Barack Obama called his "Hillary Clinton (D-Punjab)" memo a "dumb mistake" today.

"It was a dumb mistake on our campaign's part and I made it clear to my staff in no uncertain terms that it was a mistake," Obama told the AP in a brief interview in which he referred to the memo as "unnecessarily caustic."

Obama said he wasn't aware of the memo before it circulated and steps have been taken to avoid a recurrence.

The trial of Jose Padilla and two codefendants continues in Miami.

Today, Kifah Jayyousi's attorney, Bill Swor, brought out how his client avoided violence.

William Swor sought to prove his client Kifah Wael Jayyousi was driven by his compassion for his fellow Muslims, a defense that began last week when an attorney for co-defendant Adham Amin Hassoun began cross-examining the case's lead FBI agent, John T. Kavanaugh.

And when Jayyousi was dissatisfied with political situations, his attorney argued, he dealt with it in the most civic-minded of ways.

Jayyousi phoned and wrote newspapers, his congressman and the State Department, Swor said. When he was offended by newspapers' publishing of cartoons he believed were insulting to Muslims, the attorney said, Jayyousi participated in letter-writing and phone campaigns. And when a Lebanese radio station employee encouraged him to threaten the Lebanese government, the defendant did not, his attorney said.

Jayyousi also published newsletters that eschewed violence. He attempted to get a hospital built for refugees in Chechnya.

If you have cable, a 2 hour special is on the Biography channel tonight, The Death Penalty on Trial.

The show examines four cases of people wrongly sentenced to death. The cases show instances of incompetent counsel, biased judges and prosecutorial misconduct.

The House Oversight Committee has issued a report finding that e-mails of White House officials who used their RNC account are missing.

E-mail records are missing for 51 of the 88 White House officials who had electronic message accounts with the Republican National Committee, the House Oversight Committee said Monday.

The Bush administration may have committed "extensive" violations of a law requiring that certain records be preserved, said the committee's Democratic chairman, adding that the panel will deepen its probe into the use of political e-mail accounts.

The full report is here (pdf). Dan Froomkin has some highlights:

More...

Duke University has agreed to a financial settlement with the wrongly charged Duke Lacrosse players. Here is the University's press release:

Durham, NC -- On Monday, Duke University leaders announced they have reached a settlement with David Evans, Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann. Below are statements about the settlement.

STATEMENT OF THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES AND THE PRESIDENT OF DUKE UNIVERSITY:

This has been an extraordinary year for Duke students David Evans, Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann, who were accused of serious crimes they did not commit. In April, after a thorough review, the North Carolina Attorney General declared that they were innocent of all charges and that the charges never should have been brought. We welcomed their exoneration and deeply regret the difficult year they and their families have had to endure. They conducted themselves with great dignity during their long ordeal.

No, not Harry Reid. No, as Greg Sargent reports (while wrongly saying Reid called Pace incompetent on the infamous blogger conference call. Sargent does not know that. Bad job Greg. Will we be hearing how Gore invented the Internet next?), it is John Edwards criticizing General Petraeus:

General Petraeus’ comments are just the latest example of the Bush Administration’s disconnect from the reality on the ground. In order to get the Iraqi people to take responsibility for their country, we must show them that we are serious about leaving, and the best way to do that is to actually start leaving. Instead of talking about keeping our troops in Iraq for another decade, the Administration should begin bringing our troops home to the hero’s welcome they deserve."

On ABC's This Week, Senator Joseph Biden really crystallized what is wrong with the Beltway Democrats' view of the Iraq Debacle.

Biden said he won't support continuing the Surge while at the same time saying he had to vote to FUND the Surge. This answer echoed his debate answer:

We have 50 votes in the United States Senate. We have less of a majority in the House than any time other than the last eight years. Ladies and gentlemen, you're going to end this war when you elect a Democratic president. You need 67 votes to end this war. . . . We're funding the safety of those troops there until we can get 67 votes...

