by TChris

TalkLeft now joins the chorus of bloggers (many of them mentioned here) calling attention to this editorial in the conservative Barron’s. Think of it as a Christmas present:

The administration is saying the president has unlimited authority to order wiretaps in the pursuit of foreign terrorists, and that the Congress has no power to overrule him. … [Attorney General Alberto] Gonzales last week declined to declassify relevant legal reviews made by the Department of Justice.

Perhaps they were researched in a Star Chamber? Putting the president above the Congress is an invitation to tyranny. The president has no powers except those specified in the Constitution and those enacted by law. …

The meme is spreading fast. I got it too. Here's my answers, and I pass it to Avedon Carol at Sideshow.

Four jobs you’ve had in your life: health spa instructor, record store salesclerk , switchboard operator (all in college), lawyer

Four movies you could watch over and over: Who'll Stop the Rain, And Justice for All, Panic in Needle Park, The Wanderers

Four places you’ve lived: New Rochelle, NY; Cleveland, Ohio; Ann Arbor, MI, Denver.

Four TV shows you love to watch: Sex and the City, Sopranos, Six Feet Under, Commander in Chief

Four places you’ve been on vacation: Rio and the Amazon; Hong Kong, Bangkok and Phuket, Hawaii and Bora Bora; Italy, France, and London; Shanghai; Mexico and the Caribbean.

Four websites you visit daily: Atrios, Daily Kos, Crooks and Liars, Firedoglake

Four of your favorite foods: Vietnamese pho, soft-shelled crabs, ny strip steaks, coffee gelato

Four places you’d rather be: New York Citry, London, Shanghai, the Golden Door

Feel free to take the test in the comments or pass them around your blog.

To get in the spirit of Christmas, here is a letter by Luis Ramirez in which he writes about his first day on Death Row. Luis was executed in Texas in October, 2005, and always professed his innocence.

What's In the Brown Paper Bag ?
By Luis Ramirez #999309

I'm about the share with you a story who's telling is long past due. It's a familiar story to most of you reading this from death row. And now it's one that all of you in "free world" may benefit from. This is the story of my first day on the row.

I came here in May of 1999. The exact date is something that I can't recall.

I do remember arriving in the afternoon . I was placed in a cell on H-20 wing over at the Ellis Unit in Huntsville, Tx. A Tsunami of emotions and thoughts were going through my mind at the time. I remember the only things in the cell were a mattress, pillow, a couple of sheets, a pillow case, a roll of toilet paper, and a blanket ... I remember sitting there, utterly lost.

by TChris

In a decision that spanked Dover school board members who wanted to pretend that intelligent design is based on science, Judge John Jones III made clear his belief that some of the board members lied under oath.

In his opinion, Jones accused some of those who testified during the six-week trial in Harrisburg of lying, singling out former board members Alan Bonsell and William Buckingham, the leading proponents of the policy.

Those comments sparked the interest of a prosecutor, who intends to investigate the possibility that perjury was committed. Perjury can be a difficult charge to prove, but Judge Jones was persuaded that the board members were deliberately untruthful.

by TChris

The Washington Post provides new information about Brownie's (heck of a) job at FEMA. It turns out that Michael Brown warned Homeland Security's Tom Ridge that Ridge's plans for FEMA would "shatter agency morale" and "break longstanding, effective and tested relationships with states and first responder stakeholders" while making a mockery of FEMA's motto: A Nation Prepared.

The inevitable result, he wrote, would be "an ineffective and uncoordinated response" to a terrorist attack or a natural disaster.

At least Brownie got that right. The explanation for FEMA's miserable response to Katrina reaches beyond Brown's legendary incompetence.

The National Archives today released additional memos written by Judge Sam Alito, including one in 1985 that advocated overturning Roe v. Wade.

Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito wrote in a June 1985 memo that the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling legalizing abortion should be overturned, a finding certain to enliven January's confirmation hearings. In a recommendation to the solicitor general on filing a friend-of- court brief, Alito said that the government "should make clear that we disagree with Roe v. Wade and would welcome the opportunity to brief the issue of whether, and if so to what extent, that decision should be overruled."

In another memo, he supported the ability of government officials to order domestic wiretaps:

A jury in Alameda, California sent a strong message to Wal-Mart yesterday in returning a verdict against the company for $172 million. The winning plaintiffs were 116,000 Wa-Mart employees who sued in a class action alleging the company denied them lunchbreaks.

TChris wrote about the lawsuit here:

Wal-Mart's lawyers reserved their right to give an opening statement until after the employees rest their case -- a sign, perhaps, that Wal-Mart isn't sure what defense it might have to the allegations. Wal-Mart might be playing for the fumble.

