The Innocence Project released an 84 page report today showing that under the Bush Administration, the Department of Justice failed to enforce federal forensic oversight requirements. The report lays out corrective measures for the Obama Administration.

A report released today by the Innocence Project shows that nearly five years after Congress passed legislation to ensure that forensic negligence and misconduct are properly investigated, the law is largely being ignored due to a lack of federal guidance and, as a result, serious problems in crime labs and other forensic facilities nationwide have not been addressed.

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Provisions of the Patriot Act will be coming up for renewal in December. The ACLU has been busy meeting with members of Congress and compiling data. Today they released a new report, "Reclaiming Patriotism" which catalogs the abuses during the past eight years. The report is available here (pdf.)

From the gagging of our nation’s librarians under the national security letter statute to the gutting of time-honored surveillance laws, the Patriot Act has been disastrous for Americans’ rights,” said Caroline Fredrickson, Director of the ACLU Washington Legislative Office. “In the panic following the events of 9/11, our nation’s lawmakers hastily expanded the government’s authority to a dangerous level and opened a Pandora’s box of surveillance.”

Check out their new site, Reform the Patriot Act. [More...]

It's official. President Barack Obama, as reported weeks ago, will name Seattle police chief R. Gil Kerlikowski to the position of Drug Czar. But...

The administration will remove the job's Cabinet designation -- reversing an elevation of the office under President George W. Bush -- although one senior official said that Kerlikowske would have "full access and a direct line to the president and the vice president."

And this should be no surprise:

The source also noted that Vice President Biden was instrumental in the creation of the Office of National Drug Control Policy and would continue to be an outspoken advocate on the issue.

Yesterday I wrote about the details of the Bernard Madoff non-plea agreement in which he pleads straight up to all 11 counts against him and receives no sentencing concession, no promises about non-prosecution of family members and no agreement that the Government's continuing investigation won't affect his wife and other family members' assets.

He's 70 years old. Even if he gets a 25 year sentence with good time, he's likely to die in prison. He's not going to a minimum security camp. So why is he pleading guilty? Are there secret agreements we don't know about?

It's customary in a death case for lawyers agree to a deal where the client gets life. For some, life without parole is preferable to death. I may not agree, but I can understand it.

But this? He's pleading guilty to a sentence of up to 150 years. The Government says it's no longer bound by its earlier promise at the time of the bond hearing not to take $70 plus million assets in the name of his wife. The Wall St. Journal now reports that prosecutors say the investigation is continuing and her ability to keep her assets depends on what they find.

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In describing a view that is often excoriated as "anti-semitic," Glenn Greenwald writes:

[T]here are powerful domestic political forces in the U.S. which enforce Israel-centric orthodoxies and make it politically impossible to question America's blind loyalty to Israel. . . . In the U.S., you can advocate torture, illegal spying, and completely optional though murderous wars and be appointed to the highest positions. But you can't, apparently, criticize Israeli actions too much or question whether America's blind support for Israel should be re-examined.

Of course there are such "powerful domestic political forces" (as for Glenn's characterization of such policy as "blind loyalty," to me that is beside the point for this discussion.) And there is such a "powerful domestic political force" on Cuba policy. And agricultural policy. And so on. That is politics. These are "political forces" after all. That is the way it works. And that is not a bad thing. More . . .

The New York Civil Liberties Union today released a report on the draconian Rockefeller drug laws.

The report – The Rockefeller Drug Laws: Unjust, Irrational, Ineffective – presents overwhelming evidence that New York’s mandatory minimum drug-sentencing scheme has failed to improve public safety or deter drug use. It documents the grave harm the drug laws cause to low-income communities of color, and it calls on lawmakers to adopt a public health approach to addressing substance abuse.

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An interesting defense actually:

The notion that President Obama has lurched to the left since his inauguration and is governing as an unreconstructed liberal is bunk. . . . [T]he Obama Justice Department backstopped the Bush Justice Department's assertion of the state secrets privilege to block lawsuits challenging wiretapping and extraordinary rendition. The administration argued that prisoners in Afghanistan cannot challenge their detention in court. It leaned on the British government to keep evidence of alleged torture secret. "Hope is flickering," lamented Anthony Romero, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union.

She does sort of call him a socialist on economic matters but salves the charge by saying it is what he promised during the campaign.

Speaking for me only

We may have stumbled on to a strategy for the financial crisis:

As public outrage swells over the rapidly growing cost of bailing out financial institutions, the Obama administration and lawmakers are attaching more and more strings to rescue funds. . . . Some bankers say the conditions have become so onerous that they want to return the bailout money. The list includes small banks like the TCF Financial Corporation of Wayzata, Minn., and Iberia Bank of Lafayette, La., as well as giants like Goldman Sachs and Wells Fargo.

Good. These banks should only take government money if they absolutely have to. If they have other options, exercise them. That's why I do not like the reaction from this anonymous (naturally) Treasury official:

Now that Citi and the financial industry are "good investments", another way to look at the current situation is as a "buying opportunity" for the US government. I am largely being facetious here, but here is one description of what the "Oracle from Omaha" said about bank stocks:

In a voice vote following cloture, the Senate this afternoon passed the $410 billion Omnibus Appropriations Bill. President Obama says he will sign the bill. Via Senator Chris Dodd on Twitter:

The voice vote followed the roll call cloture vote, passing 62-35. Since final passage would be identical, voice vote is sufficient

The legislation keeps the Government running until September 30, 2009. Then what?

Details of Bernard Madoff's expected guilty plea emerged today when he appeared in court for a hearing to waive any conflict of interest his lawyer might have from past representation of other clients.

Madoff will plead straight-up -- no plea agreement-- to 11 charges in the Criminal Information.

“There is no plea agreement,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Marc Litt said at the hearing, meaning Madoff must plead guilty to 11 counts that he now faces in a criminal information filed today.

Madoff is charged with securities fraud, investment adviser fraud, mail fraud, wire fraud, three counts of money laundering, false statements, perjury, false filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and theft from an employee benefit plan, Litt said.

The Government filed a letter with the Court today outlining its sentencing guideline calculations. (Available on PACER) [More....]

Not surprising:

The U.S. Treasury Department has promised opponents of changes to U.S.-Cuba policy that are tucked into a giant spending bill that some of the most controversial provisions will result in little change. The Senate was expected to vote later Tuesday on a $410 billion spending bill that contains provisions that would make trade and travel to Cuba easier. But letters from Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has assured the lawmakers who helped block the bill last week that few of the provisions will actually change U.S.-Cuba policy.

(Emphasis supplied.) It was always window dressing. By the way, watch on agriculture subsidy cuts in the 2010 budget - they won't survive either. The squeaky wheel gets the grease, and the pork too.

Speaking for me only