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.

More...

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.”

More...

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:

In direct contradiction to recent Q and ARG polling, Ras sez McCain by 8 in Florida, and the off shore drilling issue does not hurt McCain:

The Florida survey also found that McCain currently leads Obama in the state by a 47% to 39% margin. Six percent (6%) said they would vote for some other candidate while 8% are undecided. However, after voters were told that McCain favored offshore drilling and Obama opposed it, McCain’s lead increased to eleven points, 49% to 38%. While a three-point net gain is not stunning, it is significant that the issue didn’t push voters towards Obama. All of McCain’s gains on the offshore drilling issue came from male voters.

Who is right? To be honest, this seems more in line with my feel for the state of the race in Florida.

By Big Tent Democrat

The Bush administration is finally getting what it wanted from the invasion of Iraq:

Exxon Mobil, Shell, Total and BP — the original partners in the Iraq Petroleum Company — along with Chevron and a number of smaller oil companies, are in talks with Iraq’s Oil Ministry for no-bid contracts to service Iraq’s largest fields, according to ministry officials, oil company officials and an American diplomat.

The deals, expected to be announced on June 30, will lay the foundation for the first commercial work for the major companies in Iraq since the American invasion, and open a new and potentially lucrative country for their operations.

But remember, it's not about oil. The war is about WMD ... no, it's about making Iraq stable ... no, it's about spreading democracy ... ummmm ...

It's good to know that the uniformed defenders of our liberty are doing their best for their clients at Guantanamo. And their best is awfully good.

When President Bush announced plans for military commission trials in 2001, critics said military defense lawyers would not put up much of a fight on behalf of men labeled terrorists. “They wanted us to just be good little boys,” one of the lawyers, Maj. Michael D. Mori of the Marines, once told an interviewer.

But nearly seven years later, not one trial has been held, partly because the military defense lawyers have raised a continuous ruckus, challenging the commission system rather than simply defending their clients.

Raising a ruckus is exactly what defense lawyers need to do when confronted with injustice. Listen to Lt. Cmdr. William Kuebler:

Good move. I think he should have announced it during the primaries as he will now get some tough media coverage for this decision when he would have gotten a free ride when he was running against Hillary Clinton.

UPDATE - Please note that I am not a believer in the current public campaign finance system as it exists. Universal public financing with much larger amounts is the only viable solution. I also believe Obama's "no lobbyist money" talk is complete nonsense. So, sorry if my lack of outrage offends.

By Big Tent Democrat, speaking for me only

Sen. Barack Obama today named his National Security team and delivered a prepared speech on the war on terror and Guantanamo. I'm disappointed with it.

Three examples:

There are terrorists who are determined to kill as many Americans as they can. The world’s most dangerous weapons risk falling into the wrong hands. And that is why the single greatest priority of my presidency will be doing anything and everything that I can to keep the American people safe. (my emphasis.)

If you were hoping universal health care or creating more jobs or reducing our country's reliance on incarceration would be his greatest priority, this is a letdown.

On Afghanistan: [More...]