AP reports:

President Bush has settled on Michael B. Mukasey, a retired federal judge from New York, to replace Alberto Gonzales as attorney general and will announce his selection Monday, a person familiar with the president's decision said Sunday evening.
Mukasey, who has handled terrorist cases in the U.S. legal system for more than a decade, would become the nation's top law enforcement officer if confirmed by the Senate. Mukasey has the support of some key Democrats, and it appeared Bush was trying to avoid a bruising confirmation battle.

See Jeralyn's detailed reporting on Mukasey.

I've already got a full day's worth of blog posts up. Time to let you take over, while I head outdoors.

Check out the recent diaries and don't forget to hit the "recommend" button for those you like.

• Randinho in Coming to America - Two Tales and Two Methods on a terrible recent immigration death in the desert.

• Michael Gass has several, his latest is The Bush Middle East Oil Gambit.

• Scribe has a diary, If I Were President.

If you'd like to write a diary on TalkLeft, whether as cross-posts or new material, here's the basics.

Virginia is the only state in the Union that allows the taking of DNA for certain violent felonies. On Friday, the Virginia Supreme Court upheld the suspicionless taking of DNA from a rape suspect in 2003 that linked him to a 1991 "cold case" rape.

The Virginia Court of Appeals upheld the conviction in 2006, and the Virginia Supreme Court, finding the taking of DNA no different than fingerprinting, upheld the suspicionless and probable cause-less taking of the same that linked the defendant to the 1991 rape. Anderson v. Commonwealth, 2007 Va. LEXIS 115 (September 14, 2007).

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[Photo via CelebStoner]

Keith Stroup probably regards his arrest yesterday at a Boston marijuana reform rally as a badge of honor.

While delivering a speech at yesterday's Freedom Rally, he announced:

"Eight hundred thousand people were arrested last year for marijuana. Every 41 seconds someone gets arrested for marijuana. I got arrested a couple of hours ago right here."

In all, there were 60 arrests. Those arrested received "Class D" tickets. Even with bad weather, 5,000 attended the event.

I missed this before, but Howie Kurtz, who often takes his cues from the right wing, talked about it this morning on CNN. The producer of the infamous "Path to 9/11" has a conspiracy theory:

"Whatever anyone may think about me or this movie, this is a bad precedent, a dangerous precedent, to allow a movie to be buried," added Nowrasteh, who received death threats even before the miniseries was broadcast last September. "Because the next time they'll go after another movie. The Bush administration may go after a movie. The next administration may go after a movie. No matter who it is, they may go after a movie. I think this town needs to stand up."

Stand up for an atrocious, unfair and inaccurate work presented as factual? Nowrasteh has an ally:

This isn't about politics, said film director Oliver Stone, but about the right of artists to have their work distributed. "This is a shame; it's censorship in the most blatant way," said Stone, who has hired Nowrasteh for several writing projects. "I'm not vouching for its accuracy -- it's a dramatization -- but it's an important work and needs to be seen."

It deserved to be scorned and was as it was a piece of fiction passed as fact. It was on ABC for 2 nights. There are a lot of "works" that were much more deserving to be seen than that "work." I think ABC should sell it back to Nowrasteh though so he can sell it through the usual right wing channels.

Bump and Update: President Bush may announce Mukasey as Attorney General on Monday. Glenn Greenwald has a lot more analysis, particularly on his role in the Padilla case.

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Original Post 9/15
Michael Mukasey Floated as AG Replacement

White House officials seem to be testing the name of former U.S. District Court Judge Michael Mukasey for Attorney General. CNN and the AP are reporting he is now the leading candidate.

I've been reading up on him for the past several hours and will present the pros and cons below.

Preliminary assessment: He's independent-minded, extremely experienced and smart, and while more conservative on terror-related issues than I'd like, far too supportive of the Patriot Act and too close to Rudy Giuliani for comfort, he doesn't run rough-shod over defendants' rights. As compared to Ted Olson, Mukasey is an improvement.

So, who is Michael Mukasey? See below.

The Washington Post reports that many Colorado Republicans on the Western Slope are losing faith in their party. Chief among their complaints is the Bush Administration's support of intense oil and gas drilling activity.

Long the most reliably conservative expanse of a state that has gone red in six of the past seven presidential contests, Colorado's western third shows evidence of the "purpling" that has made Colorado look increasingly like a swing state.

