Bates, who was appointed to the bench by Bush, issued a 93-page opinion that strongly rejected the administration’s legal arguments. He noted that the executive branch could not point to a single case in which courts held that White House aides were immune from congressional subpoenas.
“That simple yet critical fact bears repeating: the asserted absolute immunity claim here is entirely unsupported by existing case law,” Bates wrote.
“The Mississippi River roughly divides the country into high and low emitters,” it says. “In 2005, all but one of the 10 largest per capita emitters were located east of the Mississippi.”
Proof again of the inherent superiority of the West Coast! =)
I just got off the phone with Charles Schwab and I’m got some stuff to say.
First, I was shocked when the person helping me didn’t know how to answer my questions immediately. I had gotten so used to solving my problems within a minute of calling Schwab that I was honestly surprised to hear the woman say, “I don’t know. Let me check with someone here.” It didn’t help that she and her colleagues ended up having to wrestle with the system for almost 30 minutes to delete an automatic transfer, disconnecting me twice while I was on hold. That being said, they solved the problem, were very friendly and helpful, and offered me $100 for my ‘troubles’. Now that’s how to ensure customer satisfaction! (more…)
The Bush administration has made it clear in strong but indirect ways, lawyers say, that it opposes the restoration of the chief justice because of fears that Mr. Musharraf, already weakened by the overwhelming vote against his party, would be cornered by Mr. Chaudhry.
“He may be a bastard, but he’s our bastard.”
In other Pakistan news, Naked Punch 10, whose editorial I posted earlier here, can now be purchased from the Naked Punch website. I also just uploaded Naked Punch Asia, a magazine produced in Pakistan by Qalandar and other pro-democracy activists. It can be downloaded from the main Naked Punch page.
For the first time in history, more than one in 100 American adults is behind bars, according to a new report.Nationwide, the prison population grew by 25,000 last year, bringing it to almost 1.6 million. An additional 723,000 people are in local jails. The number of American adults is about 230 million, meaning that one in every 99.1 adults is behind bars.
In response to a U.S. plan to shoot down a malfunctioning spy satellite, China has warned against threats to security in outer space, without mentioning its own successful anti-satellite missile test last year.
The above-the-fold front page article in today’s NRC was about SecDef Gates saying that many NATO armies weren’t good at counter-insurgency operations and it was accompanied by a very large version of this image:
(Aside: it’s a rather odd photo to use, considering both the subject matter and that the photo was taken in November)
What is the first thing I noticed? Canadian soldiers have major facial hair! Check out the ’staches on those dudes! And it’s just just them. Here’s one of their colleagues:
Is the Canadian Army taking the whole lumberjack stereotype a little too far? =)
Proof again that things are more liberal up north: among US troops in Afghanistan only Special Forces are allowed to have beards. But what beards!
I don’t know if this is a still the case, as it seems that the beard policy wasn’t popular higher up. From one account, Special Forces operators (that’s right, they’re beyond soldiers, they’re operators!) played all sorts of charades to protect their officially-sanctioned beards from the wrath of senior officers.
At least they don’t look as funny as these Dutch Special Forces troops, though I’m sure Jack would tell you a light orange beard is the height of style:
On a more serious note, the Reuters website is very good and has lots of incredible pictures from around the world. While looking for the first image, I found this striking photo:
Robert asked me to take his busted iPhone in for service, so I figure I might as well widen the call: does anyone in Amsterdam want help with an iPhone, whether buying one or getting one repaired? I’ll be in Silicon Valley from December 14 to January 8 and would be glad to help out.
