After live-blogging the Scooter Libby trial, it seemed natural to me to give it another try for the insider trading trial of former Qwest CEO Joseph Nacchio. I live-blogged the jury selection, opening arguments and first day of testimony last week, over at 5280.com

David Kopel, writing in Saturday's Rocky Mountain News, has this review of internet trial coverage.

Denver criminal defense lawyer and civil liberties advocate Jeralyn Merritt runs the TalkLeft.com weblog, which sets a great example of how to write about legal issues in an intelligent way while still connecting with readers who haven't gone to law school. Merritt has been live-blogging the Nacchio trial for 5280 magazine's weblog, Elevated Voices.

She provides a running semi-transcript of courtroom events, in far greater detail than you can find anywhere else while the court is in session. She doesn't attend every day of the trial, but when she's there, Elevated Voices is the best Web site for up-to-the minute coverage.

The trial runs Monday through Thursday. This week I'll be there live-blogging Monday and Tuesday. TChris will be blogging here.

The Chicago Tribune has a great editorial today on why the death penalty should be abolished. The chief reasons:

• Arbitrary decisions as to whom it's applied
• Racial disparity in its application
• The increasing number of wrongfully convicted inmates, as revealed by DNA tests conducted after their trials

Who gets a sentence of life and who gets death is often a matter of random luck, of politics, of geography, even a matter of racism. Mistakes can occur at every level of the process.

More...

Kirk Osborn, one of the chief lawyers for accused Duke lacrosse player Reade Seligman, has died, following a massive heart attack on Friday.

Osborn was a respected lawyer who had been in high-profile cases for years. He had participated in a number of death penalty cases and his wife said he was most proud that he had never lost a death penalty case.

R.I.P. Mr. Osborn, and I'm very sorry that you didn't live to see your client vindicated, as I expect he will be when the Attorney General's office concludes its investigation.

More....

Two of the fired U.S. Attorneys were on Meet the Press this morning. They said they believe they were fired for political purposes, there's a cloud over the Justice Department.

Two members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Senators Dick Durbin and Arlen Specter, said Alberto Gonzales' credibility is at stake.

Now the attorney general's statement of just a few days ago has been contradicted by a fact,'' Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.,) said of Gonzales on NBC News' Meet the Press today. "He was involved in a meeting… It really raises a question of credibility.

"This shadow, this cloud, across the U.S. attorney offices all across the country has to be lifted,'' Durbin said, adding of Gonzales: "I don’t believe he enjoys the confidence of the American people or the Congress.''

More...

In defense of Move On, which I view as a largely red herring issue that distracts frm the discussion of themerits of the Dem moves that some endorse, Matt Stoller also makes some statements about how the thinks the Iraq supplemental funding bill will play for Dems politically:

[T]here is handwringing about whether the Democrats will 'own the war' in 2008 because they will ultimately end up voting for military funding. I don't think so. Just look at the Pew poll to see whether Democrats own the war -. . . the public knows that this legislation will run up against a temper tantrum from Bush, and doesn't see it as a particularly big game-changer one way or the other. . . . Democrats will not own the war in a political sense, because Democrats by and large oppose it and Republicans do not. People aren't stupid.

Yes, people are NOT that stupid. They know that a Pew poll that reflects upon the attitudes expressed by an out of power Democratic Party, NOT the actions a Democratic Congress. Matt must be kidding to cite that Pew poll as predictive of what will happen. Ironically, Atrios put his finger on what the problem is with the Iraq supplemental funding bill:

Bumped...

A Bloomberg Republican:

For at least a year before the 2004 Republican National Convention, teams of undercover New York City police officers traveled to cities across the country, Canada and Europe to conduct covert observations of people who planned to protest at the convention, according to police records and interviews.

From Albuquerque to Montreal, San Francisco to Miami, undercover New York police officers attended meetings of political groups, posing as sympathizers or fellow activists, the records show.

From these operations, run by the department’s “R.N.C. Intelligence Squad,” the police identified a handful of groups and individuals who expressed interest in creating havoc during the convention . . . But potential troublemakers were hardly the only ones to end up in the files. In hundreds of reports stamped “N.Y.P.D. Secret,” the Intelligence Division chronicled the views and plans of people who had no apparent intention of breaking the law, the records show.

Yes, that is how police states are operated.

