Bump and Update: As I suspected, it was a disgruntled former employee who blew the whistle.

A former associate in trial attorney Geoffrey Fieger's firm said Friday that he and his wife each gave $2,000 to Democrat John Edwards' 2004 presidential campaign on the promise that they would be reimbursed by the firm.....Joseph Bird, an attorney fired from Fieger's firm over the summer, told The Associated Press that about two weeks after he joined the firm in 2003, partner Ven Johnson came into his office, closed the door and told him that he was expected to give to the Edwards campaign.

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original post 12/1:

In what Michigan attorney Geoffrey Fieger says is a politically motivated act, the FBI and IRS today searched his law offices. Fieger is running for Michigan Attorney General.

Agents from the FBI and Internal Revenue Service raided Fieger's Southfield office Wednesday night, seizing boxes of financial documents, Fieger said. He was not present. ''It's McCarthyism all over again,'' he said Thursday.

According to Fieger:

by TChris

Politicians fear being perceived as “soft on crime,” but those perceptions may be misplaced. While governors in recent years have too rarely exercised their power to spare inmates from execution, angry voters generally haven’t punished governors who commute a death sentence.

In the decade since 1993, 15 governors have granted clemency in capital punishment cases, mostly on humanitarian grounds. Only one of the governors failed to win re-election. In nearly every case, the approval ratings of the governors who granted clemency remained steady or climbed.

As Gov. Schwarzenegger considers the fate of Tookie Williams, he should be comforted by the realization that his plummeting popularity isn’t likely to be further impaired by granting clemency. If Schwarzenegger’s miserly approach to clemency is based on political fear, the fear is groundless.

Say Hello to 1,000 Executions and check out the photos of regular folks who oppose the death penalty. If you make one of yourself and e-mail it, they will add it to the list. If you need a saying for your sign, try these:

Not in My Name.
Choose Life, End the Death Penalty
An Eye for An Eye Leaves the Whole World Blind
Execute Justice, Not People

Update: More than 380 towns around the world joined forces Thursday to condemn the death penalty.

Rome's Colosseum, Brussels' Atomium, Madrid's Santa Ana Square, Buenos Aires' Obelisk and the Moneda Palace in Santiago were being lit up as part of the "Cities for Life" initiative, according to the organiser, the Catholic Sant' Egidio Community in Rome.

Many of the other towns and cities that have signed up to the initiative - around half of them in Italy - were hosting vigils or rallies to mark the day. "Capital punishment supports a culture of death instead of fighting it, and puts the state on the same level as those who kill," said Sant'Egidio spokesman Mario Marazziti.

Students for a Sensible Drug Policy and the ACLU are seeking plaintiffs for a lawsuit challenging the Government's ban on student aid for those with a drug conviction.

Since taking effect in 2000, more than 175,000 students have been deprived of aid under the “drug provision” of the Higher Education Act (HEA), often for minor offenses such as possession of marijuana.

“Congress has failed to listen to the growing chorus of student voices demanding repeal of this discriminatory and counterproductive law,” said Scarlett Swerdlow, executive director of Students for Sensible Drug Policy. “Far too many students have had their education held hostage by Drug War politics. It’s time to stand up and take our aid back.”

If you or someone you know has lost their financial aid because of the HEA drug provision, please get in touch with them as soon as possible. Here's a full list of the more than 250 organizations that have called for a repeal of the aid ban.

Please raise your voice and be counted.

The California Supreme Court today denied Stanley Tookie Williams latest appeal. He moves one step closer to execution.

All of the recent pleadings in his case are available here.

Jane at Firedoglake reports an "unsubstantiated rumor" from a source that desires to remain anonymous that Viveca Novak told Rove's lawyer Robert Luskin that his client was a source of Cooper's back in May, 2004 when Cooper was subpoenaed about Libby. [Background here.]

Jane's source reports that it was Luskin's conversation with Novak that jogged his memory about Rove's e-mail to Stephen Hadley.

