Information Overload: April 24, 2009

[Chris]

States’ Rights: Montana Sovereignty Resolution Dies; Governor Signs 2nd Amendment Bill

The last couple of weeks have proven lively for the great State of Montana. On the one hand, HR3 effectively died in the State House:

A RESOLUTION OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE STATE OF MONTANA ARTICULATING THE RIGHTS OF THE STATE OF MONTANA AND OF THE SEVERAL STATES OF THE UNITED STATES.

(H) 2nd Reading Pass Motion Failed 04/22/2009 50 50   

The GreatFallsTribune has some coverage on HR3 here.  On the other hand, Montana is claiming its Second Amendment rights via HB246:

AN ACT EXEMPTING FROM FEDERAL REGULATION UNDER THE COMMERCE CLAUSE OF THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES A FIREARM, A FIREARM ACCESSORY, OR AMMUNITION MANUFACTURED AND RETAINED IN MONTANA; AND PROVIDING AN APPLICABILITY DATE.

(H) Signed by Governor 04/15/2009

Defense Department to Release Photos Showing Detainee Treatment in Iraq, Afghanistan

The Department of Defense -- on the heels of the firestorm over the release of Bush-era memos on CIA interrogation techniques -- said Thursday it plans to make public at least 44 photos depicting potentially abusive treatment of detainees at prisons in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The decision to release the photos was announced Thursday in a letter filed in a federal court in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union in 2004.

It sets a May 28 deadline for the Department of Defense to produce 21 images that the court in 2006 ordered the government to release and 23 additional related images, as well as "a substantial number of other images" in the Army's possession.

DHS picks new chief for intelligence office

The head of the Homeland Security agency responsible for a controversial report that suggested veterans were being recruited to commit terrorist acts in the U.S. is being replaced by a former FBI and CIA official.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced in a statement late Thursday afternoon that the White House intends to nominate Phillip Mudd as undersecretary for Intelligence and Analysis. Mr. Mudd is a 24-year career FBI official, who currently serves as the associate executive assistant director of the Bureau's national security branch.

He replaces Roger Mackin, who was appointed to the post in September by then-Secretary Michael Chertoff.

White House: No independent interrogations probe

WASHINGTON (AP) - The White House on Thursday said it did not support creation of an independent panel to investigate the Bush administration's harsh interrogations of terror suspects.

"Something like this would likely just become a political back-and-forth," presidential spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters. "We're all best suited looking forward."

Gibbs said the idea of an independent commission to look into the treatment of detainees in the early stages of the anti-terror war was discussed "in earnest" inside the White House about two weeks ago, as President Barack Obama and his aides were deciding whether to release a key set of Bush-era memos detailing brutal interrogation techniques used on some terror suspects and the legal justification behind them. The memos were declassified and made public by the Obama administration last week.

"The president determined that the concept didn't seem altogether that workable in this case," the spokesman said.

Pelosi: I didn't know about use of waterboarding

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is pushing back on GOP charges that she knew about waterboarding for years and did nothing.

Pelosi says she was briefed by Bush administration officials on the legal justification for using waterboarding — but that they never followed through on promises to inform her when they actually began using "enhanced" interrogation techniques

"In that or any other briefing…we were not, and I repeat, were not told that waterboarding or any of these other enhanced interrogation techniques were used. What they did tell us is that they had some legislative counsel ... opinions that they could be used," she told reporters today.

Jobs, housing data undermine recovery hopes

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Worse-than-expected news on unemployment and home sales Thursday dampened optimism that a broad economic recovery might be near.

Many analysts don't expect the housing slide to show signs of stabilizing until the second half of this year. They said layoffs may be at their high point, but that the jobless rate, already at a 25-year high, will keep rising until the middle of 2010.

The Labor Department reported Thursday that initial claims for unemployment compensation rose to a seasonally adjusted 640,000 last week, up from a revised 613,000 the previous week. That was slightly more than analysts' expectations of 635,000.

Meanwhile, the National Association of Realtors said sales of existing homes fell 3 percent in March to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.57 million units, with February revised down to 4.71 million units. Sales had been expected to fall to an annual rate of 4.7 million units, according to Thomson Reuters.