Democracy Now has some great stuff up today:

• Landmark Decision Overturns Cuba 5 Convictions:
  Interview with Leonard Weinglass
  A federal appellate court in Atlanta overturned the convictions of the Cuba 5 and ordered a new trial on the basis that the men could not get a fair trial in the right-wing Cuban exile stronghold of Miami. The five were accused of spying for Cuba. We speak with Leonard Weinglass, one of the lawyers for the Cuba 5.

• Maher Arar Fights to Keep Torture Suit Against U.S. Government Alive
  Canadian torture victim Maher Arar is the first person to mount a civil suit challenging the U.S. government policy of extraordinary rendition. Now his attorneys are fighting the Justice Department's motion to dismiss the case. We speak with David Cole, the lead lawyer for Maher Arar. [includes rush transcript]

The Boston Globe has a must-read article today on Guantanamo detainees who are so frustrated with the delays of their lawsuits they are firing their lawyers, saying they are useless. In addition to the delays, some say the military is back-stabbing the lawyers.

Some lawyers say the military is also undermining their ability to maintain cordial relations with clients by harassing them on the base and by imposing sharp restrictions on their communications. Phone calls are not allowed. Officers assigned to chaperone the lawyers take a rigid attitude about scheduled meetings, refusing to allow them to go longer than planned, the lawyers said. Letter delivery, they added, is sometimes delayed for months.

Moreover, lawyers said, interrogators have ''manipulated" clients by saying that detainees with lawyers will not be released and that the lawyers cannot be trusted.

posted by Last Night in Little Rock

The Rolling Stones, a group not known for political advocacy, has entered the political arena with a political track on its newest album, "A Bigger Bang." The album will be released in the U.S. on September 6th.

The track, "Sweet Neo Con," boasts the line, "You call yourself a Christian, I call you a hypocrite/You call yourself a patriot, well I think you're full of s---," according to the weekly newsmagazine[Newsweek].

"It is direct," singer Mick Jagger was quoted as saying, adding that his collaborator, Keith Richards, was "a bit worried" about a backlash because the guitarist lives in the United States and Jagger does not.

I first saw the Stones in concert in 1967. What a flashback.

How many Generals have you seen demoted over the torture abuse scandals at Abu Ghraib, Bagram, Camp Bucci or Guantanamo? What does it take for a reprimand? An extra-marital affair.

In a rare move, the Army relieved a four-star general of his command amid allegations that he had an extramarital affair with a civilian, Army officials said yesterday.

Update: Arianna has a lot to say about this.

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales urges a quick fix to this year's Booker decison of the Supreme Court. (By the way, if you are a new reader of TalkLeft, regular contributor TChris persuasively argued that case to the Supreme Court)

I wonder if everyone gets Gonzales' point and goal: Every federal crime should have a mandatory minimum sentence to get around the Supreme Court's decision in Booker which held the federal sentencing guidelines were advisory only. Here is the text of Gonzales' remarks. [via Sentencing Law and Policy]

Even the Washington Post disagrees with him.

The American Bar Association, at its annual meeting in Chicago Tuesday, backed a federal shield law for reporters.

"Our action today acknowledges the important role of journalists and the media to providing the public with significant information to ensure an informed democracy, and reporters' need to be able to protect sources in order to get that information," said Michael S. Greco of Boston, ABA's president. "It also recognizes reasonable standards for compelling journalists to name sources or disclose information gleaned in gathering news," he said.

The ABA declined 30 years ago to back a reporter shield law, but lawyers reconsidered the proposal after New York Times reporter Judith Miller was jailed a month ago for refusing to testify to a grand jury investigating the leak of the identity of undercover CIA officer Valerie Plame.

The ABA endorsement has exceptions:

Albert Pirro

The Washington Post reports Jeanine Pirro has launched her Senate campaign website for her run against Hillary Clinton. She has over 100 photos on it, but not a single one of her husband, Al Pirro, who went to prison in 2001 for tax evasion. (Hillary has lots of pictures of Bill on her site.) Pirro's bio page doesn't even mention Al.

Some analysts are saying that because both have "bad-boy" husbands (Pirro's also defended a paternity suit in 1997) it will not be an issue in the race - they cancel each other out on that score. Pirro's advisor explains the lack of pictures of husband Al to the Post by saying "This campaign is about Jeanine Pirro and her experience, qualifications and willingness to serve as New York's full-time senator."

I think Jeanine's making a mistake. She ought to acknowledge his past, his presence in her life and explain it. Otherwise people are going to start digging to find out what she's hiding. Like I just did, out of curiosity. Here's what I found, right on his company's website. Shouldn't people know that Candidate Pirro is married to a big-time Republican lobbyist?

Busted! Drug War Survival Skills
by M. Chris Fabricant

Brand new, this irreverent and humorous guide (with illustrations by R. Crumb) covers everything from the buy to the bust to begging for mercy. It's a winner. Author (and New York defense lawyer) Chris Fabricant says he hopes to expose a younger audience to the erosion of civil liberties and the racial and social inequities that flow from the prosecution of the Drug War in America. But, politics is only an aside, the real purpose of the book is to help people "stay out of jail and out on bail."

This is one of the best and most readable legal advice guides I've seen. It answers just about every conceivable question that can come up, from cops at your door, the traffic stop, the search, the arrest, through all the court proceedings. And it really is funny. The book does not support or advocate drug use. It's about informing people how to minimize the harm and the pain that goes along with it in the criminal justice setting.

The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals today reversed the convictions of five Cuban spies on venue grounds.

A federal appellate court has overturned the convictions of five accused Cuban spies Tuesday, ruling they could not get a fair trial in Miami because of extensive pretrial publicity.

The ruling means that the defendants' life sentences are overturned. The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta ordered a new trial after agreeing with defense attorneys who argued that prejudice against Fidel Castro and his communist government in Miami impeded them from getting a fair trial, which resulted in convictions in 2001.

The decision will be very unpopular in Miami's Cuban exile community. The Southern District of Florida blog has more on the decision. The full text of the 93 page opinion is available here.

by TChris

Definition of "lunatic fringe": a group so far to the right that it considers John Roberts too liberal to sit on the Supreme Court.

A conservative group in Virginia said Tuesday it would oppose Supreme Court nominee John Roberts’ confirmation because of his work helping overturn a Colorado referendum on gays. The stance by Public Advocate of the United States, which describes itself as a pro-family organization, puts it in opposition to conservative groups that have endorsed Roberts.

The group’s president, Eugene Delgaudio, last year criticized Vice President Cheney (another left wing radical) for suggesting that the concept of freedom extends to gays.

by TChris

Former WorldCom CEO Bernard Ebbers was sentenced to a highly publicized 25 years, but Ebbers didn’t act alone. As usual, those who played the government’s game by agreeing to assist its prosecution of Ebbers did much better.

Last week, Betty Vinson, a former WorldCom accounting official who said she pulled some numbers "out of the air" when she helped fudge company books, was sentenced to five months in prison. Another former accounting official, Troy Normand, was sentenced to three years of probation after a federal prosecutor said his role in the fraud was less than Vinson's.

Today, Buford "Buddy" Yates, the former director of general accounting, was sentenced to a year and a day. Although the judge called Yates “perhaps the least useful” of all the cooperators, she nonetheless rewarded him with a sentence that seems insignificant in comparison to the sentence imposed on Ebbers.

Is Ebbers really 25 times more culpable than WorldCom’s director of general accounting? As TalkLeft suggested here, a quarter century “is a ridiculous sentence for a non-violent crime.” That fact becomes even more obvious as the other actors in the WorldCom scheme are sentenced.

by TChris

Update: Attacks on the Supreme Court by politicians who disagree with the Court's rulings threaten the Court's independence, Justice Breyer said today. If Arlen Specter wants to use the Roberts' nomination to send the Court a message, it seems Justice Breyer is taking the opportunity to send a message on behalf of "seven or eight or nine members of the Supreme Court." The message, in essence: leave us alone.

*****
Original post:

It’s funny that a Republican senator would accuse conservative Supreme Court justices of judicial activism, but Arlen Specter, previewing some of the questions he intends to pose to John Roberts, seems to have done just that.