Rudy Giuliani spoke in Florida today, after the JFK terror bust. After his predictable comments about how the Democrats are in denial about terror threats facing the U.S., he spoke on some other issues.

Giuliani railed against Democrats in Washington pushing for a deadline to withdraw troops from Iraq. He also predicted that a Democratic president would bring higher taxes and ``socialized medicine.''

With the changes to various states' primary dates, and knowing he can't win in Iowa, Rudy has shifted his attention to Florida:

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The federal judge in California who issued a ban on California executions until the lethal injection issues were fixed, has extended the moratorium.

California's 15-month-old moratorium on executions was extended at least until October on Friday to give a federal judge time to visit a planned new death chamber at San Quentin and consider an array of proposed changes in the state's lethal injection procedures.

At a hearing in San Jose, U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel said he needs to see the rebuilt execution chamber before hearing arguments on the state's revisions in prison staff selection, training and infusion of the lethal chemicals.

Judge Fogel will visit San Quentin in October. After that, appeals are likely.

Here's why California needed a moratorium:

John Dean writes about Bush's dilemma in granting Scooter Libby a pardon and Fred Thompson's role in Libby's pardon-seeking process.

I have to take issue with one sentence. Dean writes,

Criminal defense attorneys with whom I have spoken expect that Judge Walton will choose a sentence of roughly 30 months (two-and-a-half years), and to give Libby at most a couple of days to get his affairs in order before surrendering to the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

Self-surrender doesn't work that way. There's no question the Judge will grant Libby a voluntary surrender to the designated institution. But, it's a matter of weeks, not days. Libby has to first be designated to a particular institution and that will be done by the Bureau of Prisons. They will consider any recommendation the Judge makes (which, if he makes one, will be based on wherever Libby asks to go) and then make a final decision.

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According to the U.S. Supreme Court, even if the police know that an arrestee's family has hired a lawyer for the arrestee, and know that the lawyer doesn't want the arrestee to be interrogated without counsel, the police may interrogate the arrestee if the arrestee agrees to answer questions without a lawyer. The arrestee must knowingly waive the right to counsel, but the police aren't required to tell the arrestee that a lawyer has been hired for him; it's up to the arrestee to ask for a lawyer even if the arrestee doesn't know that he already has one. (Many state appellate courts have concluded that their state constitutions are more respectful of the right to counsel.)

A prosecutor's ability to question a suspect under the same circumstances is a different story. At least in most places, a prosecutor (like other lawyers) is ethically prohibited from speaking to an adverse party who is represented by a lawyer about matters that fall within the scope of the lawyer's representation. A violation of that rule led to the suppression of Darren Mack's admission that he shot his wife.

Washoe County District Attorney Richard Gammick failed in his duties as a prosecutor by not telling Darren Mack during conversations they had while he was on the run in Mexico that he was represented by lawyers, a judge ruled Friday.

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Via teddysanfran, Michael Kinsley drinks from the cup of Steve Gilliard on funding the Iraq Debacle:

What are you supposed to do, according to supporters of the Iraq war, if you think that the war is a dreadful mistake? Suppose you are a member of Congress, elected by constituents who also, like most Americans, according to opinion polls, oppose the war. Is there any legitimate action you can take? Or must you simply allow the war to go on and let young Americans die in what you regard as a bad cause? What are your options?

NOT funding the war of course. And Kinsley gets to the point of how Democrats can not let the Republicans cow them on this point:

The blogger and good friend to many of us, Steve Gilliard, has passed away.

Steve was an inspiration to many of us; one of the clearest thinking, biggesthearted, straight talking persons you could possibly run across.

Speaking personally, I often took my cues from how Steve did it. Telling the truth was what Steve was about. Always.

May he rest in peace. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family.

Update (TL): Jane has a very moving tribute to Steve. I only got to meet him once, at the 2004 Republican convention in New York when we were all live-blogging at The Tank. We only chatted for a few minutes. My loss.

One of my favorite Steve Gilliard posts: Rudy and Judi Forever.

Update: DOJ press release here. The criminal complaint is here.

****

An FBI - Joint Terrorism Task Force news conference will be underway within minutes.

Three people have been arrested, including a U.S. citizen in connection with an alleged terror plot at JFK airport. Another of those arrested served in the Guyana Parliament. A fourth suspect is being sought.

This was a long-term investigation. The suspects allegedly targeted the infrastructure around the airport (fuel tanks and gas pipe lines), not airplanes.

The plan was aspirational, not operational. It was a preventive bust. It appears the group tried to recruit an FBI agent.

Russell Defreitas, the airport worker, will be arraigned this afternoon. The FBI has released wiretaps to the media.

Here's the main conversation the media is focusing on:

Via atrios and Instaputz.

My defenses (kidding) of Joe Klein finally struck gold. He didn't genuflect (a la Mark "Freak Show" Halperin) at the altar of Hugh Hewitt. But Joe can't help but falsely smear Left Blogs saying:

JK: You know, the most recent thing that I did that got them [the Left Blogs] ticked off was in my column not this week, but last week. I reported that there was good news in Al Anbar Province . . . I did this based on a lot of reporting, and including a high-ranking military official in Iraq, and I was accused of taking dictation from the Bush administration by some of the left wing bloggers. . . . [I]t’s because there are, you know, this doesn’t represent everybody on the left. It only represents a small segment. But there are people who just don’t want good news from Iraq. . . . JK: They want us to lose

Come on Joe. Criticizing you is not wanting us to lose. I disagreed with the criticism actually but for crissakes, what is it about your ego that would equate criticism of you with wanting us to lose? Sound like Bush on that one.

But now for the somewhat better Klein:

Jamison Foser details how the Media, especially its political reporters, are simply incompetent. I especially like the Frederick of Dollywood red pickup story:

So when longtime lobbyist and Hollywood actor Fred Thompson -- a man who once rented a red pickup truck in order to campaign in Tennessee as a man of the people -- indicated this week that he would seek the Republican presidential nomination, we knew how the media would describe him: Authentic. Folksy.
Let's back up a moment: Thompson didn't even drive the rented pickup, as The Washington Monthly reported in 1996[.] . . . . The pickup was, literally, a rented prop designed to help a wealthy actor/Washington lobbyist/trial lawyer play the role of salt-of-the-earth populist. . . .

The point of the story is how the political Media will just swallow it all:

As TalkLeft noted here, embattled Eastern District of Arkansas U.S. Attorney Tim Griffin resigned on Friday, reportedly to work for the Fred Thompson campaign, according to ArkansasBlog and CNN.

Griffin was one of those installed in the eight purged U.S. Attorney slots, reported everywhere. His predecessor was dumped December 21st, and Griffin was installed.

He refused to subject himself to Senate confirmation hearings, knowing he would be crucified for participating in Karl Rove's machinations to steal the Florida elections for Bush by the purge of African-American voters in Florida.

The Democrats in Arkansas were outraged.  He was toast.

The Fab Four performing at Abbey Road on the River Festival in Louisville, KY. A medley from Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.

The album was released 40 years ago today, June 1, 1967 -- just as I was getting ready to graduate from high school and the summer of love was kicking off. The times, they were a changing.

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This is just too good to be true. Listening to Keith Olbermann, the Paris Hilton in jail story borders on the complete breakdown of legitimate news coverage in America.

A few hours ago, the LA Times posted its article about the jails concerns for protecting her privacy in jail: Rules laid down for Paris' jail time. Since it was posted, it is the "most viewed" story on the Times website.

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