty contract fraud cases? If this was a conscious decision, it urgently requires a public justification.

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Memos Suggest Legal Cherry-Picking in Justifying Torture

Thu, 27 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Independent - By Daphne Eviatar - Aug. 27 (Special Report) - On the same day that the government produced the 2004 CIA Inspector General’s report on interrogations, it also turned over seven more memos and letters from the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel.

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Glenn Greenwald on CIA Interrogation Probe, Obama and Why the Media Failed on Covering Torture

Wed, 26 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Glenn Greewald, Anjali Kamat, Amy Goodman - Aug. 26 (News Analysis) - Attorney General Eric Holder has opened an inquiry into CIA torture. On Monday, Holder appointed veteran federal prosecutor John Durham to look into whether CIA interrogators and contractors should be charged for the torture and abuse of foreign prisoners. Holder says he ordered the probe in response to a Justice Department recommendation to reopen nearly a dozen prisoner abuse cases that the Bush administration had closed. Holder says he was further influenced by the 2004 CIA report on the prisoners’ torture and abuse, which he released on Monday.

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Man Carrying Semi-Automatic Assault Rifle And Pistol Outside Obama Event (VIDEO)

Mon, 17 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Lila Shapiro - Aug. 17 (News Report) - This is the third report in a week of someone bringing a gun to an event where the President was speaking. Last Tuesday a man was arrested before Obama's New Hampshire health care town hall for carrying an unlicensed loaded gun. Also outside the New Hampshire town hall, a man was seen with a (legal) handgun strapped to his leg, holding a sign referencing the famous Jefferson quote: "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants." UPDATE: The Associated Press is now reporting that there were actually about a dozen armed people among the protesters in Phoenix:

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Youssef Megahed Speaks Out from Prison

Fri, 14 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - Aug. 14 (News Report) - Florida student Youssef Megahed was arrested by federal immigration agents in April just three days after a jury acquitted him on federal explosives charges. He now faces deportation on the same charges. But this time, he won’t be tried by a jury of his peers, but by an immigration judge.

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David Wise: "The CIA, Licensed to Kill"

Tue, 11 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman, Sharif Abdel Kouddous - Aug. 11 (News Report) - when the CIA disclosed the existence of an aborted secret assassination program last month, congressional outrage centered around the fact that lawmakers weren’t properly informed. The open acceptance of assassination as a tool of US policy can in part be explained by the fact it’s been going on for decades.

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Blackwater Founder Implicated in Murder

Tue, 04 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

The Nation - By Jeremy Scahill - Aug. 04 (News) - Sworn statements filed in Federal Court allege that Blackwater founder Erik Prince launched a "crusade" to eliminate Muslims and Islam and that the company may have been involved in murders to suppress information from federal investigators.

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Blackwater Seeks Gag Order

Mon, 03 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

The Nation - By Jeremy Scahill - Aug. 03 (Special Report) - It became common practice during the Iraq occupation for the US State Department to work with private security companies like Blackwater to help facilitate giving what amounted to hush money to the families of Iraqis shot dead by private security contractors. In fact, Blackwater's owner, Erik Prince, discussed this practice when he testified in front of Congress in October 2007 and admitted to paying $20,000 to a Blackwater victim's family and $5,000 to another.

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Military Commissions Debate Rages On in Senate

Wed, 29 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Independent - By Daphne Eviatar - Jul. 29 (News Report) - According to David Kris, assistant attorney general in the national security division of the Justice Department, the task force is “more than half way through its review of the 240 detainees” at Guantanamo, and expects to complete its review by October

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Court Rules that CIA Committed Fraud in State Secrets Case

Wed, 29 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

ombwatch.org - Jul. 29 (News Report) - In 2008, however, the district court learned from the Department of Justice that Brown’s cover had been lifted in 2002. Despite this change in status, the CIA continued to claim that Brown was still covert. The discovery of this lie led to the district court's most recent decision. Judge Royce Lamberth wrote that it soon became “clear … that many of the issues [of the case] are unclassified.” The ruling referred one of the CIA attorneys for disciplinary action for perpetrating fraud against the court. Five others involved in the case – three CIA attorneys, as well as Brown and Tenet – were given one month to defend themselves prior to charges of contempt or other sanctions being levied upon them. Over two hundred documents related to the case were also unsealed.

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Declassified Docs Reveal Military Operative Spied on WA Peace Groups, Activist Friends Stunned

Tue, 28 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By ANJALI KAMAT, Amy Goodman, - Jul. 28 (News Report) - Newly declassified documents reveal that an active member of Students for a Democratic Society and Port Militarization Resistance in Washington state was actually an informant for the US military. The man everyone knew as “John Jacob” was in fact John Towery, a member of the Force Protection Service at Fort Lewis. The military’s role in the spying raises questions about possibly illegal activity. The Posse Comitatus law bars the use of the armed forces for law enforcement inside the United States.

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