Even if you have no interest in the teams playing in today's Superbowl, you may be intrigued by a panel discussion of the NFL's inclusionary hiring practices which are credited with increasing the number of black coaches and general managers in professional football. The American Constitution Society offers a streaming video of the discusson, featuring "a senior NFL official, a legendary NFL player, a leading civil rights attorney and a respected sports journalist."

An ACS email explains the significance of today's coaching matchup and its broader implications for inclusionary hiring practices.

For the first time in NFL history, the winning coach of the Super Bowl will be African-American. While the history of African-American coaches in the NFL dates back to Frederick Douglass “Fritz” Pollard in 1921, the next African-American head coach of an NFL team was not hired until 1989, when Art Shell was hired by the Oakland Raiders.

Another Republican Representative from California is under investigation, according to the NY Times.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation is investigating whether Representative Gary G. Miller, Republican of California, improperly used an unusual tax provision to avoid paying capital gains taxes on profits from land sales to California cities, law enforcement and government officials said.

Miller avoided taxes on the sale of property in Monrovia by obtaining a letter from the City "suggesting that the land could be condemned." There was no apparent risk that the City would use its power of eminent domain to take the property. Miller may have used the same scheme to avoid taxes on the sale of property in Fontana.

The deadliest suicide bombing to date occurred in Iraq today. More than 100 were killed and 300 were injured, many of whom are expected to die.

The pick-up truck that exploded was left at the entrance of a market in Sadriya, a low-income, predominantly Shiite area, police said. The truck was driven by a suicide bomber and packed with at least a ton of explosives, Major General Jihad al-Jabiri, director of the Interior Ministry's explosives division, told Iraqi TV.

The blast destroyed at least 10 buildings, Jabiri said, including two that were completely leveled.

Meanwhile, a new U.S. Intelligence report predicts a bleak future for Iraq:

Former New York police officer Charles Schwarz, convicted in the brutal sodomy case of Haitian immigrant Abner Louima, has been released from federal prison to a halfway house. He served less than five years.

His plans for the future: to move to the "northern part of the country" and seek outdoor work, perhaps becoming a carpenter.

After a conviction, reversal and two more trials that ended in hung juries, Schwarz pleaded guilty to perjury. To this day, his lawyer argues the memory defense.

“The worst that Chuck did is that he saw Mr. Volpe walking Mr. Louima toward the bathroom, and when he was asked about that, a cop being a cop, he said he didn’t remember it,” Mr. Fischetti said.

The New York Times has an interesting article in the travel section on Cuba's Jewish population, now estimated at 1,500. I thought this was interesting:

[Adela Dworin, president of the Jewish community in Cuba]...had the opportunity to meet Mr. Castro in 1998, and asked him why he had never visited the Jewish community, to which he replied: “Because I was never invited.” Ms. Dworin promptly invited him to the coming Hanukkah celebration at the Patronato. When Mr. Castro asked what Hanukkah was, Ms. Dworin explained that the holiday celebrates the “revolution” — a word Castro likes — of the Jewish people.

To her surprise, Mr. Castro showed up at the party of 200, sat next to her in the front row and addressed the congregation in a lengthy speech.

In my continuing campaign of disagreeing with Left bloggers and writers, I now turn to everybody's favorite (but my favorite first) blogger, Digby, who appears to endorse the very line of argument I find infuriating:

Deciding what to do next about Iraq is hard — on the merits, and in the politics. . . . By comparison, Iran is easy: on the merits, in the politics. . . . While the Congress flounders about what, exactly, it can do about Iraq, it can do something useful, while it still matters, in making clear that it will authorize no money and provide no endorsement for military action against Iran.

. . . It may be just this possibility that has the administration carrying on so about how Iranians are behind the killing of Americans even though it is an absurdity. They would like to create the conditions where they can say that anyone failing to back action in Iran is failing to protect the troops.

In a sane world, the congress would move very quickly on this before that notion jells. But it won't, because they believe they must allow the president to have all "options on the table," --- . . . Still, that seems to be where they are, at least with respect to Iran. Not only are they not prepared to stop it, they are either silent on the issue or actively supporting the premise upon which the president's argument is built.

First, Digby appears to implicitly endorse the Fallows "put Iraq on the back burner" proposal which is simply unacceptable. Second, Digby simply ignores the very strong statements Democrats have made against attacking Iran, including the most crucial argument - Bush has no authority to attack Iran:

It may be Saturday, but Fitzgerald and Team Libby have filed new briefs arguing about the admission of two Washington Post articles from October, 2003 by Walter Pincus and Mike Allen, both of which were contained in Libby's files and had been underlined in part. They argued about this in court this week and Judge Walton told them to file briefs. [Note: This post is ridiculously long because it contains detailed quotes from the briefs.]

Fitz's brief is here and Libby's brief is here.

Government Exhibit 422 is a copy of a three-page article by Walter Pincus and Mike Allen entitled, “FBI Agents Tracing Linkage of Envoy to CIA Operative,” which was published in the Washington Post on October 12, 2003.

