Cheers for U.S. District Court Judge Gregory Presnell in Orlando, FL.

Sentencing Law and Policy reports that in US v. Hamilton, (pdf) No. 6:05-cr-157-Orl-31JGG (M.D. Fla. Mar. 16, 2006), the Judge refused to apply the draconian federal crack cocaine guidelines because they are irrational in comparison to the severity of the offense. Using the Booker case (argued in the Supreme Court by TalkLeft co-blogger TChris) that rendered the guidelines advisory rather than mandatory, Judge Presnell ruled:

Keyblogging is not that new, but the threat it poses to your privacy is growing. Here's a simple example. Could this have happened to you? If so, you should read this entire Washington Post article.

When Graeme Frost received an e-mail notice that an expensive digital camera had been charged to his credit card account, he immediately clicked on the Internet link included in the message that said it would allow him to dispute the charge. As the 29-year-old resident of southwestern England scoured the resulting Web page for the merchant's phone number, the site silently installed a password-stealing program that transmitted all of his personal and financial information.

Still not concerned?

Attorneys for Zacarias Moussaoui filed this objection (pdf) today to the Government's request (discussed here and here) that Judge Brinkema reconsider her ruling to exclude aviation evidence and witnesses from the death penalty trial of Zacarias Moussaoui. They say the Government has inaccurately minimized TSA lawyer Carla Martin's involvement with the case.

It is worth noting that Ms. Martin, at least, has worked with the prosecution team itself, as well as with the aviation witnesses in reference to this particular case. That is more evidence of direct involvement with the misconduct at issue here than the Government will adduce about Mr. Moussaoui's involvement with the hijackers, yet it considers that connection sufficient to actually execute him.

The U.S. today launched a big offensive against insurgents in Iraq -- the largest since the 2003 invasion. Knights Ridder reported the other day that airstrikes risk civilian casualties. [hat tip Daily Kos.]

The Senate today passed a spending bill that increases the national debt to $9 trillion, in large part to fund the war.

It passed hours before the House was expected to approve another $91 billion to fund the war in Iraq and provide more aid to hurricane victims.

I've got court in Denver early, followed by the dentist in Boulder and then the jail, in Englewood, yet another county. If readers would take over in this open thread, it would be a big help for me. Many thanks.

I don't know what TChris or LNILR's schedule is, but James the Menace Sensenbrenner and Tom Feeney are pushing a change in federal sentencing laws to establish mandatory minimums for all offenses, in a misguided attempt to get around Booker, and this deserves some coverage. If you don't find it here, check Sentencing Law and Policy for updates. The hearing is today and the witness list is here (pdf).

Update: The Oversight Hearing on post-Booker developments to be conducted Thursday morning by the House Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security will be webcast live starting at 10:30am .

Adam Liptak reports in Thursday's New York Times that Lewis "Scooter" Libby's defense team served subpoenas on the New York Times and its former reporter Judith Miller for records of Judith Miller and Nicholas Kristof pertaining to Valerie Plame.

The new subpoenas seek her notes and other materials, including any other documents concerning Ms. Wilson prepared by Ms. Miller and Nicholas D. Kristof, an Op-Ed columnist for The Times; drafts of a personal account by Ms. Miller published in The Times in October concerning her grand jury testimony; documents concerning her interactions with an editor of The Times; and documents concerning a recent Vanity Fair article on the investigation.

Miller's attorney, Bob Bennett, says the supboena is too broad and she will fight it.

Representatives of Tim Russert and Matthew Cooper confirm they also have been subpoenaed. [Via Editor and Publisher.]

Katherine Harris will spend $10 million of her own money to save her fledgling Senate campaign. She has the money -- her father left it to her when he died in January. She made the announcement tonight on Hannity and Colmes.

Does she want to be Senator because she believes if she wins, the people of Florida win? I didn't see the show, but from the article linked above, it doesn't seem the people are her top priority:

"When I lost him, I said I would win this for my father," she said.

We all want our fathers, whether dead or alive, to be proud of us, but is that a reason people should vote for her? It wouldn't sway me if I lived in her district.

[Graphic created exclusively for TalkLeft by CL.]

Update: 3/16: Carla Martin has been placed on Adminstrative Leave by the TSA.

Update: The Washington Post examines whether the Government can salvage its case against Moussaoui and on its latest attempt to minimize the role of Carla J. Martin. Prosecutors also are also stepping up their attacks on her, as can be seen from today's Motion for Reconsideration:

"In this sea of Government attorneys and agents who have assiduously played by the rules, Ms. Martin stands as the lone miscreant," prosecutors wrote yesterday in court papers. "Her aberrant and apparently criminal behavior should not be the basis for undoing the good work of so many."

Update: Late this afternoon the Government filed a motion (pdf) asking Judge Lonnie Brinkema to reconsider her ruling excluding aviation witnesses and evidence in the Zacarias Moussaoui trial.

They acknowledged that altering the judge's ruling is their only hope of salvaging the death-penalty case.....Brinkema's sanctions make it "impossible for us to present our theory of the case to the jury," the prosecutors said, adding that the barred testimony "is one of the two essential and interconnected components of our case."

Update: Jane of Firedoglake and John Amato of Crooks and Liars were there and heard the exchange. They back Arianna.

Last week we and many other bloggers quoted George Clooney's blog post at HuffPo. Clooney now says he didn't write it, although he acknowledges the statements in it attributed to him are accurate. Arianna responds and disagrees, but allows there is room for a misunderstanding.

The important aspect, if there is one, is that Clooney stands by the statements in the post. What he says is that is we should take pride in being liberals. That's the part we should focus on, not whether he intended it to be a quote as opposed to a blog post.

Congrats to the two winners of the February Contagious Festival - both of which take aim at Dick Cheney:

Vance Lehmkuhl, who takes home the People's Choice award for his "Quail Hunting with Dick Cheney", and Paul Hipp, recipient of the Jury Prize for "Cheney Plays Folsom Prison".

Together, the two entries were watched by over 600,000 people. Vance and Paul will each receive a check for $2,500 -- and will be having a victory dinner with [Arianna] this later this month. Nice work and congratulations them both.

Salon has published the entire collection of Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse photos. It was January 10, 2004, that the first abuse photos were handed over to the military by Spc. Joseph Darby. The Army commenced its investigation the next day. Many publications published selected photos in the aftermath. Yesterday, for the first time, all of the photos in the Army's dossier were put on the Internet, by Salon.

Today Salon presents an archive of 279 photos and 19 videos of Abu Ghraib abuse first gathered by the CID, along with information drawn from the CID's own timeline of the events depicted.

President Bush tells us the United States does not torture. What is this? Or this or this?

How many of you would guess, without more information or having read the title of this post, that these four men are now on trial for their lives?

Four leaders of a highly organized white supremacist prison gang went on trial Tuesday on charges they orchestrated the slayings or attempted slayings of more than 30 inmates during three decades of violence at some of the nation's toughest penitentiaries.

Forty members of the Aryan Brotherhood are charged with gang activity at six federal prisons stretching from California to Illinois and four California state prisons. Sixteen of the defendants could face the death penalty in one of the largest capital punishment cases ever filed in U.S. history.

The public's revulsion of these men may or may not be justified, as the evidence at trial will dictate. But it is exactly cases like these that compel us to acknowledge that everyone is entitled to the best defense possible and to the presumption of innocence, and that if these rights are not accorded to those we consider the lowest among us, they may not be there for us or our loved ones when we need them.