More...

See also corrente.

Provided by Democratic Wise Man Lee Hamilton:

President Bush staked out his position on Iraq in January, and the House has now staked out its own. Deep divisions between these positions signal a stalemate among our political leaders. There is no unity of effort. Yet the president and the Democratic majorities in Congress will remain in office for nearly two years. They must seek a bipartisan consensus in the months ahead; otherwise, our efforts in Iraq will falter. . . . The House outlines a 2008 target date for U.S. forces to leave Iraq. It sets a direction for policy but leaves implementation to the president. The residual force it authorizes gives the president considerable flexibility to protect U.S. interests with a substantial presence of U.S. troops. The president manages the war and makes the decision about the force level needed to defend U.S. military forces and civilians in Iraq . . . This transition is flexible, not fixed. . . .

Firm "targets?" The President makes the decision about force level? This was the "big win?" Democrats and the Netroots have been had. Hamilton shows you what is to come. The drive for consensus will remove the few teeth left in the House bill. A month from now the gnashing of the missing teeth begins.

It's time to revisit Operation TIDE, the Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment. The Washington Post reports it's quadrupled in size and the FBI is now monitoring 1,000 people a day.

Here's how it's done:

Each day, thousands of pieces of intelligence information from around the world -- field reports, captured documents, news from foreign allies and sometimes idle gossip -- arrive in a computer-filled office in McLean, where analysts feed them into the nation's central list of terrorists and terrorism suspects.

....President Bush ordered the intelligence community in 2003 to centralize data on terrorism suspects, and U.S. agencies at home and abroad now send everything they collect to TIDE. It arrives electronically as names to be added or as additional information about people already in the system.

Here's the danger for us ordinary folks:

As always the invective in this post is solely attributable to me

George Will uses unacceptable invective:

There are the tantrums -- sometimes both theatrical and perfunctory -- of talking heads on television or commentators writing in vitriol (Paul Krugman's incessant contempt, Ann Coulter's equally constant loathing).

Did George Will just compare Paul Krugman to Ann Coulter? To write that, Will must have been very angry, temporarily insane or just plain mendacious.

A new low for George Will. He thinks he is being clever in his vitriol towards Krugman. Foolishly angry George Will.

John and Elizabeth Edwards' decision to continue John's quest for the presidential nomination in light of medical tests returned this week showing she has a second cancer battle to face has brought out a range of reactions.

• The Worst: Rush Limbuagh
• Second Worst: Time Magazine's Jay Carney
• Best: Jane Hamsher at Firedoglake.

  Tune into 60 Minutes Sunday Night to hear more from the Edwards.

Florida Governor Jeb Bush won't be getting an honorary degree from the University of Florida. The Senate Faculty voted against it on Thursday.

Some faculty expressed concern about Bush's record in higher education.

"I really don't feel this is a person who has been a supporter of UF," Kathleen Price, associate dean of library and technology at the school's Levin College of Law, told The Gainesville Sun after the vote.

Other dealbreakers:

Bush's approval of three new medical schools during his tenure has diluted resources, Price told the newspaper.

Bush has also been criticized for his "One Florida" proposal, an initiative that ended race-based admissions programs at state universities.

Rejection is a rare phenomenon.

"It is unheard of that a faculty committee would look at candidates, make recommendations and then (those candidates) be overturned by the Senate."

Fresh from snubbing Jeb Bush snark, the defending champion Mighty Gators now take on the Oregon Furs Ducks and their dynamic under 6 foot team (see the exciting 5' 6"" Tajuan Porter) (just kidding), to continue their drive to repeat. I think the Gators should and will win the game. It is not clear how Oregon stops Florida's inside dominance. The Gators advance to a Finals rematch against UCLA.

You'll get sick of watching Michael Jordan's defining 1982 championship winning jumper and Fred Brown's ill fated "pass" to James Worthy in the pregame runup to the Georgetown-North Carolina game. This has the making of a great game. North Carolina has oodles and oodles of talent - Hansbrough, Wright, Lawson and a seeming cast of thousands. But I like Georgetwon to win today. I think Georgetown has the discipline, talent and frontline to not only stand up to Carolina, but to dominate them. Georgetown advances to face Ohio State.

I hit both games yesterday, having picked Ohio State and UCLA.