As I said in my last post, bmaz and I are about to let loose a slew of posts on David Passaro, the only CIA guy prosecuted for detainee abuse. I first decided to look into Passaro’s case given that he was prosecuted in relation to the death of an Afghan detainee, Ahmed Wali, in June 2004, whereas the CIA guy in charge of the Salt Pit was not prosecuted in relation to the death of Gul Rahman seven months earlier. Why, I wanted to know, was Passaro tried and convicted but Gul Rahman’s killer has, thus far, avoided any consequences for Rahman’s death.

As we’ll eventually see, Passaro’s lawyers tested many of the theories John Yoo laid out in his OLC memos.

What’s the Student Non-Discrimination Act? It’s a piece of legislation quietly introduced by Rep. Jared Polis in January. Change.org notes that the kind of discrimination McMillen experienced is happening all over the country, and SDNA would prohibit it.

Brooksley Born wants to know the effect of credit default swaps on the housing bubble and the Great Crash. Citibank representatives don’t think there was an effect. Yves Smith disagrees.

Meanwhile the Justice Department still has nobody at OLC, as hundreds of opinions requiring expert advice pile up.

An article posted Friday on the website for The Times of London points out that Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, former Chief of Staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell, has submitted a sworn statement confirming that President George W. Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld all knew that innocent civilians were detained at Guantanamo. I have found a Joint Chiefs publication that outlines the official policy under which this long term detention and interrogation of civilians is authorized.

For the first time in nearly two decades, the Democratic party now polls a net unfavorability–54% of registered voters have an unfavorable view of the Democratic Party, while only 41% of voters have a favorable view. This is a huge–and potentially devastating–swing for Democrats over the last few months.

One positive feature (OK, this isn’t so positive) of a Supreme Court fight is that the formidable Supreme Court commentator cottage industry gets to ramp up again. Conservative groups raise a mint off a Court fight; most of it goes to enrich movement conservatives and little else. So now we get to see folks like [...]

Are all Teabaggers racist? Of course not. Are some? Undoubtedly. Now that the obvious is out of the way, there seems to be an awful lot of Teabaggers who have serious issues with race.

Of all the reasons to legalize marijuana, there is none more powerful than the need to stop feeding the prison industrial complex with bodies because of nonviolent drug charges. The United States has 5% of the world’s population and 25% of its prisoners. According to the FBI, someone is arrested every 18 seconds for a drug law violation. Four-fifths of those are for possession only, and nearly half were for possession of marijuana.

It’s retirement Friday, it seems. The AP has a report (no link yet) that Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens is retiring. This has been rumored for a while. More when I have it. UPDATE: There’s a link now. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens, the court’s oldest member and leader of its liberal bloc, [...]