This is pretty big news. Time Magazine has an exclusive interview with Tom DeLay who says he will not run for re-election and will leave Congress hopefully by the end of May. He will make the announcement tomorrow.

Taking defiant swipes at "the left" and the press, he said he feels "liberated" and vowed to pursue an aggressive speaking and organizing campaign aimed at promoting foster care, Republican candidates and a closer connection between religion and government.

"I'm going to announce tomorrow that I'm not running for reelection and that I'm going to leave Congress,"

The Pentagon today released 2,600 pages of documents pertaining to the Guantanamo detainees to the Associated Press. Amnesty International responds:

"Though we have not reviewed the 2,600 pages, it would be prudent to say that the Pentagon would not have released these documents if they were not innocuous or previously released in some form. Nevertheless, Amnesty International welcomes today's actions, as even the seemingly minor details in these documents may help shed light on the secrecy surrounding the detainees' cases. We do not believe the release of these documents indicates a fundamental shift by the Bush Administration towards transparency. Amnesty International continues to be very concerned about the detainees' lack of due process which violates fundamental human rights law, to say nothing of our highest values as a nation."

The jury verdict is in. Moussauoui has been found eligible for the death penalty. The jury found his lies to the FBI agents were directly responsible for at least one death in the 9/11 attacks. The jury was unanimous in its findings.

Moussaoui's response:

"You'll never get my blood, God curse you all."

The jury will now decide whether he lives or dies. They will hear victim impact testimony from the survivors of those who died.

The media has reported on some of the subpoenas Lewis "Scooter" Libby has issued to reporters and news agencies. Here's a list of those who are fighting them, and the federal docket numbers of the cases. In most cases, the recipients of the subpoenas generally were moving for more time to respond.

CASE #: 1:06-mc-00123-RBW: NBC NEWS & AFFILIATES
CASE #: 1:06-mc-00124-RBW: MATTHEW COOPER
CASE #: 1:06-mc-00125-RBW: JUDITH A. MILLER
CASE #: 1:06-mc-00126-RBW: ANDREA MITCHELL
CASE #: 1:06-mc-00127-RBW: TIM RUSSERT
CASE #: 1:06-mc-00128-RBW: TIME, INCORPORATED
CASE #: 1:06-mc-00129-RBW: NEW YORK TIMES COMPANY

The Court entered this order today (from the court's docket sheet):

TalkLeft hit a record today: I just posted the 400th post on the Valerie Plame investigation, which is the most I've written on any single topic.

The first was on July 29, 2003, Valerie Plame: Some Call it Treason. The 400th was today, Leopold: Fitz Close to Indicting Rove; Hannah Flipped Early

All of them are available here.

As you can imagine, this consumed huge amounts of time. I intend to go forward, and sincerely appreciate all financial contributions to TalkLeft as they help make it possible. If you're a regular follower of TalkLeft's Plame coverage, and would like to express your appreciation, this would be an excellent time.

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Jason Leopold breaks more news in the Valerie Plame investigation, confirming John Hannah cooperated early with Fitz and rolled on Libby and Rove. He also writes that Fitz is close to presenting an Indictment to the grand jury for Karl Rove.

As I've written many times, all roads lead back to the White House Iraq Group. Hannah was a member, as was Stephen Hadley and Libby. Rove attended most meetings. Props to Richard Sale of UPI who on February 5, 2004, identified Hannah as being in serious trouble and pressured to cooperate (Details here).

Jason writes Hannah was given a choice early on:

by TChris

Conventional lie detectors are untrustworthy assessors of the truth, at best. Even worse, according to a recent ABC Primetime report, are Voice Stress Analyzers. Expect police departments to continue using them, nonetheless. They've paid big money for these machines and are likely to stand behind them, even though they're about as reliable as voodoo.

"Police departments have paid $10,000 per system over the last 18 years and rely on it exclusively for truth verification," said Charles Humble, chairman and CEO of the National Institute for Truth Verification, which sells the CVSA. "We have a remarkable record of success."

Not according to the military, which used voice stress analyzers during interrogations in Guantanamo Bay and Iraq. Military investigators now realize that Voice Stress Analyzers are no more accurate than a coin-flip.

The Koufax Liberal Blogging Awards winners were announced today. Congrats to all the winners, particularly, Confined Spaces, a blog about the workplace health and safety issues, which won the best single issue category. TalkLeft came in second, and we proudly pass the crown, having won the category in 2002, 2003 and 2004. I'm grateful that TalkLeft did so well among the incredible competition. Thanks to everyone who voted for us.

Major congrats to winners Crooks and Liars (best blog, non professional), Daily Kos (best community blog), Digby (best writing), Firedoglake (best series writing for PlameGate) and Glenn Greenwald of Unclaimed Territory (best new blog.)

The full winner's list is below.

by TChris

After arguing that the government is entitled to hold Jose Padilla as an enemy combatant, the Justice Department decided to prosecute him on criminal charges, much to the displeasure of the Fourth Circuit, which wondered whether the Justice Department changed its theory to avoid Supreme Court review of Padilla's claim that his detention as an enemy combatant was unconstitutional. If so, the strategy succeeded. The Court decided today, by a 6-3 vote, not to review Padilla's case.

The Sopranos starts now. The episode is called "The Fleshy Part of the Thigh." Here's the lead-in:

Tony and Johnny Sack haggle over Barone Sanitation's future; Paulie is rocked by an aunt's revelation.

I bet a lot more happens than that.

Newsweek has an excellent wrap-up of the Duke Lacrosse team rape allegations, including a few new facts. One seems to make more viable a theory I floated in comments here and mentioned on Fox News yesterday-- that there may have been a physical altercation over the money, rather than a rape, that led to the broken fingernails.

In recounting the accuser's side, Newsweek writes:

They had just begun their performance when the men became "excited and aggressive." According to Nifong, one of the players called out, "Did you bring any sex toys?" When the women answered no, a man said, "That's OK, we'll just use a broom." Frightened, the strippers ran outside to their car. One of the men followed and coaxed one of the women to come back in. When she did, she told police, she was forced into a bathroom and held down while three men forced her to have sex. According to Nifong, she claimed that the men robbed her and that she broke off several fake fingernails clawing one of her attackers.

Newsweek reports the feds obtained 1,000 emails from Tom DeLay's lawyers around Christmas. Along with Tony Rudy's guilty plea and cooperation agreement, could DeLay be in trouble?

Although court papers filed by prosecutors with the plea contain no direct allegations against DeLay, the documents for the first time refer to an unnamed "Representative No. 2" (who is DeLay) whose office repeatedly assisted Abramoff and his clients. The papers allege that Rudy, while still working for DeLay, arranged for the congressman to sign a letter opposing a postal-rate increase to aid an Abramoff client and helped kill an antigambling bill opposed by another Abramoff client. At the same time, Abramoff arranged for $86,000 in consulting payments to be made to Rudy's wife, Lisa, according to the documents. (She was not charged.)

And here's a revelation: None were from DeLay himself because he doesn't e-mail.