Bump and Update: Professor Denbaux writes in to say the Guardian was incorrect in reporting that he represented one of the inmates who committed suicide. Here is his e-mail to me:

Everything in your latest post about the Guantanamo detainee who committed suicide unaware that he was one of 141 detainees that the United States had scheduled to be released is correct with one exception. That detainee, Al-Utaybi, was not our client. Apparently a London newspaper reported that Al-Utaybi, was our client without talking to us. The reporter apparently misheard something on BBC. We never spoke to the reporter who started the story. Joshua checked with BBC. BBC had it right.: our client told us that he wanted to die rather than stay in Guantanamo any longer. Immediately thereafter (when we had left) something happened and he was immediately extracted and force fed. The acts which caused the guards to rush in and extract him were never described to us. Fortunately, our client is still alive.

The fact that detainee Al--Utaybi was not our client does not change the horrific loss of life--which would have been avoided if the detainee had been told that the United States government had decided to release him. By the way, none of the 141 on that list have been told that they are to be released. No reason has been given for withholding this light of hope. Joshua beleives that our client may be (he certainly should be) on that list. If so, we want him to know.

The fact that the detainee who died without knowing that the United States had authorized his release certainly destroys the claim by the Deputy Secretary of State and others that he was a dangerous person willing to die to as a publicity stunt. Such a contemptable accusation becomes even worse when it turns out that the government knew that it was false when made.

Digby rocks today over at Firedoglake. The success of Yearly Kos was amazing, with no small part played by the FDL foxy ladies Jane and Christy, and reporters like Murray Waas. If, like me, you were not one of the 1,000 bloggers or blog readers at the event, you can catch what you missed on videos here. The Plame Panel with Jane, Christy, Marcy,Murray and Joe Wilson is here.

Digby's point is that blogs wouldn't exist without readers and commenters, and you all deserve to take a bow -- not because you're online, but because you are changing the national political conversation. We are going to take our country back. Since I can't write like Digby (let's face it, very few can) I'll quote -- and add my thoughts at the end:

Family Court Reno, Nevada Judge Chuck Weller was shot four times in the chest at the Reno courthouse today by a sniper who may have fired from a nearby parking garage. He is believed to be alive.

The suspect is still on the loose. Photos of the shooting are here.

How Appealing is tracking the news stories.

TalkLeft sends its best wishes to Judge Weller for a complete recovery.

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Amnesty International Switzerland has an amazing new ad campaign. Just scroll through all the pictures. The campaign is in German, so I have no idea what the text is, but the graphics are so universal, who cares?

Via Living on an Island, the overseas blogger whose created the WordPress theme Relaxation (out of hundreds, it's the one I selected for TalkLeft. How cool that he also cares about civil liberties.)

Update: TalkLeft reader PJ writes in that the sign reads, "It Didn't Happen Here, But Now." Another commenter says it is "It's Happening. Not Here. But Now." More translation below:

The ACLU argued its case against NSA warrantless electronic surveillance in a federal court in Michigan today.

A lawyer representing plaintiffs in the case said that the very statute the administration admits violating, the Federal Intelligence Surveillance Act, provides the mechanism by which the president can properly order spying. The law even provides for warrantless wire tapping for 15 days after the start of a war or for 72 hours in specific cases, after which the government can seek a warrant, argued Ann Beeson, a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union.

"The government has admitted the NSA is eavesdropping and not obtaining a warrant," Beeson said. "The Congress has expressly rejected language to broaden the president's authority."

Legal expert Andrew Cohen provides analysis in today's Washington Post.

Action Alert: Time to contact your senators. From Sen. John Kerry, who today introduced S. 2766 calling for troop withdrawal from Iraq by the end of the year:

In the next 24 hours, it is likely that the Senate will vote on my amendment which calls for the withdrawal of American combat troops from Iraq by the end of this year. For months, you and I have been pressing for this step. We've made it clear that we needed to set deadlines in Iraq -- and with the formation of an Iraqi unity government and the killing of Al-Zarqawi, this is a moment of truth in Iraq.

Now a critical vote is at hand. Our brave soldiers have done their work. It's time to put the future of Iraq in the hands of the Iraqi people.

Urge your Senators today to support withdrawal of combat troops by the end of 2006.

You can read excerpts from Kerry's Amendment to S. 2766 here.

The Supreme Court today paved the way for more death row inmates to challenge execution by lethal injection.

