Barack Obama has an oped today criticizing Hillary Clinton for her vote for the Kyl-Lieberman Amendment which designated Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps a terrorist organization.

Obama today also penned an op-ed in The Manchester Union-Leader warning that Congress -- including, notably, rival Hillary Clinton -- has given Bush the pretense to invade Iran by approving a recent Senate amendment. "When you give this president a blank check, you can't be surprised when he cashes it," Obama writes. "I strongly differ with Sen. Hillary Clinton, who was the only Democratic presidential candidate to support this reckless amendment."

But Obama didn't vote against the Amendment, which was a non-binding resolution. He didn't show for the vote. His supporter, Sen. Dick Durbin, voted for the Amendment also. (Roll call vote here.)

If Obama so strongly opposed the Amendment, why didn't he show up, argue against it and cast a "no" vote, instead of staying on the campaign trail?

More....

So now we know why CNN got the Frost family story wrong. They were taking dictation frpm the GOP:

On Monday morning, Don Stewart sent an email with the following text to reporters:

Seen the latest blogswarm? Apparently, there’s more to the story on the kid (Graeme Frost) that did the Dems’ radio response on SCHIP. . . . Could the Dems really have done that bad of a job vetting this family?

CNN dutifully regurgitated this line:

A CNN political analyst then placed the blame squarely on the Democrats’ shoulders: “I think in this instance what happened was the Democrats didn’t do as much of a vetting as they could have done on this young man . . .

Maybe CNN should be worried about its own vetting thank you very much. It is clear that they counted on the GOP to do the vetting for them.

The ACLU of Colorado has threatened to sue a Colorado school district for its practice of searching student cellphone text messages, according to its press release issued yesterday:

According to the ACLU's letter [to the school district], the searching and transcribing of students' text messages violates a Colorado statute that was enacted to protect the privacy of telephone and electronic communications. That statute makes it a felony to read, copy, or record a telephone or electronic communication without the consent of the sender or receiver. The letter also explains that searches of cell phones at Monarch High School also violate state and federal constitutional provisions that forbid unreasonable searches and seizures.

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Glenn Greenwald takes apart Joe Klein on the FISA Amendment:

. . . [M]anifestly, Klein also has no idea what he is talking about when he claims the administration is engaged in "data mining." The excuse that the administration's violations of FISA were necessitated by "data mining" programs has even been expressly rejected by both Gen. Hayden . . . and Mike McConnell . . . If Klein really does know what the NSA is doing -- rather than throwing around the phrase "data mining" because it seems complicated and smart -- then he ought to write about it, since that would be a major scoop.

Of course he does not know what he is talking about Glenn, but, as he was in February 2006, he is SURE he knows more about it than you:

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

Come on Glenn, you got to keep up . . .

Steve Benen catches CNN doing what it does best, getting a story wrong:

[T]here was CNN this morning, blaming Democrats for this fiasco.

CNN’s John Roberts reported: “Some of the accusations [against the Frosts] may be exaggerated or false. But did the Democrats make a tactical error in holding up Graeme as their poster child?” . . .

This was CNN’s first and only coverage of the right-wing smear — and it was breathtakingly stupid.

. . . [W]e know, and CNN should know, that the attacks on the Frost family are false. CNN reported that the accusations “may be exaggerated.” One wonders what more proof the network needs.

The Media really is terrible.

Los Angeles may finally have ended its war against the homeless. LA's police officers were routinely arresting the homeless for sleeping on sidewalks, despite the lack of sufficient shelters and the city's closure of parks at night, leaving the homeless with no choice but to forgo sleep. A federal court concluded that the practice violated the Constitution by punishing people for being homeless.

The city reached a settlement yesterday with the ACLU of Southern California, resolving a lawsuit filed on behalf of homeless people who were illegally arrested.

[T]he city will allow sleeping on sidewalks from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. People will not be able to bed down within 10 feet of the entrance of a building, parking lot or loading dock. The policy will remain in effect until Los Angeles builds 1,250 units of low-cost housing with services for homeless people, with half of the units in and around the downtown area.

The settlement won't solve the problem of homelessness in LA, and the city's belief that the units will be completed in three years, with half the cost to come from nonprofit organizations and developers, will likely prove to be unduly optimistic. It is at least a productive step, particularly if the police honor the settlement's promise to stop harassing homeless people who just want to get a few hours of sleep.

Similar unwarranted arrests of the homeless in New York City are discussed here and here.

