I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby gets sentenced today. While the Government is asking for 30 to 37 months, the U.S. Probation Department calculated his sentencing guidelines at 15 to 21 months, and advised the Judge that departures from the Guidelines, which would result in a lower sentence, should be considered.

Among the reasons Libby is arguing for a lesser sentence:

• His record of public service
• His loss of his law license
• His financial loss due to legal expenses. It appears he is also asking the court to consider the legal fees to be incurred with civil suits filed against him.
• Non-likelihood of recidivism.
• Aberrant Behavior (a single act or course of action in an otherwise unblemished life)

The 160 letters written by friends of Scooter will be released to the media after the sentencing.

Jane and Marcy will be on scene and live-blogging from the courthouse for Firedoglake. I recommend getting live coverage and updates from them, as I will be here in Denver and reacting to news as it's available, rather than reporting it firsthand.

My last prediction, which I have no reason to change, is here.

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David Brooks tomorrow:

The continuing U.S. mistake is an unwillingness to see Iraqi reality sociologically, from the ground up.

David Brooks in April 2003:

I think you've begun to see a couple things. One, you've begun to see Iraqis who are jubilant and happy in the cities where they do know they're liberated. If you've read the last few days of the New York Times, you've really seen some exultant crowds, including one who had to me, the slogan of the war, a happy Iraqi fellow who went up to the troops and screamed out, democracy, whiskey and sexy . . .

Democracy, whiskey and sexy . . . David Brooks' reality based view of Iraq. What a dishonest man.

What the angriest proselytizers on the left and right have in common is a conviction that their political parties will commit hara-kiri if they don’t adhere to their bases’ strict ideological orders. “If Democrats do not stick to their guns on Iraq,” a blogger at TalkLeft.com warns, there will be “serious political consequences in 2008.” . . . -Frank Rich

The Democrats in Congress have lost much of the leadership edge they carried out of the 2006 midterm election, with the lack of progress in Iraq being the leading cause. . . . Six weeks ago the Democrats held a 24-point lead over Bush as the stronger leadership force in Washington; today that's collapsed to a dead heat. The Democrats' overall job approval rating likewise has dropped, from a 54 percent majority to 44 percent now -- with the decline occurring almost exclusively among strong opponents of the Iraq War. - ABC News

Call them "idiot liberals" if that is your fancy. I call them voters.

I've seen the trailers for the new movie "Knocked Up" and what I remembered about it was that it was from the director of "The Forty Year Old Virgin." The last thing I would have guessed is that the movie would be seriously debated as pro-choice or anti-choice. But so it goes. Here's Ezra:

The early efforts of folks on both the Right and the Left to brand the movie pro-life were discomfiting. Some in my group seemed genuinely distressed that the main character didn't choose an abortion, and were ready to write off the film for that initial bit of betrayal. I found that baffling. The flick is pro-choice in the most literal sense of the term. Katherine Heigl's character receives advice in both directions, and then makes a decision -- a decision the audience may very well conclude is the wrong one. But she has a choice; nothing is forced on her . . . [T]hat's a perfectly allowable, and indeed respectable, decision within the choice framework.

Of course everyone knows this. The word choice means, um, choice. But this is not the first time abortion has gone to the movies. The last time was a bit more high brow however. It involved the film adaptation of John Irving's book "The Cider House Rules." Here is an excellent 2000 discussion of the issue of abortion and the movies from Amy Goodman's Democracy Now program. THIS discussion delves into the issue of the taboo in film and TV regarding abortion. We have not come a long way baby since Maude had to make her choice in the 1970s.

Via CREW, Louisiana Congressman William Jefferson has been indicted on corruption charges. The indictment is here.

Two of his associates have pleaded guilty and turned against him.

Among the charges listed in the indictment, said the official, are racketeering, soliciting bribes, wire fraud, money-laundering, obstruction of justice, conspiracy and violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

....Jefferson is accused of soliciting bribes for himself and his family, and also for bribing a Nigerian official.

Some of TalkLeft's prior coverage is here and here.

Omar Khadr is the teenager who was captured and brought to Guantanamo at age 15. (Background here.)

His case came before the military tribunal at Guantanamo today and the Judge dismissed the charges on jurisdictional grounds.

The stunning ruling by Army Col. Peter Brownback came just minutes into Khadr's arraignment, in which he faced charges he committed murder in violation of the law of war, attempted murder in violation of the law of war, conspiracy, providing material support for terrorism and spying.

"The charges are dismissed without prejudice," Brownback pronounced as he adjourned the proceeding.

