Amnesty International released a new report today, "USA: Cruel and Inhuman -- Conditions of Isolation for Detainees in Guantanamo Bay."

More than 80% of the 385 detainees are held in isolation, "a reversal of earlier moves to ease conditions and allow more socializing among detainee." While some detainees are held in solitary confinement at Camp Echo and Camp 5, conditions are worst at Camp 6, which opened in December.

Detainees are reportedly confined for 22 hours a day to individual, enclosed, steel cells where they are almost completely cut off from human contact. The cells have no windows to the outside or access to natural light or fresh air. No activities are provided, and detainees are subjected to 24- hour lighting and constant observation by guards through the narrow windows in the cell doors. They exercise alone in a high-walled yard where little sunlight filters through; detainees are often only offered exercise at night and may not see daylight for days at a time.

Many of these detainees have been held for more than five years without charges.

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Our imperial president is up to his usual tricks.

President Bush today made three controversial recess appointments, bypassing the need for Senate confirmation.

The president used recess appointments to install Sam Fox, a major Republican donor from Missouri, to be ambassador to Belgium; Andrew G. Biggs of New York to be deputy commissioner of Social Security, and Susan E. Dudley of Virginia to be administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs at the office of Management and Budget.

One, Sam Fox, was a financier of the Swift Boat circus against John Kerry. The Administration had withdrawn his nomination in March.

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I just received a copy of "The Italian Letter: How the Bush Administration Used a Fake Letter to Build the Case for the War in Iraq" by investigative journalists Peter Eisner and Knut Royce. I'm really looking forward to reading it.

The book traces the history of the forged letter that listed the sale of 500 tons of uranium from Niger to Iraq. It also explains how the letter played a critical role in the trial of Scooter Libby.

Among the books findings:

• A simple google search by the CIA on the "verbatim text" of the accord it received from the Italian Embassy on Feb. 5, 2002 could have changed history. The text is full of errors including incorrect names and dates. Had the CIA done a simple information search, the hoax would have been discovered and died then and there.

• There's another Scooter Libby story, and it's one that says Libby took the fall for Karl Rove. The authors also say Rove floated the idea to conservative supporters of dropping Dick Cheney from the 2004 ticket. Cheney found out and was far from pleased.

• Cheney had been told many times by intelligence operatives over a period of years there was no evidence of an Iraqi nuclear program or operational ties between Iraq and al-Qaeda.

Co-Author Peter Eisner discussed the book online at the Washington Post yesterday.

Digby cited to some real insight on the Bush calculus on the Iraq supplemental funding bill from Gene Lyons and then added some of the special Digby insight. It got me to thinking, and hopefully adding some insights of my own. But first, Gene Lyons:

Here’s a puzzle: If President Bush really thinks he’s holding all the cards in his impending showdown with congressional Democrats over Iraq funding, why bother with a veto ? On previous occasions when Congress passed laws Bush found irksome, he’s quietly issued “signing statements” declaring in essence that the president is a law unto himself. . . . Two somewhat paradoxical reasons. First, the stakes are too high, because everybody’s watching. Bush may be commander-in-chief, but the United States isn’t yet a military dictatorship. Second, some Republicans have convinced themselves they’ve got the Democrats where they want them.

The first is the right answer. Too many people have become convinced that Bush can do anything and get away with it. Only if Dems LET him. Look at Gonzogate The second I think is not true. I do not believe there isa Republican in the United States that does not believe Bush is leading them towards an unprecedented electoral disaster in 2008. I think Lyons is wrong on 2. Then why will the GOP not jump off of Bush's political kamikaze mission? I'll tell you why I think they aren't on the flip.

True Majority, a group begun by Ben and Jerry's ice cream, is offering a free year's worth of ice cream to the reader who accurately predicts the date and time Alberto Gonzales will step down as Attorney General.

Gonzales is now in DC, having canceled a family vacation, to be prepped for his testimony,before a Senate panel on April 17.

