A Bronx grand jury is investigating Bernie Kerik. You remember him -- at the suggestion of Rudy Giuliani, Bush nominated him for Homeland Security.

Ex-Mayor Rudy Giuliani - once mentioned as a possible head of the department - strongly lobbied the White House for his former driver, police commissioner and business partner.

"Rudy cashed in a chip on this one," said a White House source, who earlier this week predicted there was "no way" Kerik could land a cabinet-level job in the Bush administration.

He later withdrew his nomination after mutiple problems surfaced with the nomination.

Here are some of his current problems. Hopefully, this will come back to haunt Rudy as he prepares for a 2008 presidential bid.

If you are online today, and not because you are at work, chances are, like me, you are avoiding or procastinating doing something else. In the spirit of 100 Things I've Never Done by Jim Capozzola of Rittenhouse Review (also see his 100 Things About Me), I'm going to list as many projects as I can that I haven't finished -- mostly because it's easier to sit at the computer and surf the net or blog. I'm hoping that by writing them out I'll not only have a written list but actually do some of them.

What could or should you be doing other than reading this? Feel free to list them in the comments. No need to list 15, any number is fine. If you number them, you can post a followup later should you get any done.

Ok, here's my list, in no particular order:

Bob Dylan: Live at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, Fair Grounds, Acura Stage, April 28, 2006.. The audio of the entire set is online here. [Via commenter Squeaky.]

This is also an open thread. I'm probably going to avoid politics this weekend unless there is breaking news. I'm setting up my new digital video camera, i-sight webcam, and i-Movie software and trying to figure out how to capture streaming audio and video and whether it's easier to do it on a Mac or a PC. I recently got Apple's 23 inch cinema display monitor to hook up to my powerbook G4 but I'm still pretty clueless on Apple stuff except for iTunes.

by TChris

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales is portraying himself to the press as a prosecutor of principle, claiming he would have resigned had the White House ordered him to return the property seized in a search of Rep. Jefferson's office. Stalling the investigation for 45 days by secreting the evidence with the Solicitor General is apparently an insufficiently significant interference with the FBI's work to trigger a resignation.

The practice of standing up for the law in a principled manner is new to Gonzales, who has been an untroubled defender of torture, secret and indefinite detention without trial, domestic spying, warrantless wiretapping and scrutiny of calling records, while advocating the suppression of whistleblowers who expose the illegal acts that he defends. Ignoring the law is easy for Gonzales. It isn't so easy to ignore FBI agents and career prosecutors who would go public if Gonzales permitted obvious political obstruction of criminal investigations.

The good news is that Gonzales' sudden concern for the appearance of principle might prevent a coverup of Republican scandals.

Did Matt Cooper change a material or a trivial detail of his Time Magazine article about meeting with Scooter Libby? Judge Walton today issued a 40 page opinion (text of opinion here (pdf), thanks to Tom Maguire) in which he ordered Time to turn over earlier drafts of his article to Libby. Walton has been reviewing in camera the materials Libby subpoenaed from Cooper, Judith Miller, Andrea Mitchell and other NBC reporters.

Walton said Time magazine must turn over drafts of first-person stories that reporter Matthew Cooper wrote about his conversations with Libby because the judge found inconsistencies between them..... Walton said, he found "a slight alteration between the several drafts of the articles" Cooper wrote about his conversations with Libby and the reporter's first-person account of his testimony before a federal grand jury.

"This slight alteration between the drafts will permit the defendant to impeach Cooper, regardless of the substance of his trial testimony, because his trial testimony cannot be consistent with both versions," Walton wrote.

Unbelievable. According to an early police report describing an interview with the accuser in the duke lacrosse alleged rape case, the accuser said she was groped but not sexually assaulted.

It was not until the police decided to involuntarily commit her that she changed her account.

There also was an earlier lineup one week after the incident in which she failed to identify Dave Evans.

by TChris

The president who, during a presidential debate, couldn't recall making a bad decision now confesses that he made mistakes. Today's spin diverts attention from the president's poor policy choices to his poor communication skills. The folksy president regrets using colorful expressions like "bring 'em on" and "dead or alive" because "certain parts of the world" (including, presumably, the rest of it) misinterpreted his "tough talk." Could be that all the needless killing reinforced that (mis?)interpretation, but the president didn't go there.

With Tony Blair at his side, President Bush firmly reaffirmed his commitment to stay the course in Iraq, dismissing rumors of troop reductions as "speculation in the press." The policy that brought us 2,460 U.S. military deaths and chaos in Iraq won't change, but Bush has promised to explain the policy "in a more sophisticated manner" from now on. Oh Lord, please don't let me be misunderstood.

Former Ken Starr Deputy and Bush water-carrier Brett Kavenaugh was confirmed to a seat on the D.C. Court of Appeals. He may be the most unqualified appeals judge to be appointed in decades.

According to his DOJ resume, he has never been a judge or a trial lawyer. He's never tried a case. He has been a law clerk numerous times and a Starr deputy during Clinton (after which he became a partner at Starr's firm, Kirkland and Ellis.) He spent a year in the Solicitor General's office and then became associate counsel for Bush. Since 2003, he has been a staff secretary in the White House counsel's office.

The Senate today confirmed Gen. Michael Hayden as Director of the CIA. The vote was 78 to 15.

Sen. Arlen Specter voted against Hayden, as did Russ Feingold.

by TChris

A group of marines "carried out extensive, unprovoked killings of civilians" in Iraq, according to congressional and Pentagon officials who have been briefed on the results of an inquiry into the deaths of two dozen Iraqis last November.

Evidence indicates that the civilians were killed during a sustained sweep by a small group of marines that lasted three to five hours and included shootings of five men standing near a taxi at a checkpoint, and killings inside at least two homes that included women and children, officials said.

The military first claimed the civilians were killed by a makeshift bomb, then announced that they were caught in a cross-fire between marines and insurgents.

A separate inquiry has begun to find whether the events were deliberately covered up.

I'm told this is the most popular screen-saver in the U.S. (If he gets stuck, just move him with your cursor or right-click and press play.)

Here's an open thread to begin the holiday weekend.

President Bush has sealed the records seized by the FBI from Rep. William Jefferson's congressional office.

The president directed that no one involved in the investigation have access to the documents taken last weekend from the office of Rep. William Jefferson, D-La., and that they remain in the custody of the Justice Department's solicitor general.

Bush's move was described as an attempt to cool off a heated confrontation between his administration and leaders of House leaders of both parties, particularly Speaker Dennis Hastert.

The Solicitor General's office? A commenter at Law Prof Orrin Kerr's blog says:

The Solicitor General's office is an impenetrable lockbox! It is clothed in sovereign immunity from everything! What's more, the Solicitor General's offices cannot be breached by a warrant! The Solicitor General speaks and debates before the Supreme Court and thus is protected by Article III AND Article I.