The Center for Constitutional Rights has sued Blackwater on behalf of an injured survivor and three families of men killed when Blackwater contractors allegedly opened fire on innocent Iraqis in Nisoor Square in Baghdad on Sept. 16. The case is Estate of Himoud Saed Atban, et al. v. Blackwater USA, et al. (C.A. No. 07-1831.) A copy of the complaint is here(pdf).

Filed in Washington, D.C. federal court by Talib Mutlaq Deewan and the estates of the deceased men – Himoud Saed Atban, Usama Fadhil Abbass, and Oday Ismail Ibraheem – the lawsuit alleges that Blackwater and its affiliated companies violated U.S. law and “created and fostered a culture of lawlessness amongst its employees, encouraging them to act in the company’s financial interests at the expense of innocent human life.”

The complaint alleges that Blackwater violated the federal Alien Tort Statute in committing extrajudicial killing and war crimes, and that Blackwater should be liable for claims of assault and battery, wrongful death, intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress, and negligent hiring, training and supervision.

Both compensatory and punitive damages are being sought.

As always, I speak only for me.

When Nancy Pelosi says:

"We have to make responsible decisions in the Congress that are not driven by the dissatisfaction of anybody who wants the war to end tomorrow," Pelosi told the gathering at the Sofitel, arranged by the Christian Science Monitor. Though crediting activists for their "passion," Pelosi called it "a waste of time" for them to target Democrats. "They are advocates," she said. "We are leaders."

It captures virtually no attention from the Left blogs. Instead we get this:

Former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has lawyered up. His lawyer is George Terwilliger, one of the top contenders named as a replacement for Gonzales. Terwilliger provided legal advice to Bush in the 2000 election recount case and served as Deputy AG under Bush I.

Newsweek reports Gonzales' chief concern is DOJ Inspector General Glenn Fine's investigation into the U.S. Attorney firings, the Ashcroft hospital visit over the NSA warrantless wiretapping program and whether Gonzales lied to Congress in his testimony about either or both.

One former administration official close to Gonzales’s team (who, like others interviewed for this story, requested anonymity in talking about an ongoing probe) said the former attorney general is concerned that Fine may end up making a criminal referral to the Public Integrity Section of the Justice Department—or even seek the appointment of a special counsel to determine if Gonzales made false statements to Congress.

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The House Judiciary Committee today passed the RESTORE Act, the Democrats' answer to August's FISA rewrite. There were three amendments that passed as well.

• Jackson-Lee (TX): An amendment to clarify the bill's language and prevent "reverse targeting" by requiring the Administration to obtain a regular FISA warrant whenever a “significant purpose of an acquisition is to acquire the communications of a specific person reasonably believed to be located in the United States” rather than waiting until said person formally becomes a target.

• Nadler (NY): An amendment to improve court oversight over the government’s compliance with the FISA Court’s orders by requiring the court to assess compliance with its orders as opposed to merely authorizing it to do so and by removing limitations on its review.

More....

Twenty Texas lawyers have filed a formal judicial complaint against Presiding Judge Sharon Keller for closing the courthouse at 5:00 pm the day of a scheduled execution. (Background here.)

The complaint to the State Commission on Judicial Conduct says Keller improperly cut off appeals that led to the execution of Michael Richard on Sept. 25 despite the fact the U.S. Supreme Court earlier in the day had accepted a case on the propriety of lethal injection, which had direct implications for Richard's execution.

"Judge Keller's actions denied Michael Richard two constitutional rights, access to the courts and due process, which led to his execution," the complaint states. "Her actions also brought the integrity of the Texas judiciary and of her court into disrepute and was a source of scandal to the citizens of the state."

Jim Harrington of the Texas Civil Rights Project which is representing the lawyers, says:

Keller's actions were "morally callous, shocking and unconscionable for an appellate judge."

I've missed a few big stories making the rounds of the blogosphere today, so here's a place for you to discuss them, or anything else that's on your mind.

• The S-Chip debate and blogospheric dust-up over the Frost Family. If you're new to the story, check out this New York Times and this Baltimore Sun article. Then read Ezra Klein here and here.

• Christy at Firedoglake on FISA News and Obfuscations

And stories not making the rounds:

• Qwest former CEO Joe Nacchio filed his appeal brief today in his bid to overturn his insider trading conviction. I've uploaded it here (pdf) and am about to read it before heading to Boulder for the rest of the day.

• Real Lawyers Have Blogs has an interview with me on lawyering and blogging and the future direction of TalkLeft should a Democrat be elected in 2008.