I haven't written about:

• the Paris Riots,
• the disclosure in today's New York Times that a primary intelligence source for Iraqi information was branded a "likely fabricator" months before his information was used by the Administration "to gin up sentiments for war."
• Sen. Jay Rockefeller saying today he was "dead wrong" in his vote for the Iraq War
• Warren Beatty trying to crash Gov. Arnold's rally
  

Does anyone have something to say about these or other topics? Go right ahead.

I often criticize aspects of America's criminal justice system, particularly our over-reliance on incarceration and the unduly harsh sentences meted out to non-violent offenders. But I also try to remind people that for all its flaws, America has the best criminal justice system in the world.

Reports such as this in today's New York Times make my stomach churl. Read it before, not after breakfast. But please, read it.

Where are Bono, Geldorf and Live Aid? Where are Madonna and Green Day? If they are so concerned about the people of Africa, shouldn't they be doing something to publicize the plight of those imprisoned in Africa for years without a trial, in cells that house 160 inmates in the size of a 2-car garage where the only drinking water is from the single toilet that often doesn't work? Where inmates who have yet to be convicted of a crime die from diseases borne of the filth?

The Washington Post reports that the FBI has been obtaining and reviewing records of ordinary Americans in the name of the war on terror through the use of national security letters that gag the recipients.

"The FBI now issues more than 30,000 national security letters a year, according to government sources, a hundredfold increase over historic norms. The letters -- one of which can be used to sweep up the records of many people -- are extending the bureau's reach as never before into the telephone calls, correspondence and financial lives of ordinary Americans. "

What's a national security letter?

Did you know that Rudy Guiliani's law firm is representing Tom DeLay -- and that it has received more money from DeLay's legal defense fund than Dick DeGuerin, who is DeLay's lawyer in the criminal case? According to the Houston Chronicle:

Dick DeGuerin, DeLay's lawyer in that case, was paid $25,000 from the fund in the past three months.

Other attorneys and law firms received $235,000 during the same period, with the largest share, $100,000, going to the Houston law firm of Bracewell & Giuliani. The payments to Bracewell & Giuliani, which has offices in several cities and a lobbying component in Washington, triggered conflict of interest protests from a public interest group.

John Amato of Crooks and Liars has posted his interview Gen. Wesley Clark recorded last week. It focuses on torture and the moral high ground. Here's a partial transcript.

The Sunday Morning Lineups

• CNN's Late Edition looks like the one to watch.

• Meet the Press has Senators Kennedy and Coburn. It's airing an hour early on the East Coast only due to the New York marathon.
• ABC's This Week has Joe Biden and Chuck Hagel.
• Face the Nation has Dick Durbin, Pat Roberts and Orrin Hatch.
• Fox News Sunday has Senators Schumer and McCain.

[comments reopened, but please stay on topic of the Sunday news show.]

[Note: Only for the seriously RoveGate-afflicted. This may be my longest parsing yet.]

Karl Rove's lawyers are talking again. Here's their latest, from Saturday's New York Times:

Lawyers involved in the case say the prosecutor, Patrick J. Fitzgerald, has narrowed the investigation of Mr. Rove to whether he tried to conceal from the grand jury a conversation he had with a Time magazine reporter, Matthew Cooper, in the week before the identity of an undercover intelligence operative was made public in 2003.

In what is believed to be his final look at any involvement by Mr. Rove, Mr. Fitzgerald has centered on whether he was fully forthcoming about the belated discovery of an internal e-mail message that confirmed his conversation with Mr. Cooper, to whom Mr. Rove had mentioned the C.I.A. officer. Lawyers in the case say Mr. Rove had learned the officer's identity from the columnist Robert D. Novak two days before speaking to Mr. Cooper.

The Rocky Mountain News has a fascinating article today on Colorado's first marijuana case.

In 1937, a man named Samuel Caldwell was the first person to be charged with a marijuana crime when he was busted after selling two joints to Moses Baca. He was arrested on the date that the Marijuana Stamp Act became effective.

As TChris reported earlier, Kenneth Tomlinson was forced out of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

The New York Times now reports he is the subject of an investigation into the misuse of funds. Another area of the inquiry involves whether he used phantom or unqualified employees.

People involved in the inquiry said that investigators had already interviewed a significant number of officials at the agency and that, if the accusations were substantiated, they could involve criminal violations.

I'm against allowing jurors to question witnesses. They are fact-finders, not advocates, and I have always suspected they wouldn't have a clue what questions might be appropriate.

Among the questions jurors wanted to ask actor Robert Blake in the ongoing civil trial for damages over the wrongful death of his wife (Blake was acquitted or murder in the criminal trial):

One of the jurors deciding whether Robert Blake is responsible for his wife's murder wants to know whether the actor can name the four Gospels in the Bible.

Another asked whether Blake let his murdered wife's children — who allege he is liable for her death — attend Bonny Lee Bakley's funeral four years ago.

Another juror wanted to know if Bakley's daughter attended Sunday school.

There has been a lot of speculation about why Fitzgerald met with President Bush's private lawyer, James Sharp, just before the Indictment against Lewis Libby was returned. I thought it was to give the President a heads-up on the results of the investigation and let him know only Libby was going to be indicted.

The New York Times today reports "discussions" between Sharp and Fitz regarding Rove. It doesn't say when they took place, but it seems to fit that it would have been that last meeting.

Mr. Fitzgerald no longer seems to be actively examining some of the more incendiary questions involving Mr. Rove. At one point, he explored whether Mr. Rove misrepresented his role in the leak case to President Bush - an issue that led to discussions between Mr. Fitzgerald and James E. Sharp, a lawyer for Mr. Bush, an associate of Mr. Rove said.

[hat tip Patriot Daily.]

by TChris

President Bush was greeted by protestors when he arrived in Argentina to attend the Summit of the Americas.

Around 10,000 protesters chanted "Get out Bush!" today on the streets of the Argentinean resort which is hosting the Summit of the Americas. Celebrities including the Argentinean soccer legend Diego Maradona are among the demonstrators who have gathered at the resort of Mar Del Plata, where the two-day summit starts later today.