While Hillary, Al Franken, Bill Richardson and others are returning Norman Hsu's campaign contributions, Obama is not.

Hsu also made donations to the Illinois senatorial campaign of Barack Obama in 2004. Yesterday, spokesman Jen Psaki said Obama, who has criticized Clinton for taking contributions that could undermine her independence, had no plans to return Hsu's donations.

I'm not going to criticize Obama for not returning the money. I think returning it was premature since it hasn't been determined there is anything illegal about the donations and as I said here, felons should be encouraged to participate in the political process, particularly after they've served their time (yes, I know Hsu doesn't fall in that category but his crime was 15 years ago and he's been law-abiding since.)

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Labor Day weekend is fast approaching. Blog traffic will be down with so many people taking advantage of the outdoors and symbolic end of summer.

I'll be blogging on a curtailed basis, and I'm not sure about Big Tent. TChris is on vacation. LNILR is free to chime in as always, but I don't know his plans either.

I'd like to see if diaries can fill the void. The problem is that they don't get enough attention. To correct that, what I'll do starting tonight (if there are any) is a "Diary Rescue" post like Daily Kos does. I'll read the diaries and then, in a blog post every night through Sunday, post links to those I think TalkLeft readers would enjoy reading.

If you blog elsewhere, you're welcome to cross-post here in a diary. Just note that it's been cross-posted at your site and hot-link your site. Hopefully, you'll get some extra traffic.

On diary topics, please make them relevant to the issues on TalkLeft -- elections, politics of crime, crime in politics, war, civil liberties, etc. The economy and environment, while important, are not TalkLeft topics. Yes, they should represent a progressive point of view. Conservatives have their own sites to post on.

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The reactions and views of Representatives Ellen Tauscher (D-CA) and Brian Baird (D-WA) concerning Iraq are instructive and important.

Rep. Tauscher was a supporter of the Iraq Debacle. Now she has pledged to no longer vote for funding the Debacle. In an interview with ThinkProgress, she said:

[T]he American people don’t want to see some kind of Saigon-like helicopter liftoff trying to remove people out of Iraq,” 2) they don’t want to see “ethnic cleansing and devastation of Iraqis” after we leave, and 3) they “don’t want the status quo.”

Tauscher was criticized, yes by me too, for some statements she made and some views she held. Rep. Tauscher has listened. The DC Establishment will call that pandering. I call that representing. I believe Rep. Tauscher listened to her constitutents, reviewed the facts and came to the right view on Iraq. This is what our representatives are supposed to do. More.

Texas executed Daroyce Mosely last night. It executed John Amador tonight. Tomorrow night, Thursday, it is scheduled to execute Kenneth Foster.

The execution of Kenneth Foster has been drawing loud protests because it is acknowledged that Foster never killed anyone. He was convicted and sentenced to death under Texas' "law of the parties" rule (known as felony murder in other states -- think Lisl Auman in Colorado.) Basically it holds the accomplice liable for the murder, including the death penalty, if the accomplice should have anticipated the murder or was recklessly indifferent to it.

During the course of a robbery and while 80 feet away from him, Foster's co-conspirator took out a gun and killed a law student.

This Dallas Morning News editorial explains why Foster's execution is wrong.

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Looks like the outstanding California arrest warrant for Norman Hsu was the breaking point for Hillary Clinton and other Democrats' campaigns. They are giving his donations to charity.

Clinton campaign spokesman Phil Singer said the $23,000 included contributions from Hsu to Clinton's presidential campaign, her Senate re-election and her political action committee. The campaign did not plan to return any money Hsu raised from other donors, Singer said.

"In light of the information regarding Mr. Hsu's outstanding warrant in California we will be giving his contribution to charity," Singer said.

Also divesting themselves of Hsu's funds: Al Franken and Rep. Michael Honda of California and Rep. Joe Sestak of Pennsylvania. I expect that Obama's campaign will make a similar statement:

Federal Election Commission records show that Hsu has donated $260,000 to Democratic Party groups and federal candidates since 2004. Though a fundraiser for Clinton, he also donated to Sen. Barack Obama's Senate campaign in 2004 and to Obama's political action committee.

One note: The money is not being returned because the contributions were illegal. It's being returned because of Hsu's criminal conviction.

As Rep. Honda's spokeswoman said,

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Republicans stripped Sen. Larry Craig of his leadership posts today.

A statement by the Senate Republican leadership said Mr. Craig “has agreed to comply” with a request to step down as the top Republican on the Veterans Affairs Committee, the Appropriations subcommittee on the Interior and the Energy and Natural Resources subcommittee on public lands and forests.

“This is not a decision we take lightly, but we believe this is in the best interest of the Senate until this situation is resolved by the Ethics Committee,” the statement said.

Senators John McCain and Norm Coleman, and Rep. Pete Hoeckstra have called for his resignation.

Craig, in his statement yesterday, said he is now seeking legal advice about his Minnesota conviction for disorderly conduct. As LNILR opined earlier today, that's not likely to do him much good.

