Sen Russ Feingold, leading the charge for a filibuster of the Patriot Act renewal legislation, confirms what we suspected all along: The Sneak and Peek provisions of the Patriot Act are about drugs, not terrorism. A Sneak and Peek, if you are new to the jargon, is where a law enforcement agent enters a dwelling surreptitiously with a warrant, snoops around, and leaves without ever notifying the resident that a search has occurred. There has been a 75% increase in sneak and peeks since 2000.

From his prepared statement on the Patriot Act renewal legislation, read on the Senate floor last night:

Don’t be fooled for a minute into believing that this power is needed to investigate terrorism or espionage. It’s not. Section 213 is a criminal provision that could apply in whatever kind of criminal investigation the government has undertaken. In fact, most sneak and peek warrants are issued for drug investigations. So why do I say that they aren’t needed in terrorism investigations? Because FISA also can apply to those investigations. And FISA search warrants are always executed in secret, and never require notice. If you really don’t want to give notice of a search in a terrorism investigation, you can get a FISA warrant. So any argument that limiting the sneak and peek power as we have proposed will interfere with sensitive terrorism investigations is a red herring.

TalkLeft hit 10 million visitors today. And welcome, Denver Post readers who are finding us for the first time through David Harsanyi's column today. (And thanks to Crooks and Liars for mentioning it.)

For radio listeners, I'll be talking with Rachel Maddow on Air America today at 11:30 a.m. (MT) about Karl Rove and PlameGate. Is an Indictment looming, or has Robert Luskin pulled yet another rabbit out of his hat? You can listen live online here.

Also, TalkLeft will be getting a bloglift (y.i.c.t.p. as Skippy would say)over the weekend, it's first since Markos of Daily Kos so graciuosly designed TalkLeft in June, 2002.

It's the last day for voting in the Weblog Awards. TalkLeft is in second place for best liberal blog, so please vote so we can keep our spot - and for your other favorite blogs. The Koufax award nominations (for liberal blogs) opened today.

Robert Novak said Tuesday that people should ask President Bush who the Valerie Plame leaker is because he has to know. The White House gives a testy response, and then clams up.

"I don't know what he's basing it on," said White House spokesman Scott McClellan, declining to comment further.

Not quite a denial, is it? Sen. Schumer sent Bush a letter asking him to give up the identity of the leaker. And how much trouble is Karl Rove in?

Some Rove allies now fear he may be in more legal jeopardy than he was when Libby was charged.

by Last Night in Little Rock

It is reported on Law.com today that DOJ has hired defense counsel for the two air marshals who shot and killed Rigoberto Alpizar last week on a jetway in the Miami Airport.

It should be recalled that the head of the air marshal program and even the White House were defending the use of deadly force against Alpizar as absolutely justified on CNN immediately after the shooting, without so much as an investigation.

The FBI is investigating, and passengers reported to CNN that they heard no bomb threat. He just said "I've got to get off, I've got to get off."

I've been on an airplane where a man panicked about the claustrophobia. He rushed for the door, too, and ran inside. It happens.

Circle the wagons.

Bump and Update: Arianna says this news requires Congressional action.

...as is emblematic of this administration, these agencies now appear to be overreaching, moving away from identifying "possible terrorist pre-attack activities" and heading into the murky waters of spying on U.S. citizens doing nothing more than voicing their objections to U.S. policy.

*****
Original Post 12/13

NBC News has obtained a secret 400 page Defense Department document that shows how the Pentagon is spying on Americans:

The House-passed version of the Patriot Act renewal legislation includes the Meth Act. The New York Times reports:

Under the proposal, Sudafed and similar medicines would have to be under lock and key in stores. Buyers would have to sign a sheet and show a driver's license. Purchases would be limited to one box a day and three boxes a month.

This has nothing to do with terrorism. Poor people and the elderly who don't drive won't have driver's licenses to show. Neither will undocumented residents.

Mike Krause of Colorado's Independence Institute reported:

Scott Burns, Deputy Director of the federal Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) recently contradicted the “epidemic” rhetoric, telling a Congressional sub-committee that America’s estimated 1.5 million methamphetamine users make up only 8% of the country’s estimated 19 million drug users.

Check out the New York Time's John Tierney on the meth myth and Reason's Jacob Sullum here and in Speed Bumps at the Pharmacy. Also, Radly Balko explains why restricting cold pills won't curb meth use.

There is no crisis. Cold pills do not equate to terrorism. Tell your senators to just say no to the meth act.

The House of Representatives passed the Patriot Act renewal legislation today. (More here and here.) The Senate is scheduled to vote on Friday. It's a bad, bad bill, filled with new crimes, including drug offenses, death eligible offenses and habeas restrictions, as well as enhanced penalties, many of which have nothing to do with terrorism. Check it out yourself here.

A filibuster is possible.

A Senate Democratic leadership aide said opponents seemed to have from 40 to 46 votes to sustain a filibuster. Republicans said it was uncertain how many votes they would have. "It's going to be close," a Senate Republican aide said.

This may be your last chance. Call your senators now. Tell them that you want them to:

• Vote no cloture and support a filibuster.
• Vote NO on the conference report, should it get to a vote.

Here is a letter by the ACLU explaining why the bill is bad for civil liberties.

In order to pay off a $5,000 poker debt, Greg Hogan, a sophomore at Lehigh University who is president of his class, plays cello in the university orchestra, and is the son of a Baptist pastor, robbed a bank. Authorities say he confessed. His lawyer blames it on the national poker craze and has already hired forensic experts to explain his addiction.

Now Hogan, the 19-year-old son of a Baptist minister, faces as much as 20 years in prison on bank robbery charges, and his lawyer says the nationwide poker craze is partly to blame.

''This is one of the nicest kids I've ever met, but his gambling addiction led him to make a terrible, terrible mistake,'' said Waldron of Allentown. ''There's so much good in this kid. It easily outweighs this one bad mistake.''

Lehigh University costs $40k a year. Mr. Hogan's private high school near Shaker Heights, Ohio cost $19k a year. Why rob a bank rather than call your parents, get a new credit card with a cash advance feature, take out a loan or sell your stuff? What's wrong with this picture? What a waste of a life filled with opportunity.

The Washington Post reports that two more Virginia inmates convicted of rape, one of whom served 20 years before being released, have been determined to be factually innocent based on new DNA testing. The testing in one of the cases produced a "cold hit" to the true perpetrators.

The revelations are the result of modern-day testing Warner ordered more than a year ago of biological samples that had been collected in thousands of violent criminal cases dating back to the 1970s and 1980s. Those samples were collected before leaps in the forensic science.

Now that those tests have revealed that two more innocent men were jailed, Warner is ordering all of the files and others in state custody-- about 660 boxes that contain thousands of cases from 1973 through 1988 -- to be examined for cases that can be retested using the latest DNA technology.

The testing was conducted during a random sample review of 31 cases purusant to an order issued by Gov. Warner last year. In other words, it weren't requested by the inmates, who had since served their time and been released. Kudos to Governor Warner for ordering testing on more cases today.

In his statement released this afternoon, Gov. Warner says it's the morally correct thing to do:

A front page article in today's Wall Street Journal on the Jeffrey MacDonald case reports that lawyers for MacDonald filed papers yesterday in the 4th Circuit to set aside MacDonald's sentence based on newly-discovered evidence of prosecutorial misconduct.

It's been more than a quarter-century since Jeffrey MacDonald was convicted of murdering his wife and two daughters in their Fort Bragg, N.C., home. The former Green Beret, 62 years old, is serving a life sentence in a Cumberland, Md., prison. Dr. MacDonald's story has been examined in dozens of judicial opinions, dramatized on television and told in a best-selling book, "Fatal Vision."

Now a bizarre epilogue is unfolding.

Helen Stoeckley matched MacDonald's description of one of the attackers the night of the murders of his wife and children. Jimmy B. Britt was a deputy U.S. marshall who drove Stoeckley to Raleigh to testify at the trial. On the way, says Britt, Stoeckley said she was in MacDonald's house the night of the murders. She gave details of the interior of the house.

American Progress is hosting a blogger conference call on Judge Sam Alito at 3pm ET. If you'd like to participate, here are the details:

The regular call-in line is (888) 665-1701, and the conference ID number is 3461465.

Speakers include Paul Begala, Judd Legum , David Halperin and me. You will be able to ask questions.

Raw Story reports in an exclusive that Sen. Harry Reid will vote against cloture on the Patriot Act renewal legislation.

Reid has told aides he will vote against cloture -- a Senate procedure which requires that 60 senators support a bill being brought before the Senate before it is brought to a final vote. In essence, voting against cloture means supporting a filibuster.

This is a really bad bill, both from a civil liberties and and a criminal justice standpoint.