Investigative reporter Murray Waas has a new article on PlameGate up at the National Journal. Shorter version: What comes after PlameGate and RoveGate? Maybe CheneyGate.

Murray reconstructs the May - July, 2003 timeline, and supplies additional details. After previewing Murray's article below, I am going to add another dot that I find significant, one I've written about several times, Cheney, Libby and Catherine Martin's July 12th plane ride to Norfolk, VA to commemorate the U.S.S. Reagan.

by TChris

The president gives the impression that the NSA only eavesdrops on Americans who dial Osama bin Laden's cell phone number, but are we to believe him? The American Friends Service Committee fears that the government is spying on peace activists, protestors, and others who exercise their right to disagree with the Bush administration. To find out if those fears are justified, the ACLU yesterday filed a Freedom of Information Act request on behalf of the AFSC and other groups that might be targeted by a domestic surveillance campaign.

The ACLU is seeking the disclosure of all documents maintained by the Department of Defense on the individual groups. Many of the groups involved in today's action, such as the Rhode Island-based Community Coalition for Peace, have already learned that they are listed in the Pentagon's Threat and Local Observation Notice (TALON) database.

An AFSC director explains the importance of the request:

by TChris

What does it mean to achieve "justice for all"? Nancy Moore shares her thoughts.

by TChris

The new boss:

U.S. Rep. John Boehner of Ohio upset a former deputy to indicted Texan Tom DeLay on Thursday to become majority leader of the scandal-rocked U.S. House of Representatives. ... Republicans effectively gave a vote of no-confidence to Blunt, the acting majority leader and a close ally of DeLay.

Same as the old boss? In most respects, probably yes (they share "lifetime ratings of 94 from the American Conservative Union"), but this article highlights one difference: Boehner is less willing to take harsh steps to curb undocumented workers if those steps would actually punish businesses for hiring them.

Update: More on Boehner:

by TChris

Gay-hating evangelicals usually makes themselves look silly. Occasionally, they make themselves look dangerous.

The silliness comes from critics of "End of the Spear," a film that tells the story of American missionaries in Ecuador. Some Christian fundamentalists are appalled that the film's lead actor is gay. (Mel Gibson was apparently unavailable.)

More than 100 pastors of churches across the country signed a letter drafted by [Rev. Jason] Janz and addressed to Every Tribe [Entertainment] expressing their disappointment in the casting of Mr. Allen. ... "Does anyone really believe that Chad Allen was the best possible actor for Nate Saint?" Mr. Janz asked in his Jan. 12 Web log entry, referring to one of the characters in the movie. "That would be like Madonna playing the Virgin Mary."

Casting Madonna to play the Virgin Mary would actually be an inspired choice, but let's not digress. Here's where the danger surfaces:

by TChris

If we call it a terrorist surveillance program, the White House thinks, the public will embrace our illegal spying. As this editorial makes clear, the president's critics don't oppose surveillance of terrorists. They oppose the president's decision to ignore the laws that give him a lawful way to intercept the communications of persons who are reasonably suspected of promoting terrorism.

"Let me put it to you in Texan," Mr. Bush drawled at the Grand Ole Opry House yesterday. "If Al Qaeda is calling into the United States, we want to know."

Yes, and so does every American. But that has nothing to do with Mr. Bush's decision to toss out the Constitution and judicial process by authorizing the National Security Agency to eavesdrop without a warrant. Let's be clear: the president and his team had the ability to monitor calls by Qaeda operatives into and out of the United States before 9/11 and got even more authority to do it after the attacks. They never needed to resort to extralegal and probably unconstitutional methods.

The editorialist is unimpressed with the NSA's opinion that the domestic spying program is legal.

I have one more day at the Judge-Journalist workshop I'm attending in Reno and will be back to regular blogging tonight. If you're feeling like you have something to say, here's a thread for you.

by TChris

As the linked article points out, videos don't always tell the entire story. Yet the story apparently told by a video recorded by a Chino resident on Sunday is tragic.

[T]he video appears to show a deputy ordering 21-year-old Elio Carrion to his feet, then shooting him as he tries to stand. Carrion, an Air Force policeman who recently returned from Iraq, underwent surgery for wounds to his chest, ribs and leg and was listed in good condition Wednesday at the hospital.

Carrion was a passenger in a Corvette, which crashed following a brief chase that ended when the car crashed into a wall, authorities said. Authorities said no weapons were found on Carrion or the driver, Luis Escobedo. ... Escobedo said he and Carrion were trying to cooperate with the deputy.

"We were trying to explain to him, we were not armed," he told reporters. "Elio had nothing to do with this."

The FBI is investigating the incident. Experts who have viewed the video are disturbed by the officer's decision to fire multiple times at an unarmed man who posed no obvious threat.

by TChris

Hoping to continue benefitting from the culture of corruption, some House Republicans are complaining that their leaders are "overreacting" to Republican scandals. They oppose proposed reforms.

In a tense, 3 1/2 -hour closed-door session, many Republicans challenged virtually every element of the leadership's proposal, from a blanket ban on privately funded travel to stricter limits on gifts to an end to gym privileges for lawmakers-turned-lobbyists.

No gifts? No transportation on corporate jets? What's the point of being a Republican legislator if you can't cash in?

As a consequence, reform proposals are delayed.

House Rules Committee Chairman David Dreier (R-Calif.), who was to unveil a draft of the full lobbying reform package yesterday, instead announced it was not ready.

Andrea Yates, awaiting a retrial on charges she drowned her five children, has been granted $200,000. bail. She must reside in a mental hospital until the retrial.

This is what she has needed all along.

From Think Progess:

In a letter to Scooter Libby's lawyers, Patrick Fitzgerald says he has learned "that many e-mails from Cheney's office at the time of the Plame leak in 2003 have been deleted contrary to White House policy."

Why am I not surprised. But, Kevin writes it's time for some followup. I think it's time for Fitz to expand the scope of his investigation.

Update: Raw Story has a copy of Fitzgerald's letter (pdf) advising of the e-mails.

The House is preparing to extend the Patriot Act another five weeks.

Republicans are stalling. They have not done a thing to compromise since December. Since no one is gong to let the bill die a natural death, an extension is better than the Republicans jamming their version through.