I have yet to write a word about the Washington Post-Deborah Howell controversy. It got so ugly so fast and spread into such a malicious maelstrom and blogswarm, that I really didn't want to take part in it. The issue of whether Howell, the Post's Omsbudman, intentionally mis-stated last week that Jack Abramoff personally had contributed to Democrats as well as Republicans in an effort to make the corruption scandal appear bi-partisan, too quickly (for my taste) got overshadowed by obscenities and ridicule. The same happened with the secondary issue of WAPO shutting down comments on the topic at its blog.

Avedon Carol at Sideshow has now weighed in, and because I agree with her on both points, I'm chiming in to echo her sentiments. The first point : Good for Howell for apologizing, but in doing so, it appears she made another mis-statement. She admits Abramoff did not personally contribute to Democrats, but says he directed others, including his Indian tribe clients to contribute to Democrats.

NBC reported in December that the Pentagon had a program for domestic surveillance of dissidents, after reviewing a secret 400 page Defense Department document.

....the Pentagon now collects domestic intelligence that goes beyond legitimate concerns about terrorism or protecting U.S. military installations, say critics.....The DOD database obtained by NBC News includes nearly four dozen anti-war meetings or protests, including some that have taken place far from any military installation, post or recruitment center.

Newsweek's Michael Isikoff has more on the program today, and says the Pentagon's spying on Americans is more widespread than previously believed.

Sex offenders are about to share the stage with society's latest pariahs: meth cooks.

Newsweek reports:

Law-enforcement officials in Tennessee have a new approach to fighting meth: naming names. Now the public can search an online database for the name, alias and birth date of anyone convicted of manufacturing the drug since last March. It's the first compilation of its kind nationwide....

By using the registry, landlords or property owners could make sure they're not renting to cookers. The names will stay on the site for seven years, at which time the offenders can appeal to be removed.

Civil libertartians are rightfully up in arms:

Bump and Update: Time Magazine also has viewed the Bush-Abramoff photos.

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Original Post (1/21)

The Washingtonian says it has seen the photos the White House can't find of Bush and Abramoff together. First the background:

The Washingtonian reports that the reason Bush didn't nominate Ted Olson for the Supreme Court was his age: at 65, he's considered too old. Olson also is engaged to be married.

Some four years after his wife, author Barbara Olson, was killed on the hijacked American Airlines flight that crashed into the Pentagon, former solicitor general Ted Olson is engaged. He will be married this fall to Lady Evelyn Booth, who has been his social companion since they met at the Kentucky Derby in 2002. A native of Louisville, Lady Booth was named for an aunt.

Olson left the solicitor general’s office last year and was considered a candidate to succeed William Rehnquist as chief justice before the job went to John Roberts.

Judge vetters saw Olson, 65, as too old, although many in his Norwegian family have lived into their nineties. His mother is going strong at 85. Olson still sports a thick shock of sandy Viking hair and zips around Great Falls in a silver Mercedes SL 600.

There was a big conference at Princeton Theological Seminary last week, at which religious leaders from multiple faiths gathered to assail torture.

More than 100 Christian, Muslim, and Jewish religious leaders and thinkers met this month at Princeton Theological Seminary in New Jersey to try to take a more public and more vigorous lead in the debate on U.S. use of torture in the war on terrorism.

...The purpose of the January 13-15 Princeton conference was to galvanize religious opposition to U.S. torture policy and launch a national religious campaign against torture. "Nobody is standing up and saying they're for torture, but not many religious people are speaking the truth with love saying this is outrageous," said Father William Byron, research professor at Loyola College in Baltimore, who attended the conference. "We of faith communities all have a fundamental baseline commitment to the preservation and protection of human dignity, and [torture] is an assault on human dignity."

Sen. Bill Frist shows us again how to talk out of both sides of your mouth (via Firedoglake):

Frist, while giving a Senate tour to Republican activists last night:

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist told Republican Party activists on Friday night that U.S. Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito was the "worst nightmare of liberal Democrats."

Frist's spokesman afterwards:

Frist spokesman Bob Stevenson said that Alito "is a thoughtful mainstream conservative jurist who is well respected by his peers, by Democrats and Republicans alike."

Karl Rove has been busy the past few months re-vamping the Republican's message so they can keep their hold on Congress. In a word, the message is fear. Fear, Rove thinks, will make the country believe:

• Bush's warrantless NSA electronic surveillance on Americans is legal
• Bush's judicial picks will keep those terrorist detainees in their place and ensure our safety by curtailling our civil liberties
• The renewal of the Patriot Act will protect us against another terrorist attack

We're no closer to getting Osama. There hasn't been a terrorist attack in more than four years, and there's no evidence the Patriot Act or subway searches are the reason.

The Netherlands has introduced a new kind of high-tech prison that experts predict will spread further, and prisoner advocates are not complaining:

At a high-tech prison opening this week inmates wear electronic wristbands that track their every movement and guards monitor cells using emotion-recognition software. Authorities are convinced the jail in Lelystad -- quickly dubbed "the Big Brother Prison" by the local press -- represents the future of correctional facilities: cheap and efficient, without coddling criminals or violating their fundamental rights.

According to a local prisoners' rights group:

by TChris

If you want to be shocked or outraged, or just want to listen to one of the looniest rants you’ll ever hear on the radio (even if you regularly listen to Rush or O’Reilly) because you need to know that people like this are out there, give a listen to Shirley Phelps-Roper’s interview on Wisconsin Public Radio. Phelps-Roper bills herself as the attorney for the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, whose parishioners protest homosexuality by picketing at the funerals of soldiers who died in service to their country. Phelps-Rogers gets whackier as she goes along, ultimately (at about the 8 minute mark) explaining that she feels sorry for the parents of the fallen because they failed in their duty to their children and raised them for the devil by not smiting homosexuals from the Earth (or something to that effect).

Crazy lawyers who condemn the parents of dead soldiers are a disservice to the profession. She shouldn’t be licensed.

The Government and lawyers for Lewis "Scooter" Libby filed a discovery status report today with the court. Here are the items in contention (from the court filing):

6. It is the position of the defense, based on the government's written and oral responses to our requests, that significant disagreements exist between the parties with respect to the nature and scope of the government's obligations under Rule 16 and Brady. These disagreements include, but are not limited to, the following:

A. Whether information in the government's possession about reporters' knowledge concerning Valerie Wilson's employment by the CIA from sources other than Mr. Libby is material to the preparation of the defense. The defendant has already prepared and expects to file a motion to compel disclosure of such information on or before February 3, 2006.

by TChris

Kenneth Marsh received $756,900 from California’s Victim Compensation and Government Claims Board for the 21 years he spent in prison for a crime that never happened. The record award represents the state’s acknowledgement that Marsh is innocent, and a board member, San Bernardino County DA Michael Ramos, actually apologized to Marsh for the government's error. Unfortunately, the facts haven’t deterred Jay Coulter, the retired prosecutor who obtained the guilty verdict, from continuing to smear Marsh’s name.

Coulter … said Thursday he remains unconvinced that Marsh is innocent. Coulter said the evidence did not fit Marsh's version of what happened.

Marsh was convicted of beating his girlfriend’s child to death. He maintains that the toddler hit his head on a fireplace hearth after falling from a couch. During the trial, prosecution experts testified that the fall could not have killed the child. The compensation board concluded that new evidence supports Marsh’s version.