by TChris

Susan Wood, a former assistant commissioner of the FDA, explains why conservative opposition to over-the-counter sales of emergency ("Plan B") contraception to adult women is irrational. Her broader point: "our federal health agencies seem increasingly unable to operate independently and ... this lack of independence compromises their mission of promoting public health and welfare."

by TChris

The City of New York finally agreed to widespread reforms designed to end the abuse of jail inmates by prison guards.

Settling a 2002 lawsuit by the Legal Aid Society, the city agreed to revise its guidelines on when and how guards may use force, post hundreds of new video cameras in the jails, overhaul its procedures for investigating violent episodes and provide more training for guards in how to restrain inmates.

The city will also pay a total of $2.2 million to 22 inmates who were injured in clashes with guards. Inmates in the suit had suffered shattered cheekbones, ruptured eyeballs and split eardrums after officers threw punches at their heads instead of using less damaging control methods.

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has sent a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee clarifying his Feb. 6 testimony on Bush's warrantless electronic surveillance activities. I call it backtracking.

In a letter yesterday to senators in which he asked to clarify his Feb. 6 testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee, Gonzales also seemed to imply that the administration's original legal justification for the program was not as clear-cut as he indicated three weeks ago.

The Senate is expected to vote today on the Patriot Act renewal legislation . It's a bad bill, and besides Sen. Russ Feingold, no one else is standing up to say so. We don't need:

• a national federal police force. Here is the text to Section 605 which would create one.
• the anti-Meth Act
• New drug crimes and death penalty eligible offenses
• Sneak and Peek searches that are more about the drug war than the terror war. Sen. Feingold's statement on this is here.

It's time to show Sen. Russ Feingold some heart. He's the only one sticking out his neck and calling the Patriot Act renewal authoriztion bill for what it is: a bill that will not make us safer, only less free.

The Wisconsin Democrat is crusading against the bill, and he finds himself in a familiar place. He has almost no support - and some outright hostility - from his colleagues, just as he did after the Sept. 11 attacks, when he provided the sole vote against the original Patriot Act, just as he did when he was one of the few clear voices against the war in Iraq, and just as he did when he was first in the Senate to call for a reduction in U.S. troops there. As he surveys the debate, Feingold sounds dismayed by fellow Democrats who have given up opposing the bill as an invasion of civil rights.

"If Democrats can't stand up on something like this when the president's poll numbers are 34 percent, I just wonder how much right we have to govern this country," Feingold said in an interview Tuesday. "You've got to show people you believe in something, not just that you're gaming the issues."

It was 79 degrees in Denver today, way too nice to stay indoors working or blogging. Here's some things I would have blogged about had I been around. If you'd rather discuss other things, this is also an open thread.

• Rikki Lee Jones writes an anti-Joe Lieberman letter to Howie Klein (via Firedoglake.)

• Dan Froomkin's column in the Washington Post asking about President Bush, How Low Can He Go (make sure you make it to the last page where he cites me and TalkLeft, twice -- thanks, Dan!)

• Instapundit has quotes of Karl Rove commenting on the blogosphere. And don't forget to buy Glenn's excellent book, Army of David. just click on the ad on the right side of TalkLeft.

Raw Story reports on a new Zogby poll finding that 72% of the troops in Iraq think we should get out within a year. One in four think we should leave now:

Le Moyne College/Zogby Poll shows just one in five troops want to heed Bush call to stay "as long as they are needed"

• While 58% say mission is clear, 42% say U.S. role is hazy
• Plurality believes Iraqi insurgents are mostly homegrown
• Almost 90% think war is retaliation for Saddam's role in 9/11, most don't blame Iraqi public for insurgent attacks
• Majority of troops oppose use of harsh prisoner interrogation
• Plurality of troops pleased with their armor and equipment
• An overwhelming majority of 72% of American troops serving in Iraq think the U.S. should exit the country within the next year, and nearly one in four say the troops should leave immediately, a new Le Moyne College/Zogby International survey shows.

The New York Times has filed a lawsuit against the Department of Defense seeking documents related to Bush's warrantless NSA electronic surveillance program requested in December under the Freedom of Information Act. Here is what the Times is seeking:

The Times said a Dec. 16 letter to the Department of Defense requested all internal memos, e-mails and legal memoranda and opinions since Sept. 11, 2001, related to the National Security Agency spying program. The department is the parent agency of the NSA. The newspaper said it asked for meeting logs, calendar items and notes related to discussions of the program, including meetings held by Vice President Dick Cheney and his staff with members of Congress and telecommunications executives.

It also requested all complaints of abuse or possible violations in the operations of the program or the legal rationale behind it. And it sought the names and descriptions of people or groups identified through the use of the program and a description of relevant episodes used to identify the targets of the intercepts.

by TChris

The National Organization for Women sued abortion protestors, claiming that they had violated the Hobbs Act, a federal law that prohibits the obstruction of commerce by robbery or extortion. The Supreme Court in 2003 held that extortion requires a plan to obtain the property of another, and concluded that a woman's pursuit of an abortion was not the kind of property that extortion laws protect.

When the case went back to the Seventh Circuit, the court of appeals focused on whether the protestors violated a different prohibition in the statute: the use of physical violence in furtherance of a plan to violate the Hobbs Act. The court of appeals essentially held that the Hobbs Act prohibits any act of violence that affects commerce, whether or not the violence is tied to robbery or extortion. Thankfully, the Supreme Court today unanimously rejected (pdf) that expansive view of the Hobbs Act -- an interpretation that could have federalized any criminal act of violence against a business that has some connection to interstate commerce.

by TChris

When President Bush's approval rating hit 38 percent, we asked: "How low can he go?" The latest answer, courtesy of CBS News: 34 percent.

Cheney's numbers are so low it's a wonder he isn't pelted with eggs whenever he leaves the White House.

Just 18 percent said they had a favorable view of the vice president, down from 23 percent in January.

President Bush says the U.S. does not engage in torture. Not in Iraq, and not at home. Then why did the U.S. agree to pay $300.000 to two detainees to settle their torture lawsuit?

The federal government has agreed to pay $300,000 to settle a lawsuit brought by an Egyptian who was among dozens of Muslim men swept up in the New York area after 9/11, held for months in a federal detention center in Brooklyn and deported after being cleared of links to terrorism.

....In the settlement agreement, which requires approval by a federal judge in Brooklyn, lawyers for the government said that the officials were not admitting any liability or fault. In court papers they have said that the 9/11 attacks created "special factors," including the need to deter future terrorism, that outweighed the plaintiffs' right to sue.

But are they are settling the case with money just to make it go away? Or because they are afraid a Brooklyn, NY jury might award the detainees much more money?

I just finished watching "Exspuditious:" Two Rotten Potatoes (Bush and Cheney),a new entry in the HuffPo contagious festival. I really liked the photos and music and soundbites. One example, check out page 20. And this Bush quote on page 18.