I'm disappointed to see that Hillary Clinton has now come out against drivers licenses for the undocumented.

Her advisers think this will take the issue "off the table." I think it opens her up to new attacks in tomorrow night's debate for being inconsistent.

She said at the last debate she wasn't particularly familiar with the proposals. I assume she is now. That's what makes her statement so disappointing. I thought that with more information on the issue, she would have seen the wisdom of the plan.

Drug War Rant and Hit and Run pick up on John McCain's recent statements on a blogger conference call about medical marijuana. The question posed was:

"Should federal law supersede the will of the people in a given state when it comes to medical marijuana?"

McCain's answer:

McCain started chuckling. "The will of the people, my friend, is that medical marijuana is not something that the quote 'people' want," he responded. "Certain people feel strongly about this issue, and they show up at most town hall meetings, obviously feel very strongly about it. There is no convincing evidence...there's evidence, but no convincing evidence to me that medical marijuana relief of pain and suffering cannot be accomplished by prescriptions from doctors... So, when you're talking about the will of the people, you're going to have to show me the will of the people besides the will of a small number of people who feel very strongly about the issue, as obviously you do."

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A McCain aide points out the problem with Rudy, Kerik, Judith Regan, et. al.

"Obviously there are some very serious charges involved for a guy who was his protégé and one of his closest friends. And for Rudy to go out and say this is not worthy of discussion when it directly involves him and his decision making, and in the case of department of homeland security, the security of our country - it's disturbing that Rudy would think it's not something he is going to have to address. "

And a Romney aide says:

"Voters grow very weary of story after story after story having to do with public officials who have not adhered to higher ethical standards," said Madden. "Right now it is very important to Republican primary voters that we have a candidate who can draw a very clear contrast between a Republican nominee and Hillary Clinton. If you have a nominee who is distracted by this type of narrative, you lose the ability to contrast yourself with Hillary Clinton and past Clinton administrations. It cancels out any advantage you would have."

Grits for Breakfast takes issue with New York Times columnist Bob Herbert over "states' rights." Big Tent Democrat weighed in here with an opposing view.

I'm with Grits for Breakfast. When I think "states' rights" I think of the alternative, which has resulted in the mass federalization of state crimes. As Grits says:

I'm horrified by the abuse of the Interstate Commerce Clause to justify federal regulation in areas where it has no business, transforming what was intended to be a limited federal government into a nearly all-powerful one.

I consider the federal War on Drugs and the expansion of federal prisons, law enforcement and immigration detention a direct spite to the separation of federal and state powers articulated in the Constitution.

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If Lawrence Lessig is right about the willingness of Senator Barack Obama to stand up to the Beltway Establishment, then here is a chance for him to prove it. Joe Klein writes:

There [is] . . . less cause--to cut off funding for the war than there were last Spring. A renewed campaign on the part of the hapless Democratic leadership to cut off the supplemental funds will only increase the public sense of Democratic futility. . . . Too much time, and political capital, has been wasted fighting Bush legislatively on the war. . .

Prove something to those of us who want the Iraq Debacle ended Senator Obama. Prove Lessig right. LEAD the fight to end the Iraq Debacle NOW. In the Senate. Tell Joe Klein he is wrong.

Kos writes about Lawrence Lessig's endorsement of Senator Barack Obama and I think both Kos' reaction and Lessig's endorsement are troubling in that they ask next to nothing of Obama while being too willing to embrace the false Media narrative regarding Hillary Clinton. Lessig writes:

But the part that gets me the most about Senator Clinton is the eager embrace of spinelessness. I don't get this in Democrats generally. I never have, but I especially don't get it after two defeats to the likes of George Bush (ok, one defeat, but let's put that aside for the moment). Our party seems constitutionally wedded to the idea that you wage a campaign with tiny speech. Say as little as possible. Be as uncontroversial as you can. Embrace the chameleon as the mascot.

Kos reacts:

Yeah, that pretty much sums up the problem with Hillary.

Assume that is true. Is anyone pretending it does not describe Barack Obama? To endorse an endorsement of Obama that, in its core argument, is an attack on failings that Obama possesses is ludicrous.

If people want more from Hillary's challengers, and by extension, more from Hillary, they simply can not let the Hillary challengers off the hook. Here both Lessig (who as a longtime friend of Obama's is not someone I am really looking to for an objective view of the candidates) and Kos (whom I expect better from), give Obama a free ride. We get the candidates we settle for. Here Kos and Lessig have settled for an Obama who has demonstrated the very flaws they condemn. It makes no sense.

