Hillary Clinton released this video today, thanking her supporters and saying she still needs help. If you'd like to help her retire her campaign debt -- which doesn't include the money she lent to her campaign as she views that as her own investment -- go to HillaryClinton.com

Update: Hillary has $26 million in her general campaign account that can't be used for the primary. Those who contributed to it can be asked to re-designate their contributions to Obama's general campaign or perhaps to her Senate re-election campaign, but that's not clear. [More...]

Big Tent Democrat earlier wrote a post about an article that appeared somewhere today on PUMA supporters. He noted he is not a PUMA supporter.

I do not write about PUMA and will not write about PUMA. Why? Let me make it perfectly clear. TalkLeft is not a PUMA site. With Hillary Clinton no longer seeking the nomination, TalkLeft supports Barack Obama as the Democratic nominee for the presidency. PUMA as a movement is irrelevant to me.

Naturally, BTD's post brought out the worst in the comments. Which unfortunately makes it necessary for me to restate yet again what is acceptable and unacceptable commenting here. [More...]

Of all the strange defenses to the FISA capitulation, I find the one Kevin Drum uses here one of the strangest:

Like everyone else in the liberal blogosphere, I think retroactive immunity is a bad idea that sets a bad precedent, but as I've mentioned before, this isn't a hill I'm willing to die defending.

Where did the idea that fighting against granting amnesty to AT&T was political suicide come from? Hell, there is no hill to defend here politically. Indeed, the Democrats, and Obama especially, have caused themselves unnecessary political grief with this craven act. Of course, I happen to think it is a principle worth fighting for anyway, but where in Gawd's name is Kevin Drum getting the idea that stopping amnesty for Big Telco is a political loser? Kevin is making that up. It may not be a political plus, I think it is, but it surely is not a political minus, much less political suicide.

Speaking for me only.

On May 20, 2008, Sabin Willit, a corporate lawyer from Boston who represents Huzaifa Parhat, the Uighur detainee whose designation as an "enemy combatant" was reversed Friday by the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, testified before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Subcommittee on International Organizations, Human Rights and Oversight. From his testimony:

One of my clients is Huzaifa Parhat. He’s never been charged with anything. He never will be. In fact, he’s been cleared for release for years. Two weeks ago he began his seventh year at Guantanamo.

....Huzaifa lives in a place called Camp Six. My information, which dates from March, is that all the Uighurs but one are kept there. The men call it the dungeon above the ground. Each lives alone in an isolation cell. There is no natural light or air. There is no way to tell whether it is day or night. Outside the cell is a noisy bedlam of banging doors and the indistinct shouts of desperate men crouching at door cracks. A mad-house. Inside the cell, nothing.

More....

Huzaifa Parhat is a Chinese Muslim, one of many Uighurs held at Guantanamo. (Background here.)

Parhat and the other Uighurs from Western China have been at Gitmo since 2002. In 2004, the Bush Administration acknowledged most were innocent of wrongdoing but insisted that because they could not go back to China without fear of persecution, and since no other country would take them, it had the right to continue to detain them.

Parhat was one of the Uighurs that the Pentagon refused to release. Friday, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled he is not an enemy combatant and may seek his freedom.

Parhat is the first detainee to have his "enemy combatant" designation overturned. [More...]

The Supreme Court ruled today that the right to a lawyer begins when a defendant if first brought before a magistrate or judge after arrest, even if prosecutors were not involved in the arrest or court appearance. The Court expressly rejects the "prosecutorial awareness" test. The case is Rothgery v. Gillespie County, No. 07-0440. The opinion is here (pdf).

The court ruled 8-1 Monday in favor of Walter Rothgery, whose request for a lawyer was denied by local Texas authorities for six months. Rothgery was arrested in Texas for carrying a gun as a convicted felon, based on a background check that erroneously showed a felony drug conviction in California.

A lawyer would have quickly shown that the report of the previous conviction was mistaken, which would have eliminated the reason for the arrest in the first place.

The issue for the Court was, "Whether the Sixth Amendment right to counsel attaches to defendants brought before a magistrate and jailed pending posting of bond if prosecutors were not involved in the arrest or court appearance."[More...]

As someone whose vote and support for Barack Obama for President in this election is unshakeable (I know what John McCain is and I want no part of a John McCain Presidency), I am decidedly NOT a fan of the PUMA movement. Indeed, I oppose it. But I was outraged by the behavior of the Media and the blogs towards Hillary Clinton and I will not soon forget what they did. John Cole, whose tin ear on the issues of sexism and misogyny is pretty well established, thinks that the PUMAs will not like this Rebecca Traister article. Since I am not a PUMA, I can not say for sure, but I know I liked these parts of the article:

Glenn Greenwald again:

The defining beliefs of this [New Republic capitulation] Syndrome are depressingly familiar, and incomparably destructive: Anything other than tiny, marginal opposition to the Right's agenda is un-Serious and radical. Objections to the demolition of core constitutional protections is shrill and hysterical. Protests against lawbreaking by our high government officials and corporations are disrespectful and disruptive. Challenging the Right's national security premises is too scary and politically costly.

[MORE]

Comedian George Carlin has died of heart failure at age 71. Here he is talking about death.

The New York Times wrote this extensive profile of him in 2004. Ann Althouse has an extensive group of clips and thoughts. The Nation has more, including his political views. Huffington Post has this interview with Carlin in March on blogs and political tv news. He told Tim Russet in 2004 he hadn't voted since McGovern.

Update: More history from the AP here.

R.I.P. George Carlin.

NYTimes:

Mr. Obama is running as a reformer who is seeking to reduce the influence of special interests. But like any other politician, he has powerful constituencies that help shape his views. And when it comes to domestic ethanol, almost all of which is made from corn, he also has advisers and prominent supporters with close ties to the industry at a time when energy policy is a point of sharp contrast between the parties and their presidential candidates.

I do not write this as a rebuke, but as a reality check. Pols are pols and do what they do.

By Big Tent Democrat, speaking for me only

Manhattan's District Attorney, Robert Morgenthau, took some heat in an election contest for apparently prosecuting the wrong men for the 1990 shooting of a bouncer outside the Palladium nightclub. He asssigned Daniel Bibb to reexamine the case. Bibb reported that "the two imprisoned men were not guilty, and that their convictions should be dropped." Yet Bibb was told to defend their convictions in the face of strong evidence that the men were innocent. Was Morgenthau unwilling to concede a serious mistake for fear that voters might punish him?

Remarkably, Bibb admits that he defied his bosses and threw the case when the defendants asked for a new trial.

He tracked down hard-to-find or reluctant witnesses who pointed to other suspects and prepared them to testify for the defense. He talked strategy with defense lawyers. And when they veered from his coaching, he cornered them in the hallway and corrected them. “I did the best I could,” he said. “To lose.”

Bibb got his wish, and both men are free today. Bibb resigned in 2006. [more ...]

Is Bob Barr the new Ralph Nader?

A fiery former GOP congressman who gained national prominence for doggedly pursuing impeachment of President Clinton has some Republicans worried he'll play spoiler in a tight presidential contest.

Bob Barr's Libertarian Party bid for the White House is the longest of long shots, but political experts say he may be able to exploit the unease some die-hard conservatives still feel about Sen. John McCain, the Republican nominee-in-waiting. Combined with the surge in turnout among Democrats during the primaries and a difficult political climate for Republicans, they see what could be a recipe for trouble for the GOP.

"Bob could be the Ralph Nader of 2008," said Dan Schnur, a GOP consultant in California who worked on McCain's 2000 campaign but is not involved in this year's contest.

George Bush is the greater spoiler for Republicans in 2008, but any damage Barr can do to the Republican cause is welcome. Here are some memorable Barr moments, in addition to leading the impeachment fight: