Attorney General Alberto Gonzales today defended the firing of Seattle U.S. Attorney John McKay, even though a month before the firing, his Chief of Staff, Kyle Sampson, wrote e-mails to the White House Counsel's office urging support for McKay to be named a federal judge, saying "it's highly unlikely that we could do better."

Check the double speak. All of a sudden, Gonzales claims what Sampson writes is "just the opinion of one person."

"That doesn't represent the views of the department, nor does it represent my view," Gonzales said.

So now we have an Attorney General who allowed a loose cannon shooting off his mouth to serve as his Chief of Staff? What does that say about his leadership?

Update: Jane Hamsher at Firedoglake predicts things are going to get worse for the White House in this scandal.

More and more kids are being locked up in adult jails. A new reports finds:

Despite a federal law that prohibits the incarceration of youth in adult correctional facilities, the number of young people held in jails across the country has exploded by 208 percent since the 1990s, according to a new report released today at the national press club by the Campaign for Youth Justice.

States exploit a loophole in federal law, which was designed to protect youth from the proven dangers of adult jails but only applies to youth in the juvenile justice system. Congress is considering the reauthorization of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act (JJDPA) this year, and advocates are asking that all youth under 18 be protected from incarceration in adult facilities.

It’s rare to see a lobbyist doing something as useful as advocating for laws that reduce jail populations. Meet former Texas State Rep. Suzanna Gratia Hupp, R-Lampasas, who recently opened a lobbying practice.

Ms. Hupp is the lobbyist for and one of three founders of Texans for Public Safety Solutions. It supports passage of HB 2391, which would let law enforcement officers write citations to -- and not have to take to jail -- people who are found with less than 2 ounces of marijuana, an expired driver's license or in the act of trespassing.

DEA Administrator Karen Tandy testified before the House Committee on Appropriations regarding DEA's FY2008 budget request, describing DEA's significant "successes" over the past year, and of course, asking for more money.

Her proposed $2.4 billion budget represents an increase of $110 million over the FY2007 President's budget.

You can read her testimony here.

I guess the $205 million seized this week was just a drop in the bucket. $2.4 billion for the war on drugs? I bet there's a ton of pork in that amount.

[hat tip to Paul Armentano of NORML.}

TalkLeft has been loading really slowly for me today. Colin at Scoophost says,

"There appear to be issues with a router owned by Time Warner, one of the upstream network providers through which you may access this site. The connectivity is fully redundant so only a small percentage of visitors will experience problems with some percentage of their requests. We are actively pursuing a resolution to this issue."

Update from Time Warner below:

Criminal defense lawyers take note. This year's NORML Aspen legal conference (June 9 - 10th) promises to be outstanding. Tommy Chong, Tony Serra (just released from federal prison on a tax misdemeanor and back practicing law) will be featured, and we will again be spending an afternoon at Hunter Thompson's Owl farm.

[NORML}will be holding another NORML legal seminar in Aspen, CO in early June. Among the many terrific speakers on the Aspen program, we are delighted to announce that Tommy Chong, of the famous duo Cheech and Chong, will be our featured luncheon speaker.

Tommy, as you may recall, was selectively prosecuted by the federal government a couple of years ago for selling pipes on the Internet, for which he ended up serving nine months in prison. His topic for the seminar is titled Why Pot Is Still Illegal and Why Dave Is Still Not Here. This experience has clearly left Tommy feeling a renewed sense of urgency for the need to legalize marijuana and stop arresting responsible marijuana smokers.

More....

I was distracted yesterday and didn't write about last night's Sweet 16 games. And what games they were. Ohio State produced another miracle to stay alive. For the record, I picked Ohio State to win but the fact is Tennessee should have won so no glory there. Texas A&M lost a heartbreaker to Memphis, I had A&M in my Final Four. I think this is a break for Ohio State. They will beat Memphis and go tothe Final Four. Kansas survived a scare from SIU. They face UCLA, who beat Pitt, on Saturday. I like UCLA in that game.