In an unanimous decision, the court allowed those condemned to die to make last-minute claims that the chemicals used are too painful _ and therefore amount to cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Constitution's Eighth Amendment.

Via ScotusBlog:

The Supreme Court ruled unanimously on Monday that death row inmates seeking to challenge the lethal injection method of execution may pursue the issue as a civil rights claim, a broader option than federal habeas. The ruling came in Hill v. McDonough (05-8794). While not ruling itself on the constitutionality of that execution procedure, the Court said that inmates who contend that the three-drug protocol most commonly used causes unnecessary pain and suffering may go forward with an Eighth Amendment claim under the 1867 civil rights statute, so-called Section 1983.

Durham County DA Mike Nifong won the Democratic Primary but a write-in candidate has emerged.

A Durham lawyer and county commissioner is considering a write-in election campaign to try and unseat District Attorney Mike Nifong, the prosecutor overseeing the investigation of a rape accusation involving three members of the Duke University lacrosse team.....Commissioner Lewis Cheek said he has been recruited to challenge Nifong.

Also, the New York Times has a detailed article on the Duke case and Nifong today.

It seems the Pentagon is interfering with the Guantanamo detainees' ability to send and receive legal mail, including mail to their lawyers and Congress.

The rules guiding attorney/client correspondence at Guantánamo are frustratingly vague, lawyers for the detainees say, and the processing delays are maddening. Mail routinely arrives six months after it's been sent, if it arrives at all. "For months I sent him letters and he sent me letters and they were all just impounded," Hunt says. "Now, I think my letters get through but they take their sweet time about it."

The ostensible reason for the backlog is security. "The attorney/client communications go to a secure facility, which happens to be here in Washington," Hunt says. "And they can't leave there until the government clears it and says it's not sensitive and not classified."

The lawyers sit in a room to read the letters and then have to give them back. They can't disclose the contents of the letters.

We got quite a few visitors this weekend from far right weblogs critical of my Zarqawi and Guantanamo coverage. Commenters from these sites have come over here on the attack. They insult, call other commenters and liberals names and post multiple trashy comments with the intent of dominating the discussion. They also have riled up some of TalkLeft's regular ommenters who have begun to respond in kind. I don't have the time or the interest in playing traffic cop.

Deleting individual comments takes too long. What I've done is delete all comments for Sunday (and some from Saturday) -- both those of the unwelcome visitors and the TL commenters who stepped over the line. The most insulting and chattering of the righties have been banned.

Memo to all commenters: Keep it civil and lose the hostility and the name-calling. This is my site, not yours and it's going to be run on my terms, not yours. And don't lecture me on the First Amendment. I'm not the government.

The U.S. Military runs another delay ruse by us. Just this morning, the New York Times reported:

With rumors circulating in the Iraqi news media that Mr. Zarqawi had begun to run from the house as the first bomb struck, American officials said Saturday that two military pathologists had arrived in Iraq to perform an autopsy on his body to determine the precise cause of his death. The results from the autopsy, and Mr. Zarqawi's precise location at the time of the airstrike, will be disclosed soon, an American military official said.

The autopsy is now complete but the military is not releasing it yet.

"The autopsy is completed. However, we are not releasing results yet," Maj. William Willhoite told The Associated Press. Gen. George Casey, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, said officials were awaiting the results of a DNA test.

Why do they need to wait for the DNA test, which will take 2 to 3 days, when Gen. Casey said on Fox News today they are 100% sure the dead man was al-Zarqawi.

We have a 100 percent match on the fingerprints, and we have a good match on scars and tattoos on the body.

There will be a status conference Monday (pfd) in the Scooter Libby trial.

On a related note, in addition to partially granting and denying Libby's motion to compel discovery on June 2, the Court issued an order on classified information. It ruled that by June 9, the Government must turn over substitutes of these classified documents:

(1) The government shall provide to the defense by June 9, 2006, the proposed substitution recounting Valerie Plame Wilson's employment history with the Central Intelligence Agency from January 1, 2002, and thereafter.

(2) The government shall provide to the defense by June 9, 2006, the proposed substitution discussing potential damage (if any) caused by the alleged disclosure
of Valerie Plame Wilson's affiliation with the Central Intelligence Agency.

(3) The government shall, as requested, provide to the defense by June 9, 2006, the true names of three individuals whose identities were redacted from classified documents previously made available to the defense, and shall identify for the
defense the specific documents and locations within those documents where those
names should be inserted.