OBAMA JUSTICE DEPT MAY ACTUALLY FOLLOW LAW

The Boston Globe’s Sasha Issenberg reported earlier today on several key picks for Obama’s Dept. of Justice. Harvard Law School Dean Elena Kagan will be solicitor general, the lawyer who argues on behalf of the White House in front of the Supreme Court. Former Clinton asst. atty. general David Ogden will be deputy attorney general. And former Clinton deputy asst. atty. general Tom Perrilli will be asst. atty. general. Both Ogden and Perrilli have spent the Bush administration in private practice.

Maybe the most impressive pick of the day was Indiana University law school professor Dawn Johnsen as head of the Justice Dept’s Office of Legal Counsel. The once obscure OLC gained incredible infamy during the Bush administration for letting the president flout international laws prohibiting torture as well as the constitutional writ of habeas corpus. Johnsen is well aware of this. Her most recent law review article was "Faithfully Executing the Laws: Internal Legal Constrains on Executive Power." She has spoken on the limits of executive power in this Slate piece, where she repeatedly spoke about the "outrage" of an OLC memo that gave Bush the green light to torture.

Obama’s appointments represent a significant break in ideology and accomplishments from the Bush administration. But Johnsen is one of the few appointees who will represent a direct refutation to the Bush’s most horrendous actions. Good for Obama.-MB

 MAYBE THE CIA’S MOST PRESSING NEED IS SECRETLY A BALANCED BUDGET

The New York Times’ Carl Hulse and Mark Mazetti blog that Leon Panetta, who I think has served in most national executive and legislative branch positions available in the United States government, will be named Barack Obama’s new CIA director. Actually, most of Panetta’s vast experience is on budget issues– as chairman of the House budget committee, and as director of Office of Management and Budget under Bill Clinton. Panetta was also Clinton’s chief of staff, but he was known for his delicate prodding of the ever-enigmatic Clinton not, say, rooting out terrorist cells in the hills of Afghanistan.

Hulse and Mazetti report that Obama had trouble finding a CIA Director not in some way linked to George W. Bush’s tortuous counterterrorism policies. But appointing somebody whose raison d’etre is Washington politicking and fiscal responsibility seems a little too off-the-beaten path. It will be interesting to see how the choice is explained/defended.-MB

 FIFTEEN DAYS LEFT TO DESTROY THE GAZA STRIP WITH BUSH’S APPROVAL

Is Israel really attacking Gaza now because George W. Bush is still president? That seems to be what the New York Times’ Scott Shane says: while president-elect Obama is pro-Israel, Bush is really, really pro-Israel and Israeli officials did airstrikes and a ground invasion now while they knew the U.S. wouldn’t object.

Don’t start to turn to Understanding Government for intelligent Middle East analysis. But this theory is a little implausible. If anything the attacks are determined more by the political calendar of Israel — which has elections in February — than America.

Also, there’s been zero indication that Obama — or his fellow Democrats– will be any less supportive of Israel or sympathetic toward Hamas. Senate Democratic leaders Harry Reid and Dick Durbin have backed Israel.  And if Barack Obama had strong opinions about the conflict — as he does about, say, a U.S. economic recovery plan — no one would stop him from speaking out. The sitting president may approve of the Israeli army, but it’s not like Bush has international credibility.-MB

 LESS THAN REVOLUTIONARY ROAD

The New York Times cheerleads today for federal cash to mass transit. Currently about 80 percent of the proceeds from the federal gas tax go to highways and bridges while only 20 percent is earmarked for buses, trains and other public transit. The Times speaks approvingly of beginning to correct this imbalance in the stimulus plan: Rep. Jim Oberstar, a Minnesota Democrat and chairman of the House transportation committee, has proposed $30 billion for highways and bridges and $12 billion for public transit.

But there’s a less clear plan for getting the Transportation Dept. on board. Transportation Secretary-designate Ray LaHood, a Republican from downstate Illinois, is not known for his mass transit advocacy. In fact, the Times editorial reminds me what an odd choice LaHood is for transportation secretary. Obama and Vice President-elect Joe Biden gave an undue amount of attention to the need for mass transit in the campaign, but the choice of LaHood indicates it may not be a pet issue after all.-MB

 TAX (CUT) AND SPEND LIBERAL

The Wall Street Journal’s Jonathan Weisman and Naftali Bendavid report that $300 billion in tax cuts will be part of Barack Obama’s economic stimulus plan. Many of the cuts would be tax credits for businesses that create jobs. Obama– who has estimated the overall plan to be around $775 billion over two years– meets with Congressional leaders today to talk about the proposal.

The Journal interviews a couple of people who say the tax cuts are generally reasonable on the merits. But Weisman and Bendavid frame the massive cuts as largely a political strategy to placate Republicans. Obama has backed away from his goal of persuading Congress to pass a plan by inauguration day. Now it looks like he’s trying to build broad support for a stimulus plan that Congress will approve before recessing Feb. 14. It looks like it might be a happy Valentine’s Day for Obama and Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell.-MB

 SEC AND FINRA POWERLESS AGAINST MADOFF WIZARDRY

Edward R. Murrow once said:  "The obscure we see eventually.  The completely obvious, it seems, takes longer."   Kara Scannell’s piece in the Wall Street Journal — about the inability of the SEC to uncover Madoff’s misdeeds — pulls out what seems like an obvious and major fumble by the SEC.   Usually, the SEC couldn’t get past Madoff’s obfuscations.  And whenever the agency confronted Madoff with something incontrovertible — like the fact that he was giving investment advice, which requires special registration and qualifications — he or his main investment channel, Fairfield Greenwich Group, simply agreed and did what the SEC told them to do.  But it turns out the SEC knew of one glaring irregularity in Madoff’s business from a "full-scale examination" of Madoff by Finra, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (a private entity the investment bankers set up to keep an eye on themselves) in 2007.  It turns out that "parts of Mr. Madoff’s firm had no customers."  A very odd finding brought out by Finra but left alone by the SEC, which drew only the bold conclusion that "we are uncertain of the basis for Finra’s conclusion in this regard."  Finra’s odd response?  "We don’t have access to that document."  Sorry — Finra wrote it but they don’t have access to it?  Sounds like something big — perhaps so big as to be patently obvious — was missed by the SEC. -NH

 THE ROBOT REVOLUTION IN AMERICA’S ARMY

John Pike writes in today’s Washington Post about a key factor in our willingness to use military force around the world:  the shrinking human cost in American lives and the growing distance Americans have from the blood and misery of the battlefield due to advanced technologies.  In describing America’s growing use of unmanned planes, tanks, helicopters, and probably submarines, Pike, a seasoned observer of the U.S. military with GlobalSecurity.org, points out that tomorrow’s army may be inhuman in every sense of the word:

Armed robots will all be snipers. Stone-cold killers, every one of them. They will aim with inhuman precision and fire without human hesitation. They will not need bonuses to enlist or housing for their families or expensive training ranges or retirement payments. Commanders will order them onto battlefields that would mean certain death for humans, knowing that the worst to come is a trip to the shop for repairs. The writing of condolence letters would become a lost art.

So would grappling with conscience about civilian deaths.  So would our understanding of the ravages of war.  With enough robots, it appears that the United States could really assure a Pax Americana.  A push towards IT as the heart of America’s war effort is the thrust of the Army’s Future Combat Systems website.  But a nation that can kill with no cost to its own soldiers will inexorably lose touch with the reasons it is killing and what it is fighting for.   The Bush Administration has hidden the body bags for five years, and the American people have been detached from the real impact of war on our own soldiers and, by extension, on those we have killed overseas.  When there are actually no body bags, but just what Pike calls "a trip to the shop for repairs," it will be that much easier to fight a war at the push of a button. -NH

 RULE OF LAW COMING TO IRAQ

A pretty amazing story: American soldiers in Iraq waiting for arrest warrants from Iraqi judges before detaining possible terror suspects.  Campbell Robertson of the New York Times reports from Baghdad about Americans anxious to detain people they know to be dangerous, and Iraqi police saying "’Why rush this?  Let’s get it right the first time so when we get this guy, let’s have enough to prosecute him.’"  It’s a refreshing thought as we approach the New Year and soon our sixth year in Iraq.  Maybe it is never too late to get something — let’s start with just one thing — right the first time. -NH

 GIMBY REPORTS: HIGH STAKES IN THE EMPIRE STATE

Ambitious Gas Drilling Projects Promise Revenue but Threaten Environment

By Jane Johnston

Newburgh, NY, December 30, 2008 – Ever heard of “fracking”? It could bring cash-strapped New York State revenue in the billions of dollars. It could also contaminate groundwater and aquifers with carcinogens and other toxins, pollute millions of gallons of water, and require New York City to build a water filtration plant at a cost of $10 billion. Read more »

 WASHINGTON POST REMEMBERS OSHA

It’s December 28, 2008.  In less than a month the Bush Administration will be history.  But its legacy will live on at federal agencies like the Occupational Health and Safety Administration.  R. Jeffrey Smith of the Washington Post delivers a smorgasbord of Bush-era misdeeds at OSHA:  political appointees pressuring career scientists to adopt industry’s "interpretations" on workplace chemical safety; senior OSHA staff resigning on principle; car mechanics who will breathe more asbestos fibers and dental hygienists who will breathe lung-cancer inducing metal particles — all this thanks to OSHA’s Bush-era managers.  There’s even a sleeping OSHA director, Edwin Foulke, Jr., who dozed at meetings but claimed he was "listen[ing] with his eyes closed."  But why did Smith and the Post wait to nail this story until the eve of 2009?  For example, Smith uncovers a shocking memo documenting industry pressure on OSHA scientists . . . from April 2002. -NH