A sensitive manual on Guantanamo detainees has been leaked.

The 238-page document, "Camp Delta Standard Operating Procedures," is dated March 28, 2003. It is unclassified, but designated "For Official Use Only." It hit the web last Wednesday on Wikileaks.org.

What's Wikileaks?

The Pentagon has been resisting -- since October 2003 -- a Freedom of Information Act request from the American Civil Liberties Union seeking the very same document.

Anonymous open-government activists created Wikileaks in January, hoping to turn it into a clearinghouse for such disclosures. The site uses a Wikipedia-like system to enlist the public in authenticating and analyzing the documents it publishes.

As to the document itself, it's a layout of Camp Delta and its policies. The full, 237 page document is here.

[Hat tip to reader Scribe.]

Rudy Giuliani was asked today about Judith Regan's lawsuit against News Corp (details here) which alleges that Fox executives told her to lie to investigators and withhold documents about Bernie Kerik in order to protect Rudy's presidential aspirations. His response:

The candidate laughed when reporters asked for his response to one-time publishing powerhouse Judith Regan's $100 million lawsuit claiming that her former employers directed her to lie to federal investigators about Kerik because of the implications for Giuliani.

"I don't respond to the story at all. I don't know anything about it. And, it sounds to me like a kind of gossip column story more than a real story,"

That's Rudy, burying his head in the sand with an "I don't know anything about it." Will the press leave it at that?

Colorado Rep. and Republican presidential hopeful Tom Tancredo had only $110,000 in the bank at the end of the last reporting period. I think he's ready for his final bow and wants to go out with a bang.

The Denver Post reports on his new ad, which critics aptly call "fear mongering." It features a terrorist attack in a shopping mall.

Out in California, menu mapping is now is place. Law Prof Eric Muller has the details.

This month, reports have surfaced about two controversial counterterrorism initiatives in California. In one, Congressional Quarterly's national security editor reported that the FBI had mined data from San Francisco grocery stores to look for spikes in sales of Middle Eastern food that, together with other data, might imply the presence of extremists. In the other, the Los Angeles Police Department is using census and other demographic data to map Muslim communities in order to pinpoint the neighborhoods of potential extremists.

Eric calls it "tahini mapping" and explains why this is the repeat of a 60 year old mistake that will inflame communities and not make us any safer.

As for the LAPD's neighborhood mapping: [More...]

Bump and Update: Perhaps Spitzer should have reviewed the success of New Mexico in granting licenses to the undocumented before he pulled the plug.

In 2003, New Mexico began offering driver’s licenses and identification cards to undocumented immigrants....Before the change, New Mexico had the highest rate of uninsured motorists in the nation – one in every three drivers. Now, New Mexico’s uninsured motorist rate is 10.8 percent, well below the national average of 14 percent.

Many undocumented immigrants living in New Mexico drove before the law changed. Some caused accidents. Their status as uninsured motorists put a financial burden on drivers who were legal citizens and insured.....Licensing undocumented immigrants to drive allows them to obtain insurance and helps protect New Mexicans.

This also highlights the difference between Gov. Bill Richardson and Gov. Spitzer. Richardson has a backbone.

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Original Post

New York Governor Eliot Spitzer, who two weeks ago capitulated to the feds and weakened his drivers' license proposal for undocumented residents, has now bowed to public pressure and rescinded the plan entirely.

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He talks a good game.

"My job involves not only an oath, but also a pledge, which I now give you," Mukasey told the 110,000 Justice employees nationwide, some of whom watched on the department's internal TV system.

"And that is to use all of the strength of mind and body that I have to help you to continue to protect the freedom and the security of the people of this country, and their civil rights and liberties, through the neutral and evenhanded application of the Constitution and the laws enacted under it."

His announcement yesterday that security clearances were granted to continue the stalled OPR investigation into warrantless wiretapping was a good sign.

Mukasey has 14 months to repair the damage done to the Justice Department under Alberto Gonzales. While I don't think he'll be the President's errand boy, I'm also not getting my hopes up that he'll have the same definition of "civil rights and liberties" as the rest of us -- particularly when it comes to the "war on terror."

But, he's off to a good start.