Does it help Rove? Back to the dates again. The New York Times reported on November 4, 2005:

by Last Night in Little Rock

Key West: Time again for the annual NORML drug law seminar at the Pier House in Key West. This is the 22d.

Today is the end of the hurricane season, and there was, in Key West sytle, a ceremony for the burning of the hurricane warning flags at sunset, at the Pier House beach, and CNN even thought enough of it as a symbol of the end of a horrendous hurricane season to broadcast it live. Fitting for Key West, the mayor gave a tribute to the dead and displaced from hurricanes throughout the United States, and it was sounded on a conch shell by a man in a pirate costume.

In a suprise move, the 4th Circuit has delayed the transfer of Jose Padilla from military custody to civilian custody.

... the three-judge panel said it needs to know whether it should set aside a September opinion that upheld Padilla's military detention before returning him to civilian authorities.

The court said it wants to hear arguments on whether the opinion was to be vacated "as a consequence of the transfer." The judges pointed out that the facts alleged by the government "warranting" Padilla's military detention differed from the charges in the indictment.

Padilla's lawyers are not pleased.

by TChris

The European Union, peeved to learn that some European countries (wittingly or otherwise) may be hosting secret prisons that warehouse detainees who have been captured or kidnapped by the Bush administration, has asked the president to reveal information about those prisons. The State Department has promised to respond to the best of its ability, a sure sign that it won’t provide meaningful answers.

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack would not answer questions about whether the sites exist or whether the CIA used European airports and airspace to transport suspects. He also would not say whether the U.S. response to the Europeans will definitively answer those questions, nor whether the U.S. response will be made public.

The questions may be posed directly to Condoleezza Rice as she jets aroud Europe next week, “including a stop in Romania, which is one of the nations identified by Human Rights Watch as a likely site of a secret detention camp.”

There may be hope yet. The November cable news rankings are out. You can view the full chart here (pdf). Keith Olbermann is the highest ranked MSNBC show and he beat Nancy Grace.

But, nine of the top ten shows are on Fox News Channel. O'Reilly continues to lead, with Hannity & Colmes number two and Greta number 3.

Where is Tucker Carlson's show? I couldn't find it on the chart.

Media Bistro reports that Roger Ailes has made a lunch date with former CNN anchor Aaron Brown.

NBC News got a new chief today - 42 year old Andy Capus. He will be in charge of both NBC and MSNBC News and the MSNBC website.

by TChris

We know that the Bush administration illegally released pro-administration propaganda packaged as news, and that it gave press credentials to a Bush supporter masquerading as a legitimate reporter so that Bush could get softball questions at news conferences. Given the administration’s commitment to media manipulation, it should come as no surprise that the military took the administration's pretend news campaign on the road, to Iraq.

As part of an information offensive in Iraq, the U.S. military is secretly paying Iraqi newspapers to publish stories written by American troops in an effort to burnish the image of the U.S. mission in Iraq. The articles, written by U.S. military "information operations" troops, are translated into Arabic and placed in Baghdad newspapers with the help of a defense contractor, according to U.S. military officials and documents obtained by the Los Angeles Times.

Many of the articles are presented in the Iraqi press as unbiased news accounts written and reported by independent journalists. The stories trumpet the work of U.S. and Iraqi troops, denounce insurgents and tout U.S.-led efforts to rebuild the country.

We've all read the glowing recommendations of former law clerks of Judge Alito. Here's a non-glowing report from a former Third Circuit clerk who worked not for Alito, but for another judge.

From 1996 to 1997, I was privileged to clerk for a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. Over the course of that year, my judge sat on a number of cases with Judge Samuel A. Alito, Jr. One of these cases stands out in my memory and gives me pause when it comes to Judge Alito’s commitment to judicial restraint.

One of those cases involved the murder conviction of Clifford Smith. The clerk, Michael J. Zydney Mannheimer, who is now Assistant Professor of Law at Salmon P. Chase College of Law, Northern Kentucky University, relates events establishing Judge Alito's determination to uphold the conviction. He concludes with this important observation: