Opponents of the president's desire to keep a substantial number of troops in harm's way in Iraq (much less to increase their numbers) have differed in their proposals to bring the troops home. Sen. Russ Feingold began a hearing today before the Senate Judiciary Committee, entitled "Exercising Congress’s Constitutional Power to End a War," with this statement, in which he calls upon the legislature to exercise its power to defund the war.

Excerts:

Tomorrow, I will introduce legislation that will prohibit the use of funds to continue the deployment of U.S. forces in Iraq six months after enactment. By prohibiting funds after a specific deadline, Congress can force the President to bring our forces out of Iraq and out of harm’s way. ...

We are here to find out from [expert witnesses] not what Congress should do, but what Congress can do. Ultimately, it rests with Congress to decide whether to use its constitutional powers to end the war.

The answer should be clear. Since the President is adamant about pursuing his failed policies in Iraq, Congress has the duty to stand up and use its power to stop him. If Congress doesn’t stop this war, it’s not because it doesn’t have the power. It’s because it doesn’t have the will.

I'm sitting in the media room at the courthouse in D.C., laptop set up on the table in front of me, my Starbucks in hand. Judith Miller is today's big witness, but first we have to finish David Addington, Cheney's former counsel and current chief of staff. I'm going to watch Addington from here, and then go in the courtroom for Miller.

Marcy will be live-blogging the testimony at Firedoglake.

Here's a place for you to discuss the news of day or whatever else is on your mindws.

It's week two in the Scooter Libby trial. Marcy has done a great job of live-blogging todays testimony. Today was my first day at the trial. I spent most of it in the courtroom, seated behind Mrs. Libby, and some in the media room. There were a lot of veteran PlameGate reporters on hand: David Corn of the Nation, David Schuster of MSNBC, Michael Isikoff of Newsweek, Byron York of the National Review and John Dickerson of Time, to name a few. Also following the action: Kelly O'Donnell of NBC News, David Stout of the New York Times, Nina Totenberg of NPR.

Being in the courtroom has advantages and disadvantages. On the plus side, you get the big picture, being able to watch the interaction between the prosecution and defense teams, Scooter Libby and his lawyers, the jury and the Judge. You also get to see what seems of interest to the jurors, what they smile and laugh at and what doesn't faze them.

On the minus side, it was stifling hot, many of us (including the Judge at one point) were using paper to fan ourselves and if you leave while court is in session, you can't get back in. Also, you are reduced to handwritten notes since no laptops are allowed in the courtroom.  This is not a high-tech trial. The lawyers aren't tapping away at computers. The exhibits aren't fancy. There are a lot of assistants on both sides.

Now for the substance. Cathie Martin, Cheney's former press secretary, was the first witness of the day, where she underwent cross-examination by Libby lawyer Ted Wells. He took her through a chronological version of her testimony from last week.

If there was anything new, I didn't learn it. If he had a point, I didn't get it.

Law Prof. Karl Tobias argues that Congress must investigate the NSA's warrantless surveillance program, despite the Attorney General's belated assurance that the administration will cooperate with FISA courts in the future.

Congress must expeditiously acquire all of the applicable data that lawmakers need to make the most informed determinations. Once Congress systematically assembles and evaluates pertinent material, it should guarantee that the program appropriately balances national security and civil liberties.

Those who point to exonerations of the wrongfully convicted -- often after years or decades of incarceration -- as evidence that "the system works" are missing the point: the system often doesn't work, and the belated correction of some mistakes only serves to highlight all the errors that our criminal justice system never corrects.

With this reality in mind, the NY Times calls upon New York and Texas--

to join the half-dozen pioneering states that have created what are termed innocence commissions. These are independent investigative bodies of judges, prosecutors, defense lawyers, police officers and forensic scientists who re-examine case facts after prisoners are exonerated using DNA evidence.

These respected authorities try to identify the causes of the wrongful convictions and propose changes to improve the state of justice. Calls to create commissions in New York and Texas are bogged down in statehouse politics, even as a half-dozen other states are poised to create their own monitors.

Creating an innocence commission in every state would be a useful first step toward a meaningful solution to a problem of epidemic proportions. But it is only one step among many that need to be taken.

No one knows the depth of injustice hinted at by DNA exonerations. But it is clear that they demand organized oversight and serious reforms of the criminal justice system.

Don't change that dial. Marcy and I are at the Plame House in D.C., getting ready to head to the courthouse for the Scooter Libby trial.

Marcy will be live-blogging the testimony at Firedoglake from the media courtroom while I will be in the actual courtroom, taking hand-written notes (no laptops allowed there.) I'll have a wrap-up of the day's coverage tonight at Firedoglake and Huffpo, and eventually here.

If I get online at lunch, I'll post some snippets as an update here. Also check out MediaBloggers for some live coverage.

Cheney former press aide Cathie Martin will be first up today, finishing her testimony from last week. Then it's Ari Fleischer's turn. The Judge hasn't yet ruled on whether he will allow Fitz to ask him why he sought immunity.

I'm really looking forward to this. A big thanks to TChris who has been posting other news here while I've been traveling and settling in.

The Supreme Court is a lonely place for women ... or the woman, now that Justice O'Connor has been replaced by Justice Alito.

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said Friday that she dislikes being "all alone on the court" nearly a year after the retirement of Sandra Day O'Connor. Ginsburg, who spoke to an assembly at Suffolk University Law School, said she sees more women in law school, arguing before the court and sitting as federal judges.

"My consolation is that if you look at the federal courts altogether, you get a much different picture than you do if you look only at the U.S. Supreme Court," she said.

Justice Ginsburg noted that her male colleagues lack "certain sensitivities." Would anyone care to guess what they might be?

Who could blame John McCain for napping during the president's State of the Union address, as a video seemed to show? It may be that the "the video brouhaha" was "short-lived and misguided ... considering that he wasn’t sleeping after all," but whether he was "simply glancing down at his copy of the speech and reading along" or catching a few winks between lackluster applause lines, a demonstrated lack of interest in the president's remarks might help McCain promote his independence from the president. Siding with the unpopular Bush hasn't helped McCain convince voters that he's a better option than a Democratic candidate in 2008.

"Advocates for tougher immigration enforcement" are complaining that four members of the Arizona National Guard didn't take aggressive action when they encountered six to eight armed men wearing bulletproof vests near an observation point.

The soldiers contacted Border Patrol agents and pulled back, investigators concluded. The Border Patrol tracked the armed men back to the border but could not locate them. No shots were fired.

The complainers argue that it makes the United States look weak when Guardsmen fail to engage those they suspect of crossing the border illegally. The National Guard isn't permitted to assume a law enforcement function in border security. Do "advocates for tougher immigration enforcement" expect Guard members to disobey orders and violate the law?

Dennis Delano, a Buffalo homicide detective, thinks the police caught the wrong man when they arrested Anthony Capozzi for three sexual assaults in 1985. Delano is convinced that the crimes were committed by the Bike Path Rapist.

Delano doesn't think the rapist was Capozzi, who has a history of mental problems. Delano believes - based on numerous similarities to the Bike Path Rapist's methods - that the attacks were the early work of Altemio Sanchez.

Delano, a cop for 28 years, said, "I would bet my career on it."

These are the facts as Delano sees them:

As TalkLeft discussed here, Roy Brown was convicted of a brutal murder on the basis of dubious bite mark evidence. Fifteen years later, a DNA analysis proved that the state's bite mark expert was wrong.

A piece in today's NY Times takes a helpful look at bike mark evidence.

What happened to Mr. Brown is hardly an aberration. Prosecutors have invoked bite-mark matches to secure convictions in numerous cases, only to see these convictions overturned when DNA or other evidence has become available.

In spite of the evolution of other forensic sciences, bite-mark analysis remains an inexact tool. A 1999 study by a member of the American Board of Forensic Odontology, a professional trade organization, found a 63 percent rate of false identifications.

Why do prosecutors consistently rely upon such consistently unreliable evidence?

There is, experts say, a mix of ignorance on the part of jurors and defense lawyers about the evidence’s scientific shortcomings and the overzealousness of prosecutors and their expert witnesses, who are seen as too quick to validate an unproven technique.

For all Plameologists, and those that want to make heads or tail of the Scooter Libby trial, Marcy (Empty Wheel), who has been live-blogging the testimony at Firedoglake, has a terrific diary up at Daily Kos on Libby, potential witnesses, and problems with Libby's timeline.

Marcy agrees with me that Rove's testimony may be more problematic than helpful for Libby. And, she raises the possibility that since Fitz isn't calling Rove as a witness, he may not have turned over all of Rove's statements. Fitz has taken the position since day 1 that he's not obligated to turn over statements of defense witnesses, only those of witnesses he intends to call. (That wouldn't be acceptable in my federal District, which has a more open file policy, but each District is different.)