Update: The New York Times on Bush's planned weeklong spin mission for the NSA program.

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Original Post

It's happening again. Everytime the Democrats come close to scoring, they drop the ball. They fall for the Republican rhetoric, try to play the middle and end up sounding like Republican-lites.

Here's what you will see in the next few days. All of the points made over Bush's warrantless NSA electronic monitoring program being illegal are about to go down the drain. Scared off by Karl Rove, and Bush's agenda of talking heads this week, the Democrats are now saying they are in favor of increased surveillance just as much as the Republicans. Their opposition is about to be reduced to accusing Bush of a technical violation they would only have been to happy to fix had he asked.

Congrats to three of my favorite blogs who received finalist nominations today to the 2006 Bloggies for best political blog.

Daily Kos, Crooks and Liars, Firedoglake -- those are my top three.

They are only missing Atrios and Huffington Post.

Go on over and vote for your favorite.

Update: The 2005 Koufax Awards for liberal bloggers are moving to the next phase. The initial nominees for Best New Blog and Blog Deserving of Wider Recognition are up. This is a great way to find new and interesting blogs that you don't come across every day.

President Bush spoke to anti-abortion activists who were protesting the Roe v. Wade decision today, telling them "We Will Prevail."

President George W. Bush on Monday told opponents of abortion their views would eventually prevail and urged them to work to convince more Americans of "the rightness of our cause." On the 33rd anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the landmark Supreme Court decision that established federal abortion rights, Bush addressed activists by telephone from Manhattan, Kansas, and called their goals noble.

"We, of course, seek common ground where possible," he said. "We're working to persuade more of our fellow Americans of the rightness of our cause, and this is a cause that appeals to the conscience of our citizens and is rooted in America's deepest principles -- history tells us that with such a cause, we will prevail."

Democrats, take heed. The writing is on the wall. Do not confirm Judge Sam Alito.

Reporter Jason Leopold has new details of the current focus of Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald's investigation into PlameGate, many of which were provided to him by those with personal knowledge of the investigation and who have appeared before the grand jury. He writes that the Niger documents are an issue, as are the activities of the White House Iraq Group and Karl Rove. In other words, a conspiracy investigation is very much underway.

Rove first:

All of the sources interviewed separately for this story said they were told that Karl Rove was the person who first suggested using the media to "turn the tables on Wilson." The officials wouldn't identify the person who told them this. The decision, however, was made during a meeting that took place between the White House Iraq Group.

...Lawyers close to the leak case said Fitzgerald seems to be pursuing conspiracy charges against some of the higher-profile suspects in the leak, such as Rove.

Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) sent this letter (pdf) to National Intelligence Director John Negroponte, NSA Director Keith Alexander and Donald Rumsfeld today. A snippet:

"One element of the NSA's domestic spying program that has gotten too little attention is the government's reportedly widespread use of data mining technology to analyze the communications of ordinary Americans. Today I am calling on the Director of National Intelligence, the Defense Secretary and the Director of the NSA to explain whether and how the government is using data mining technology, and what authority it claims for doing so.

Data mining is a new, unproven and intrusive technology in the counterterrorism context, and we need to know how it is being used, how effective it is in finding patterns of terrorist activity, and whether there are sufficient safeguards to protect the privacy of Americans. We can and must fight terrorism aggressively without infringing on the privacy of law-abiding Americans."

There's an excellent op-ed in today's Washington Post by Washington lawyer Robert Litt, who was the principal associate deputy attorney general in the late 90's, on the fake Cisneros scandal. He knows, because he was there. I urge you all to read his article for insights into the independent counsel's collossal waste of $22 million dollars over six years. Litt begins:

An independent counsel has issued a report claiming that officials of the Clinton administration blocked his investigation into allegations of tax violations by former housing secretary Henry Cisneros. Although these sensational charges have been trumpeted by partisans as evidence of Democratic corruption, they are completely false.