If he's really sure he isn't gay and that he never had encounters with men in public restrooms, he might be better off hiring Lin Wood (Richard Jewell and John and Patsy Ramseys' attorney) to bring a libel suit against the media outlets that alleged otherwise. While a settlement or favorable ruling is unlikely to be timely enough to end the calls for his resignation, if he won, he'd get his good name back.

What does it say if he doesn't bring a libel suit? That no lawyer would take it or that he's pulling our leg with his denials?

House Judiciary Committee Chair John Conyers announced today the committee will hold a hearing on FISA on September 5, 2007.

"Warrantless Surveillance and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA): The Role of Checks and Balances in Protecting Americans’ Privacy Rights." The hearing will be held on Wednesday, September 5, at 10:15 a.m. in room 2141 of the Rayburn House Office Building.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had asked for the hearing in an August 4 letter.

Tonight, the House passed S. 1927, a bill approved by the Senate yesterday, which is an interim response to the Administration's request for changes in FISA, and which was sought to fill an intelligence gap which is asserted to exist. Many provisions of this legislation are unacceptable, and, although the bill has a six month sunset clause, I do not believe the American people will want to wait that long before corrective action is taken.

Accordingly, I request that your committees send to the House, as soon as possible after Congress reconvenes, legislation which responds comprehensively to the Administration's proposal while addressing the many deficiencies in S. 1927.

Richard Jewell, falsely implicated in the Atlanta bombing murders, died today. He was 44 and is believed to have died of natural causes, probably kidney or diabetes-related problems.

Jewell will always be known as a casualty of a police rush to judgment:

After 12 weeks of scrutiny following the bombing, Jewell was cleared by the FBI and U.S. Attorney Kent Alexander in an unprecedented government acknowledgment of wrongful accusation. "I am not the Olympic park bomber," Jewell told reporters after being cleared. "I am a man who has lived 88 days afraid of being arrested for a crime I did not commit."

Jewell's name was leaked to the media by the FBI. Thanks to Atlanta attorney Lin Wood, he was able to collect damages from several news organizations, including NBC.

Via e-mail from Matt from Dodd's campaign:

Reporter: "Senator, there were reports this morning that President Bush will ask Congress for $50 billion more dollars for the Iraq war. What do you have to say about that? Dodd: "Well, I'm not surprised and I'd be very resistant to that request. I think we've, as I said we're spending well over now half a trillion dollars in this conflict. And again, it's a civil war in Iraq. This is the middle of a civil war and those who have understood this issue have argued from the very beginning that there was never going to be a military solution to the civil war in Iraq. And so I'd be very resistant and I intend to fight any efforts here, I'll do whatever I can to support whatever our troops need to have a safe and secure withdrawal from Iraq. But I don't intend to continue to fund the war over there that I think has no end. As long as we're there, I think the Iraqis are not going to come together as a people it's about time we wound down our military presence there."

(Emphasis mine.)

Two years ago, we burned up this website with postings about Katrina and the debacle of the government's response. How far have they (we) come?

CNN, MSNBC, and Fox had the best live coverage, and the public knew more than the government. The best coverage anywhere: The New Orleans Times-Picayue. Even when they couldn't a publish a print edition because their printing press was flooded, they published a massive number of stories online, and they had a depth of coverage and understanding that only a local could have.

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Yesterday in his press conference and on his website, Sen. Larry Craig said:

In June, I overreacted and made a poor decision. While I was not involved in any inappropriate conduct at the Minneapolis airport or anywhere else, I chose to plead guilty to a lesser charge in the hope of making it go away. I did not seek any counsel, either from an attorney, staff, friends, or family. That was a mistake, and I deeply regret it. Because of that, I have now retained counsel and I am asking my counsel to review this matter and to advise me on how to proceed.

Does he want a trial? Can he win a trial? I don't think so.

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The Bush Administration will request the Congress exercise its Spending Power and increase the funding for the Iraq Debacle:

President Bush plans to ask Congress next month for up to $50 billion in additional funding for the war in Iraq, a White House official said yesterday, a move that appears to reflect increasing administration confidence that it can fend off congressional calls for a rapid drawdown of U.S. forces.

The request -- which would come on top of about $460 billion in the fiscal 2008 defense budget and $147 billion in a pending supplemental bill to fund the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq -- is expected to be announced after congressional hearings scheduled for mid-September featuring the two top U.S. officials in Iraq. Army Gen. David H. Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker will assess the state of the war and the effect of the new strategy the U.S. military has pursued this year.

. . . Most of the additional funding in a revised supplemental bill would pay for the current counteroffensive in Iraq. . . . The decision to seek about $50 billion more appears to reflect the view in the administration that the counteroffensive will last into the spring of 2008 and will not be shortened by Congress.

I believe this request provides Congress another chance to set an end date to the Iraq Debacle. The Congress must set a date certain for ending funding for Iraq Debacle operations. If they lack the political courage to say no to this funding request, the Congress must insist that this is the LAST request and that there will be no more funding for Iraq Debacle operations after a date certain. I suggest March 31, 2008. The Reid-Feingold framework: