From the House Judiciary Committee Website:

• Text of July 25, 2005 Letter from Rep.Conyers to the President Seeking Assurance on Non-Use of Presidential Pardon in CIA Leak Investigation

• Text of July 14, 2005 Letter Signed by Judiciary Ranking Member Conyers and 12 Other Democratic Committee
  Members to Chairman Sensenbrenner Requesting Hearing on Rove-Gate

• Text of July 14, 2005 Letter Signed by 91 Members of Congress to the President Seeking Rove Explanation or Resignation;

• Typed List of Signatures

The Washington Post reports some new dots in RoveGate:

In a strange twist in the investigation, the grand jury -- acting on a tip from Wilson -- has questioned a person who approached Novak on Pennsylvania Avenue on July 8, 2003, six days before his column appeared in The Post and other publications, Wilson said in an interview. The person, whom Wilson declined to identify to The Post, asked Novak about the "yellow cake" uranium matter and then about Wilson, Wilson said. He first revealed that conversation in a book he wrote last year. In the book, he said he tried to reach Novak on July 8, and they finally connected on July 10. In that conversation, Wilson said he did not confirm his wife worked for the CIA but that Novak told him he had obtained the information from a "CIA source."

Novak told the person that Wilson's wife worked for the CIA as a specialist in weapons of mass destruction and had arranged her husband's trip to Niger, Wilson said. Unknown to Novak, the person was a friend of Wilson and reported the conversation to him, Wilson said.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is in Iraq. At a joint meeting with Iraqi PM Ibrahim al-Jaafari today,

Jaafari said it is time to work on acoordinated transition of military control in the country from Americans to Iraqis. "Firstly, we should quicken the pace of training the Iraqi security forces, and secondly, there should be a close coordination in planning between the US-led coalition and the Iraqi government on security transition," Jaafari said. "We do not want to be surprised by a withdrawal that is not in connection with our Iraqi timing," he added.

For his part, Rumsfeld said there is no exact timetable for the US troops withdrawal, but he also said "we confirm and we desire speed in that regard."

The White House today said it will refuse to turn over Supreme Court Nominee John Robert's tax returns.

Courting Influence has his 10 page financial disclosure statement (pdf) from his 2003 application to the D.C. Circuit Appeals court, filed in May, 2004. Net Worth: $3,782,275.

Not bad for a lawyer who was only in private practice for 13 years of his career. Roberts was a government lawyer from the beginning of his legal career in 1979 until he left for Hogan & Hartson in 1986. He was an associate for a year, and then made partner. He left the firm to return to Government employ as Deputy Solictitor General in 1989. Total time spent in private practice at this point: 3 years. He left his job as Deputy Solictor General to return to private practice with Hogan and Hartson in 1993.In 2003, he was confirmed as a D.C. Circuit Appeals Court Judge.

We wrote Sunday about Dick Cheney's personal visits to the Hill to lobby against the inclusion of an anti-torture Amendment in the Pentagon's 2006 spending bill. Today, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist canceled the planned hearing on the bill.

Also, Timothy Flanigan, who also served as Attorney General Alberto Gonzales’s deputy White House Counsel in 2001 and 2002, during the time of the torture memos, is being promoted to the number two spot at the Department of Justice. Flannigan had his hearing today.

"Once again, while the privates and sergeants get marched off to jail, the policy-makers get promoted," said Christopher Anders, an ACLU Legislative Counsel. "This nomination means that the nation’s top two law enforcement officials at the Justice Department, which normally would be responsible for prosecuting any wrongdoing, will be men who are up to their eyeballs in this scandal."

In a new interview with the Associated Press, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said that once Judge John Roberts becomes a Supreme Court Justice, he is no longer obligated to follow precedent like Roe v. Wade...in other words, unlike an Appeals Court Judge who is bound by Supreme Court precedent, as a high court Justice, if he disagrees with it, he could vote to overturn it.

The legal right to abortion is settled for lower courts, but the Supreme Court ``is not obliged to follow'' the Roe v. Wade precedent, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said Tuesday as the Senate prepared to consider John Roberts' appointment that would put a new vote on the high court.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Gonzales said a justice does not have to follow a previous ruling ``if you believe it's wrong,'' a comment suggesting Roberts would not be bound by his past statement that the 1973 decision settled the issue.

Excerpts from the interview:

Brian David Mitchell, the alleged kidnapper of Utah teen Elizabeth Smart, has been found mentally incompetent to stand trial. This is not much of a surprise considering:

He has been removed from the courtroom several times during competency hearings over the past seven months for singing hymns and shouting Biblical admonitions, The Associate Press reported. He has called himself a prophet named "Emmanuel."

His wife and charged accomplice, Wanda Barzee, was ruled incompetent in January. The Salt Lake City Tribune reports:

In a 60-page decision, Judge Judith Atherton said that although Mitchell has an ''adequate capacity'' to comprehend the charges against him, the possible penalties and the adversary nature of the proceedings, he fails the competency test in other areas. Atherton said Mitchell has an impaired ability to communicate with his attorneys, engage in reasoned choice of legal strategies, manifest appropriate courtroom behavior and testify relevantly.

That means Mitchell, 51, will join his wife, Wanda Eileen Barzee, 59, at the Utah State Hospital for treatment aimed at making them well enough to face prosecution. Barzee has been at the hospital since March 2004.

by TChris

The United States would be upset if a foreign government kidnapped an individual from the US and spirited him away to another country for interrogation. No surprise, then, that an Italian court has issued six arrest warrants for suspected CIA agents who – as part of the infamous “rendition” program – kidnapped an Egyptian-born man from the streets of Milan. As TalkLeft reported last month, the Italian court earlier ordered the arrest of another 13 suspected CIA agents.

All 19 are now considered fugitives in Italy.

The Italian government complains that the kidnapping prevented Italian authorities from arresting and interrogating the suspected terrorist, depriving Italy of the chance to protect itself from other terrorists who might be within its borders. The CIA claims it “uses the rendition process only with strict government oversight,” but the question is, which government?

The Bush administration undoubtedly regards Italy’s insistence that its borders are sovereign as an anti-American policy. Perhaps, in retaliation, the administration will suggest that Italian sausage henceforth be known as Freedom sausage.

I don't know too much about the DLC, except that they are centrists and I am not a fan of centrists. Hillary spoke at their convention yesterday and Markos at Daily Kos has some sharp criticisms. So do

• Digby

• Atrios

• David Sirota

Update: skippy the bush kangaroo takes on the dlc's peter ross range for sneaky and misleading use of pronouns, thusly mis-attributing one person's views to markos in general.

The Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee have sent a letter to the Inspector General requesting an investigation into Alberto Gonzales' 12 hour gap.

....it appears, that not only did DOJ personnel countenance a 12-hour delay in notifying White House staff to preserve all records (while the White House Chief of Staff was given a heads up of the existence of the investigation), but that the DOJ also appears to have ignored repeated entreaties from the CIA to initiate a law enforcement investigation into this matter several months before hand. We would therefore urge you to examine the extent that this course of conduct and other delays by the Department are consistent with standards of prosecutorial conduct and integrity.

by TChris

The military's use of dogs to "break down" detainees at Abu Ghraib prior to interrogations will be explored today in an Article 32 hearing regarding charges brought against the dog handlers.

Sgts. Santos A. Cardona and Michael J. Smith are charged with dereliction of duty and maltreatment of detainees. Both were attached to the 320th Military Police Battalion, one of the units guarding the now notorious Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad in December 2003 and January 2004.

According to an investigation led by Maj. General George Fay, Cardona and Smith had a running contest in which they used their dogs to try to frighten detainees into wetting themselves.

The handlers say they were doing what they were told to do.

Press Release:

NARAL Pro-Choice America filed a formal request with the Bush White House that asks for records or descriptions of any contacts between President Bush or other administration officials and radical right organizations that have praised his selection of John Roberts for the Supreme Court.

Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, said the jubilant reaction from organizations that have advocated the overturning of Roe v. Wade reflected the undue influence these groups may have had on this selection.