Florida has opened a criminal investigation into his e-mails and conduct.

"It was a preliminary inquiry before, but we found the basis to open up a criminal investigation," Kristen Perezluha, a spokeswoman for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, said Thursday. She would not elaborate, citing the ongoing investigation. The FBI is also investigating whether Foley broke any federal laws.

What might the charges be?

Florida law prohibits seducing or attempting to seduce a minor. However, authorities have said the term "seduce" is open to interpretation.

If there is no evdience of actual physical seduction of minors, they ought to save the taxpayers' money or spend it on real child molesters. Splitting hairs over the definition of "seduce" is overkill.

The Wall St. Journal reports (free link):

John Altenburg said that when he accepted the job as “appointing authority” for the military commissions, he expected Guantanamo trials to start in short order—and that he’d be back at his job at the Washington law and lobbying firm Greenberg Traurig by mid-2005. Instead, the military commissions collapsed under a concerted assault by military and civilian defense attorneys, who eventually won a landmark Supreme Court decision in June declaring the entire project unlawful.

....No one has been selected to fill the slot, and it could remain vacant until the likely new defense secretary, Robert Gates, takes office.

Unbelievable.

UCPD officers shot a student several times with a Taser inside the Powell Library CLICC computer lab late Tuesday night before taking him into custody.

The student hadn't shown his ID.. LA Times article is here.

The feel-good story of the day. Lawrence Downes of the New York Times attends the fourth night of the Sing Sing inmates' production of Oedipus Rex.

Sing Sing is not known as a progressive place. But its theater program is a rarity in New York prisons. It relies on a nonprofit group, Rehabilitation Through the Arts, and the savvy benevolence of Sing Sing's superintendent, Brian Fischer.

....As I watched, I wondered what it would be like to be defined by my own worst sins. It struck me that when people are locked up for horrible crimes, a lot of goodness and beauty necessarily get locked up too. It also seemed that the Theban society onstage - though afflicted by plague, vengeance and divine cruelty - was probably gentler and saner than the one the inmates knew. Its members clearly cared for one another, and were not numb to grief.

A good reminder that we are all more than the sum of our misdeeds.

It's over. Steny Hoyer will be the House Majority leader.

Hoyer was elected on a vote of 149-86.

The AP is reporting it as a snub to Nancy Pelosi.

Update: Arianna weighs in.

don't shed any tears for Speaker-elect Nancy Pelosi. Even though her guy lost, this was still a big win for her. A victory for taking a stand -- and for her leadership. Because that's what real leaders do, they take stands. They listen to their hearts and follow their gut. If you only jump into the fights you're sure you can win -- notches in the W column that will look good on your political resume -- you're a hack, not someone who can move the party and the country forward. It's not about trying to have a spotless record; it's about knowing which battles are worth fighting, whatever the outcome.

It bodes well for Pelosi that was willing to spend her political capital right off the bat -- especially on the issue that will define her time at the helm. Far too many modern politicians save their political capital until it's lost all its value.

Agreed.

Spencer Ackerman upbraids his former employers at The New Republic for their lack of seriousness on Iraq while feigning "seriousness." This is exactly the problem with the Establishment Beltway and, frankly, anyone who wants to "Stay the course" without asking for real sacrifices from Americans. I tell you, just one time I would like to hear a stay the course person propose a draft, tax increases to pay for the Debacle and, in essence a reconquering of Iraq with 300,000 soldiers - because then I would know I am dealing with a person who is arguing honestly about the problem. Instead we get this:

The coming debate over timetables and troop levels will likely generate much anger, shattering postelection illusions of bipartisanship and provoking intra-party squabbles. But, in the end, this struggle will be over the difference between a largely intolerable outcome and a completely intolerable one....

What in blazes does that mean?

Continuing on from these posts about Jack Abramoff reporting to prison Wednesday, and ABC News' report (apparently now pulled, cached version here) that Abramoff is cooperating against Karl Rove, I located these items:

• The House Government Reform Committee's Abramoff Investigation Page with the actual e-mails Abramoff sent and received -- with bate stamp numbers

• The House Government Reform Committee's Abramoff Report of 9/26/06.

If you go to page 32 of the report, it details the e-mails from Abramoff to Rove, some of which involve Susan Ralston, Rove's assistant who recently resigned and who used to work for Abramoff. From the report:

Just before dawn and setting off for the federal prison camp at Cumberland, MD, Jack Abramoff sent a final e-mail to his friends. Shorter version: Stay tuned, there's more to come.

"This nightmare has gone on for almost three years so far and I expect we are not even half way through," Abramoff wrote.

Abramoff will continue his cooperation from the prison camp. Which means, we can expect more indictments. The grand jury is still sitting in Washingon.

Susan Ralston resigned, what will happen with her? Immunity or a deal for information about her other boss, Karl Rove?

Or will he target Democrats now? Jane at Firedoglake writes about his probable attempt to smear Sen. Harry Reid.

I think the glare of the headlights will return to Rove, as I'll be explaining in future posts.

Let's pretend for a moment that we do not already know Iraq is lost. Now consider the reported testimony today before the Senate Armed Services Committee. Abizaid was particularly weak:

Gen. John P. Abizaid made it clear that he did not endorse the phased troop withdrawals being proposed by Democratic lawmakers. Instead, he said the number of troops in Iraq might be increased by a small amount as part of new plans by American commanders to improve the training of the Iraqi Army. . . . Under the immediate initiative that General Abizaid described, the number of American military advisers working with Iraqi forces will be increased, with advisers to be assigned even to small Iraqi units with fewer than 200 soldiers.

"We need to put more American capacity into Iraqi units to make them more capable in their ability to confront the sectarian problem," General Abizaid told the Senate Armed Services Committee. "It is possible that we might have to go up in troop levels in order to increase the number of forces that go into the Iraqi security forces, but I believe that's only temporary."

Is that all we have left? More.

The Osama bin Laden costume isn't as popular on Halloween as the toga, but masquerading as a celebrity terrorist hardly warrants a criminal prosecution.

Tom Connolly, of Scarborough, was charged with terrorizing, criminal threatening and reckless conduct for his Oct. 31 protest held just off I-295 near Exit 3 that led to an arrest by South Portland police. Connolly's court date is set for Dec. 19.

Passing motorists complained about Connolly, who was holding a sign that said "I love TABOR." Connolly, a lawyer, was making a political point that may have been obscure to the driving public. The prosecutor claims Connolly's prop gun was the problem, but Connolly thought the orange-tipped squirt gun could not reasonably have been mistaken for an actual gun.

Who was terrorized here? C'mon, disturbed drivers, did you really think that Osama was standing by the road in Maine? Did you not know it was Halloween? Why did you think Osama cared about TABOR? Get a grip. Charging Connolly with "terrorizing" for engaging in costumed political speech is an abuse of power.

by Last Night in Little Rock

In one of the ultimate war crimes, an Army soldier in Ft. Cambell, Ky. has pled guilty to murder and rape of Iraqis, as reported today on USAToday.com

He pled, according to his lawyer, to avoid the death penalty.

Senate Republicans have chosen their leaders. The top gun will be Mitch McConnell, followed by Trent Lott.

Democrat Harry Reid was chosen by Dems yesterday to be Senate Majority Leader.