CNN reports that Jose Padilla is flying to Miami and scheduled to appear yet this afternoon in federal court in Miami.

At least he'll have a lawyer. And an Article III judge presiding over the process.

Update: Talking Dog posts his interview with Padilla lawyer Andrew Patel

Update: Miami Herald reports that Padilla appeared in court after 5 and has a picture.

Meet Russ Tice, a whistleblower in the NSA warrantless electronic surveillance program and former NSA official, fired last year, who is asking to testify at Congressional hearings on the program.

"I intend to report to Congress probable unlawful and unconstitutional acts conducted while I was an intelligence officer with the National Security Agency and with the Defense Intelligence Agency," Mr. Tice stated in the Dec. 16 letters, copies of which were obtained by The Washington Times.

The letters were sent the same day that the New York Times revealed that the NSA was engaged in a clandestine eavesdropping program that bypassed the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court. The FISA court issues orders for targeted electronic and other surveillance by the government.

....In his Dec. 16 letter, Mr. Tice wrote that his testimony would be given under the provisions of the 1998 Intelligence Community Whistleblower Protection Act, which makes it legal for intelligence officials to disclose wrongdoing without being punished.

[hat tip Patriot Daily.]

As more and more of us find ourselves with parents in need of skilled nursing facilities, articles like this are our biggest nightmare. First, the names of the facilities: the Jennifer Matthew Nursing Home in Rochester, NY and the Northwoods Nursing Home in Cortland, NY.

Hidden cameras recorded nursing-home patients being left in their own waste while staffers watched movies, and 19 workers at two facilities have been arrested, prosecutors said Thursday.....Videotape from that facility, the Jennifer Matthew Nursing Home in Rochester, showed a patient and other residents who hadn't been repositioned to avoid bed sores and were often left for hours to lie in their own urine and waste, Spitzer said. Medications and treatments were not provided as prescribed, he said.

Staff had moved call bells away from patients and stopped doing their rounds so they could socialize, watch movies, sleep or leave the building, Spitzer said. Some employees were also accused of falsely filing records that claimed they provided required care.

by TChris

Raymond McNealy mooned his neighbor during an argument. No, McNealy isn't 12; he's 44. He was charged with indecent exposure, a crime that, in Maryland, carries up to 3 years in prison. McNealy won't be going to prison for dropping trou, because a Montgomery County Circuit Court judge ruled that buttocks are not among the "private parts" that cannot be publicly exposed under state law.

"If exposure of half of the buttock constituted indecent exposure, any woman wearing a thong at the beach at Ocean City would be guilty," Judge John W. Debelius III said after the bench trial, reversing the ruling of a District Court judge.

The judge noted that McNealy would have been convicted if he'd been prosecuted for being a jerk. True, although there isn't enough jail space in the country to hold everyone who could be convicted of jerkiness.

The New York Times reports that orders to "Stop the Presses!" were barked from coast to coast in the wee hours of Wednesday morning when it was learned the trapped miners were dead, not alive.

How did it happen? Explanations are beginning to emerge.

A choked-up Ben Hatfield, chief executive of International Coal Group, said company officials mistakenly allowed family jubilation over erroneous reports that the miners were alive "to go on longer than it should have." ..."We sincerely regret the manner in which events unfolded this morning," said Hatfield, who blamed "miscommunication" for the stunning and heartbreaking turn of events early Wednesday.

Who would know better what is required of the Government when it comes to electornic surveillance of foreign intelligence targets than the FISA Court judges? Why would we take Bush's word or that of his middle level legal advisors over their's?

The Washington Post reports FISA judges want answers. They are scheduled to be briefed on Bush's warrantless NSA electronic surveillance program on Monday:

Several judges on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court said they want to hear directly from administration officials why President Bush believed he had the authority to order, without the court's permission, wiretapping of some phone calls and e-mails after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Of serious concern to several judges is whether any information gleaned from intercepts by the National Security Agency was later used to gain their permission for wiretaps without the source being disclosed.

Can you say Fruit of the Poisonous Tree?

Nominations are open for the 2006 Bloggies Awards. If you nominate TalkLeft, I hope it will be for Best Topical Weblog or even Best Design. You can nominate blogs in multiple categories and up to three blogs per category. Here's my nominations:

• Best American Weblog: Atrios and Daily Kos
• Weblog of the Year: Firedoglake
• Best Political Weblog: Daily Kos and Crooks and Liars
• Best Group Weblog: Huffington Post
• Most Humorous: TBogg and Jesus' General
• Best Writing: Digby and Body and Soul
• Best New Weblog: Firedoglake
• Best Community Blog: Daily Kos

You can only vote once, so go ahead, take a few minutes and nominate your favorite bloggers. Once the nominations are done, the final voting is done by a committee of 50, so nominations are all you get to make.

GW Law Prof Orin Kerr has a theory on the NSA warrantless surveillance program, based upon some material in James Risen's book. Orrin is very much an expert in these issues. One of his articles is Kerr, Orin S., "Internet Surveillance Law After the USA Patriot Act: The Big Brother That Isn't" . Northwestern University Law Review, Vol. 97, 2003 (downloadable here.)

Orin thinks the program may have involved packet-sniffing which he likens to a giant pen register or trap and trace (the former records numbers dialed from a phone, the latter records telephone numbers of incoming calls and neither intercept the content of communications) rather than data-mining.

Packet sniffing refers to installing a monitoring device on a steam of traffic that looks for specific sequences of letters, numbers, or symbols.....The term "data-mining" is usually used to mean taking an already-gathered database of information, and then performing analysis on the gathered database in lots of ways to identify patterns and characteristics.

Israel's Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has suffered a massive stroke.

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon suffered a massive, life-threatening stroke Wednesday and underwent lengthy surgery to drain blood from his brain after falling ill at his ranch. Powers were transferred to his deputy, Ehud Olmert. Doctors placed Sharon on a respirator and were trying to save his life only hours before the hard-charging, overweight, 77-year-old Israeli leader had been scheduled to undergo a procedure to seal a hole in his heart that contributed to a mild stroke on Dec. 18.

Israeli Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger called on Israelis to read Psalms and pray for Sharon. "We are very, very worried," he said, and prayed for "mercy from Heaven."

Israel is warning its adversaries not to exploit the situation.

Speaking to reporters outside the hospital, Sharon aide Raanan Gissin warned Israel's enemies: "...the security forces and IDF (Israeli military) are ready for any kind of challenge," he said."

We hope for a miracoulous recovery.

The Supreme Court ruled today in a one page order (pdf) that the Government may move Jose Padilla from military custody to the civilian custody and bring him to Miami to stand trial on terrorism charges.

The defense alleged the Government's planned move was an attempt to avoid a ruling on the underlying issues in Padilla's habeas case.

Padilla's lawyers don't see this as a total loss.

Donna Newman, told The Associated Press today that she was pleased at the Supreme Court's statement in its one-page order that the broader issues in the case would be weighed "in due course."

Scotusblog has legal analysis of the Order.

Crooks and Liars has a good assortment of videos up today:

• Bill O'Reilly on David Letterman, not getting the appreciation he expected. Transcript is here.

• James Risen on the Today Show talking about his book that exposes the warrantless NSA electronic monitoring.

• Jack Murtha on Nightline discussing the military and how he would not join today.

by Last Night in Little Rock

Corruption charges... Corruption? Corruption is government intrusion into market efficencies in the form of regulation. That's Milton Friedman. He got a goddam Nobel Prise. We have laws against it precisely so we can get away with it. Corruption is out protection. Corruption keeps us safe and warm. Corruption is why you you and I are prancing around in here instead of fighting over scaps of meat out in the street. Corruption is why we win!

Syriana, imdb and website, Tim Blake Nelson as Danny Dalton, spoken to Jeffrey Wright as Bennett Holiday.

It could probably be shown by facts and figures that there is no distinctly native American criminal class except Congress.

Mark Twain, Pudd'nhead Wilson's New Calendar ch. 9 (1897)

All in all, not the best Congre$$ money can buy.