This is an unusual story about a woman who witnesses an execution -- that of her brother, who killed his three year old daughter. About the unlikely author:

Gina Farthing, 44, has been the features editor at The News Virginian since September 2004. She was a Navy brat born in Morocco, was raised on Long Island, N.Y., and now lives in Waynesboro. She has worked at the Danville Register & Bee and Reidsville (N.C.) Review/Eden Daily News. She is married to Jim Farthing, a corrections officer, and has two grown children.

It's a long series, beginning here, but one well worth reading. Her brother pleaded guilty to the crime and waived appeals of his death sentence. Ms. Farthing says of her reasons for writing the article:

Update: Abramoff's lawyer Neal Sonnett told CNN Abramoff will plead guilty in the Florida case tomorrow. The charges there pertain to Abramoff and Adam Kidan allegedly falsifying a $23 million wire transfer in order to obtain a $60 million loan to purchase SunCruz Casinos, a fleet of offshore gambling boats.

Update: The Plea Agreement in the Washington case is now available here. (pdf)

Some quick notes: The agreement binds only the Public Integrity Section and Fraud Section of the Criminal Division and the Tax Division of the Department of Justice. It does not bind any other prosecutors or agencies. It does not bind the Civil Division of the IRS. Restitution to victims is set at $25 million. He will pay 1.7 million restitution to the Criminal Division of the IRS for his tax evasion, and this will be used to offset any civil tax liability for 2001 to 2003, but there is no promise that he won't owe them more. He cannot transfer assets to avoid paying restitution, but he does not need permission to use his assets for living expenses, business expenses or attorneys' fees.

His guidelines come out at level 31 (108 to 135 months), including his three point reduction for acceptance of responsibility. For his cooperation, he will receive an as yet unspecified reduction. The Government is recommending that any sentence in the D.C. case be concurrent with the sentence he receives in Florida.

Assuming his guidelines in Florida are not higher than those in the D.C. case, it looks like Abramoff got a great deal. A cooperation reduction of between 25 and 50% is not unusual. Doing the math, he could come out with a sentence between 4 1/2 and 5 1/2 years if the Government went with a 50% reduction.(edited to reflect 3 point reduction included in guideline computation)

by TChris

Other than a troop withdrawal, the one thing that might increase support for the U.S. in Iraq is a serious commitment to reconstruction. The Washington Post tells us that half the money already spent has been "eaten away by the insurgency, a buildup of Iraq's criminal justice system and the investigation and trial of Saddam Hussein." Although only 20 percent of the funds already authorized for reconstruction remain unallocated, the Bush administration has announced that it won't seek further funding from Congress, despite "what authorities say is tens of billions of dollars of work yet to be done merely to bring reliable electricity, water and other services to Iraq's 26 million people." Perhaps this is the administration's answer to critics who complain of its willingness to rebuild Iraq while largely ignoring the need to rebuild New Orleans.

No matter what money the administration spends in Iraq, it can't overcome the damage it causes by its continuing use of violence against the innocent:

A U.S. air strike that Americans said was directed at suspected bombers killed a family of 12 in their home north of Baghdad Monday night, Iraqi officials said Tuesday. A Washington Post special correspondent watched as rescuers removed the bodies of women and children still in their nightclothes.

Don't miss acclaimed playwright Sheldon Yellen's new Huffington Post piece, Bush as Bad Theatre. It's devastating, and so true.

Bush is our own Tartuffe, Molière's insufferable pseudo-religious comedic character who uses his so called piety to gain power over the lives of others.

....Hypocrites are easy to expose while true believers like Bush stand fast as reality implodes around them. He appears to believe what he says even as he plays the leading role in our national drama. He would serve nicely as a foolish father in a sit-com, or a ridiculous boss in an office comedy, but he is the Commander-in-Chief who can and does send young men and women to their deaths. Sadly, he does not even have the true villain's consciousness of when he has done wrong. This is why apology and admission of error is so difficult for him. He believes in his God-given rectitude in all situations.

The final paragpraph is the best. I won't spoil it, go read.

Say hello to the new Wall Street Journal Law Page, and its new law blog, written by Peter Lattman, formerly a journalist with Forbes and before that a lawyer. It looks very promising. The new law page is available only to subscribers, and I'm not sure if the law blog is free or not. However, it includes free links to some of the Journal's regular articles.

The Journal explains the additions here.

Today, WSJ.com introduces its new Law Page, covering law, business and the business of law. We will be writing about news, trends and buzz for lawyers at firms and in-house law departments, as well as the business people who work with them.

There's a funny article today (free link) on boxing promotor Don King, who has rehired his former lawyer and nemesis, Judd Bernstein, to represent him in a lawsuit filed against one of Bernstein's former clients. Conflict issues apparently will be resolved by the court.

The acrimony between the two has been so intense over the years that Mr. Burstein once referred to the promoter as a "cancer" on boxing. Mr. King described Mr. Burstein as an "insidious insect.

The new law blog at the Wall St. Journal is reporting 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.

If true, count me as underwhelmed and very disappointed. The few times I read Underneath Their Robes, Lat was praising conservative judges to the hilt. His favorite word was "hottie."

As for whether the report is true, while Gawker Media won't confirm, Lat did quit the U.S. Attorney's office last week and said he'll be back blogging in Washington. Today on the UTR, he says he's leaving for a two week vacation in India.

Good luck to Ana Marie, who reportedly is about to begin a national book tour to launch her new book, Dog Days.

On the other hand, the Wall St. Journal law blog is well worth reading and free.

by Last Night in Little Rock

Fires are burning all around Oklahoma City. In Texas, whole towns were burned out. Pray tell us, Revs. Falwell and Robertson: What have these heathens done to bring the fires of hell upon them?

Geoffrey R. Stone is a Distinguished Service Professor of Law at the University of Chicago. He also is the former Dean of the law school and former Provost of the University of Chicago. His most recent book, Perilous Times: Free Speech in Wartime from the Sedition Act of 1798 to the War on Terrorism (W.W. Norton 2004), received both the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for the Best Book of the Year in History.

Today, over at Huffington Post, Professor Stone analyzes Bush's warrantless NSA electronic surveillance program in the context of the Fourth Amendment.

Here's a snippet:

Tomorrow's Christian Science Monitor has an excellent article on the battles that will erupt during Congressional hearings this year. The Democrats finally are about to make some noise. Alito is the only a small part of it.

Even better, with GOP moderates joining Dems on key issues, and bucking the White House over secret prisons and eavesdropping, the fights could help the Democrats re-take Congress in 2006.

Here's some of what we're in for:

Scotusblog reports:

The Bush Administration appears to be preparing to try to scuttle the two most significant pending cases on the legal rights of foreign nationals now being held at the terrorism prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. One of those cases has been granted review by the Supreme Court, the other is awaiting a decision in the D.C. Circuit Court.

President Bush himself signaled this strategy of challenge in a statement last Friday that got little mention in the media, during the holiday lull. His remarks, made at his ranch in Crawford, Texas, came as he signed into law a new defense authorization bill, H.R. 2863, that contains the "Detainee Treatment Act of 2005" as part of its Title X, "Matters Relating to Detainees." (The full text of the President's signing statement can be found here. The discussion of the detainee issue is in the eighth paragraph, which begins "The executive branch shall construe Title X...")

Go on over and read the rest. Marty Lederman has more at Balkanization.

It's a new year. Let's get started on the right track.

There are too many right-wing chatterers commenting on TalkLeft who are making noise without substance. Several are new in the past few months, and may not have read the commenting rules. They are here. Please read them. If you continue to comment in disregard of the rules, you will be banned.

In particular, there is a four a day comment limit for right wing chatterers. Readers should let me know when a new chatterer pops up or violates the rules. I will then find their last or their offending comment and add a warning. So, if you are a contrarian commenter on this site, check back to the last comment threads you've posted on. Once you are notified you're a chatterer, it's four a day max for you. If you disregard the limit, you will be banned.

Next, and this goes for all commenters regardless of your political philosophy: Lose the insults, the name-calling and degrading responses to other commenters. You may think you are being witty, I don't.

I'm a little late getting this up today, but I'm busy at work and so awash in paper I might drown. I need one of these, badly. [Update: A huge thank you to the generous reader that just contributed the money to buy the scanner. TalkLeft readers never cease to amaze me. This is so appreciated.]

In case I miss the news about whether Jack Abramoff has a plea deal, please fill us in. Also of note:

• Raw Story: Abramoff's firm knew of the payments he received from ex-DeLay aide before the story broke.

• Va. Gov. Mark Warner has two weeks left to order DNA testing in the case of Roger Coleman, executed in 1992. If he does, and if it turns out he was innocent, he will be the first known case of wrongful execution in the country.

• Atrios on 2005 being the year of the President who believes he can break the law.

• Crooks and Liars has some great Daily Show clips up.

• Reddhedd at Firedoglake reviews the Patriot Act debate and the Fruit of the Poisonous Tree Doctrine as applied to Bush's warrantless NSA surveillance. Also read Judd at Think Progress on how the NSA plan put us all at risk.