In Other News, the Sky is Blue

Gee, after a long history of blatantly political censorship in its reviews, the CIA is finally investigating its publications review board:

The CIA has begun an internal investigation into whether a process designed to screen books by former employees and protect national security secrets is being used in part to censor agency critics, U.S. officials said.

The investigation coincides with the publication of a flurry of books from CIA veterans, and it is largely aimed at determining whether some redactions have been politically motivated.

Among the publications expected to get particular scrutiny is a memoir by the former head of the CIA’s clandestine service, Jose A. Rodriguez Jr., who used his book, “Hard Measures: How Aggressive CIA Actions After 9/11 Saved American Lives,” to mount a vigorous defense of interrogation methods that were widely condemned but that he asserts provided critical intelligence about al-Qaeda.

The target of the probe is the agency’s Publications Review Board. The PRB evaluates hundreds of submissions each year and is supposed to focus exclusively on whether publication of material would threaten national security interests.

The CIA declined to comment on the internal investigation or to answer questions about the composition and practices of the PRB.

U.S. officials familiar with the inquiry, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that it reflects growing concern in the intelligence community that the review process is biased toward agency loyalists, particularly those from the executive ranks.

Gee, you think?

This process has been corrupt and self serving for at least a decade.

It's Bank Failure Time

No bank failures this week, so the count remains at 24, (my bad, I missed the closing of the Alabama Trust Bank, National Association [#24] on May 18) but we did have the 5th credit union failure of the year, Telesis Community Credit Union​.

The pace has definitely slowed.

Full FDIC list.

Full NCUA list.

So, here is the graph pr0n with last years numbers for comparison (FDIC only):

Bummer of a Birthmark, George

Bummer of a birth mark

George Zimmerman's bail has been revoked because the judge has determined that he lied about his finances at the bail hearing:

A Florida judge on Friday revoked the bond of George Zimmerman, who has been charged with second-degree murder in the shooting of Trayvon Martin, after state prosecutors argued that Mr. Zimmerman, with the help of his wife, had misled the court about his finances.

During an afternoon hearing in Sanford, Fla., a Seminole County Circuit Court judge, Kenneth R. Lester Jr., ordered Mr. Zimmerman, 28, a former neighborhood watch volunteer who himself aspired to be a judge, to surrender to authorities within 48 hours.

Judge Lester made his ruling shortly after an assistant state attorney, Bernardo de la Rionda, asserted that Mr. Zimmerman and his wife, Shellie, during a bail hearing on April 20, had “lied” and “were very deceptive” about assets available to them. That hearing cleared the way for Mr. Zimmerman’s release from jail on $150,000 bond. He had to put up 10 percent, or $15,000, to make bail.

The judge determined that Mr. Zimmerman, who has been in hiding because of concerns about his safety, had engaged in “material falsehoods.” At issue is the roughly $200,000 Mr. Zimmerman raised through a legal defense Web site, money that Mr. Zimmerman’s lawyer, Mark M. O’Mara, said he learned of several days after the bond hearing.

So, now in addition to going back to jail, the judge has just called him a liar.

His defense team has to be throwing a fit right now.

If I Ever Direct a Pr0n Movie, I now Have a Title

Some headline writer is soooooo fired.

Link.

H/t DC at the Stellar Parthenon BBS.

Some Good News From the Texas Primary

Silvestres Reyes was defeated in the Tuesday primary by El Paso City Councelman Beta O’Rourke.

The district is overhwelmingly Democratic, so it means that O'Rourke is pretty much a shoe in for the general.

Why is this good news? Because Reyes was aggressively pro-drug war and pro drone, to the point of lobbying for drone stikes in Mexico, and O'Rourke supports Marijuana legalization.

It's a big deal, and it shows that, as the NORML blog notes, the war on drugs is no longer the winning issue that it used to be.

Seen on Facebook

The source is Progressive Libertarianism/

Great Googly Moogly

The latest monthly jobs report is out, and is sucks wet farts from dead pigeons. Only 68,000 new jobs were created, the March and April numbers were revised down to 78K, the unemployment rate (U-3) went up by a a tenth of a point to 8.2% (U-6 rose by .3% to 14.8%), and long term unemployment rose.

Note that while the private sectors payroll was a "Meh" +87K, but government payrolls fell by 19,000.

So, while we American governmental entities aren't going austerity crazy like the Brits, we are kind of slow walking austerity. (Something that Obama's campaign seems to be bragging about)

The Institute for Supply Management's latest manufacturing index is headed in the wrong direction as well.

But at least we're not Yurp which sucks a lot worseworse, with Euro zone unemployment climing to 11%. (Thanks Angela)