You gotta love it....after a large, months-long undercover drug operation in Aspen using wiretaps, snitches and car tracking devices, the DEA had this to say in defense of its undercoverwork:

Undercover work isn't always popular in Aspen, but "to quote a movie, 'our job is to protect democracy, not to practice it,'" [DEA Agent Jeffrey] Sweetin said.

The TL mom fell at her skilled nursing facility last night and fractured her hip. At 83 with Parkinson's and dementia, it's difficult. But, she just came through surgery and they said it went well. They've put a pin in her hip and were able to do it with a spinal anaesthetic instead of general. So I'll be hospital blogging on and off through the weekend, as my wireless connection holds up.

I'm sure I'll miss some news, so here's a place for you to comment away.

by TChris

Lloyd Gaines sued to gain admission to the University of Missouri-Columbia School of Law. Gaines wanted to be the all-white law school's first black student. His case made it to the Supreme Court in the separate-but-equal days of 1938. The Court ordered Missouri to admit Gaines or to make other arrangements for Gaines to receive an equal legal education in Missouri.

Disgusted by the "law school" that Missouri created for black students (occupying a building that formerly housed a beauty academy), Gaines moved to Michigan, where he earned a master's degree in economics. Gaines was last seen in October 1939. The mystery of his disappearance has never been solved.

Yesterday, the Missouri Supreme Court awarded Gaines a posthumous law license. Welcome to the profession, Attorney Gaines. You displayed the commitment to justice that should characterize the profession.

by TChris

Republicans are having a devilish time staying out of trouble this year. The latest to bite the dust: Rep. Mark Foley.

Rep. Mark Foley, R-Florida, submitted a letter of resignation from Congress on Friday in the wake of questions about e-mails he wrote a former male page, according to a congressional official. Foley, 52, had been considered a shoo-in for re-election until the e-mails surfaced in recent days.

Here are some of the creepy emails (pdf) Foley wrote to a 16 year old boy. (Emails or IM's not yet released are said to be even more questionable.)

Update: Foley, of course, was all about protecting kids from sexual exploitation. A real "family values" kind of guy.

Update: Eric Muller posts an apology and acknowledgment that he was mistaken about the photo. I'll just say this. Lawyers, myself included, generally are left-brain. We don't know when a photo is photo-shopped or real-- we don't have the artistic ability to discern between the two. I honestly believe Eric thought the photo was real. He is to be credited for apologizing once its falsity was called to his attention.

UPDATE, 3:00 p.m.: It appears that I was mistaken when I linked to the picture on flickr below, which I believed to be a picture of Michelle Malkin. I regret my error, and I apologize to Michelle Malkin for it. She has asked that I leave the post up -- indeed, she has reprinted it -- and so I will do as she wishes.

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It's not even noon and we already have our Friday night blog fight that promises to go all weekend. It's Michelle Malkin vs. Eric Muller of Is that Legal , with a little Wonkette thrown in for good measure..

UNC Law Prof Eric Muller and Wonkette posted a picture he found on a Flickr site allegedly of Michelle Malkin on their websites. Eric wanted to show her hypocrisy for trashing a woman scantily dressed in her latest column.

Only the picture was photo-shopped by someone and is not Michelle. Now, Michelle is filing a complaint with UNC about Eric, saying it's gone too far. And she's asking for help identifying the flickr poster. Allah at Hot Air (another Malkin site) has more on the photo-shopping aspect.

Amnesty International has put together the nuts and bolts of the Military Commission bill passed by both Houses:

Among other things, the Act will:

• Strip the US courts of jurisdiction to hear or consider habeas corpus appeals challenging the lawfulness or conditions of detention of anyone held in US custody as an "enemy combatant". Judicial review of cases would be severely limited. The law would apply retroactively, and thus could result in more than 200 pending appeals filed on behalf of Guantánamo detainees being thrown out of court.

• Permit the executive to convene military commissions to try "alien unlawful enemy combatants", as determined by the executive under a dangerously broad definition, in trials that would provide foreign nationals so labeled with a lower standard of justice than US citizens accused of the same crimes. This would violate the prohibition on the discriminatory application of fair trial rights.

• Permit the use in military commission trials of evidence extracted under cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

• Give the military commissions the power to hand down death sentences after trials that did not meet international standards.

The Philadelphia Tribune has an important, must-read series of articles this week, gathered into a report, Life Behind Bars.

A population behind bars: According to the Philadelphia Prison System's current figures, 70 percent of the incarcerated population is Black - and growing. ....Today, Black women are seven times more likely to be imprisoned than white women.

Black youth are also being incarcerated in greater numbers.

For every 100,000 Black juveniles living in the United States, more than 750 are in custody in a juvenile facility.

Yesterday the House voted to pass Bush's warrantless surveillance plans. Will the Senate ignore us again and capitulate to Bush's lust for executive power by passing this bill too?

Democrats shot back that the war on terrorism shouldn't be fought at the expense of civil and human rights. The bill approved by the House, they argued, gives the president too much power and leaves the law vulnerable to being overturned by a court.

Here are the details of the bill:

(Guest Post by Big Tent Democrat)

The big news today comes from the Big Enchilida of the Beltway himself, Bob "The Commanders" Woodward. You see, it turns out Bush really is a liar, according to Woodward:

The White House ignored an urgent warning in September 2003 from a top Iraq adviser who said that thousands of additional American troops were desperately needed to quell the insurgency there, according to a new book by Bob Woodward, the Washington Post reporter and author. The book describes a White House riven by dysfunction and division over the war.

You know, I know it is not politic in the Beltway to discuss this, but there were bigger warnings on Iraq ignored by, not only Bush, but by the Beltway. It is oh so fashionable for the Ignatiuses. Broders, Finemans, Friedmans and Brookses to try and pretend they did not support and cheer on the Iraq Debacle - to pretend that the problem was "execution" not the Debacle itself. Ignatius pretends no one told him about it. Let's put it this way, Bush is not the only liar in Washington, DC.

Rudy Giuliani's friends may be his undoing. First, Bernie Kerik, the subject of a federal wiretap investigation who has already pleaded guilty to a minor charge. Then Bernie surfaces in the Jeanine Pirro bugging investigation, and now, according to the New York Times:

The politics of the Pirro investigation, which was disclosed on Wednesday, seemed more tangled yesterday. Two lawyers with knowledge of the inquiry said that subpoenas had been issued to one current and one former employee of Giuliani Security and Safety, a division of the consulting firm founded by former Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani.

A third man, who works at the company, has been interviewed by F.B.I. agents as part of the inquiry, the lawyers said. All three men were very close to Bernard B. Kerik, the former New York City police commissioner, whom Ms. Pirro consulted in the summer of 2005 about secretly taping her husband, Albert. In the conversations, which were recorded by authorities and detailed in reports on WNBC-TV, Mr. Kerik indicated at one point that he had asked a contact at Mr. Giuliani's firm to find him a recording device.

Mr. Giuliani, who appointed Mr. Kerik police commissioner and has been close to him, is in the midst of deliberations about whether to run for president in 2008.

Naturally, Rudy dumps on Jeanine:

The Senate has passed the military tribunals bill. [Update: Roll Call vote here.]

McJoan at Daily Kos has the list of Democrat gutless wonders who voted for it. Shame on Colorado Senator Ken Salazar. Crooks and Liars has Harry Reid's statement that the bill is probably unconsitutional. Atrios has Hillary Clinton's statement. Here is Russ Feingold's statement. Glenn Greenwald and Digby weigh in. Also see: Bruce Ackerman in the LA Times on the White House Warden.

The ACLU says it all:

by TChris

We've heard the rhetoric before. Republicans are repackaging their "tough on crime" speeches as "tough on terror" and complaining that anyone who stands in the way of increasing executive power at the expense of individual rights is "coddling" -- criminals or terrorists, your pick.

And so we have Dennis Hastert saying:

"Democrat Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and 159 of her Democrat colleagues voted today in favor of more rights for terrorists," Hastert said in a statement. "So the same terrorists who plan to harm innocent Americans and their freedom worldwide would be coddled, if we followed the Democrat plan."

The "Democratic plan" is simply to expect the government to obey existing laws rather than brushing them aside with a quick legislative assist, but what is truly offensive and disingenuous about Hastert's attack is the assumption that Democrats want to "coddle terrorists" rather than "protect the innocent." It is astonishing that the GOP, so long distrustful of the ability of government to make decisions wisely, is now populated with members who are certain that the executive branch will never err in taking custody of a suspected terrorist. The rights that protect against a wrongful conviction -- freedom from tortured confessions and a ban against the inherently unreliable evidence that coercion produces, confrontation of witnesses, discovery of evidence, judicial review and more -- can be safely withheld because of ... presidential infallibility?