At $1 million a mile, you'd think it would take Spiderman or the Incredible Hulk to make it over Homeland Security's new border fence with Mexico. A terrorist job stealer should need the resources of the Impossible Mission Force to thwart such an expensive barrier.

Here's how "a group of ordinary Mexicans--one a grandmotherly woman, another a 10-year-old boy"--did it:

First they tossed their day packs over the 12-ft. (3.7 m) barrier of steel mesh. They had chosen to cross at a spot where the fence made a small right-angle jog, because there was a supporting post extending about halfway up the angle. This gave them a foothold, and from there, the strongest members of the group boosted the others to the top.

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Nancy Pelosi is a disgrace:

Tomorrow, we will be taking up the FISA bill. As you probably know, the bill has been filed. It is a balanced bill. I could argue it either way, not being a lawyer, but nonetheless, I could argue it either way. . . . [It] is again in Title II, an improvement over the Senate bill in that it empowers the District Court, not the FISA Court, to look into issues that relate to immunity. . . . So that will be legislation that we take up tomorrow. We will have a lively debate I'm sure within our caucus on this subject and in the Congress. It has bipartisan support. I commend Steny Hoyer for his important work on this legislation, working in a bipartisan way.

(Emphasis supplied.) What a dishonest statement. The bill "empowers" the District Court to rubber stamp the fact that the President asked the telecoms to break the law. And Pelosi is proud of this. What a disgrace.

Speaking for me only

Retired Army Maj. General Antonio Taguba, author of a report on the abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib, has accused the Bush administration of war crimes.

Writing the forward to a Physicians for Human Rights study of 11 former detainees who were apparently tortured by US military personnel and later released, Army Maj. General Antonio Taguba (Ret.) writes that "there is no longer any doubt as to whether the current administration has committed war crimes. The only question that remains to be answered is whether those who ordered the use of torture will be held to account."

Unfortunately, that question will likely be answered in the negative if it isn't ignored entirely.

Via mcjoan:

[Leahy]: I have said since the beginning of this debate that I would oppose a bill that did not provide accountability for this administration’s six years of illegal, warrantless wiretapping. This bill would dismiss ongoing cases against the telecommunications carriers that participated in that program without allowing a judicial review of the legality of the program.

[Feingold]: The proposed FISA deal is not a compromise; it is a capitulation. The House and Senate should not be taking up this bill, which effectively guarantees immunity for telecom companies alleged to have participated in the President’s illegal program, and which fails to protect the privacy of law-abiding Americans at home.

Obama: crickets . . .

Now that a couple of ex-sex offenders have won the lottery -- not a very newsworthy event, despite this coverage -- expect "outraged" legislators to pursue laws prohibiting ex-sex offenders from buying lottery tickets.

Barack Obama has a new ad airing in battleground states touting his family values. Here's the script:

"I'm Barack Obama. America is a country of strong families and strong values. My life's been blessed by both.

"I was raised by a single mom and my grandparents. We didn't have much money, but they taught me values straight from the Kansas heartland where they grew up. Accountability and self-reliance. Love of country. Working hard without making excuses. Treating your neighbor as you'd like to be treated. It's what guided me as I worked my way up — taking jobs and loans to make it through college.

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The Justice Department has been busy.

Former Bear Stearns Cos. hedge fund managers Ralph Cioffi and Matthew Tannin, arrested this morning at their homes in New Jersey and Manhattan, were indicted for mail fraud and conspiracy in the first prosecution stemming from a federal investigation of last year's mortgage-market collapse.

The two men were charged with misleading investors about the health of two Bear Stearns hedge funds whose implosion ignited the subprime mortgage crisis. Cioffi was also charged with insider trading in the indictment, which cites a series of e-mails between the two men. They face as much as 20 years in prison if convicted of the most serious charges.

It's part of the Justice Department's Operation Malicious Mortgage. In Chicago, there were 70 arrests. More than 400 have been indicted since March, with many more arrested:

Since March 1,406 people have been arrested in the sting dubbed "Operation Malicious Mortgage" that saw 144 cases across the country. Sixty people were arrested on Wednesday alone, including in Chicago, Miami, Houston and a dozen other regions policed by the FBI.

Atrios writes:

I'm quite happy for people to criticize Obama for failing to be whatever they want him to be, I'm just rather tired of the "I know you think/thought X but you are/were wrong!!!" construction. It'll be no shock to most of us if Obama is less than all we want him to be in many ways. Let's just hope he's more than we expect him to be in others.

(Emphasis supplied.) Personally, I think Obama will be what I expect him to be on policy - which makes me happy - as I think I agree with Obama on almost every issue. Most of my critique was about his political style - the post-partisan Unity Schtick. And frankly, Obama has completely abandoned it now. So I am largely satisfied. But he is a pol, and they do what they do. Today Glenn Greenwald wrote:

As Big Tent Democrat wrote earlier, the FISA compromise is a done deal. The text of the bill is here. The AP reports here. The ACLU responds:

“This bill allows for mass and untargeted surveillance of Americans’ communications. The court review is mere window-dressing – all the court would look at is the procedures for the year-long dragnet and not at the who, what and why of the spying. Even this superficial court review has a gaping loophole – ‘exigent’ circumstances can short cut even this perfunctory oversight since any delay in the onset of spying meets the test and by definition going to the court would cause at least a minimal pause. Worse yet, if the court denies an order for any reason, the government is allowed to continue surveillance throughout the appeals process, thereby rendering the role of the judiciary meaningless. In the end, there is no one to answer to; a court review without power is no court review at all.”

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Omar Khadr, arrested in Afghanistan at age 15 and who has now spent 1/4 of his life at Guantanamo Bay, was given a trial date today of October 8. He faces life in prison.

Omar is a Canadian citizen and a "child of jihad." The Canadian press has been providing excellent coverage of his case. All of our coverage is accessible here.

Omar should be turned over to an international tribunal. He was a child at the time of his capture making him protected by the Geneva Convention on the Rights of the Child. Amnesty International has a full report here.

Via mcjoan, CQ reports:

Hoyer has a done deal, according to CQ.com (sub. req.):

A final deal has been reached on a rewrite of electronic surveillance rules and will be announced Thursday, two congressional aides said. The aides said the House is likely to take up the legislation Friday.... One source said the federal district court deciding on retroactive immunity would review whether there was "substantial evidence" the companies had received assurances from the government that the administration’s program was legal.

Who to call:

Call Barack Obama and urge him to make a public statement reiterating his opposition to telco amnesty. His opposition could kill this deal: Phone (202) 224-2854, Fax (202) 228-4260 Call Steny Hoyer and tell him this is a bad deal: Phone (202) 225-4131, Fax (202) 225-4300 Call Nancy Pelosi and urge her to pull the bill from the House schedule: Phone (202) 225-4965, Fax (202) 225-8259

Criminal defendants cannot be forced to stand trial unless they are competent. In simple terms, that means the defendant must have sufficient cognitive ability to understand the basic proceedings (which usually means understanding "the judge decides things, my lawyer is here to help me, the other lawyer isn't" etc.) and to assist in the defense. The standard isn't high.

Defendants also have the right to represent themselves if they are competent to do so. A vexing question has been whether any defendant who is competent to stand trial is also competent to represent himself, or whether some additional degree of competence is required to permit self-representation.

The Supreme Court answered that question (pdf) today in a 7-2 decison: