Update: TPM has the transcript.

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Kevin Drum is angry over Hillary's comments on torture. I'm not. Hillary was very clear she opposed torture last year.

From her comments then:

The rule of law cannot be compromised. We must stand for the rule of law before the world, especially when we are under stress and under threat. We must show that we uphold our most profound values.

The bill before us allows the admission into evidence of statements derived through cruel, inhuman and degrading interrogation. That sets a dangerous precedent that will endanger our own men and women in uniform overseas. Will our enemies be less likely to surrender? Will informants be less likely to come forward? Will our soldiers be more likely to face torture if captured? Will the information we obtain be less reliable? These are the questions we should be asking. And based on what we know about warfare from listening to those who have fought for our country, the answers do not support this bill. As Lieutenant John F. Kimmons, the Army's Deputy Chief of Staff for Intelligence said, "No good intelligence is going to come from abusive interrogation practices."

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Update: The GAO report is here (pdf). Committee Chairman Miller's opening statement at today's hearing is here.

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The GAO has completed its report on abuse at teen "boot camps." It's not a pretty picture.

The first federal inquiry into boot camps and wilderness programs for troubled teens cataloged 1,619 incidents of abuse in 33 states in 2005, a congressional investigation out today reveals.

The study, by the Government Accountability Office, also looked at a sample of 10 deaths since 1990 and found untrained staff, inadequate food or reckless operations were factors. In half of those cases, the teens died of dehydration or heat exhaustion, the GAO says.

A few of the problems: A lack of regulations for the programs and no central clearinghouse for reporting abuse complaints. A Congressional hearing on "Cases of Child Neglect and Abuse at Private Residential Treatment Facilities" is being held this morning by the House Committee on Education and Labor.

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I think this lawsuit is over the top.

A one year old falls in the family pool. The family calls 911.

The child, Joey Cosmillo, fell into the family pool in January. He was resuscitated but suffered brain damage and can't walk, talk or swallow. He lives in a nursing home and eats and breathes through tubes.

A cop responds to the 911 call and slips and falls due to a puddle of water inside the home.

Police Sgt. Andrea Eichhorn alleges the boy's family left a puddle of water on the floor, causing her fall during the rescue effort. She broke her knee and missed two months of work.

Eichhorn's attorney, David Heil, said she now has persistent knee pain and will likely develop arthritis. He said city benefits paid by workers' compensation and some disability checks helped with medical bills, but it wasn't enough.

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Actor Kiefer Sutherland has pleaded "no contest" to his latest D.U.I. arrest and will likely serve 48 days in jail. It's his 4th alcohol-related driving offense.

The Los Angeles city attorney's office, as part of a plea deal with Sutherland, recommended that he be sentenced to 48 days in jail. The sentence would reflect 30 days for the misdemeanor charge and 18 days for violating probation on a separate 2004 DUI case.

But Sutherland could be sentenced to as much as a year if the judge who took over the case Tuesday, Stuart M. Rice, rejects the plea deal.....Under the plea deal, a related misdemeanor charge, driving under the influence, was dropped.

The story of his latest arrest is here.

The problem with liberal pundits is that they are capable of being overtaken by herd mentalities just like their conservative colleagues. On Iraq, the majority of liberal pundits have bought into the the patently false notion that the Congress has done "everything it can" to end the war while at the same time deciding Hillary Clinton is not pure on Iraq, notwithstanding the facts. Take Harold Meyerson for instance:

. . . Congressional Democrats have honorably tried and failed to scale back the war; the Senate's requirement of a 60-vote supermajority to alter policy requires supermajority support from the public for an altered Senate.

This is simply false. Meyerson can not be ignorant of the fact that no bill need be passed to end the war. That in fact, FUNDING the war requires passage of a bill and not funding does not. Meyerson gives the Congress a free pass while taking shots at Hillary Clinton:

There's been another wrongful conviction and exoneration in Texas. Ronald Taylor was released from prison yesterday after serving 12 years for a rape he didn't commit.

Taylor was convicted of rape in 1995 and sentenced to 60 years in prison. The victim picked him out of a lineup but acknowledged she only caught a glimpse of her attacker's face.

During his trial, a crime lab analyst testified that no body fluids were found on the victim's bedsheet. This summer, the Innocence Project paid to have a New Orleans lab retest the bedsheet. Semen that lab found matched the DNA of a man already in prison.

Harris County District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal apologized to Taylor in court Tuesday, and several council members echoed his regret.

Taylor is the third person exonerated due to faulty lab work by the Houston Police Department.

A federal judge in Washington, D.C. Gladys Kessler, has granted a preliminary injunction to a Guantanamo detainee. It is believed to be the first time a federal court has said "no" to the Pentagon. The case is RAFIQ BIN BASHIR BIN JALLUL ALHAMI et al., vs. GEORGE W. BUSH, et al.

The opinion, unsealed today, is here.

In a nutshell, the Pentagon wanted to send Gitmo detainee Mohammed Rahman, a Tunisian, back to Tunisia to serve a 20 year sentence for a crime for which he was charged and tried in absentia since his arrival at Guantanamo. He objected, arguing among other grounds, he would be tortured in a Tunesian prison. He filed a habeas action seeking an order preventing his transfer.

From the opinion:

Petitioner Rahman (“Rahman”) is a Tunisian citizen allegedly captured by Pakistani bounty hunters and transferred to the custody of the United States on an undisclosed date. He has been detained in Guantanamo Bay since shortly after his capture. Rahman maintains that Combatant Status Review Tribunal (“CSRT”) proceedings have never resulted in any finding that he is an “unlawful” enemy combatant. On May 15, 2007, the Government provided notice to Petitioners and the Court of its intention to transfer Rahman out of Guantanamo Bay and release him to the Government of Tunisia. A 20-year prison sentence awaits Rahman in Tunisia.

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Hillary Clinton unveiled her retirement plan, American Retirement Accounts, today.

As with her biggest policy plan for universal health insurance, Mrs. Clinton cast her savings proposal in terms of choice: If Americans like their 401(k) plans and other retirement accounts, they can keep those, while those who lack any savings plan will have a chance to start one with government help and save $5,000 a year on a tax-deferred basis.

“Saving in the accounts will be easy — it should not require a Ph.D. to save for retirement,” Mrs. Clinton said.

The Wall St. Journal has more specifics.

As to why it's needed:

Following up on the last post I wrote about Taylor Marsh's response to those who think she's blogging for Hillary, I have a few thoughts of my own on how bloggers, particularly TalkLeft, covers campaigns.

I have long said that Hillary and John Edwards are my two favorite Democratic candidates. I haven't endorsed either yet and like most bloggers, probably won't before the first primaries. Any of the Democratic candidates will have my support if they win and there are none (except perhaps Joe Biden) I would be unhappy with.

All of the candidates' campaigns send out press releases and e-mails on issues, news and events to bloggers daily. I write about those that strike a chord with me on that particular day.

Like Taylor, I'm covering the 2008 election, not a single candidate. I write about Hillary the most because so far she is the most interesting candidate. She also has great campaign outreach through Peter Daou, her Internet communications director. He doesn't flood our e-mail boxes with every possible soundbite, but knows the individual blogs well enough only to send each those items he thinks would be of interest. As to what he sends TalkLeft, he's always on the mark.

No candidate is going to match my positions on issues or focus on those I care most about.

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Taylor Marsh recounts the latest dust-up over Hillary being called a "harpie" after an exchange with Randall Rolph. She's also got the video.

I missed the whole story but Taylor moves on to a discussion of people who criticize bloggers for favorably writing about Hillary, accusing them of somehow being part of her presidential campaign. I've gotten quite of few of those comments myself.

Since Taylor responds so well, I'll just quote her:

Khaled el-Masri, (also spelled al-Masri) the 42 year old German shoe salesman and father of five who was plucked off a street in Macedonia while on holiday, beaten and flown to a secret CIA prison in Afghanistan where he was held for 5 months until the U.S. and Condoleeza Rice admitted he was picked up by mistake (a case of mistaken identity) has had his lawsuit against the U.S. rejected by the Supreme Court today. Reuters reports here and the AP here.

All of TalkLeft's coverage of el-Masri is accessible here. The ACLU filed the lawsuit on his behalf and has this webpage about extraordinary rendition.

Glenn Greenwald has hope on FISA:

But at least thus far, from everything I can tell, the picture is more complicated and less depressing than this NYT article suggests, and the defeat is not yet a fait accompli. To begin with, the bill to be proposed today by the House Democratic leadership actually contains some surprisingly good and important provisions. . .

But that bill will never see the President's desk. As Glenn himself notes:

It is definitely possible that this is all just deceit, that House leaders introduced this bill strictly to placate their Progressive Caucus and their base and that they have no real intention of fighting for these provisions, but instead will give Bush what he wants once Mike McConnell starts accusing them of Helping the Terrorists and they begin negotiating in secret again.

Yes, that is exactly what will happen. We know the cast of characters already. This is a repeat of the Iraq Supplemental fight in March. The House bill will be eviscerated. More.