The GAO report is out on the program that deputizes state and local cops to work with feds to find and deport undocumented residents.

The report, prepared by the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, says the government has failed to determine how many of the thousands of people deported under the program were the kind of violent felons it was devised to root out.

Some law enforcement agencies had used the program to deport immigrants “who have committed minor crimes, such as carrying an open container of alcohol,” the report said, and at least four agencies referred minor traffic offenders for deportation.

The program received $54 million from Congress last year. Among the findings[More...]

I was wrong when I predicted that "the Roberts Court will disagree with the Vermont Supreme Court on the deference due the Bush FDA's pronouncements on conflict preemption and declare that, adhering to Chevron, it will reverse the Vermont Supreme Court in Levine. It's the Legal Realist in me." Today, the Supreme Court, by a 6-3 vote, ruled that FDA's labelling regulations do not preempt (PDF) state law tort claims:

Your turn.

This is an Open Thread.

You remember those 14 Senators who agreed:

Future Nominations. Signatories will exercise their responsibilities under the Advice and Consent Clause of the United States Constitution in good faith. Nominees should be filibustered only under extraordinary circumstances, and each signatory must use his or her own discretion and judgment in determining whether such circumstances exist.

(Emphasis supplied.) Among the Senators who agreed to this were John McCain, Lindsey Graham, Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe. The other day, these 4 Republican Senators reneged on this agreement. They signed this letter to President Obama:

Andrew Sullivan has no intellectual right to write these words about how the Beltway Establishment cowered before the Bush Administration:

[M]uch of official Washington carried on as normal - and those of us who actually stood up and opposed this were regarded as "hysterics". Something is rotten in a country where this can happen with such impunity - and when, even now, highly regarded and respected journalists and commentators simply move on or roll their eyes or sigh world-weary sighs.

Andrew Sullivan invented the New McCarthyism, as David Talbot demonstrated in 2001:

The NYTimes writes:

We were horrified to be reminded that the nation still has not plumbed the depths of the Bush administration’s abuses. At the same time, it was a relief to see President Obama beginning to make good on his promise of greater transparency.

But what of the Obama Administration's continued assertion of outlandish theories of Executive power regarding the "states secrets" privilege? As Glenn Greenwald wrote about the Obama Administration's brief (PDF) in the al Haramain case:

The brief filed by Obama on Friday afternoon has to be read to believed. It is literally arguing that no court has the power to order that classified documents be used in a judicial proceeding; instead, it is the President -- and the President alone -- who possesses that decision-making power under Article II, and no court order is binding on the President to the extent it purports to direct that such information be made available for use in a judicial proceeding.

More . . .

What's on your mind tonight?

Here's an open thread to tell us, all topics welcome.

Update 12:21 am: If I could be anyone tonight, who would it be? The girl who got to sing Karaoke with Jon Bon Jovi on Jimmy Fallon tonight. Talk about having a fantasy come true, that had to be it for her.

Via Michael Isikoff in Newsweek:

In the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, the Justice Department secretly gave the green light for the U.S. military to attack apartment buildings and office complexes inside the United States, deploy high-tech surveillance against U.S. citizens and potentially suspend First Amendment freedom-of-the-press rights in order to combat the terror threat...

The October 23, 2001 memo (from John Yoo to Alberto Gonzales and William Haynes)also said the 4th Amendment could be disregarded:

At another point, the memo advices: "Military action might encompass making arrests, seizing documents or other property, searching persons or places or keeping them under surveillance, intercepting electronic or wireless communications, setting up roadblocks, interviewing witnesses or searching for suspects."

Here's the memo (pdf.)

A pot sting by the DEA has had some dire consequences. The suspect, a 24 year old Canadian, hanged himself in his Spokane, WA. jail cell.

The DEA pretended to be a buyer and had Samuel Jackson Lindsay-Brown, previously unknown to law enforcement, fly 350 pounds of BC bud in by helicopter. As he was unloading it, they busted him. The helicopter turned out to have been reported stolen.

35 years of draconian drug offender sentencing may come to a halt in New York as the Assembly votes today on reforming the Rockefeller Drug Laws.

The New York State Assembly is set to vote today on legislation that would allow judges to send drug offenders to substance abuse treatment instead of prison. The legislation would also allow thousands of prisoners jailed for nonviolent drug offenses to have their sentences reduce or commuted.

It’s the latest step in a long campaign to repeal the draconian Rockefeller laws. The laws impose lengthy minimum sentences on drug offenders, even those with no prior convictions. The laws have disproportionately targeted people of color, while giving prosecutors de facto control over how long convicts are jailed.

The Albany Times Union says Just Say Yes to Drug Law Reform. Our post from last week on this is here.

I'm not seeing a lot of hard news today. In the other news department:

• The Pope has asked Italians to give up text messaging and Facebook for Lent.

• Rocky Mountain News reporters are still reporting via a blog, IwantmyRocky.com. And Congressman Jared Polis says bloggers killed the Rocky.

• Police in D.C. will hold a press conference at 1:15 pm today to announce the arrest in the Chandra Levy case.

This is an an open thread, all topics welcome.

Update: Shorter version: It was a complete trainwreck. Blogger Reality Steve had it right. Here's a pretty good recap of the finale. Show Host Chris Harrison tries to justify Jason's actions and how ABC decided to portray it.

***

Yes, I'm still following the twists and turns on ABC's The Bachelor and Jason Mesnick's seemingly never-ending search for a wife. And I'm still talking to Jesse Csincsak, my favorite contestant and the final, but not everlasting choice of Bachelorette Deanna Pappas last season. (My earlier interviews of Jesse are here and here.)

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