A lot of money collected by Obama:

Sen. Barack Obama raised at least $25 million dollars during the first quarter for his presidential campaign, a total surprisingly close to the $26 million collected by his chief rival for the Democratic nomination, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton. . . . Obama raised $6.9 million—more than a quarter of his total—over the Internet from more than 50,000 online donors, the Illinois Democrat's campaign said from Chicago this morning. Overall, Obama received contributions from more than 100,000 individuals, his campaign said.

The question is this for me - Obama, the political rock star, raised alot of money. Obama the wishy washy pol, the one we have seen on Iraq, will he remain as popular? Will he raise as much money? We'll see.

Obama supporters have complained bitterly about Left Blog criticism of Obama being punked by Bush on Iraq. Do you think they are going to complain about David Ignatius taking the same "AP falsehood" and pouring some love on Obama for it?

A glimmer of hope that U.S. politicians haven't all lost their minds was a statement this week by Barack Obama challenging his party's extreme wing. "I think that nobody wants to play chicken with our troops on the ground," he said in an interview with the Associated Press. "I don't think that we will see a majority of the Senate vote to cut off funding at this stage."

Well Obama supporters, any outrage at Ignatius? He reaches the same factual conclusion on the AP story, but likes Obama getting punked. Some of us do not like it. Ignatius thinksa this is a good time for pushback not against Bush but against the Left:

If Obama is in fact ready to challenge his party's most partisan activists, perhaps he is a man who can meet Hamilton's test [of Beltway Broderism BS "Bipartisanship.]

Ignatius is a Beltway Idiot of longstanding. That he thinks these ridiculous things is not new. Is this now Obama's target audience?

Chris Bowers, writing about the stupid blogrolling dispute (easy for me to say right? TalkLeft is linked, thanks to J.), actually stumbles into interesting ground:

What are individual bloggers trying to accomplish? What is the blogosphere in general trying to accomplish? . . . I am not saying I know the answer to those questions. I'm just saying that before anyone is accused of anything, people should explain their motives for blogging, ask others to explain their motives, and then see if those motives intersect.

Explaining motives, disclosure of conflicts, etc., is all important stuff and something the Netroots need to do better, but I am still much more interested, in another part of what Chris writes:

[A]s an activist blogger, I seek ways to help make progressive political machinery more effective.

Does that describe how the "Netroots leadership" generally have functioned on Iraq and the Iraq supplemental funding bill? I think the answer is obviously no. I have written a lot on why I think so but I will remind everyone on the flip.

Things didn't go too well after Karl Rove's appearance at American University in Washington Tuesday night.

Rove was on the campus to talk to the College Republicans, but when he got outside more than a dozen students began throwing things at him and at his car, an American University spokesperson said.

The students then got on the ground and laid down in front of his car as a protest.he students said security officials picked them up and carried them away so Rove could leave.

There were no arrests and police described the protest as "peaceful."

The former FBI agent who is missing in Iran has been identified as Robert Levinson. He also worked for the D.E.A.

Retired from the FBI for over a decade, the agency says he was not working for the Government. A U.S. official says it was unlikely he was working on a political project.

OUT Magazine has named the 50 most powerful gays in America.

#2 is CNN's Anderson Cooper.
#19 is the blogosphere's John Aravosis
#43 is actress Jodie Foster

New York Magazine has the entire list.

FBI and CIA Agents have been interrogating terror suspects in Ethiopian secret jails.

CIA and FBI agents hunting for al-Qaida militants in the Horn of Africa have been interrogating terrorism suspects from 19 countries held at secret prisons in Ethiopia, which is notorious for torture and abuse, according to an investigation by The Associated Press.

Human rights groups, lawyers and several Western diplomats assert hundreds of prisoners, who include women and children, have been transferred secretly and illegally in recent months from Kenya and Somalia to Ethiopia, where they are kept without charge or access to lawyers and families.

The detainees include at least one U.S. citizen and some are from Canada, Sweden and France, according to a list compiled by a Kenyan Muslim rights group and flight manifests obtained by AP.

The U.S. defends the interrogations.

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