Scotus Blog reports:

The Supreme Court agreed on Monday to spell out when an individual engaged in “laundering” of crime proceeds has illegally concealed their real source — in effect, what it means to “launder” money. The issue arises in Cuellar v. U.S. (06-1456). This was the only case granted Monday. Click the following links to read the petition for certiorari, brief in opposition, reply brief, and amicus brief on behalf of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.

The question:

Christy at Firedoglake has all the update details, phone numbers and more on FISA and S-CHIP.

Roll Call (subscriber only) reports the GOP is spoiling for a FISA fight, hoping to distract attention from S-CHIP. The Carpetbagger Report has this quote from the Roll Call article:

Specifically, Republicans are planning to use the kidnapping and subsequent murder of three U.S. soldiers in Iraq earlier this year to put a “human face” on the issue, the House staffer explained. According to this aide, while Democrats’ arguments about privacy may resonate with some voters, Republicans believe using real-world examples of how a weak FISA has put U.S. troops in danger will help galvanize public support for their position.

The She-Pundit with long blonde hair digs herself into a deeper hole with her comments on the Donny Deutsch show last week about the need for Jews to be "perfected." Via Media Matters, she later appeared on a broadcast of Steve Malzberg's WOR (New York) radio show. You can listen here:

On Malzberg's show, Coulter defended her remarks by saying that she had "stated the ... doctrine of Christianity," and that the idea that Christians "want Jews to be perfected" "comes from that raging anti-Semite St. Paul." She added: "I don't think most Jews are as stupid as Donny Deutsch," and later asked, referring to Deutsch, "Is that guy even bar mitzvahed?"

More...

I saw the new George Clooney movie, Michael Clayton, yesterday. I'm not much of a movie reviewer, since I have a hard time writing without spoilers, but I will say: Yes, go see it. It's very suspenseful. Clooney is better than terrific as the law firm's "fixer" cleaning up the messes of its big clients. Sydney Pollack is great as the head of the law firm.

The movie opens with the present, then goes back to the past to explain which was both helpful and added to the suspense.

Some of the casting choices struck me as odd. Others were dislikeable (like the Westchester couple whose whiny scene went on too long. The point was made in the first two minutes.) I can think of many different actors I would have preferred to have seen in the supporting roles.

A few of the scenes were improbable to me. But, it's fiction. My favorite parts were the scenes with the real criminal fixers and the ones with the kid who plays Clooney's young son.

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On November 1, the Sentencing Guidelines for crack cocaine will drop two levels. Not enough to make up for the outrageous disparity between crack and powder guidelines, but a good start.

The remaining question is whether the guideline change will be retroactive and apply to the 19,500 previously sentenced defendants.

The Commission will hold a public hearing on November 13 (pdf.) Sentencing Law and Policy has the details.

Good news in the federal sentencing department. Guideline changes set to take effect November 1 unless Congress acts to ban them include a provision giving judges greater discretion in granting compassionate release for dying prisoners.

A safety-valve provision for compassionate release for the dying is in the original sentencing law but it hasn't been effective.

But advocates for inmates say the way the statute is actually carried out is anything but compassionate. Few terminally ill inmates are approved for release, and the bureaucracy is such that even when people are approved, they often die before they get out. The advocates also contend that prison officials have misconstrued the original intent of Congress and interpreted the grounds for release much too narrowly.

Now, in a departure from the tough sentencing policies that it has legislated for more than two decades, Congress is poised to allow guidelines to go into effect starting Nov. 1 that would give federal judges much greater power to release federal inmates.

More....

Due to a recruiting shortfall, President Bush has loosened restrictions on "character waivers" allowing military recruiters to sign up those with drug convictions on their records.

But he doesn't want these same kids to go to college and continues to support the Higher Education Act that since 1998, has prevented 200,000 students with drug convictions, including minor marijuana offenses, from obtaining student aid.

Check out the video at Drug War Draft by Students for a Sensible Drug Policy and send a message to Congress which is reconsidering the law.

If you're one of the many who can't get a scholarship because of a drug conviction, SSDP has a link to alternative available scholarships.

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"Declare victory and get out." - Senator George Aiken (R-VT) on the Vietnam war.

WaPo:

The U.S. military believes it has dealt devastating and perhaps irreversible blows to al-Qaeda in Iraq in recent months, leading some generals to advocate a declaration of victory over the group, which the Bush administration has long described as the most lethal U.S. adversary in Iraq. But as the White House and its military commanders plan the next phase of the war, other officials have cautioned against taking what they see as a premature step that could create strategic and political difficulties for the United States. Such a declaration could fuel criticism that the Iraq conflict has become a civil war in which U.S. combat forces should not be involved.

Umm, I am beginning to suspect these folks do not want us to leave Iraq. . . .

Blogger and Law Prof Eric Muller (Is that Legal?) has a new book out, "American Inquisition: The Hunt for Japanese American Disloyalty in World War II." It's an account of the secret inner mechanisms of racism within the episode we call the Japanese American internment of World War II.

He'll be blogging about the book all week, including a discussion of "how the government went about gathering the information on which it would rely for its loyalty inquests."

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Graeme Frost two weeks ago gave the Democrat's response to the President's radio address. You will remember that his family is middle class, and he had public health insurance that saved his family from financial ruin after he and his sister were grievously injured in a car wreck, both needing physical therapy. But, the Neo-con attack dogs immediately and shamelessly Swiftboated him.

I cannot say it better than Paul Krugman did in Sliming Graeme Frost in the NY Times.  Countdown has video here.

On Monday evening, Master Frost will be on Countdown.

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The ACLU has obtained a new set of documents showing the military's expanded role since the passage of the Patriot Act in obtaining national security letters.

New documents uncovered as a result of an American Civil Liberties Union and New York Civil Liberties Union lawsuit reveal that the Department of Defense secretly issued hundreds of national security letters (NSLs) to obtain private and sensitive records of people within the United States without court approval. A comprehensive analysis of 455 NSLs issued after 9/11 shows that the Defense Department seems to have collaborated with the FBI to circumvent the law, may have overstepped its legal authority to obtain financial and credit records, provided misleading information to Congress, and silenced NSL recipients from speaking out about the records requests, according to the ACLU.

The new documents are available here. Many are blacked out (redacted.) The documents include e-mail correspondence between DOD officials responding to the disclosure of the NSL's in the New York Times. I've extracted one e-mail here (pdf).

Also extracted:

• DOD memo (pdf)on its authority to issue NSL letters apart from the FBI
• DOD Guidance (pdf)on obtaining information from financial institutions

More:

Joe Klein on FISA circa February 2006:

People like me who favor this program don't yet know enough about it [Bush Domestic Surveillance program] yet," he says, "Those opposed to it know even less- and certainly less than I do." -Joe Klein

WaPo Editorial today:

There is one major area of disagreement between the administration and House Democrats where we think the administration has the better of the argument: the question of whether telecommunications companies that provided information to the government without court orders should be given retroactive immunity from being sued. House Democrats are understandably reluctant to grant that wholesale protection without understanding exactly what conduct they are shielding, and the administration has balked at providing such information. But the telecommunications providers seem to us to have been acting as patriotic corporate citizens in a difficult and uncharted environment.

Fred Hiatt seems to be saying he does not know much about the facts surrounding the telecoms' actions but he knows more about it than the Congress. Which begs the question, how come Fred Hiatt knows more about it than the Congress?

Update [2007-10-14 10:19:28 by Big Tent Democrat]: Glenn Greenwald provides a substantive non-snarky takedown.