This just in from the ACLU by e-mail (will be available here soon):

The American Civil Liberties Union today welcomed a federal court ruling that the Patriot Act threatens the free speech and religious freedom rights of groups who have reason to believe they are targeted by the law. Today's ruling confirms what we have said all along - that our clients are suffering concrete harm as a result of the Patriot Act," said ACLU Associate Legal Director Ann Beeson.

At issue in the case was the ACLU's challenge to Section 215 of the Patriot Act, passed in October 2001, which radically expanded the FBI's power to demand records and personal belongings of innocent people living in the United States, and gagged recipients from disclosing the demands to anyone. The national ACLU and the ACLU of Michigan filed the case in July 2003 on behalf of advocacy and community groups from across the country whose members and clients believed they were the targets of investigations because of their ethnicity, religion and political associations.

by TChris

In the red corner, wearing the rebel yell trunks, John Boehner:

Majority Leader John Boehner said the speaker had assured him months ago the matter had been taken care of. ''It's in his corner, it's his responsibility,'' Boehner, R-Ohio, said in an interview on radio station WLW in Cincinnati.

In the my-face-is-red corner, wearing the stars and stripes trunks, Dennis Hastert:

Speaker Dennis Hastert brushed aside any suggestion of resignation on Tuesday as House Republican leaders struggled to contain the fallout from an election-year scandal involving sexually explicit messages from a disgraced lawmaker to underage male pages.

Good. No resignation means additional rounds of Republican vs Republican pugilism. Pop open a brew and settle back for round two.

(Guest Post from Big Tent Democrat)

You remember what Drudge said yesterday?

Have you read the transcripts that ABC posted going into the weekend of these instant messages, back and forth? The kids are egging the Congressman on! The kids are trying to get this out of him. We haven't got the whole story on this. . . You could say "well Drudge, it's abuse of power, a congressman abusing these impressionable, young 17 year-old beasts, talking about their sex lives with a grown man, on the internet." Because you have to remember, those of us who have seen some of the transcripts of these nasty instant messages. This was two ways, ladies and gentlemen. These kids were playing Foley for everything he was worth.

And The Note says:

Matt Drudge rules our world. . . . So many media elites check the DRUDGE REPORT consistently that a reporter is aware his bosses, his competitors, his sources, his friends on Wall Street, lobbyists, White House officials, congressional aides, cousins, and everyone who is anyone has seen it, too.

So I expected Howie Kurtz to be all over Drudge. And he was, so to speak.

We've been doing a lot of the talking lately, here's a place for you.

by TChris

Doesn't this sound like "cut and run" and "appeasement"?

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) said Monday that the war against Taliban guerrillas in Afghanistan could never be won militarily, and he urged support for efforts to bring "people who call themselves Taliban" into the government.

If Frist thinks a war can't be won militarily, does that make him a Defeatican? If he wants to make peace with the Taliban -- the terrorists who, we're repeatedly told, are anxious to kill Americans -- does that mean he's "coddling terrorists"? Did Frist forget all the Republican talking points during his trip overseas?

The Daily Show and Jon Stewart on Mark Foley and the e-mails:

[hat tip Americablog]

The conservative Washington Times is calling for House Speaker Denny Hastert's resignation.

House Speaker Dennis Hastert must do the only right thing, and resign his speakership at once. Either he was grossly negligent for not taking the red flags fully into account and ordering a swift investigation, for not even remembering the order of events leading up to last week's revelations -- or he deliberately looked the other way in hopes that a brewing scandal would simply blow away. He gave phony answers Friday to the old and ever-relevant questions of what did he know and when did he know it? Mr. Hastert has forfeited the confidence of the public and his party, and he cannot preside over the necessary coming investigation, an investigation that must examine his own inept performance.

The Times wants Henry Hyde, who isn't running for re-election, to take his place.

Oh, the irony. On June 25, 2002, Rep. Mark Foley addressed the House on protecting the safety of "virtual" children from the liberal Supreme Court. The topic was the Child Obscenity and Pornography Prevention Act of 2002. From the Congressional Record:

Mr. FOLEY . Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding time to me, and I thank the chairman for his hard work on this issue, as well the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Smith).

I have heard terms described today that this has been rushed to the floor of the House. Maybe those who claim it has been rushed have not had a chance to see the virtual pornography that has been created since the Supreme Court's ruling, endangering our children, virtually created; horrible portrayals of our young and most fragile citizens on the Internet.

Today's passage of this legislation is a pedophile's worst nightmare. Congress is one step closer to helping the High Court side with children over pedophiles.

If you're a law professor, lawyer or law student, the place to be October 5 is your local law school which likely is participating in the virtual National Guantanamo Teach-In. 200 law schools in 40 states are participating. If you're not near a law school, it will be live-streamed from the website.

On October 5th, Seton Hall will host an all-day conference available at academic institutions across the United States to study the national and international implications of indefinitely detaining hundreds of individuals deemed "enemy combatants."

The Guantanamo Teach-in will offer participants incisive analysis with diverse perspectives. Across America, from Maine to New Mexico, from Florida to Hawaii, and from Texas to Montana, law schools, colleges, universities, community colleges and seminaries will be linked in a national dialogue on the lessons of Guantanamo, sparked by, but not limited to, the broadcast presentations.

Great news on the military tribunal, torture and habeas restriction bill. A pre-emptive lawsuit to declare it unconstitutional was filed today by 25 prisoners at Bagram Air Force Base in Afghanistan.

Attorneys for 25 men being held in Afghanistan launched a pre-emptive strike Monday against President Bush's plan to prosecute and interrogate terror suspects.

Court documents filed Monday demand that the men be released or charged and allowed to meet with attorneys. Such a filing, known as a habeas corpus petition, is prohibited under the legislation approved by Congress last week.

The case has been assigned to U.S. District Judge Richard Leon, "who, in a Guantanamo Bay case last year, ruled that Congress had authorized the president to order the detention of "enemy combatants" for the duration of the war on terror. Leon did not set a hearing date in the new case."

The suit was filed by the Center for Constitutional Rights.

Received from NORML today:

While there are literally dozens of pro-marijuana law reform projects and initiatives under way this fall, no one effort to reform cannabis laws is as important as electing policy makers, especially federal policy makers, who agree with our long-stated position to substantively reform marijuana laws: replacing Marijuana Prohibition with alternatives, such as decriminalization and legalization.

With 35 days left before this important Election Day, NORML has once again partnered with Project Vote Smart and Working Assets to help educate and motivate citizens who possess strong interests in cannabis to take an active role in shaping the creation of their government.

• Reefer Report Card For Congress*
  View a listing and report card of every recent Congressional member's vote concerning cannabis-related legislation.

• You can't vote for change if you're not registered to vote*
  It is not too late to be an active participant in this fall's important elections! You can register to vote online! NORML and Working Assets have made it easy for you.

(Guest Post by Big Tent Democrat)

So I have been following this story:

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said she cannot recall then-CIA chief George Tenet warning her of an impending al-Qaida attack in the United States, as a new book claims he did two months before the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. "What I am quite certain of is that I would remember if I was told, as this account apparently says, that there was about to be an attack in the United States, and the idea that I would somehow have ignored that I find incomprehensible," Rice said.

It is incomprehensible, and now we know it is true:

A review of White House records has determined that George J. Tenet, then the director of central intelligence, did brief Condoleezza Rice and other top officials on July 10, 2001, about the looming threat from Al Qaeda, a State Department spokesman said Monday.

Path to 9/11? Rewrite!!