The outrageous privacy actions of our Government continue to come to light.

The News Tribune reports that the I.R.S. tracked the political party affiliations of taxpayers in 20 states.

As it hunted down tax scofflaws, the Internal Revenue Service collected information on the political party affiliations of taxpayers in 20 states. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., a member of an appropriations subcommittee with jurisdiction over the IRS, said the practice was an “outrageous violation of the public trust” that could undermine the agency’s credibility.

...Murray said she learned about the problem from the president of the National Treasury Employees Union, Colleen Kelly. The IRS is part of the Treasury Department.

An I.R.S. spokesperson acknowledges that one of its "vendors" did collect the information and that it is illegal. It says it has never used the information and since told the vendor to "screen the information out." (It seems that a vendor is a private collection agency.)

But a Deputy IRS Commissioner defended the practice and said it is lawful.

Wal-Mart says the cross-promotion of the Planet of the Apes movie and black-themed films on it's website was intentional by an employee, but well-meaning. Huh?

A business manager trying to promote "Martin Luther King: I Have a Dream" programmed the site so that shoppers who bought any boxed set also would be offered the movie about the civil rights leader and other black-themed films.

[Background here. Clarification: Crooks and Liars was not saying there was a Wal-Mart conspiracy, just noting the wierdness of the promotion. Hat tip to Patriot Daily.]

by Last Night in Little Rock

Embattled Majority Leader [not Whip] on leave Rep. Tom DeLay, while still stoutly maintaining his innocence in his Texas criminal case, early Saturday afternoon abandoned all efforts to retain his House leadership role, according to CNN and NYTimes.com in letters to the Speaker and other Republican House leaders.

This was hardly a magnanimous gesture on DeLay's part: The proverbial handwriting was on the wall.

by Last Night in Little Rock

Time magazine reports that resigned Congressman Duke Cunningham wore a wire before he broke down and entered his plea, so "sources" say.

I smell a 5K1.1 sentence reduction for cooperation in the offing.

by TChris

Nicholas Grancio was a person of interest both to the FBI and to the Colombo crime family, which wanted Grancio dead. A lawsuit filed by Grancio's wife alleges that an FBI surveillance team and a team of hit men were both following Grancio in 1992. Colombo crime family member Gregory Scarpa Sr., an FBI informant, spotted the surveillance. The suit alleges that Scarpa called FBI agent R. Lindley DeVecchio and persuaded DeVecchio to call off the surveillance of Grancio. DeVecchio obliged, the suit says, clearing the way for the hit men to take out Grancio. Grancio was shot to death in his car minutes later.

The case "is about the corrupt and unlawful relationship between law enforcement and a ruthless killer and career criminal that went unchecked for years and led to the cold-blooded murder of a man," court documents say.

More about DeVecchio’s cozy relationship with Scarpa:

A new report from Congressional Research Service attempts to answer the question of whether Bush had the legal authority to authorize the National Security Agency to order warrantless surveillance on Americans. CRS is the public policy, independent research arm of Congress.

While the Congressional report reached no bottom-line conclusions on whether the program is legal or not, it concluded that the legal rationale appears somewhat dubious. The legal rationale "does not seem to be as well-grounded" as the Bush administration's lawyers have suggested, and Congress did not appear to have intended to authorize warrantless wiretaps when it gave President Bush the authority to wage war against Al Qaeda in the days after the Sept. 11 attacks, the report concluded.

Tom Kean, Chair of the 9/11 Commission agrees:

Catchy title, no? In theory, it's true. A heaing will be held Tuesday Thursday in federal court in Miami to determine whether Jose Padilla will be granted bail, or detained as a danger to the community or a flight risk pending trial.

David Markus was in court today, and has the details of who is going to represent Padilla and how it was determined. The short answer is: The Miami Federal Defenders (great office with great lawyers by the way) will be lead counsel, and Andy Patel, one of Padilla's New York lawyers since 2002, will be co-counsel. But read David's post for a little bit of how this was determined, and how the Assistant U.S. Attorney tried to block the federal defender from entering the case.

As to the bail issue, David reports:

Judge Garber then asked the government what its position was on bail. AUSA Pell said that the government was asking for pretrial detention based on risk of flight and danger to the community, to which Judge Garber quipped: "Why am I not surprised?"

Defense Tech writes about a recent military study showing that 80% of U.S. Marine torso deaths in Iraq might have been prevented if they had had extra body armor. The study is here (pdf) and covered the period of March 2003 through June 2005.

The New York Times has this report on the study.

In all, 526 marines have been killed in combat in Iraq. A total of 1,706 American troops have died in combat there. The findings and other research by military pathologists suggests that an analysis of all combat deaths in Iraq, including those of Army troops, would show that 300 or more lives might have been saved with improved body armor.

Happy Blogiversary to Noah of Defense Tech, which turns three today.

Martha Stewart is probably very glad tonight jail is behind her. The Second Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld her convictions for conspiracy, concealing material information from and making false statements to government officials, and obstructing an agency proceeding. At last, it's over, except for being on supervised release, which is similar to parole. I'm sure she thinks it's no walk in the park, and she's right, but it's a lot better than being on an ankle monitor or in prison.

The text of the opinion is here. .

Tom DeLay's chances of recapturing his House leadership position dropped dramatically today when several Republicans in the House asked for new elections to be held promptly.

"It's clear that we need to elect a new majority leader to restore the trust and confidence of the American people," said Rep. Jim Ramstad of Minnesota, as two fellow Republicans circulated a petition calling for new elections.

Who's on tap?

Rep. Roy Blunt of Missouri, who took over as majority leader temporarily when DeLay stepped aside following his indictment on state charges, is certain to run for the post if new elections are held. Rep. John Boehner of Ohio, a former member of the leadership, is his likeliest rival, and there may be other contenders as well.

by TChris

The State of New Jersey is poised to impose a moratorium on the death penalty.

New Jersey would block executions while a panel examined death penalty-related issues and for two months after the panel issued its report. The process would take about a year.

The state senate passed a bill to suspend executions pending the study, and the state assembly is likely to pass it on Monday. The acting governor, Richard Codey, said he’ll sign the law.

by TChris

How reliable is fingerprint evidence? Ask Brandon Mayfield, the Oregon lawyer who was arrested and detained as a material witness for two weeks after the FBI concluded that his fingerprints matched fingerprints found at the site of a train bombing in Spain. The Justice Department’s inspector general recently concluded that the fingerprints were “unusually similar” and that FBI lab technicians were “overly confident” of the match. (TalkLeft background on Mayfield is collected here. More information about the uncertain science of fingerprint comparison can be found in this post, and in this one.)

The inspector general also concluded that there was “no abuse of the USA Patriot Act” in Mayfield’s case, a conclusion that depends on the definition of “abuse.” As TalkLeft reported here and here, “sneak and peek” warrants were issued that permitted Mayfield’s property to be searched without his knowledge. That probably seems abusive to Mayfield, the innocent victim of the FBI’s intrusion. And the FBI's "overconfidence," which permitted it to disregard warnings from Spanish authorities that the prints didn't match, make the decision to subject Mayfield to the sneak and peek searches permitted by the Patriot Act seem even more abusive.