JP Sottile: It turns out that the world is not better off without Saddam. The Middle East is not better off. Most tragically, neither are the majority of the Iraqi people living in the lower two-thirds of that broken, obliterated nation.
As Senators Roast JPMorgan Chase, Are The Winds Shifting for Diamond Jamie?
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RJ Eskow: We’ve been saying for years that JPMorgan Chase is fundamentally a criminal enterprise, that “Obama’s favorite banker” Jamie Dimon is a fraud, and that “America’s best bank” is a nest of venality and criminality.
Financial Crisis Prosecutions Too Hard?
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Marian Wang: According to a now-departed Justice Department official who used to be in charge of investigating such matters, the Justice Department has decided that holding top Wall Street executives criminally accountable is too difficult a task.
Redefining Criminality: Untangling DHS’s Record High Deportation Numbers
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Michele Waslin: Because ICE categorizes criminal offenses so broadly, minor offenses can appear to be serious crimes. For example, drug-related crimes can include everything from dealing large amounts to simple possession;
A Dialogue Concerning Advocacy and Criminality
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Jonathan Farley: Why do campaigning organisations like the NAACP defend plain thugs but ignore genuine radicals?
Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren Demands Investigation into ICE’s Secure Communities Program
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Seth Hoy: This week, Rep. Lofgren called for an investigation into the actions of federal immigration officials whom she said lied about whether states and localities had the right to opt-out of the program.
Concerning Advocacy and Criminality
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Jonathan Farley: Why do campaigning organizations like the NAACP defend plain thugs but ignore genuine radicals?
Data Shows ICE Fails to Focus on Serious Crime
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Michele Waslin: 79% of the people deported through Secure Communities are non-criminals or were picked up for lower level offenses, such as traffic offenses.
Napolitano Announces Next Steps for Southwest Border
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Seth Hoy: Although Secretary Napolitano trumpeted DHS’s new border initiatives as well as past achievements, she also acknowledged that the border can never be hermetically sealed and that stalling immigration reform by highlighting border security issues is not the answer to our immigration problems.
A Lopsided Approach to Border Violence Doesn’t Solve Anything
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Seth Hoy: while advocating for the allocation of more money and manpower to “secure the border” may make for good campaigning in an election year, experts find that beefing up the border actually does little to curb border violence. In fact, these “get tough” border initiatives—more troops, fencing and operations that target non-violent border crossers—pull valuable resources away from solving violent crimes.
Physician Warns That Arizona Immigration Law Could Turn Doctors Into Criminals
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Andrea Nill: Lucas Restrepo, M.D., published a piece in the New England Journal of Medicine that provided a whole new angle on the effect SB-1070 will have on the medical profession. Restrepo points out that, under the law, health care providers who treat undocumented immigrants could be considered criminals.
When Does Border-First Become Border-Only?
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Seth Hoy: While President Obama and Gov. Brewer agreed that “federal inaction on a comprehensive immigration overhaul is unacceptable,” she has done nothing to substantiate that notion. Meanwhile, Gov. Brewer admits that crime is down in Arizona (as well as other border towns), even though she has repeatedly claimed that her state is “under siege” from border crime
Is Opting Out of the Secure Communities Program an Option?
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Michele Waslin: Given ICE’s stated intention to eventually install the system in all state and local detention facilities nationwide, and given the fact that DHS signs MOAs with the states, it is unclear how those local jurisdictions that want to opt out will be able to do so. Thus Secure Communities raises serious questions about the relationship between federal and local law-enforcement agencies, and about a local community’s ability to weigh in on important decisions affecting the entire community.
Sarah Palin Supports Arizona’s Law? You Betcha!
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Seth Hoy: After weeks of negative press, calls for boycotts, and talk of legal challenges to Arizona’s law, Gov. Brewer is on the defensive—as evidenced by trotting out Sarah Palin to launch a new website. For the most part, Palin used Arizona’s controversy as a soap box for her Tea Party talking points—Washington: broken, President: bad, Sarah: good.
ICE Slip Up Casts Serious Doubt on Immigration Enforcement Strategy
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Michele Waslin: Until we have comprehensive immigration reform, ICE is going to be saddled with an enormous list of targets, and many people watching to see how they’re going to tackle it. If they want big numbers, they can achieve big numbers. But that won’t make us any safer or make the system any better. In any case the Administration and ICE have to figure out what their enforcement strategy is, articulate it clearly and consistently, and resist the urge to change it on a dime to please “enforcement-only” types who will never support comprehensive reform.
British Iraq Inquiry Ours Too
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Joseph Palermo: What the United Kingdom is dealing with is the hangover of the crimes of George W. Bush, crimes that have been conveniently swept under the rug on this side of the pond. Blair was Bush’s poodle and now he finds himself in the hot seat defending the actions of his former master. Seeing a former Prime Minister grilled is a wonderful thing. We’d never see a U.S. president in a similar predicament because, ironically, the president is now more of a monarch than any executive in Britain.
Goldman Sachs’ $500 Million Mea Culpa
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This institution deserves the full force of anti-trust law deployed against it. Maybe in open court we’ll get a glimpse into the real workings of this unworthy amalgam of greed and arrogance.
Momentum Building For Bugliosi’s Case Against George W. Bush For Murder
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For Vincent Bugliosi, one of America ‘s foremost prosecutors and authors, George W. Bush’s purposeful crime of misleading America into war is a vile, despicable and prosecutable act. It angers Bugliosi deeply. So much so that he’s written a new book, The Prosecution Of George W. Bush For Murder. To be clear, this is not [...]
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Half Measures and Lukewarm “Reform” Won’t Save the Middle Class
The 30-year class war the rich launched against the working people in this country (and reached its apogee during the George W. Bush years), has left the middle class reeling and wounded. Only bold federal action that puts something concrete in the palms of middle-class Americans can begin to turn these dire social conditions around.