Colorado now has 32,000 active oil and gas wells. Another 40,000 are planned.

The New York Times and Washington Post have long articles today in which the reporters try to trace Norman Hsu's fund-raising contributions to Democrats. The articles practically take it as a given that Hsu's fund-raising was illegitimate because he was a a fugitive from California and they've managed to track down unhappy investors in his business deals that were unrelated to politics.

Despite new interviews reported in the articles both with people that knew Hsu and those whom he asked to contribute to various candidates, one critical allegation is missing: None of the contributors so far have said Hsu reimbursed them for their donations. Without reimbursement, there's no campaign finance crime. Bundling donations is legal and all the candidates have bundlers.

It's been my impression since the story first appeared in the Wall St. Journal that Hsu did nothing illegal in his fund-raising activities. The media keeps looking for and coming up short in discerning Hsu's motives in becoming a bundler for various campaigns.

Hsu strikes me as a political groupie, someone who wanted to go to the parties and mingle with the VIPs, and the way for him to do that was by becoming a big donor.

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"You gets no bread with your one meatball."

In Department of Justice news:

An internal Justice audit, released Friday, showed the department spent nearly $7 million to plan, host or send employees to 10 conferences over the last two years. This included paying $4 per meatball at one lavish dinner and spreading an average of $25 worth of snacks around to each participant at a movie-themed party.

This song has been around at least since the depression. Bing Crosby, the Andrews Sisters and Josh White sang it during WWII. I really like the versions by Baby Jane Dexter and Ann Rabson, but I couldn't find videos of them. Here's the lyrics:

[Once he arrived in the Senate, after winning the primary and easily dispatching his Republican opponent, Obama did not emerge as a key voice on the war.

The Washington Post this morning writes about the principal reason Senator Barack Obama is flailing in his Presidential camapign:

[S]ome antiwar Democrats have raised questions about the depth of Obama's opposition, taking aim at one of the signature arguments for his candidacy -- that he is the only leading Democratic candidate who opposed the war from the beginning. They say that while Obama did argue against the war as a Senate candidate, he tempered his rhetoric and his opposition once he arrived in the Capitol, rejecting timetables for withdrawal and backing war funding bills. . . .

Simply put, Obama has not led on Iraq. He could lead now. He has chosen not to.

I am a strong supporter of Senator Chris Dodd's campaign for the Presidency. I think the leadership he is demonstrating as Senator now, especially on Iraq, is evidence of the type of leadership he would provide as President. But I would be hard pressed not to be a supporter of General Wes Clark if he were in the race. I strongly supported General Clark in the 2004 race and I lament that he is not our President now. On foreign policy and military issues, there is no one I trust more than General Clark.

So General Clark's endorsement of Senator Hillary Clinton this morning does have an effect on me. The main effect is it makes me want to know the role General Clark would play in a Clinton Administration. If he were to have a leading role on national security and foreign policy issues, there is no question I would be much more favorable to the Clinton candidacy. Will he? As Jeralyn notes, Jerome Armstrong queried on whether General Clark might be Senator Clinton's running mate and not surprisingly, General Clark demurred. But the Clinton campaign can give us an idea of whether and what General Clark's role might be in a Clinton Administration and I would urge them to tell us more about that. More.

Update: Here's Gen. Clark's statement.

*****

In a blogger conference call this morning, Gen. Wesley Clark endorsed Hillary Clinton for President. (Big Tent Democrat and I were both on the call. Be sure to read his separate post on the endorsement.)

Big Tent asked him for thoughts on Hillary's Iraq plan and what he finds attractive about it. Answer: Hillary understands the proper role of the Senate and the executive branch. She's aware of what the power of the Senate is given the current makeup.

She believes we should begin withdrawing forces now. So does he. She believes in diplomacy with all of Iraq's neighbors. She has said there would be no permanent presence of troops in Iraq.

Taylor Marsh asked about Hillary being Commander in Chief. Answer: She'd be great. She's loyal and will be loyal to the armed forces. She's very strong and decisive. She's been to Iraq, Bosnia and other places. He thinks the troops will be very proud of their commander in chief.

Jerome Armstrong: Would he accept the VP nomination? Answer: He hasn't thought anything about that. This is about putting the right person in the White House.

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