Leaving aside the Orwellian "funding the safety of those troops" by voting to keep them in a war, what Biden is telling you is that even though he opposes continuing the war, he will vote to continue funding the war indefinitely. So let's be clear, Senator Biden, speaking for a good number of Beltway Democrats, including Netroots darlings like Senators Webb and Tester, despite opposing continuing the war, will not use the Not Spending power to end the Iraq Debacle. As long as this is true, the Iraq Debacle will not be ended. And, despite the protestations of these Democrats to the contrary, this means they are effectively, even if it is against their will, supporting President Bush's policies on the Iraq Debacle.

The LA Times reports on how defense lawyers across the country are using the U.S. Attorney firing scandal to challenge political prosecutions.

Defense lawyers in a growing number of cases are raising questions about the motives of government lawyers who have brought charges against their clients. In court papers, they are citing the furor over the U.S. attorney dismissals as evidence that their cases may have been infected by politics.

Justice officials say those concerns are unfounded and constitute desperate measures by desperate defendants. But the affair has given defendants and their lawyers some new energy, which is complicating life for the prosecutors.

Will the challenges resonate with jurors? I wonder how much evidence about it the Judges will allow into evidence.

Even so, the Justice Department is likely to find itself facing more discovery requests based on the scandal.

More...

The Take Back America Conference begins today. These events will be streaming live.

MONDAY, JUNE 18th

Progressive Senators Town Hall: 8:00-9:30 PM ET
TUESDAY, JUNE 19th

Sen. Mike Gravel: 8:30-9:00 AM ET
Gov. Bill Richardson: 9:00-9:30 AM ET
Sen. Barack Obama: 12:00-12:30 PM ET
Sen. John Edwards: 12:30-1:00 PM ET
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 20th

Sen. Hillary Clinton: 8:00-8:30 AM ET
Rep. Dennis Kucinich: 8:30-9:00 AM ET

If you can't watch live, there will be video on demand for later viewing. The Firedoglake crew is there, so check in with them and other blogs for first-hand reports

Update: Oliver Willis is in attendance and so far, less than overwhelmed.

The Supreme Court today decided Breslin v. California (opinion here, pdf) holding that passengers in automobiles have 4th Amendment rights to contest a search and seizure during a traffic stop. The first part of the ruling:

Held: When police make a traffic stop, a passenger in the car, like the driver, is seized for Fourth Amendment purposes and so may challenge the stop’s constitutionality. Pp. 4–13.

(a) A person is seized and thus entitled to challenge the government’s action when officers, by physical force or a show of authority, terminate or restrain the person’s freedom of movement through means intentionally applied.

Last Night in Little Rock has more at FourthAmendment.com.

Jeffrey Toobin, writing in the New Yorker, explains why 2008 will determine not just our President and congressional officials, but the future of the Supreme Court for the next several decades.

He examines the rulings in the first full term in which Justices Alito and Roberts participated. He notes that the conservative controversial opinions were decided by votes of 5 to 4. And that Justice Stevens is 87 years old and Ruth Gader Ginsberg is 74. But Alito and Roberts are only in their 50's.

Since Souter and Kennedy, all appointed Justices -- Thomas, Ginsburg, Breyer, Roberts, and Alito —- have fulfilled the agenda of the Presidents who appointed them. No surprises.

I agree with Toobin who concludes his excellent article with:

At this moment, the liberals face not only jurisprudential but actuarial peril. Stevens is eighty-seven and Ginsburg seventy-four; Roberts, Thomas, and Alito are in their fifties. The Court, no less than the Presidency, will be on the ballot next November, and a wise electorate will vote accordingly.

While media writers are still debating the ending to the Sopranos, those who are jones-ing and in need of a fix can head to Chicago where a real life mob trial, called Family Secrets, begins Tuesday.

Even in a city as heavy with mob history and lore as Chicago, the landmark trial set to begin Tuesday with the selection of an anonymous jury promises to be a spectacle.

There will be veteran prosecutors who have made careers targeting wiseguys. There will be flamboyant defense lawyers unafraid to make a joke in court and wear pink socks while doing it.

...Family Secrets will essentially put on trial the structure and enterprise that was the Chicago mob during the last few decades.

As for the cast of characters: