Drug War collateral damage

“These guys run loose in this country and do stupid stuff. There’s no authority over them…they shoot people, and someone else has to deal with the aftermath.”
-Brig. Gen. Karl Horst, 3rd Infantry, Baghdad, 2005.
The occupation of Iraq has been an unqualified success for at least one sector of the economy.  Private military firms (PMFs) [...]

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Webcasting tragedy

Plain awful, from The Guardian:
“Police in Florida are investigating the death of an American teenager after he appeared to take an overdose and die while broadcasting on video website Justin.tv.”
The 19-year-old left a message on another website in which he described his mental anguish and was encouraged to end his life by a number of [...]

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Dan Rather and media bias

Way back when Bush’s approval rating was above freezing, CBS News’ Dan Rather got himself canned in a controversy over the President’s National Guard documents.  In case you somehow missed “Rathergate,” which also involved the firing of producer Mary Mapes, the Wikipedia summary is enough background for the more recent news.  Since being tossed out [...]

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Some religious news

Today, Israel’s highest Rabbinical court handed down a crucial ruling effectively annulling the conversions of some 40,000 people.  The Rabbis argued that the Israeli government has been too liberal in approving conversions to Judaism.  The matter is now being referred to the Israeli Supreme Court.
The Rabbinical court’s decision will not retroactively impact the citizenship of [...]

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Your Turkish judiciary update

Yesterday, 86 people went up on trial in Turkey in what the Telegraph called the country’s “most important political trial in a decade.”  The mass of defendants, including journalists and former generals, are charged with assassinations and bombings in an effort to overthrow the government.  The case focuses on a shadowy ultra-nationalist organization called Ergenekon, [...]

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I see your pirates and raise you

On the BAMF scale, the British Army Gurkhas rank pretty high. A delightful legacy of colonialism, these Nepalese volunteer soldiers have an elite record of fighting for the crown.
Historically, the Gurkhas suffered from their exceptional status within the British military: While veterans from other countries, including Ireland and South Africa, were entitled to [...]

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The $64,000 question

Name a Supreme Court decision.
“Roe v. Wade.”
Point, wingnuts.  Now name another.
“…”
Seriously.  Jonathan Martin reports:
“Of concern to McCain’s campaign, however, is a remaining and still-undisclosed clip from Palin’s interview with Couric last week that has the political world buzzing.  The Palin aide, after first noting how “infuriating” it was for CBS to purportedly leak word about [...]

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Guest blogger: SVU = State violence unit

Once in a while, (for which, read: “When we’re lazy”) we’ll be stealing content from compelling guest posters. So today we have belle absente with some thoughts on Law & Order, SVU-flavor. A brief bio then we’re off:
Ghost blogger belle absente is a first year law student at Large State University, where [...]

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