My last post on Wal-Mart and its mis-treatment of undocumented workers is here on Huffington Post.

In 1998, then President Bill Clinton, who as I wrote yesterday, was no friend to the criminal defendant, signed legislation banning federal student aid to those who convicted of a non-violent drug offense, including possession of marijuana.

In the Ebeneezer Cheney budget bill approved by the Senate yesterday, there is one laudatory feature. NORML reports:

The US Senate voted 51 to 50 yesterday in favor of legislation that would lift the ban on federal aid to students who have a prior, non-violent drug conviction. The Congressional ban, known as the "drug offender exclusionary provision" of the Higher Education Act, has denied federal financial aid to some 175,000 students since its enactment in 1998.

Under the Senate provision, which was included in Senate Bill 1932 (the budget reconciliation bill), students with past drug convictions will now be eligible to apply for federal financial aid. However, students who are convicted of a nonviolent drug offense, including minor marijuana possession, while in college will continue to be stripped of their federal aid eligibility. President Bush is anticipated to approve the amendment, which would take effect in 2006.

The Office of Legislative Affairs for the Justice Department wrote this letter (pdf) Thursday to leaders of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence in an attempt to justify the President's orders directing the National Security Agency to conduct warrantless electronic surveillance in the wake of 9/11.

DOJ says the President's actions were justified and legal by virtue of:

• Article II of the Constitution
• The Authorization for the Use of Military Force ("AUMF") of September 18,
  2001, 115 Stat. 224 (2001)
• The 2002 FISA Review Court Ruling (background here.)
• Principles of statutory construction that apply when there's an ambiguity
• The Fourth Amendment's reasonableness requirement allowing for warrantless searches upon a showing of special need under the totality of the circumstances.

The letter acknowledges that FISA and Title III prohibit electronic surveillance unless authorized by statute. Here's the DOJ argument: The AUMF constitutes such a statute. And, if it doesn't, it should, because principles of statutory construction require that FISA and the AUMF be harmonized, and any ambiguities have to be resolved in favor of presidential authority.

In legalese, according to DOJ (note: this is cut and pasted from the pdf file which mistakes some symbols, so if you want to be completely accurate in citing, use the pdf link above):

Peter Daou of the Daou Report provides a scenario for how Bush's warrantless surveillance orders will play out. As Jane says in a post focusing on Obama, it's dire indeed. Daou says of the Constitution:

The cause of its demise is the corrosive interplay between the Bush administration, a bevy of blind apologists, a politically apathetic public, a well-oiled rightwing message machine, lapdog reporters, and a disorganized opposition. The domestic spying case perfectly illuminates the workings of that system. And the unfolding of this story augurs poorly for those who expect it to yield different results from other administration scandals.

He then recaps the familiar pattern all of Bush's abuses fall into: Talk radio attacks the critics as unpatriotic. The Republicans then defend Bush, resulting in blogswarms by left-leaning bloggers. MSM lends lip service and then drops it. The public gets scandal fatigue.

The president breaks the law. Life goes on....Rinse and repeat.

Did Rep. James Sensenbrenner miscalculate? Last night, the Senate had agreed to extend the Patriot Act for six months so a compromise bill could be worked out that better protected civil liberties than the dismal conference bill.

But, Rep. Sensenbrenner thought that was too long. He wanted a Patriot Act renewal bill in place sooner. So with an almost empty Senate chamber today, he moved for a one month extension and got it.

Will the Democrats fold in January? Sen. Russ Feingold says they won't.

"No one should make the mistake of thinking that a shorter extension will make it possible to jam the unacceptable conference report through the Congress," said Sen. Russell Feingold, D-Wis., who led the Senate filibuster. "That bill is dead and cannot be revived.""

How does a one month extension help the Republicans?

Washington Monthly has a long profile of Markos of Daily Kos in its upcoming issue. Writer Benjamin Wallace-Wells traveled to Berkely to do an in-depth article. Is it favorable? Yes and no, but mostly yes. It's more like Wells is still scratching his head, trying to figure out both Markos and bloggers. It's not a puff piece, but it does give Markos his due for being the world's largest political blogger, for being committed and smart and for remaining down to earth. And it does capture that left-right ideology is not his focus. His goal is for the Democrats to win.

There are a few laudable quotes:

The DCCC's executive director, John Lapp, says that Moulitsas's model is “a signal event in political history, like the Kennedy-Nixon debates, in how it gets people involved.” And Simon Rosenberg, the president of the centrist New Democratic Network (NDN), says that “frankly I don't think there's anyone who's had the potential to revolutionize the Democratic Party that Markos does.”