From the NYTimes:

Over the next few weeks, the new Democratic Congressional majority will try to translate public discontent with the war in Iraq into actual policy, with a series of votes on the withdrawal of combat troops from Iraq — the party’s most consequential votes yet. But the Democrats face some extraordinary political and institutional hurdles, which explain why Congress wades so reluctantly — and at times so achingly incrementally — into matters of war, veteran lawmakers say.

Extraordinary political and institutional hurdles? Balderdash. Leadership is all that is required. Getting out of Iraq is an EASY political call. Too many in the activist base (see Move On) and in the blogs (see the A List Left Blogs) think that we should "take it easy" on thye Dem leadership because "the GOP is worse" as if that is the question.

The question my friends is what is going to HELP the Dem Leadership get us out of Iraq. Letting the Blue Dogs be the only source of pressure, insisting on being the Kumbaya Caucus is to sit the battle out. We would do Pelosi and Reid no favors if we did that. They need to feel pressure from us so they can resist the pressure from the Blue Dogs.

A few months ago I wrote a post about a news article saying Google was looking to hire. In my fantasy world, I considered how much fun it would be to relocate to San Francisco and never have to write another brief. Then I checked the job offers at Google, and concluded there was not a single one I was even remotely qualified for.

Now the New York Times reports on Google's latest perk: Shuttles to work. Turns out, this is becoming Google's biggest draw as an employer. Forget the Grateful Dead chef, the real perk is the free ride to work.

So who is qualified for these jobs? I love what I do but there are some days I can't help but wonder what it would be like to have a job that had set start and stop times - where when you leave for the day, you're done until the next one. Law is never like that. You get home and still work. You go to sleep worrying about if someone is going to get off or get five years or twenty years. It never stops.

Alas, there is still nothing I can find in Google's job database that I am qualified for. What a shame. I'd so be there in a minute. At least I would on a day like today when I spent 8 hours writing and submitting a brief the outcome of which will either get my client five or twenty years. It's midnight on a Friday night and I'm still worrying.

(Guest Post by Terry Kindlon)

In 1968, as a 21 year old wounded Marine Sergeant, I got great medical care in a sparkling Navy hospital where I was treated with dignity and respect. When the Marine Corps decided that my injuries required a medical retirement I was quickly set up for a disability pension and introduced to a VA representative, right there in the hospital, who designed a plan for me that paid every single cent of my education, together with my living expenses.

While I was in college, this older, grandfatherly counselor from the VA would swing by once a month to tell me I was a nice kid, that he was proud of me and to say "keep up the good work." Same deal in law school where there were three other disabled vets in my class (including the extraordinarily talented and dedicated Ray Kelly, who's just finished a term as President of the New York State Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers) whose education was also being fully funded by the VA, and, of course, there were also dozens of regular, non-disabled vets who were able to go to law school because of the GI Bill. The VA even paid for my bar review course and sent me a check for $50 to cover the bar exam fee.

Because the VA did what it was designed to do I've been able to have a good life, to practice law, to become the father of seven remarkable kids and grandfather to four more. Not only that, but my taxes have now repaid the government's financial investment in me hundreds of times over. As equations go this is kind of a no-brainer.

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Good news for those who, like me, believe the Second Amendment confers an individual right to bear arms. The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals today holds it does. The opinion is here.

Covering the decision extensively: How Appealing, Instapundit, Volokh Conspiracy and Cato.

As Volokh notes, this is not the first federal appeals court to rule this way. The 5th Circuit did in U.S. v. Emerson, which I wrote about here, when contrasting with the 10th Circuit position.

My bottom line on the issue hasn't changed since 2002 when I started TalkLeft:

Being for the Second Amendment doesn't mean defense lawyers are not liberals. It means they won't give up any constitutional right, even ones they may not exercise personally. Give 'em an inch and.....besides, the Second Amendment is only one away from the Fourth.

Rudy Giuliani takes more heat, this time from the bipartisan New York firefighters union which blasts his "egregious" treatment of them after 9/11.

In a letter to its members Friday, the International Association of Fire Fighters, excoriated Giuliani for his November 2001 decision to cut back the number of firefighters searching the rubble of Ground Zero for the remains of some 300 fallen comrades.

The 280,000-member union accused him of carelessly expediting the cleanup process with a "scoop-and-dump" operation after the recovery of millions of dollars in gold, silver and other assets from the Bank of Nova Scotia that had been buried.

