Speaking of police officers who find it easier to lie than to conduct honest investigations:

Oakland intends to fire 11 police officers for allegedly lying to obtain search warrants in drug cases, officials said Thursday. ... At least 12 [suspects] have already had their cases dismissed because warrants that police used to obtain evidence were obtained on the basis of lies by officers, according to attorneys involved in the cases.

It's so much easier to invent crimes than it is to solve them honestly.

Two undercover narcotics officers have been charged with lying about a sting operation in Queens after one of the men they accused of selling drugs produced video evidence showing the officers had had no contact with him or three other men they arrested.

The officers allegedly bought cocaine from two men but claimed they bought it from six, resulting in the arrests of four innocent men.

It's bad enough that the police conduct sting operations -- often creating crimes that wouldn't have happened but for the sting. How lazy does an officer have to be to arrest four innocent people when it's so easy to find actual drug dealers willing to sell their product? And what ever happened to good old fashioned police work: investigating and sometimes solving actual crimes that actually occurred? [more ...]

. . . of the list of worst Presidential approval ratings ever for an outgoing President:

President Bush prepares to leave office with no evidence that public opinion toward him is softening during his final days in power, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll. When asked about Mr. Bush’s performance over the last eight years, 22 percent of respondents said they approved. That matched Mr. Bush’s job-approval rating for much of last fall, the lowest of his presidency. In the current poll, 73 percent disapproved of his performance over the course of his two terms.

In contrast, Mr. Bush’s most recent predecessors left office with approval ratings ranging from 68 percent, for both Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton, to 44 percent, for Jimmy Carter. Mr. Bush’s father left with 54 percent.

You did a heck of a job Bushie.

Speaking for me only

Busy day. What's going on?

This is an Open Thread.

While the Beltway wants the torture policy of the Bush Administration swept under the rug and forgotten, Bush Administration officials are working at cross purposes with their Media enablers. Outgoing CIA chief Michael Hayden yesterday said:

"These techniques worked," Hayden said of the agency's interrogation program during a farewell session with reporters who cover the CIA. "One needs to be very careful" about eliminating CIA authorities, he said, because "if you create barriers to doing things . . . there's no wink, no nod, no secret handshake. We won't do it."

(Emphasis supplied.) Since the goal of some of us is that they don't do it, Hayden is telling you what we must do -- investigate and remove any chance of misconstrued winks, nods and secret handshakes. More . . .

You've probably read the claims by the Defense Department that 61 of the released Guantanamo detainees have returned to terrorism.

Not so, says a new report from the Seton Hall Law School's Center for Policy and Research (and Law Prof Mark Denbeaux and attorney Joshua Denbeaux). The Denbaux' have previously authored compelling reports on the detainees and represented a few of them.

The Seton Hall Center for Policy and Research has issued a report which rebuts and debunks the most recent claim by the Department of Defense (DOD) that “61 in all former Guantanamo detainees are confirmed or suspected of returning to the fight.”

Professor Denbeaux of the Center for Policy & Research has said that the Center has determined that “DOD has issued “recidivism” numbers 43 times, and each time they have been wrong—this last time the most egregiously so.”

[More...]

Glenn Greenwald discussed this yesterday, but today's NYTimes story on the FISC appellate court's ruling on the Protect America Act demonstrates that even on the second day - even two of the better reporters on the best newspaper in the country are incapable of getting the story right. Indeed, perhaps in reaction to criticism leveled at one of them yesterday, the reporters seem to have gone out of their way to find quotables who support their erroneous reporting of the subject:

“It provides a very good result; it reaffirms the president’s right to conduct warrantless searches,” said David Rivkin, a Washington lawyer who has served in Republican administrations.

Of course this is not what the decision did. The decision affirmed that the Congress was not barred by the Fourth Amendment from passing laws that authorize the President to engage in:

Radley Balko outlines the collateral damage from the War on Drugs in a new article at Culture 11.

Prohibition militarizes police, enriches our enemies, undermines our laws, and condemns our sick to suffering.

There's also the enormous economic cost of prosecution and imprisonment and, as Radley points out: [More...]

What is there left to say? Worst President in history.

Bush gave his "farewell address" tonight and I suppose it would be the time to be gracious but let's face it, the man deserves no grace.

Say your piece about Bush here.

Update (TL): David Corn on what Bush left out of his speech.

The big news today is that Gator star Percy Harvin is going to the NFL.

Ok, the big news for ME is that Percy Harvin is leaving the Gators for the NFL. I expected it and thought it was a no brainer. Gator linebacker Brandon Spikes decided to come back for his senior year with Gator QB Tim Tebow.

In less interesting news, Roland Burris was sworn in today.

For those not fascinated by Gators goings-on, this is an Open Thread.

NYTimes:

A USAirways plane that took off at 3:26 p.m. from La Guardia Airport landed in the Hudson River five minutes later, where it remains mostly submerged. Ferries and other boats converged to help with a rescue effort, as the plane drifted south. There was no immediate information about the 151 people on board.

According to Channel 4 television news, the plane, US Airways flight 1549, took off from LaGuardia Airport at 3:26 p.m. was bound for Charlotte, N.C. and had 146 passengers and 5 crew members. The plane, which made it to a height of 3,600 feet, may have hit a flock of birds, according to the report, and then plummeted. The pilot tried to return to the airport when the plane fell into the Hudson.

[Update (TL): video removed, link no longer worked.]

As discussed earlier, the FISC appellate court issued a decision today on the constitutionality of the Bush Administration's application of the Protect America Act. The panel was composed of Bruce Selya of the First Circuit, and Senior Judges Ralph Winter of the Second Circuit and Richard Arnold of the Eighth Circuit. The panel does not pass on any actions by the Bush Administration prior to the enactment of the PAA. To wit, the panel states that this is an "as applied" challenge to the Bush Administration's application of the PAA. More after I read the opinion.