Crooks and Liars has the latest on a Gallup-CNN-USA Today Poll out today:

Fewer than one in 10 adults say they would prefer a congressional candidate who is a Republican and who agrees with Bush on most major issues, according to a USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup Poll taken Friday through Sunday. Even among Republicans, seven of 10 are most likely to back a candidate who has at least some disagreements with the president.

Bush's job approval rating sank to a record low 37%. The poll finds growing criticism of the president, unease about the nation's direction and opposition to the Iraq war....A record high 60% say going to war in Iraq was "not worth it."

More from USA Today and Daily Kos.

Rep. John Conyers has established a Patriot Act Center on his website. He says we need to act now, because Republicans are seeking to rush bills renewing and expanding governmental powers in the Patriot Act to an agreement and a final vote later this week.

The bills are now in final legislative consideration by a House-Senate conference committee where conferees will decide whether provisions in the already passed House version or Senate version prevail. The final version they agree on will then go back to the House and Senate for a final vote.

Both versions are pretty bad. The House version is a disaster, and the Senate version only slightly better. But the House version must be defeated.

Rep. Conyers is trying to put the brakes on the Patriot Act renewal. He write:

Although we will find it very difficult to defeat this bill, I will do everything in my power to ensure that this legislation is balanced and limited. I will need your help and your voice to join me in opposition to this bill.

In 2000, Bush reportedly won the Florida election by 600 votes. Due to a law enacted in the 19th Century, felony offenders are permanently denied the right to vote, even those who have served their sentences.

There are 600,000 felons in Florida who have completed their sentences and supervision terms. One in 10 African American adults in Florida,not counting those currently incarcerated, is prohibited from voting.

The Supreme Court was presented with a chance to review the issue and today decided to let the ban remain in effect without any review. The case is Johnson v. Bush, 05-212.

"The court not only missed an opportunity to right a great historic injustice, it has shut the courthouse door in the face of hundreds of thousands of disenfranchised citizens," Catherine Weiss, the Brennan Center for Justice lawyer for the Florida ex-felons, said Monday.

Courts in other states have ruled for the ex-offenders:

[Note: This is another very long analysis intended for the seriously RoveGate afflicted. It is also speculation, based on publicly available information. Neither I nor TalkLeft have any sources connected to the investigation.]

There were three articles last week with new details about Karl Rove's status with Patrick Fitzgerald. I recommend reading all of them.

• Washington Post, Libby May Have Tried to Mask Cheney's Role
• The Wall Street Journal, As Time Passes in Leak Probe, Rove Is Seen as Less Vulnerable(subscriber only link)
• Murray Waas, Libby Testimony Is Key To Rove Inquiry

One thing that stands out immediately is the different information coming from Karl Rove's camp as to his status and, more particularly, when the outcome will be disclosed.

There are several editorials in today's papers opposing the Graham Amendment:

• Houston Chronicle
• Boston Globe
• Denver Post
• Miami Herald
• San Francisco Chronicle
• North Jersey Record and Herald News
• Baltimore Sun

[hat tip to Neal Sonnett of Miami]

by TChris

When senators complain that "terrorists" shouldn't be entitled to habeas corpus review of their detentions, they're missing the point. It isn't enough for the administration to claim someone is a terrorist. As P. Sabin Willett makes clear, the administration doesn't always get it right.

Willett represents a client at Guantanamo named Adel.

Adel is innocent. I don't mean he claims to be. I mean the military says so. It held a secret tribunal and ruled that he is not al Qaeda, not Taliban, not a terrorist. The whole thing was a mistake: The Pentagon paid $5,000 to a bounty hunter, and it got taken.

So Adel is now a free man, right? The Bush administration's secret tribunal did justice, right? Wrong.

Of all the articles and columns I have read in recent days about the injustice of stripping the right of detainees to access to our courts to challenge the legality of their detention, this is my favorite.

It is written by two Denver civil rights lawyers with clients at Guantanamo. When reading it for quotes, I couldn't pick just a few. Every paragraph should be read.

To get the flavor, start with this:

by Last Night in Little Rock

Two defense lawyers in the Saddam Hussein trial have been murdered since the current recess to November 28th started, the first on October 20th and the second on November 8th. Iraq's Prime Minister called the murders an effort to end the trial as noted in the London Sunday Times. The defense is calling for a boycott of the trial because of security concerns, as noted here:

After the killing of the first lawyer, defence attorneys announced they would not co-operate with the court and would refuse to appear at the next session until they were satisfied with security.

Saddam and his co-defendants had 1,500 lawyers working on their behalf, in some capacity, with many in Jordan, and 1,100 of them have withdrawn from the case as noted here.

The court has said that the trial will go on without those who left, by appointing new lawyers as lead counsel. There are, after all, plenty to choose from. If the existing lawyers are willing to go on, you can be sure it will.

On Larry King Live, Judith Miller praised the Alexandria jail staff and did not disclose any gritty details of her jail conditons beyond the constant noise and discombulating effect of the everpresent glare of the lights. Any seasoned criminal defense lawyer watching the show realized there is a book worth of humiliating details she chose not to share with CNN's audience.

For whatever reason, Miller has chosen to share them with New York Post gossip columnist Cindy Adams. Not only are Miller's comments in quotes, meaning they are her exact words, they ring true to what defense lawyers hear from hundreds of their clients.

Murray Waas reports tonight that Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama, former top Republican on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, has been cleared in an ethics probe. The probe began in 2004 on a referral from the Justice Department, after it conducted its own investigation and declined to charge Shelby with a crime.

The Senate Ethics Committee inquiry commenced as a result of a referral from the Department of Justice to the committee on July 20, 2004, in which the department said that there existed what sources described as "credible and specific information" that Shelby might have leaked classified information to the press, and then possibly made false statements to federal investigators to conceal what he had done.

The Newark Ledger today has an analysis of more than 200 opinions Judge Alito authored on criminal law during his 15 years on the bench.

As senators and advocacy groups pore over legal writings by Alito, the New Jersey native nominated to the Supreme Court, they will find a by-the-book interpreter of the law whose opinions in criminal matters reflect his many years as a federal prosecutor in New Jersey and advocate for Justice Department in Washington.

If the decision is close, Alito tends to side with law enforcement and rarely treads new ground, according to interviews with legal scholars and a review of more than two dozen opinions he has written in the past 15 years....Alito seems willing to give the benefit of the doubt to law enforcement.

The article cites several examples. [Via Sentencing Law and Policy whose author, Law Prof Doug Berman, is quoted in the article.]

The Department of Justice has issued its annual death penalty statistics. There are 63 fewer people on death row in America than there were in 2003.

That's still 3,315 too many.

Texas continues to lead the country in the number of executions carried out. California has the largest death row population, followed by Texas. As for race and gender: