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.

by TChris

It's good to see a mainstream news source like the Washington Post calling attention to hypocrisy among right-wing religious extremists:

Why in recent years have conservative Christians asserted their influence on efforts to relieve Third World debt, AIDS in Africa, strife in Sudan and international sex trafficking -- but remained on the sidelines while liberal Christians protest domestic spending cuts?

The answer: religious leaders on the extreme right are making deals with the devils in the Republican Party leadership.

Columnist Robert Novak gave a speech yesterday in Raleigh, N.C.

"I'm confident the president knows who the source is," Novak told a luncheon audience at the John Locke Foundation in Raleigh on Tuesday. "I'd be amazed if he doesn't."

One other tidbit: Novak says his and Woodward's source probably are the same person:

Woodward, a Washington Post editor, recently disclosed that he, too, had been told by an administration figure about Plame's secret identity -- probably, he said, by the same source who told Novak.

How typical of conservatives. When you don't have a legal or rational leg to stand on, attack those pointing out the error of your ways. The New York Times reports that as part of "law enforcement week," conservatives have launched an internet ad campaign supporting Judge Sam Alito's dissent in the 2004 case of Doe v. Groody (pdf), in which Alito argued it was okay for police to strip search a ten year old when the warrant only named her father. I kept reading the article, thinking I would learn the legal theory the ad relied as support for Alito's belief that the police action was justified. Instead, I found this:

The conservative advertisement attacks the "left-wing extremists" who oppose Judge Alito, saying they "may have found new allies, drug dealers who hide their drugs on children."

Judge Alito's actual dissent in the case reads like a prosecutor's brief rather than a judicial opinion: The search was good, and even if it wasn't, a reasonable officer might have believed it was good -- and it's a fact that drug dealers use their kids to carry out their business and avoid prosecution.

The majority opinion, by the way, with which Alito disagreed, was written by that uber-liberal (sarcasm) former Judge and now Homeland Security Chief Michael Chertoff.

Update from Firedoglake:

David Shuster reported on MSNBC on Dan Abrams show at 4:35 pm ET that they were informed yesterday eveing that the G/J was prepared to meet today with Patrick Fitzgerald. But as of today, Fitzgerald was not at the courthouse today, neither were the members of the G/J. Additionally, this is a period of high anxiety for the Rove side of things, according to Shuster.

Raw Story reports that Patrick Fitzgerald will be meeting with the grand jury tomorrow to present it with the depositions of Viveca Novak and Robert Luskin, Karl Rove's lawyer. RS reports Fitz will wrap up by the end of the year.

RS believes, as I do, that Fitzgerald will charge Rove with making a false statement to federal officials in October, 2003, prior to the time the grand jury was convened. Here's RS on Fitz's meeting last week with the grand jury:

A week ago, Fitzgerald briefed the second grand jury hearing evidence in the leak case for more than three hours. During that time, he brought them up to speed on the latest developments involving Rove and at least one other White House official, the sources said. The attorneys refused to identify the second person.

That would have to be Bob Woodward's source, whom the blogosphere has narrowed down to Stephen Hadley or Richard Armitage. I'll go with Stephen Hadley.

Raw Story had an article earlier today stating that John Hannah, who reportedly has a cooperation deal with Fitzgerald, probably for immunity, told Fitz that Rove first learned of Valerie Plame Wilson (although not by her maiden name) from Scooter Libby -- not from reporters, as he first told investigators.