Under the terms of a new settlement agreement, California will begin de-segregating its prisons:

Under the terms of the agreement, the state will phase out racial segregation in three steps: In March, after distributing the new policy to prisons and retraining prison staff, current race segregation policies will end in state prison reception centers.

Next year, the ban will extend to so-called sensitive needs yards and minimum support facilities — dorms that house minimum-custody inmates. In 2008, plans will be rolled out to bring the new integration policy to the prisons, Deixler said.

Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) has issued his long awaited report , prepared by Democratic staff of the House Judiciary Committee, calling for the censure of Bush and Cheney for their mispresentations about the Iraq War. He has introduced a resolution calling for a full investigation. Chapter Four contains the 16 page legal analysis section. Chapter Five has recommendations. Don't miss Exhibit A containing an explanation of the criminal laws that our leaders may have violated. From the press release (received by e-mail):

"In brief, we have found that there is substantial evidence the President, the Vice-President and other high ranking members of the Bush Administration misled Congress and the American people regarding the decision to go to war in Iraq; misstated and manipulated intelligence information regarding the justification for such war; countenanced torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment in Iraq; and permitted inappropriate retaliation against critics of their Administration. There is at least a prima facie case that these actions that federal laws have been violated - from false statements to Congress to retaliating against Administration critics.

New York City transit workers went on strike today for the first time since 1980. So far, chaos has been avoided. Many commuters just stayed home.

Bloomberg, who had predicted "gridlock that will tie the record for all gridlocks," put into effect a sweeping emergency plan, including the requirement that cars coming into Manhattan below 96th Street have at least four occupants. As he walked across the bridge, he smiled, admired the view and called the strike "outrageous."

Lots more pictures are here.

If you're affected by the strike, or have any great stories, here's a place to put them.

by TChris

The Washington Post notes that the House of Representatives is doing its dirty work in the dead of night or in the wee morning hours — “well past the deadlines for the evening news or the morning paper.”

The House voted at 6:07 a.m. yesterday to shave $39.7 billion from entitlement programs such as Medicare and Medicaid. At 5:04 a.m., lawmakers voted to open the Alaskan wilderness to oil exploration.

by TChris

Science, rationality, and the Constitution prevailed in Dover, where the school board tried to undermine the science underlying evolution by promoting a religious alternative, intelligent design. (TalkLeft coverage of the lawsuit is here.) Judge John Jones III decided that the board's policy violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment by endorsing a religious belief.

"In making this determination, we have addressed the seminal question of whether ID is science," Jones wrote. "We have concluded that it is not, and moreover that ID cannot uncouple itself from its creationist, and thus religious, antecedents."

The school board's policy required teachers to inform biology students of "gaps" in Darwin's theory of evolution while directing their attention to a book on intelligent design in the school library. Judge Jones was scathing in his criticism of the board members, who have since been voted off the school board.

by TChris

Here's how the Bush administration is protecting you from terrorism:

Counterterrorism agents at the Federal Bureau of Investigation have conducted numerous surveillance and intelligence-gathering operations that involved, at least indirectly, groups active in causes as diverse as the environment, animal cruelty and poverty relief, newly disclosed agency records show.

You may not have known that poverty relief activists were responsible for 9/11, but they must have been, or the Bush administration, which focuses on nothing but protecting us from the likes of Osama, wouldn't be wasting scarce resources snooping into their activities.

2,000 people in Los Angeles paid their respects yesterday to Stanley Tookie Williams, executed last week in California.

"Many of the people who lined up today for a last look at the man didn't know him; never met him," Ali said. "But they came to pay their respects because they have a Tookie in their family, or identify with his struggle."

Who were they? Here's one example:

When elementary schoolteacher Macella Hibbler, 34, heard that Williams' body was on public view, she threw sweaters on her three young children and hurried to the mortuary to see the man whose life story had saturated the news media only a week ago. "My only thought has been this: How can I get my children to understand, I mean really understand, why we're here?" she said. "I'm telling them, 'Watch the road you take and make wise decisions. That way you won't wind up in a coffin.' "

Another said:

Standing outside the mortuary, watching the spectacle in the street, Wanda Smith, 42, shook her head and said, "I feel sorry for Tookie. It could have been my own brother, or my son. "I hope that his death will make gangbangers stop killing each other," she said. "I've been to so many funerals, it's heartbreaking."

I think that is the legacy Williams hoped for.

A TalkLeft reader I am not familiar with wrote the following. Read at your own risk, as it is not further sourced, but it has a certain logical appeal.

Let me ask why every smart blogger out there and every pundit on TV is talking about wiretapping when the obvious problem is that the U.S. government is now monitoring the entire U.S. Internet a la Echelon or Raptor.

Why do Gonzales and Condi Rice keep mentioning the "technical" aspects of the program as a dodge around FISA?

Why this seemingly inconsequential parsing by Bush of the difference between "monitoring and detection"? Bush says they use FISA if they're montioring, but this is about "detection."

Why, in his letter, does Rockefeller state that he's "not a technician."?
Why the mention of TIA in Rockefeller's letter?
And why the mention of "large batches of numbers all at once"?

Why?:

These are not phone numbers we're talking about...These are IP addresses, email addresses.

The Bush Administration drug warriors are about to become apoplectic. Bolivia elected a new President Sunday, Evo Morales, an Aymaran Indian, of the Movement towards Socialism, who garnered more than 50% of the vote. For the first time in 500 years, Bolivia will revert to indigenous rule.

Among Morales' promises:

Señor Morales, who used to lead a coca-growers’ union, has promised to legalise the cultivation of coca, the primary ingredient in cocaine — to the horror of the US, which has pursued a big coca eradication effort in Bolivia in recent years. Bolivia is the world’s third largest producer of cocaine.

My view: Bolivia has been a democracy since 1982. Since Bush is so fond of bringing democracy to other countries, and insistent that once they get their government set up their people should rule, I think he wholeheartedly should endorse Mr. Morales and his policies.

On July 17, 2003, following a briefing by Cheney, Sen. Jay Rockefeller responded with a handwritten letter (pdf). How prescient. Markos at Daily Kos has the text version. Here's a portion of it:

Clearly the activities we discussed raise profound oversight issues. As you know, I am neither a technician or an attorney. Given the security restrictions associated with this information, and my inability to consult staff or counsel on my own, I feel unable to fully evaluate, much less endorse these activities.

As I reflected on the meeting today, and the future we face, John Poindexter's TIA project sprung to mind, exacerbating my concern regarding the direction the Administration is moving with regard to security, technology, and surveillance. Without more information and the ability to draw on any independent legal or techical expertise, I simply cannot satisfy lingering concerns raised by the briefing we received.

I am retaining a copy of this letter in a sealed envelope in the secure spaces of the Senate Intelligence Committee to ensure that I have a record of this communication.

Patriot Daily has a great round-up of liberal blogger reaction to the unauthorized spying.

by TChris

It's good to see the AP calling out the president when he fails to tell the country the rest of the story.

President Bush is making selective use of an opinion poll when he tells people that Iraqis are increasingly upbeat.

The same poll that indicated a majority of Iraqis believe their lives are going well also found a majority expressing opposition to the presence of U.S. forces, and less than half saying Iraq is better off now than before the war.

The AP also notes the president's dismissive attitude toward polls that tell him things he doesn't want to hear (like the percentage of Americans who think he's doing a lousy job) -- an attitude that makes it odd for him to embrace (albeit selectively) a poll of Iraqis.

Seventeen Democrats who are members of the House Judiciary Committee today called on Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner to convene hearings to investigate President Bush's ordering the National Security Agency to conduct electronic surveillance of persons within the United States without obtaining court-ordered warrants. They noted in their request that Sen. Arlen Specter has called for similar hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee. (More on that here.)

From the letter (received by e-mail):

...we ask that you, too, convene hearings to investigate why the President circumvented the system established under current law, which permits him to seek emergency warrants from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to conduct domestic surveillance. It is imperative we understand the legal authority upon which it is claimed these activities are based and the scope of the activities undertaken.