Check it out

The New York Times tells all (just before the release of the investigative report that the Alaska Supreme Court said, today, may be released).

Ms. Palin has denied that anyone told Mr. Monegan to dismiss Mr. Wooten, or that the commissioner’s ouster had anything to do with the trooper. But an examination of the case, based on interviews with Mr. Monegan and several top aides, indicates that, to a far greater degree than was previously known, the governor, her husband and her administration pressed the commissioner and his staff to get Mr. Wooten off the force, though without directly ordering it.

In all, the commissioner and his aides were contacted about Mr. Wooten three dozen times over 19 months by the governor, her husband and seven administration officials, interviews and documents show.

Just like John McSame, Sarah Palin offers us more of what we have been enduring almost eight years - abuse of official power, stonewalling, denial.

h/t to ajc888

--the BB

Universities fire employees for moral turpitude, don't they?

I know it's an old-fashioned way of putting things, and it's vague, and I would be among the first out the door for my dirty mouth, but still and all....

Emptywheel brings us the news (read it all here):

After significant efforts, Senator Whitehouse has finally gotten the Administration to declassify the fourth of the four outrageous opinions John Yoo wrote to justify the warrantless wiretap program (the other three Pixie Dust provisions basically allow the President to write his own laws). This one pertains to the exclusivity provision of FISA, which states clearly that FISA was the "exclusive means by which electronic surveillance ... and the interception of domestic wire, oral and electronic communications may be conducted."

Here's what that purported genius, John Yoo, did with FISA's exclusivity provision:

Unless Congress made a clear statement in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act that it sought to restrict presidential authority to conduct warrantless searches in the national security area -- which it has not -- then the statute must be construed to avoid [such] a reading.

The University of California, through its law school, continues to employ Mr. Yoo.

I cannot imagine enabling the Bush administration as a morally neutral action.
--the BB