The Whole Delivery

Says the one astute BMAZ at the great Emptywheel Posting Center, giving the evidence that the judge has already made a decision in Perry v Schwarzenegger. And it's a win for Gay Rights advocates : As a courtesy on really big opinions, so as to give counsel a chance to prepare appropriately for media response and/or immediate motions that need to be filed, courts occasionally give lead counsel on each side their draft opinion slightly ahead of public filing and release, but do so with a strict gag order so no one ever knows this happens This is something that Vaughn Walker has, from experience, a track record for doing, and I think it likely, actually almost certain, that he did just that here. Which makes the fact that the H8ter Defendant Intervenors (DIs), who propagated the hateful Proposition 8, and who oppose gay marriage, have already lodged a Motion For Stay Pending Appeal very, very telling. PLEASE TAKE NOTICE that, should the Court enter judgment for Plaintiffs, on Oct...

First, the tweet of the day from yesterday. It is from the invaluable Marcy Wheeler : And from the Philadelphia urban hellhole legend that is Duncan Black : More than that, someone needs to get on the teevee and point out that no, it is not ok for any actor - state, big corporation, or terrorist - to destroy the coastlines and economies of several states. You don't just get to say 'woopsy' and move on. Gigantic fuckups need to have consequences for the perpetrators, even though these days that seems like an amusing notion. Oh so easy, but oh so hard for common sense to be implemented.

As you have all heard by now (or read by now) the news of Alabama Republican knucklehead Senator Richard Shelby providing another reason why the Senate is broken by holding "Up or Down" votes on President Obama nominees, "Thee" emptywheel points to the key reason why Shelby is being an annoying jerk as usual The key issue is that Shelby wants the Air Force to tweak an RFP for refueling tankers so that Airbus (partnered with Northrup Grumman) would win the bid again over Boeing. The contract had been awarded in 2008, but the GAO found that the Air Force had erred in calculating the award. After the Air Force wrote a new RFP ( TWD note: RFP means "Request For Protocol" ) in preparation to rebid the contract, Airbus calculated that it would not win the new bid, and started complaining. Now, Airbus is threatening to withdraw from the competition unless the specs in the RFP are revised. Essentially, then, Shelby’s threat is primarily about gaming this b...

Via Marcy Wheeler, take a look at this deep ACLU video about men wrongly brought to Guantanomo Bay and finally released . And here is the key quotes here if you can hear this: Moazzam Begg: My experience of America prior to this was everything that I had seen in the films… the concept of the good guys, the concept of people trying to do the right thing…and, that was shattered. Omar Deghayes: I want the people themselves, humans, the people in America, good people which I met many of, to realize how in their names those ugly people have done to others. But you probably won't be seeing this on any of the cable news networks tonight though.

One of the best journalists in the country gives a classic month to us all Lovely.

Via the terrific Greg Sargent , here's the terrific Marcy Wheeler (research her after you view this) of Firedoglake delivering a smackdown on the ineptly named Fackcheck.org in regards to their poor job in chronicling Nancy Pelosi-Porter Goss- CIA "chronicles." If you haven't checked this brilliant blog, please do so after you check this link . Yes, it may look like nothing, and its posts are about as short as those guys in the upcoming "Hangover" movie winning a fight against Mike Tyson (or almost about anybody). But it is well worth it. And speaking of world class bloggers, here's the incomparable Meteor Blades once again refusing to submit to President Obama's "Let's look forward and not look back" malarky. Certainly, if one trolls around enough, there can be found a few people who "would almost never put national security over transparency," just as Obama says. But how very few they are. And, with all due respect to the...