Doubts are growing in the blogosphere that Dick Cheney will in fact be a witness for Scooter Libby at his trial. Marcy (Empty Wheel) explores this today at Huffington Post and concludes Cheney won't be called.

Marcy reminds us that FBI Agent Bond testified Thursday that Libby told the FBI in his second FBI interview in the fall of 2003 that he and Cheney might have discussed leaking Plame's identity to reporters.

As soon as Libby admitted to talking with Cheney about leaking Plame's identity, he committed to one of two scenarios: either he and Cheney both forgot Plame's identity, both learned it "as if it were new" from journalists, and thought that a piece of news that was forgettable in June was so newsworthy in July that they should share it with journalists. Or, he and Cheney learned of Plame's identity through classified channels and a month later decided to share that information with journalists. We're in the realm of an IIPA violation, folks, barring Cheney claiming that he declassified Valerie Wilson's identity ... without telling her (which is where I think Cheney's prepared to go, if it gets that far--that should make the Wilsons' civil suit all the more delectable, I think).

I think there's another reason Cheney will back off from testifying -- and it goes to the heart of the case against Libby.

Here is a new line of thinking I find extremely infuriating, via TPM:

Deciding what to do next about Iraq is hard — on the merits, and in the politics. It’s hard on the merits because whatever comes next, from “surge” to “get out now” and everything in between, will involve suffering, misery, and dishonor. . . . By comparison, Iran is easy: on the merits, in the politics. War with Iran would be a catastrophe that would make us look back fondly on the minor inconvenience of being bogged down in Iraq. While the Congress flounders about what, exactly, it can do about Iraq, it can do something useful, while it still matters, in making clear that it will authorize no money and provide no endorsement for military action against Iran.

Matt Yglesias ran with the same nonsense the other day:

[W]hat I'd urge everyone to do is keep their eyes on the real ball in the air at the moment: Iran. If Bush really bombs Iran and spineless Democrats back him ex post facto then the whole Iraq dynamic changes dramatically, and not for the better. If you want to hassle your member of congress on behalf of some peacenik cause this month, hassle him or her about Iran.

This is so wrong, so obtuse, so plain dumb from both Fallows and Yglesias, that I simply can't understand how they came to think these things. Let's be clear -- the chance of Congress authorizing military action against Iran is zero. Zilch. None. Bush will not even consider asking for it. Everyone must know this. How could they not? The ONLY reason Bush can even contemplate action against Iran is - surprise - BECAUSE WE ARE IN IRAQ! You want to stop military action against Iran? Then work like hell to get us out of Iraq. This is too obvious. How could these smart people not see this?

On the ridiculous over-reaction to the Boston non-terror scare:

• Boing-Boing

• Sean Bonner

• Metroblogging Boston:

Next, let's all get out our dictionary and look up "hoax", shall we? Because while "War of the Worlds" was a hoax, this was not. There was no subterfuge involved, and no effort made to convince people that these devices were bombs. If I see a scary looking tree out my bedroom window, think it's a monster, and then discover upon closer inspection that it isn't, it doesn't mean the tree has perpetrated a hoax against me. What it means is that for a moment I took leave of my senses. And just because I'm embarrassed about it doesn't give me the right to go cut down the tree.

Municipalities that are unwilling to pay competitive salaries to attract qualified law enforcement officers are too often willing to overlook evidence that a candidate can't be trusted to use good judgment. This is the "spotty record" that Kevin Freibott brought with him when he applied for a position with Jersey City:

Officer Freibott was fired from the department [in Middletown, NJ] in 2001 after a car accident outside a bar and grill in Atlantic Highlands in which he was driving with an expired license. Although he was reinstated after petitioning the state, he received a six-month suspension. ... Officer Freibott’s history included seven accidents, six moving violations and three license suspensions, including a drunken-driving violation in 1988 and the revocation of his license for failure to comply with a drug and alcohol program.

Is this the kind of guy who should be trusted with a badge and a gun? Jersey City thought so. Its police department hired Friebott to work a midnight shift. On January 23, he spent the evening partying in New York City, got tanked, and rear-ended a Grand Am, killing two of its occupants. At least Freibott wasn't on his way to report for duty: he was out on sick leave.

Raw Story reports that Hillary Clinton gave a speech at an event by the pro-Israel lobbying group AIPAC Friday night in which she refused to rule out using miltary force with Iran.

Clinton told some 1,700 AIPAC supporters that the US must take any step to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.

"U.S. policy must be clear and unequivocal: We cannot, we should not, we must not permit Iran to build or acquire nuclear weapons," she said. "In dealing with this threat ... no option can be taken off the table."

"To deny the Holocaust places Iran's leadership in company with the most despicable bigots and historical revisionists," she added. Clinton excoriated the Iranian administration's "pro-terrorist, anti-American, anti-Israeli rhetoric."

"We need to use every tool at our disposal, including diplomatic and economic in addition to the threat and use of military force," she added.

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