Tonight the Gators play Butler. There is some history as those who follow this will have heard already. I am probably going to jinx my Gators but they should win this game easily. UNC faces USC in what should be the game of the night. I have picked UNC to win this game before. But I think USC can and will pull the upset tonight. In the other game, Georgetown will easily handle Vandy, which has had a great tourney. The matchup is terrible for Vandy imo. A hardnosed defensive team which is very patient offensively.

Add your March Madness thoughts here.

Rumors have been rampant this week that the North Carolina's Attorney General's office would be announcing the dismissal of all charges against the three accused former Duke Lacrosse players.

The Attorney General's office now says, "Not so fast." It's not true...at least not this week.

Our review of the case, including reviewing documents and conducting interviews, is continuing," Talley said. "[A] decision hasn't been made. ... We expect our review of the case to wrap up within the next few weeks and ... no announcements about the case by our office have been scheduled."

As I always I speak only for me

Atrios is as smart as a whip and much more progressive than me, a dirty corporation defending lawyer. He, along with the other 800 pound Left Blog gorilla, Markos, has not an ounce of corruption in them. Indeed, I have been an arse in defending them from scurrilous charges in the past. But he is missing the point in this piece:

[W]e're having another round of "my opinions are pure yours are somehow corrupted" in the blogosphere. I don't claim to be right about everything, but the fact that I disagree with you doesn't necessarily involve some grand conspiracy.

This is about the Iraq supplemental. I strongly disagreed with the position taken by Atrios, MYDD, Sirota and others because I believe they are wrong. But also because, for the most part, their arguments (excepting Sirota's) were largely based on hometeamism, support the Dem leadership rationales. This is a form of cooptation. Not corruption.

This sounds not good; a more detailed story here:

Iranian naval vessels on Friday seized 15 British sailors and marines who had boarded a merchant ship in Iraqi waters of the Persian Gulf, British and U.S. officials said. Britain immediately protested the detentions, which come at a time of high tension between the West and Iran.

In London, the British government summoned the Iranian ambassador to the Foreign Office and demanded "the immediate and safe return of our people and equipment." Iran had no immediate comment.

Britain's Defense Ministry said the British Navy personnel were "engaged in routine boarding operations of merchant shipping in Iraqi territorial waters," and had completed a ship inspection when they were accosted by the Iranian vessels.

Routine boarding? Sounds like a recipe for disaster.

Even as Jack Abramoff hopes to be rewarded for helping the government prosecute his cohorts, the Justice Department announced that Steven Griles, the former Deputy Secretary of the Interior Department, will plead guilty to a single count of obstructing justice in connection with the Abramoff investigation.

The former No. 2 official at the Interior Department has agreed to a felony plea admitting that he lied five times to the Senate Indian Affairs Committee and its investigators about his relationship with Abramoff, people involved in the case told the AP. Griles will admit in federal court Friday that he concealed that he had a unique relationship with Abramoff, people involved in the case said on condition of anonymity, because a federal judge had not yet approved the plea deal.

The government will ask for no more than the minimum guideline sentence of 10 months, half of which can be served at home. This seems a sweet deal for Griles, considering that prosecutors are dropping allegations that Griles used his position to help Abramoff

Prosecutors in January had outlined other possible charges against Griles. They included "honest services" fraud, based on his meetings with Abramoff; lying to Congress about information favorable to Abramoff that Griles had passed on to other Interior officials; and lying to Congress and criminal conflict of interest over a job that Abramoff had offered to Griles.

The new Netroots CW on the Iraq supplemental funding bill has been set by Markos and I will give it this, it is a much more honest and realistic position than the previous argument that this bill actually was worth a darn. No more "first concrete step" nonsense. Now the point is the House Dems' proposal will never become law. I guess I should be happy, there seems to be a new consensus for my no funding proposal. But I am not. Because I disagree with the analysis. I will explain why on the flip.