The big news coming down the pike is President Obama's intention to halve the deficit by the end of his first term:

After a string of costly bailout and stimulus measures, President Obama will set a goal this week to cut the annual deficit at least in half by the end of his term, administration officials said. The reduction would come in large part through Iraq troop withdrawals and higher taxes on the wealthy.

This is pretty obvious framing I think. Obama will allow Bush's irresponsible and ineffective tax cuts for the wealthy lapse and, preempting GOP charges of "tax and spend" - Obama seeks to label it deficit reduction. Of course the GOP will NOT go along, but that's not the point. Obama is trying to make opposition to allowing the lapse of the Bush tax cuts on the wealthy be seen as irresponsible. We'll see what the Pete Peterson brigade has to say about it. I expect silence from the "cut entitlements" cabal, whose only concern is when government tries to help the non-wealthy.

Speaking for me only

The Obama Administration has advised a federal judge that it agrees with former President Bush's position that detainees at the U.S. military prison in Bagram, Afghanistan have no right to challenge their confinement in U.S. Courts.

Last year, the US Supreme Court gave suspects held at the US Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the right to challenge their detention.
Following that ruling, petitions were filed at a Washington district court on behalf of four detainees at Bagram.

The judge then gave the new administration an opportunity to refine the rules on appeals. In a two-sentence filing, justice department lawyers said the new administration had decided not to change the government's position.

[More...]

In the fox guarding the hen house department: A report on Guantanamo President Obama requested on his second day in office has been completed.

A Pentagon report requested by President Obama on the conditions at the Guantánamo Bay detention center concluded that the prison complies with the humane-treatment requirements of the Geneva Conventions.

The report is by Adm. Patrick M. Walsh, the vice chief of naval operations.

In related news, Attorney General Eric Holder is setting up a task force to review the cases of the 245 detainees still held at Gitmo. Here's who's on it: [More...]

The AP reports Robert Levy, in discussing the imminent arrest of a suspect in the murder of his daughter Chandra Levy, says:

Robert Levy said he and his wife, Susan, were not told the identity of the person to be arrested "but we all know who it is." He would not elaborate but said they would favor a life sentence for the killer.

"If someone is executed, they really don't suffer too much," he said.

Here are some other reasons, in their own words, family members of other murder victims have for opposing the death penalty.

[Note to the AP: The man about to be arrested may or may not be the killer of Chandra. While it's apparent that Mr. Levy would oppose the death penalty for whoever the killer is, this article can be read to imply the suspect is the killer. Future editions should make that clear.]

What's on your mind today? I'm making my way through thousands of pages of discovery, and later, once the snow has melted, going out to do some jail visits.

I see an arrest is imminent in the Chandra Levy case.

All topics welcome here.

Leonard Cohen played Manhattan last night -- his first U.S. concert in 15 years. He's 74 years old. I love so many of his songs, particularly Democracy (clip above), Everybody Knows and Closing Time.

The New York Times gave him a great review: [More...]

In response to some, in my view, unfortunate remarks by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Amnesty International levelled some harsh but appropriate criticism:

[Secretary] Clinton said the United States would continue to press China on long-standing US concerns over human rights such as its rule over Tibet. "But our pressing on those issues can't interfere on the global economic crisis, the global climate change crisis and the security crisis," Clinton told reporters in Seoul just before leaving for Beijing.

More . . .

While I personally support President Obama's Afghanistan policy, I accept that reasonable minds can disagree on this complex and difficult issue. I thus endorse Meteor Blades' view that we must avoid:

a kind of rebranding . . . to separate "reasonable progressives" from "the crazies."

This was the type of New McCarthyism that Andrew Sullivan popularized earlier this decade. We must reject such an offensive and harmful approach out of hand.

Speaking for me only

The two child actors in Slum Dog Millionaire are en route to Hollywood where they will appear at the Oscars and on the Red Carpet Sunday.

Check out this BBC video interview with them today and watch the squalor that exists in the Mumbai slums.

Slumdog is a shoe-in for Best Picture. Nate Silver of FiveThirtyEight.com has put his political skills to the Oscars and comes up with these predictions.

Sgt Michael Leahy Jr, a 28 year old army medic, was found guilty of the murder of four Iraqis at a courts-martial trial in Germany today. He faces up to life in prison and a dishonorable discharge.

Leahy was one of a group of soldiers who took detainees away after it was decided there was not enough evidence to charge them. Blindfolded and gagged, the four were then shot and dumped in a canal.

Leahy admitted killing one of the Iraqis. His lawyer's argument:

His lawyers argued that the stress of being in a conflict zone for so long meant he was unable to reason properly. ...His lawyer, Frank Spinner, argued that Leahy went along with the killings because he was dazed from a lack of sleep.

"The tragedy resulted not so much by design but rather the working of fear, danger and madness attendant on many combat operations," Mr Spinner said in his closing arguments.

Good news for Barry Bonds today: The UA's and doping calendars won't be allowed at trial.

U.S. District Judge Susan Illston said the urine samples that tested positive for steroids are inadmissible because prosecutors cannot prove conclusively that they belong to Bonds. The judge also barred prosecutors from showing jurors so-called doping calendars that Bonds' personal trainer, Greg Anderson, allegedly maintained for the slugger.

The judge said prosecutors need direct testimony from Anderson to introduce such evidence. Anderson's attorney said the trainer will refuse to testify at Bonds' trial even though he is likely to be sent to prison on contempt of court charges.

What's changed since the Stimulus bill came along? Stocks have sunk even lower. The Dow Jones Industrial Average today sank to a level not seen since October, 2002.

Worst of all, analysts say today's drop means it's going to go even lower. [More...]