The reason:

Khadr had been classified as an "enemy combatant" by a military panel years earlier at Guantanamo Bay, but because he was not classified as an "alien unlawful enemy combatant," Brownback said he had no choice but to throw the case out.

The Military Commissions Act, signed by President George W. Bush last year after the U.S. Supreme Court threw out the previous war-crimes trial system, says specifically that only those classified as "unlawful" enemy combatants can face war trials here.

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In this article from Charleston, WV, with accompanying video from local TV news, a pizza delivery driver was stopped for no seatbelt at a seatbelt checkpoint and marijuana was found.

A Putam County man was arrested after city police said they found more than two pounds of marijuana his car during a seatbelt checkpoint.

Roger Lee Caldwell, 25, was arrested in Friday when police said they discovered the marijuana inside several pizza delivery bags, according to a release from the department.

Caldwell worked as a pizza delivery employee for a local pizza establishment, but police did not say which one.

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I believe that jurors should be life-qualified not death-qualified to serve on a capital jury. But, that's not the law.

The Supreme Court today, in an opinion written Justice Anthony Kennedy, reinstated the death sentence of a Washington man whose sentence was overturned because a juror had said he would consider the death penalty only in limited circumstances.

The court, in a 5-4 decision, said that the Washington state judge who presided over the trial of Cal Coburn Brown properly used his discretion to excuse a potential juror who expressed equivocal views about the death penalty.

The juror in question was challenged by prosecutors because he indicated he would impose the death penalty only if the defendant were in the position to kill again. Jurors' options were limited: they could sentence Brown to death or life in prison with no parole.

The text of the opinion is here (pdf). As the 9th Circuit noted in deciding the case differently, the juror did not unequivocally impose the death penalty.

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The transcript of the New Hampshire Democratic debate last night is here.

Digby, as always, makes excellent points, particularly about Dennis Kucinich. I too am glad he's in the race because he is terrific on most issues. But his attacks on Democrats, such as saying it's our war now because we didn't end it after November, help no one.

And yes, the "raise your hand" questions were silly and as were some of the questions. As Digby paraphrases:

I think the question I enjoyed the most in the Democratic debate was the one where Wolf asked them all what they would do if they were tied to a bed naked with a ticking time bomb and a bunch of terrorists rushed into the room and started kibitzing among themselves about where to get the best Botox in Miami.

I was waiting for the question to end with a query as to whether they'd call in Jack Bauer. More on the myth of the ticking time bomb from Professor Alfred McCoy here and from Balkanization here.

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After one last party, the MTV Movie Awards, Paris Hilton surrendered to Los Angeles authorities last night to begin serving her 45 day prison term. She had until tomorrow to report.

She'll be in solitary 23 hours a day, in an 8×12 foot cell. She'll eat her meals in her cell. She gets an hour a day to shower, exercise or watch tv in the day room. She won't have a roommate, at least initially.

This is the "special needs" section of the jail for cops and celebrities.

At least she won't be forced to do slave labor.

She'll be out in 23 days, not due to overcrowding, but because all inmates get that much time off for good behavior.

Good luck, Paris.

Boy, Fred Hiatt is unbelievable. Discussing the foreign policy views of Barack Obama and Mitt Romney, he writes:

[A]fter you cut through some of their campaign rhetoric, here's what you find:

(1) The two candidates' programs are strikingly similar to each other.

(2) Both are strikingly similar to Bush administration policy.

Obama like Bush? Okaaaaay. I bet Obama loves that. I guess one could go to the trouble of debunking this nonsense but is it really necessary? Hiatt is quite the wanker isn't he?

Tony Lagouranis interrogated prisoners in Iraq. He says "I tortured people."

At Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison, the site of the 2003-04 abuse scandal, Lagouranis used to relax in the old execution chamber. He and a friend would sit near the trapdoor and read the Arabic scratched into the wall. They found a dirty brown rope. It was the hangman's noose. "If there is an evil spot in the world, that was one of them," Lagouranis said.

At Abu Ghraib and sometimes at the facilities in Mosul, north Babil province and other places where Lagouranis worked, the Americans were shot at and attacked with mortar fire. "Then I get a prisoner who may have done it," he said. "What are you going to do? You just want to get back at somebody, so you bring this dog in. 'Finally, I got you.' "

Now, he's tortured. This is a long article, but it doesn't make me any more sympathetic towards Lagouranis than I was towards Charles Graner.

Why are we hearing about this now? Because his book is about to be published.

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