justice dept.

Who said “telecom immunity?”
With the economy in the tank and Washington distracted by gazillion-dollar industry bailouts, it seems like forever since that buzz-phrase — ubiquitous earlier in the year — was uttered in this town.
You recall the issue: The White House wanted not only expanded powers to spy on Americans without court oversight, but also [...]

Murray Waas reports for the Atlantic that George W. Bush told Alberto Gonzales to make the now-infamous March 2004 hospital bed visit to John Ashcroft to convince the attorney general to sign off on a secret domestic surveillance program.

At our sister site, The Michigan Messenger, Eartha Jane Melzer has an eye-opening piece about what could be the Republican Party’s plans to target its latest swing-state voter suppression efforts at those who have lost their homes to foreclosure.
The chairman of the Republican Party in Macomb County, Mich., a key swing county in a [...]