Following up on Big Tent Democrat's earlier post, the New York Times has a five page article revealing that in 2005, over the objections of his Deputy Attorney General James Comey, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales approved legal opinions written by Steven Bradbury concerning enhanced interrogation techniques.

The 2005 Justice Department opinions remain in effect, and their legal conclusions have been confirmed by several more recent memorandums, officials said. They show how the White House has succeeded in preserving the broadest possible legal latitude for harsh tactics.

Who is Bradbury? [More...]

Via Sentencing Law and Policy, the Senate's Joint Economic Committee (JEC) will hold a hearing this morning on ""Mass Incarceration in the United States: At What Cost?" The purpose is "to explore the economic consequences and causes of and solutions to the steep increase of the U.S. prison population."

The press release is here (pdf).

The United States has experienced a sharp increase in its prison population in the past thirty years. From the 1920s to the mid-1970s, the incarceration rate in the United States remained steady at approximately 110 prisoners per 100,000 people. Today, the incarceration rate is 737 inmates per 100,000 residents, comprising 2.1 million persons in federal, state, and local prisons. The United States has 5 percent of the world’s population but now has 25 percent of its prisoners. There are approximately 5 million Americans under the supervision of the correctional system, including parole, probation, and other community supervision sanctions.

More...

There's quite a few new diaries on TalkLeft, I hope you will check them out and recommend those you like.

• Life Was His Sentence, Life Was What He Got Back

• Krugman, Economics and the Next Civil War

• Obama Begins His Offensive Against Hillary

• Phoenix Airport Fatality

• A Dominican Heroine

Speaking of torture, Justice Anton Scalia Joins the Cast of 24 in the role of Jack Bauer....very funny. From Slate V . (It's slow to load, here's the direct link.)

Has there ever been a more disgraceful Attorney General than Alberto Gonzales? Has there ever been a more disgraceful Administration than the Bush Administration? No:

When the Justice Department publicly declared torture “abhorrent” in a legal opinion in December 2004, the Bush administration appeared to have abandoned its assertion of nearly unlimited presidential authority to order brutal interrogations.

But soon after Alberto R. Gonzales’s arrival as attorney general in February 2005, the Justice Department issued another opinion, this one in secret. It was a very different document, according to officials briefed on it, an expansive endorsement of the harshest interrogation techniques ever used by the Central Intelligence Agency.

The new opinion, the officials said, for the first time provided explicit authorization to barrage terror suspects with a combination of painful physical and psychological tactics, including head-slapping, simulated drowning and frigid temperatures.

Mr. Gonzales approved the legal memorandum on “combined effects” over the objections of James B. Comey, the deputy attorney general, who was leaving his job after bruising clashes with the White House. Disagreeing with what he viewed as the opinion’s overreaching legal reasoning, Mr. Comey told colleagues at the department that they would all be “ashamed” when the world eventually learned of it.

The nation may never recover from the damage done by these scoundrels.

Update [2007-10-3 17:4:47 by Big Tent Democrat]: Jane gets it.

Via Matt Yglesias and Kevin Drum, Here is my problem:

A list of the national security and foreign policy advisers to the leading presidential candidates from both parties.

DEMOCRATS

Hillary Clinton

. . . Michael O'Hanlon, Brookings senior fellow and former Congressional Budget Office defense and foreign policy analyst, supporter

Michael O'Hanlon? The Iraq Debacle supporter, surge supporter, and serial dissembler on his support for the war? Why would Senator Clinton want the support of someone who has diametrically opposed views from hers on the most important foreign policy issue of the day? Indeed, why in heavens is O'Hanlon supporting her?

Can you imagine a campaign against a Republican who can cite Hillary Clinton advisor Michale O'Hanlon on how Hillary is wrong about the Iraq War and the Surge? This makes no sense. Hillary should immediately renounce O'Hanlon's support and frankly, it is hard to fathom why he is supporting her. They completely disagree on the most important issue of the day. Blatant careerism I suppose.

Via mcjoan.

In a recent post, I excoriated Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi for her statement on not funding the Iraq Debacle. But as mcjoan notes, one has to wonder who is calling the shots in the House. After all, Pelosi voted against the war and championed John Murtha for the #2 slot in the House leadership. The question to ask - is Steny Hoyer the actual Dem leader in the House?

