Yesterday, at the corruption trial of contractor Brent Wilkes in California, the Government closed its case with testimony from two prostitutes who testified about their activities with Wilkes and former Congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham.

A prostitute whom prosecutors say a defense contractor provided to former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham testified Wednesday that the congressman fed her grapes as she sat naked in a hot tub before they headed to a bedroom at a Hawaiian resort.

....Donna Rosetta said she was chauffeured to a private villa at the Hapuna Beach Prince Hotel in Kamelua, Hawaii, in August 2003 by an escort service she worked for. Cunningham and Wilkes invited her and a second woman to undress and slide into a hot tub before Cunningham invited her upstairs, Rosetta said. "They were smoking cigars and talking about some meeting they had earlier," Rosetta said. She and Cunningham went to a bedroom, and he tipped her $50 to $80, she said.

The other woman, Tammy McFadden, testified that Wilkes and Cunningham appeared to be arguing about who would go upstairs with which woman. "The one I ended up with was the one who was running the show," said McFadden, referring to Wilkes. She described Cunningham as "the boisterous one" and said he was overbearing.

I hear Wilkes' lawyer didn't even cross-examine at least one of the women. Probably, of more concern to him was the testimony of Wilkes' nephew, Joel Combs, who found the hookers and described for the jury how Wilkes used free trips and other inducements to get close to Cunningham.

More...

Murray Waas has a new article at HuffPo about Alberto Gonzales receiving information about subordinates at the Justice Department during the NSA leak probe and its impropriety, given that he himself was a subject of the various probes and these same employees might be called to testify against him.

Senior federal law enforcement privately question the propriety of Gonzales receiving such sensitive information about subordinates being scrutinized in one inquiry when those same individuals were likely to be witnesses about alleged misconduct by Gonzales for the other investigations.

This is a long article that covers a lot of ground, I recommend reading all of it.

There is a passage in today's WaPo article on the Senate capitulation on FISA that demonstrates how little Democrats understand of the power of the Congress to do nothing:

An adroit Republican parliamentary maneuver ultimately sank the bill. GOP leaders offered a motion that would have sent it back to the House intelligence and Judiciary committees with a requirement that they add language specifying that nothing in the measure would apply to surveilling the communications of bin Laden, al-Qaeda or other foreign terrorist organizations.

Approval of the motion would have restarted the legislative process, effectively killing the measure by delay. Democratic leaders scrambled to persuade their members to oppose it, but with Republicans accusing Democrats of being weak on terrorism, a "no" vote proved too hard to sell, and so the bill was pulled from the floor.

Stacey Bernards, a spokeswoman for House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.), called the Republican maneuver "a cheap shot, totally political."

Caroline Fredrickson, director of the Washington legislative office of the American Civil Liberties Union, called it a "perfect storm" of progressive Democrats who did not think the bill protected basic constitutional rights and of Republicans who took advantage of the lack of unity. "It was too precipitous a process, and it ended up in a train wreck," she said. "It was total meltdown."

I see while I was out today President Bush made the statement:

If Iran had a nuclear weapon, it'd be a dangerous threat to world peace," Bush said. "So I told people that if you're interested in avoiding World War III, it seems like you ought to be interested" in ensuring Iran not gain the capacity to develop such weapons. "I take the threat of Iran with a nuclear weapon very seriously," he said.

In the mail today, I received an unsolicited advance copy of the book released Tuesday, Deception: Pakistan, the United States and the Secret Trade in Nuclear Weapons by Adrian Levy and Catherine Scott-Clark.

From the inside jacket:

In Utah, the judge in the Warren Jeff's polygamy trial has ordered a reporter to write a public service article or be held in contempt of court.

The backdrop: Reporter Katie Baker was a reporter covering the Warren Jeffs trial. She was new to covering trials and didn't know the Judge had entered an order prohibiting reporters from interviewing prospective jurors. Baker interviewed a female potential juror outside the courthouse and the tv station she worked for aired it that night. (The tv station did know about the rule but the regular managing editor was not working on the Jeffs case that day.)

So, is the judge's order proper? First Amendment lawyer guru Floyd Abrams has his doubts and calls the order "extraordinary."

"The notion that a judge can either compel a journalist to write a story, or sit in judgment on a story to determine if it sufficiently serves the public interest, is extremely disturbing," Abrams said in an interview from New York.

"It puts the judge in a classic role of censor," he said. "The judge is deciding whether the story is worthy or not - not even if it's true but whether it's worthy."

The tv station says its reviewing its options.

Bump and Update: Here's the hearing transcript (pdf.)

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The House Judiciary Committee held a hearing yesterday about the Jena 6 case.

Al Sharpton again called for more hate-crime laws. That's not the issue. Nor is the issue whether the "noose incident" justified the beating of a white student.

The issue is whether the Jena 6 defendants were treated more harshly because they are black.

That question still begs an answer.

The Pentagon is calling up 8 national guard troops, telling them to prepare for departure to Iraq and Afghanistan in July. Seven troops will go to Iraq and one to Afghanistan. Two of the units will be "full combat brigades."

July? We should be out of Iraq by then, not sending more troops.

The vote on the Democrats' proposed changes to FISA was delayed today.

Consideration of the Democratic-crafted measure to strengthen oversight by a special intelligence court was halted by Democratic leaders amid uncertainty about whether it could pass, and in the face of a veto threat from President Bush.

What it means: The Dems may not be able to pass a bill that revises and limits the powers included in Bush's August bill they allowed to pass right under our noses.

Inability of Democrats to achieve a vote in the House this week raises additional questions about its fate.

Any bill the House approves would have to be reconciled with a Senate version, with additional changes likely in that process.

So all those promises by the Dems telling us they voted for Bush's bill because they'd have a chance to redo it? Looks less likely now. Which means Bush's bill stays.

Think Progress has more.

Update: Thanks, everyone. So many of you contributed and included kind words about the site. It's much appreciated, and I'll be sending individual thank you emails to all this weekend.

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It's only 10:00 a.m. here so I mean this tongue in cheek, but I could use a drink.

Now that my taxes are done and filed, I see that I spent $6,000.00 on TalkLeft last year in design, troubleshooting, hosting and subscription fees.

No reader has contributed to the site since July. Not one of the groups, tv networks or news magazines which send me mass emails every day advocating their causes and shows has ever sent a dime.

So, how about buying me that drink? My favorites are Conundrum white wine, Grand Marnier, Patron tequilla and Ketel One vodka. In a decent establishment, that's about $10.

Here's how, it's very easy. If you don't like paypal (which takes credit cards if you don't have a paypal account) feel free to pull a five or ten out of your pocket and send it snail mail.

If you'd like to buy me a double or a bottle, I accept. If you'd like to do it anonymously, here's the Amazon link.

And if you don't want to contribute to my drinking, let me know and I'll put your money towards TalkLeft or another worthwhile expense.

Cheers!

The police in Scranton, PA apparently have so little crime to address that they've taken to citing people who use bad language in their own homes.

"It doesn't make any sense. I was in my house. It's not like I was outside or drunk," [Dawn] Herb told The Times-Tribune of Scranton. "The toilet was overflowing and leaking down into the kitchen and I was yelling (for my daughter) to get the mop." Herb does not recall exactly what she said, but she admitted letting more than a few bad words fly near an open bathroom window Thursday night.

Would the police have bothered with this if the neighbor who called to complain hadn't been an off-duty cop?

The Senate Judiciary Committee is holding its confirmation hearing this morning on Michael Mukasey's nomination for Attorney General.

There's very little suspense involved as there is no real opposition to him.

If you're interested in the hearing, you can watch it on C-Span. Here's the Committee webpage with the witness list. There's a panel with Chuck Schumer and Joe Lieberman and another with former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District, Mary Jo White. That ought to be enough to tell you its a shoe-in.

Connecticut's prisons are a tinder box, overflowed to the point where disaster is sure to strike.

The problem is exacerbated because the Governor, in response to a gruesome killing by two parolees this summer, ordered parole suspended for violent offenders, a class that includes home burglars.

Cubicles built for four are crammed with eight inmates, and enclosed areas known as dollhouses where inmates once played cards and wrote letters now hold 14 bunk beds. The corridors are lined with more beds. Each large room at the Willard-Cybulski Correctional Institution once had 50 beds and now has 118.

A member of the prison guards' union says: