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.

Does anyone feel like blogging today? I need to attend to other things, so I hope readers will take over.

Jack Abramoff pleaded guilty today in Florida.

The plea agreement calls for a maximum sentence of just over seven years, but that sentence could be reduced if Abramoff cooperates fully and would run simultaneously with whatever sentence is imposed in the Washington corruption case. The remaining four counts in the Florida indictment will be dismissed.

Other big Abramoff news today is that the Bush reelection campaign is turning over $6,000 it took from Abramoff to charity.

Abramoff raised at least $100,000 for the Bush-Cheney '04 re-election campaign, earning the honorary title "pioneer" from the campaign. But the campaign is giving up only $6,000 directly from Abramoff, his wife and one of the Indian tribes that he worked to win influence for in Washington. The money is being donated to the American Heart Association.

Also giving up money received from Abramoff: Tom DeLay and Roy Blunt:

The new law blog at the Wall St. Journal reported Monday that Ana Marie Cox will be leaving Wonkette and replaced by David Lat, the male prosecutor who authored Underneath Their Robes pretending to be a female named Article Three Groupie. Lat has left his job with the U.S. Attorney's office in Newark to write Wonkette.

As I wrote here, count me as underwhelmed. The few times I read Underneath Their Robes, Lat was praising conservative judges to the hilt. His favorite word was "hottie." I'll try to give him a chance, but if he turns Wonkette into a praise machine for conservatives, I'm done.

Ana Marie confirms the arrangement today in the Washington Post. I'll miss her voice in the blogosphere. Good luck to Ana Marie, I hope your new book Dog Days, is a great seller.

President Bush held a meeting yesterday with prosecutors, complaining that Congress was not getting behind the renewal of the Patriot Act. Prosecutors did their best to rally behind him.

Thankfully, there are Senators like Russ Feingold who are not yielding:

Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., said Bush should spend more time negotiating about the Patriot Act with Democrats and others on Capitol Hill and less on "staged meetings with hand-picked participants" at the White House.

"Contrary to the president's misleading comments, nobody wants to see the Patriot Act expire," Feingold said Tuesday. "We want commonsense changes to the act that would give the government the power to combat terrorism while protecting the rights and freedoms of law-abiding citizens.