tuesday reads

The Fog of War Crimes: Who’s to blame when ‘just following orders’ means murder?

FDL: Only Telling Half the Story?


Recession in the US 'has arrived'


Speech or Debate Clause: A Protection for Legislators Conducting National Security Oversight

As Congress begins to investigate allegations concerning the destruction of videotapes of detainee interrogations by the C.I.A., there are questions that arise concerning the ability of Congress to engage in effective oversight of executive branch agencies in the area of national security. The Department of Justice has already pushed back and asked Congress to stay its inquiries into the destruction of the tapes, citing potential interference in the concurrent criminal inquiries initiated by the Department.

This well known Kabuki dance between Congress and the Executive branch over the intersection between oversight and criminal law enforcement has played out hundreds of times since the beginning of the Republic, in our lifetimes most notably in Watergate and Iran-Contra. There is an equally insidious way in which these shared investigative powers collide—and that is in the way in which the Executive seeks to control and intimidate Congressional oversight by reliance on the classification system and the veiled, and sometimes direct, threat of prosecution of members of Congress for disclosing classified information in the course of performing their oversight responsibilities.

Scott Horton: Department of Orwellian Excesses


DownWith Tyranny!: Does Barack Obama have a Plan B to fall back on after Plan A--having us all get together and rise above partisanship--doesn't work?


A man has allegedly told police he was instructed by God to kill his girlfriend and cook parts of her body on a stove, in one of the most gruesome murder cases to hit Texas.