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. ...

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: