The Grammys : The Winners

The Washington Post has a good rundown. From my perspective:

Best moments:

The Christian Science Monitor reports on a huge, planned data mining program that will troll news and blogs.

The US government is developing a massive computer system that can collect huge amounts of data and, by linking far-flung information from blogs and e-mail to government records and intelligence reports, search for patterns of terrorist activity.

The system - parts of which are operational, parts of which are still under development - is already credited with helping to foil some plots. It is the federal government's latest attempt to use broad data-collection and powerful analysis in the fight against terrorism. But by delving deeply into the digital minutiae of American life, the program is also raising concerns that the government is intruding too deeply into citizens' privacy.

The "core" of the system is called Analysis, Dissemination, Visualization, Insight, and Semantic Enhancement (ADVISE). Check the Monitor article for lots more details.

Raw Story reports that Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-WI) has written Attorney General Alberto Gonzales a letter (pdf) asking him to answer 51 questions about the NSA warrantless electronic surveillance program by March 2. Among the questions:

• "Do you agree that FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) 'expressly prohibits' the specific activities under this program?"

• "What is the rationale for authorizing a program to conduct surveillance in a manner that does not require prior judicial review by the FISA court?"

The Wall St. Journal (free link) reports that the case of David Safavian is going to keep the White House front and center in the Abramoff corruption scandal.

Messrs. Abramoff and Rove shared a connection to Mr. Safavian. Mr. Safavian lobbied alongside Mr. Abramoff before applying for a job with the General Services Administration. .... Prosecutors have accused Mr. Safavian of giving Mr. Abramoff inside information from the GSA at a time when the lobbyist was seeking government leases for a client. They have also accused him of misleading ethics officers and investigators by saying Mr. Abramoff wasn't doing business with the GSA when the two men went to Scotland on a 2002 golfing trip.

Here's the scoop: Prosecutors are pushing Safavian to take a deal. If he goes to trial, they have filed what's called a 404(b) motion seeking to introduce evidence of uncharged acts against Safavian. According to his lawyer, Barbara Van Gelder:

Think Progress has the e-mails Jack Abramoff wrote to the Washingtonian Magazine describing his relationship with Bush.

In the emails, Abramoff describes meeting Bush "in almost a dozen settings," and details how he was personally invited to President Bush's private ranch in Crawford, Texas, for a gathering of Bush fundraisers in 2003. Abramoff did not attend, citing a religious observance.

Abramoff told the Washingtonian editor,

HE HAS ONE OF THE BEST MEMORIES OF ANY POLITICIAN I HAVE EVER MET!. ... THE GUY SAW ME IN ALMOST A DOZEN SETTINGS, AND JOKED WITH ME ABOUT A BUNCH OF THINGS, INCLUDING DETAILS OF MY KIDS. PERHAPS HE HAS FORGOTTEN EVERYTHING. WHO KNOWS.

[Graphic created exclusively for TalkLeft by CL.]

The nuns of the Holy Name Monastery provide yet another reason we don't need to give the Government more power under the Patriot Act:

The sisters say the monastery's main bank account was frozen without explanation in November, creating financial headaches and making the Benedictine nuns hopping mad. They were told the Patriot Act was the cause.

"I think the Patriot Act is unwise, let's say, and that if it happened to us, it can happen to anybody," said Sister Jean Abbott, the monastery's business manager. "I think people need to know that nobody is safe from, in some cases, really ridiculous scrutiny."

Sen. Russ Feinglod provides a Patriot Act update in his Daily Kos diary.

A new and statistical report, authored and released by Seton Hall Law Professor Mark Denbeaux and attorney Joshua Denbeaux, counsel to two of the detainees at Guantanamo, contains the first objective analysis of the background of those held at Guantanamo. The report is based entirely on data supplied by the Defense Department, and is intended to provide "a more detailed picture of who the Guantanamo detainees are, how they ended up there, and the purported bases for their enemy combatant designation."

The report, available here (pdf), finds that fewer than half of the 517 detainees whose histories were reviewed have been accused of hostile acts. These are the findings:

History Professor and author Alfred McCoy, writing in Mother Jones, explains why the McCain Amendment won't ban torture. In fact, it may legitimize it.

Under pressure from the White House, the senators also loaded this legislation with loopholes that may soon allow coerced testimony -- extracted through torture -- into American courts for the first time in two centuries.

This disconcerting contrast is but one sign that, under the Bush administration, the United States is moving to publicly legitimate the use of torture, even to the point of twisting this congressional ban on inhumane interrogation in ways that could ultimately legalize such acts. And following their President's lead, the American people seem to be developing a tolerance, even a taste, for torture.

The House International Relations Committee is meeting this afternoon to consider three resolutions on torture. The ACLU reports (no link yet, received by e-mail):

These resolutions would direct the executive branch to provide the House of Representatives with information about the use of torture, extraordinary rendition and compliance with the Geneva Conventions and the Convention Against Torture. According to the Congressional Research Service, these resolutions of inquiry make "a direct request or demand of the President or the head of an executive department to furnish the House of Representatives with specific factual information in the possession of the executive branch."

by TChris

The CIA apparently doesn't give its administrative employees the training they need to become effective burglars.

Fairfax County police said Tuesday that George C. Dalmas III had been charged with 17 burglaries in McLean, Va., between October and last month. ... The CIA said Dalmas, an administrative employee, was suspended without pay and the agency was cooperating in the investigation.

Justice Stephen Breyer says there are no partisan politics on the Supreme Court, only differences of analysis and interpretation.

"I haven't seen that kind of politics in the Supreme Court. Zero. It doesn't exist," he said.

What there is according to Breyer, are differences in the methods the Justices employ in arriving at their decisions:

Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer says he frequently makes decisions about a law's constitutionality by considering its purposes and consequences, which puts him at odds with fellow justices who try to adhere strictly to the language of the Constitution.

He said there are six factors that go into evaluating a law:

by TChris

The culture of corruption is not confined to Washington, D.C. Here's what's allegedly occurring in Lonoke, Arkansas:

The town's mayor was arrested in a corruption probe, its police chief is accused in a drug-making scheme, and the prosecutor says the chief's wife took prisoners from jail to have sex with them - and more arrests could be coming.

The chief's wife's alleged smuggling of inmates out of the jail "to have sex with her at ballparks, the chief's office and a hotel" isn't so much corrupt as -- what's a word that will make it through the filters? -- needy. But the chief (who has been suspended with pay) and his wife are also suspected of stealing and pawning jewelry, while the chief is additionally accused of conspiring to make methamphetamine so he could "use it to frame someone." As for the mayor:

The mayor was charged with misdemeanor theft of services. A State Police affidavit says he used state prisoners to do work at his home, including fixing an air conditioner and hanging Christmas lights. Campbell also is alleged to have had prisoners work at his home.