After debunking Independent Counsel Robert Barrett's claims, Litt concludes:

Bradblog has the transcript (pdf) of last week's House Judiciary Committee (Democratic) hearing on Bush's warrantless NSA electronic surveillance program. [link fixed]

Thanks to Suburban Guerilla, Mark Crispin Miller and Save the USA for pointing out Section 605 of the House version of the Patriot Act renewal legislation. It calls for the creation of a Federal Police Force. Your imperial presidency at work.

"A permanent police force, to be known as the 'United States Secret Service Uniformed Division,'" empowered to "make arrests without warrant for any offense against the United States committed in their presence" ... "or for any felony cognizable under the laws of the United States if they have reasonable grounds to believe that the person to be arrested has committed or is committing such felony."

Here is the text to Sec. 605, Creation of the Uniformed Division, United States Secret Service. [hat tip Patriot Daily.]

by TChris

BlackBerry users, beware. You may soon find it less convenient to check your email.

The Supreme Court today rejected a petition from BlackBerry maker Research in Motion Ltd. for a rehearing of its patent-infringement case. ...

RIM may face a court-ordered shut down of most of its 4 million BlackBerrys in the United States if it cannot settle its case with NTP.

RIM owes NTP more than $250 million after a jury found that it infringed NTP's patents. RIM says it's working on a software "work-around that skirts the patent infringement."

I didn't see Meet the Press yesterday but it seems everyone else did and Tim Russert's in the dog house.

• Arianna:

RUSSERT: Let's talk a little bit about the language people are using in the politics now of 2006, and I refer you to some comments that Harry Belafonte made yesterday. He said that Homeland Security had become the new Gestapo. What do you think of that?

And if you're a really really tough journalist, you naturally ask Obama... another question about Harry Belafonte:

RUSSERT: Mr. Belafonte went to Venezuela, as you well know, some time ago and met with Hugo Chavez, leader of that country, and said some things that obviously were noted in this country and around the world. Let's listen, and come back and talk about it.

It's unclear why Tim didn't also ask Obama to defend Lil' Kim, Kanye West and Antonio Davis. I mean, they're all black, right? And it's just one big game, right?

• Atrios:

Twice Tim Russert has asked his guests to comment on the remarks of Harry Belafonte. There was Barack Obama today, and previously it was Colin Powell....!'m not sensing any pattern here myself...

(Guest Posted by TalkLeft's Man in Hollywood)

Over a decade ago, Robert Hughes wrote "Culture of Complaint", an expansive diatribe about the "fraying of America" that directed cooly reasoned blasts at both the left and right hemispheres of the cultural landscape. Among them, Ronald Reagan ("Reagan educated the people down to his level. He left the country a little stupider in 1988 than it had been in 1980, and a lot more tolerant of lies") and the art world itself, for its subservience to special interest groups. Hughes argued that the rise of political correctness was flooding the galleries and diluting the art... culture itself was drowning in a sea of overweening "political etiquette".

Highly critical of those who shared his turf yet able to respect the mercurial nature of both flakey artists and humorless social activists, Hughes' 1993 book was a great tightrope act. It was, to use a phrase recently demonized by the right wing, nuanced.

Who would have thought that just three years later Roger Ailes would flip Hughes' polemic on its head and use it as a inspiration for Fox News?

by TChris

In the nation’s worst prisons, daily life is governed by inmates, not by correctional authorities. The strong survive and control; the weak submit or perish. And some prison guards are happy with a system that allows them to use inmates as “enforcers” who maintain order in a chaotic environment.

While California law prohibits inmates from having “control over” one another, California's corrections chief, Roderick Hickman, endorses the practice of enlisting favored inmates as “peacekeepers.” Hickman says “peacekeepers” play a useful role in a prison: they can pass messages throughout the prison, and they’re helpful informants. Of course, criminal informants can rarely be trusted to tell the truth, and it's strange to trust inmate “peacekeepers” to keep the peace in a lawful way.

Critics worry that the freedom accorded peacekeepers lets them run drugs, order inmate assaults and commit other crimes. Now the practice has come under scrutiny following two California slayings in which high-ranking gang members serving as peacemakers are alleged to have played a role. ...