Internal tensions erupted yesterday among House Dem leaders over Rep. David Obey's threat to block war funding without withdrawal timetables and his suggestion of a war tax, The Hill reports. . . . “It’s hard to believe you could pick a worse time to do something to divide the caucus than the day Democrats and Republicans come together on both an Iraq bill and in sending the children’s health bill to the president,” a Democratic leadership aide told the paper. “The timing of this announcement made no sense.”

I'm told, however, that there's a bit more to these tensions than meet the eye. House insiders say they think that this anonymous dumping on Obey came from the office of House Dem leader Steny Hoyer. Hoyer is a big proponent of the new House Iraq bill being sponsored by Dem Rep. Neil Abercrombie that was voted on yesterday and passed overwhelmingly. Because this measure lacks a binding withdrawal timetable, others in leadership -- like Pelosi -- are cool to the idea, insiders point out.

. . . "The dumping on Obey likely came from Hoyer, who was much more enthusiastic about the moderate -- read: toothless -- Ambercrombie legislation than the rest of leadership is," a House insider tells me.

Steny Hoyer, like Rahm Emanuel, has been awful on Iraq and obviously he seeks to torpedo the not funding without a timeline idea. It looks like he and Rahm Emanuel are the problem.

After President Bush vetoed S-CHIP, White House spokeperson Dana Perino said:

"They made their political point, and what the president said is, 'Look, send me the bill, I will veto it, and then we will get about the business of trying to find some common ground and reach an agreement on a way forward,'" Perino said.

My suggestion to the Democratic leaders of Congress is send him the same bill. The policy and politics on this issue, as I believe they are on the Iraq issue, all point to this as being the best move. A Democracy Corps poll supports my view:

As President Bush vetoed the bipartisan S-CHIP bill that would have dramatically expanded children's health insurance, a memo by Democracy Corps and Greenberg Quinlan Rosner shows health care emerging as a top economic concern and voters rejecting the President’s veto by almost a two-to-one margin, preferring the expansion of S-CHIP.

A new Washington Post-ABC News Poll finds Hillary Clinton increasing her lead over Barack Obama and the other Democratic candidates:

For the first time, Clinton (N.Y.) is drawing support from a majority of Democrats -- and has opened up a lead of 33 percentage points over Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.). Her popularity, the poll suggests, is being driven by her strength on key issues and a growing perception among voters that she would best represent change.

....Among Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents, 53 percent support Clinton, compared with 20 percent for Obama and 13 percent for former senator John Edwards (N.C.).

As to her electability factor,

A clear majority of those surveyed, 57 percent, said Clinton is the Democratic candidate with the best chance on Nov. 4, 2008.

Interesting note: Edwards is seen as more electable than Obama:

More...

A California Judge has ruled that O.J. Simpson must turn over whatever sports memorabilia he was trying to recover in Las Vegas as well as his Rolex watch to Fred Goldman.

According to O.J.'s lawyer, O.J. paid $150.00 for the watch, making it likely to be a fake rather than a real Rolex Submariner.

Translation: If it turns up on eBay, take a pass.

Minor point: No one's answered my question, what if the watch were real and he purchased it with his money from his pension fund which is exempt from the Goldman's judgment? Could he keep it then?

Alabama Judge Herman Thomas, accused among other things of spanking prisoners has resigned.

The allegations:

Authorities are investigating allegations that now-suspended Mobile County Circuit Judge Herman Thomas periodically removed prisoners from Mobile County Metro Jail and spanked them in a room at the courthouse, according to courthouse sources involved in the inquiry.

Once inside the room, according to the sources, the judge would ask the young men to drop their pants and prepare to be spanked with what they described as a wooden or fraternity-like paddle.

The resignation may end his upcoming ethics trial, but an investigation by the District Attorney's office in Mobile continues.

"I would be more than willing to report out a supplemental meeting the President's request if that request were made in support of a change in policy that would do three things.

-- "Establish as a goal the end of U.S. involvement in combat operations by January of 2009."

-- "Ensure that troops would have adequate time at home between deployments as outlined in the Murtha and Webb amendments."

-- "Demonstrate a determination to engage in an intensive, broad scale diplomatic offensive involving other countries in the region."

"But this policy does not do that. It simply borrows almost $200 billion to give to the Departments of State, Defense, Energy, and Justice with no change in sight.

"As Chairman of the Appropriations Committee I have absolutely no intention of reporting out of Committee anytime in this session of Congress any such request that simply serves to continue the status quo."

Not funding after a date certain. Good idea Congressman.  Welcome to the fight. We "Idiot Liberals" have been waiting on you for the past seven months.