"Scoop and Dump" Rudy, it kind of has a ring to it, doesn't it?

Here's yet another reason to impeach Alberto Gonzales (remember I speak for me only on this, not Talk Left); from Ralph Neas and People for the American Way:

Americans learned today that the F.B.I. has been abusing its authority under the Patriot Act to obtain private information about American citizens without judicial approval. So says a report issued today by the Department of Justice’s inspector general.

At issue are “national security letters”—an executive branch mechanism that was greatly expanded by the Patriot Act and essentially allows the government to circumvent the longstanding requirement that warrants be obtained before individuals’ private data, such as telephone records, bank statements, or Internet data can be examined without those individuals’ approval. According to the inspector general’s report, the F.B.I. has been obtaining national security letters inappropriately or even illegally and the result has been an unwarranted intrusion into Americans’ privacy.

“This scandalous abuse of power is exactly why we opposed the Patriot Act in the first place,” said Ralph G. Neas, president of People For the American Way, a national nonpartisan civil rights and liberties organization with more than one million members and activists. “Our nation’s founders made the judiciary an independent check on the executive branch of government for a reason. They knew that without checks and balances, it is far too easy for government officials to abuse their power to the detriment of our constitutional rights. That’s exactly what we’re seeing now. The Patriot Act undermines checks and balances, and this is the consequence.”

Hearings began today for 14 Gitmo detainees to determine if they are enemy combatants. If so, they can be held indefinitely or tried in military tribunals.

Were any bloggers allowed in? Doubtful. Even the Associated Press was excluded.

The military allowed the media to cover previous hearings but this time has adopted more stringent rules, barring anyone without a special security clearance.

How will we know what transpired?

Edited transcripts of the hearings at the U.S. Navy base in southeast Cuba will be released later, Peppler said.

Democracy dies behind closed doors.

NYU Journalism Professor and blogger Jay Rosen has high praise for the team Firedoglake put together to cover the Scooter Libby trial:

"What happens? One blog puts more boots on the ground than any commercial news operation. The writers bring more background, savvy and commitment to the case. And they dominate in coverage of a big news event. Journalists themselves use it to keep up and get their bearings."

How did they do it? With help from their readers.

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Grits for Breakfast reports on the blooming sex scandal at Texas' youth prisons. Hearings are underway and Grits has been live-blogging. From yesterday's update:

What does it say about the criminal justice system that, with all the sex offender hype going on last year during the campaign season, Texas' elite state police couldn't get an alleged pedophile running a youth prison indicted?

Grits provides these links to others following the story: Houston Chronicle, the Dallas News, the Brownsville Herald, KEYE-TV (with video of the Ranger's testimony), and the Washington Post. From the blogs, see Capitol Annex, Texas Politics, the Texas Observer blog, Kuff, Patricia Hart at BurkaBlog, and Rep. Peña's A Capitol Blog. though the best blog headline of the day goes to In the Pink Texas: "T Why C." Here's information about the new 24/7 TYC Abuse Hotline discussed at the hearing.

In telling us that Rudy the megalamaniac should not be President, Jim Sleeper perpetuates the myth that Rudy was some kind of Super Mayor. Why must this myth persist? Sleeper writes:

He forced New York, that great capital of “root cause” explanations for every social problem, to get real about remedies that work, at least for now, in the world as we know it.

You see, before Rudy, New York was not "real about remedies that work." I have one question for Sleeper - what was Rudy's remedy for the public education system in New York City?

Sleeper is just making it up, perhaps to improve his "not a liberal" creds on the issue. He does his argument no favors.

Congressman David Obey is a terrific, hardworking, committed Congressman who wants to end the Iraq Debacle. He had a bad moment with some citizens working to end the war.

As one of the "idiot liberals" (actually I am not a liberal at all, I'm an anti-Debacle Centrist) Obey references, I want to take a moment to defend Congressman Obey. Was he uncivil? Of course. Was he inappropriate?" Perhaps. But do you think Obey does not care? Or does not want to end the Debacle? Of course he does.

I have an op-ed today in the Rocky Mountain News, Scooter Libby Takes One for the Team. It's about why I was rooting for both sides in different ways, and why, although I think the verdict was correct, I feel cheated. Hope you'll read it.