Arianna's Russert Watch is up. Guests on Meet the Press this week include former Sen. Fred Thompson, now working on Bush's team to promote Judge John Roberts' Supreme Court nomination, and Sen. Dick Durbin. She's collecting reader questions for the guests. Her suggestions for Thompson:

“Sen. Thompson, conservatives have frequently said that they want a Supreme Court nominee who will, in the words of Scott McClellan, ‘faithfully interpret our Constitution and our laws’. Don’t they really mean that they want someone who will faithfully interpret the Constitution in their way?”

“A follow-up: Be straight with us -- no hems and haws -- who was the sexiest assistant D.A. on Law and Order, Claire, Abbie, Jamie, Serena or Alexandra?”

A week ago, I tried to connect some dots about who was on Air Force One from July 7 - 12, 2003 (Bush's trip to Africa) by checking some African news reports. Condi Rice, Colin Powell, Ari Fleisher, Deputy Foreign Secretary for Africa Walter Kansteiner, and Andrew Card were for sure on the trip. Karl Rove and Lewis Libby for sure weren't.

Scout Prime has picked up the ball and is running with it. She's now trying to find out if Powell's chief of staff White House Communications Director, Dan Bartlett was on the plane. Needlenose is also on the case. [Update: Bartlett was on the plane, Scout has pictures of him there]

Noah of Defense Tech is blogging from Iraq.

I've been in Iraq for nearly two weeks, now. And, except for the sand storms, truck bombs, helicopter rides, and 140 degree heat, it's been exactly like home.

Stay safe, Noah.

by TChris

The casualties of the drug war fill our prisons, but illicit drugs remain widely available. John Tierney, commenting on DEA's war on doctors, makes a persuasive argument that the failed drug war has motivated DEA and other law enforcement agents to define deviancy up by going after physicians, the licensed drug dealers.

As quarry for D.E.A. agents, doctors offered several advantages over crack dealers. They were not armed. They were listed in the phone book. They kept office hours and records of their transactions. And unlike the typical crack dealer living with his mother, they had valuable assets that could be seized and shared by the federal, state and local agencies fighting the drug war.

Tierney also makes a convincing case that "the OxyContin crisis" -- DEA's supposed reason for chasing doctors who write more prescriptions than DEA agents believe to be prudent-- isn't a crisis at all.

by TChris

Last month, TalkLeft reported an apparent violation of the Privacy Act by the Transportation Security Administration. The Government Accountability Office has made it official: TSA broke the law.

The Transportation Security Administration violated the federal Privacy Act by creating a database of aviation passenger records that merged airline records with commercial data in an improper way, government auditors said Friday.

Desite its promise not to collect and store passenger data, TSA retained data on more than 43,000 passengers.

by Last Night in Little Rock

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will announce Saturday that it is taking over security for the New York Subway. A press conference will be held at noon Saturday where NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg, MTA Chairman Peter S. Kalikow, and DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff will announce the new program of random bag searches for the immediate future. Chertoff will say in tomorrow's statement obtained by the media:

"We are not precluding random strip searches as soon as possible. It depends upon how many police officers we can put in the subway. We hope that we soon can have in place magnetometers. It will take longer to install x-ray machines, but subway security is so important that we will install them as soon as we expedite a $1 billion grant."

Check out what Bo Dietel, former NYC cop, p.i., now a security analyst, had to say on Fox News today- Crooks and Liars has the video. He makes Tom Tancredo look like a piker.

"You got a bunch of people over there about 9000 what they call royal family. They're all inbreds they marry each other"... "This is how we have to interfere, they can't police their own if they can't stop the terrorism that they are exporting we have to go in there"....

"They are not doing any of that at all and I tell you the honest truth, they got oil, we need oil, we should go over there and take the oil. Everyone hates us anyway in these muslim countries and for some reason it's not working the holy site of mecca there."

posted by Last Night in Little Rock

The N.Y. Times and CNN report that random bag searches have begun in New York City subways as a response to the London Underground bombings.

Remember we all thought that the terrorists would win if our way of life changed? It has, and they are.

The OKC bombing was described by many post-conviction lawyers as "the crime that killed habeas corpus" because the following year it led to AEDPA, the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act.

9/11 is the crime that killed the Bill of Rights. The USA PATRIOT Act is only a symptom. Now the disease is starting to consume the body.

"We're from the government and we're here to help you. Let's see your purse, granny. Assume the position, gramps."

James Ujaama, the terror suspect arrested by the FBI in Denver in 2002 on a material witness warrant and later charged in Seattle with trying to set up an al-Qaeda training camp in Bly, Oregon, has been questioned in the London bombing case. DOJ made a cooperation deal with Ujaama in 2003, and gave him a two year sentence (long over) provided he continue cooperating with them until 2013.

TalkLeft covered his case extensively, particularly because he was originally from Denver -- his aunt was formerly married to Denver Mayor Wellington Webb's son. The Rocky Mountain News reported the connection, which did not please Mayor Webb.

by Last Night in Little Rock

Caution: The following post contains lawyertalk and opinion quotes.

Judge Roberts today dissented in a 2-1 reversal of a denial of a motion to suppress the search of the trunk of a car based on the park police officers' belief that it might contain documentation of ownership or a stolen license plate, a concept the majority found illogical. United States v Jackson (D.C. Cir. 04-3021, July 22, 2005). This is his first Fourth Amendment opinion since being nominated to the Supreme Court, and it led to an interesting exchange on the panel.

It appears that Judge Roberts prefers to defer to police discretion in determining the reasonableness of a search and seizure. This does not bode well for the Fourth Amendment.

Good news for Roman Polanski, he has won his libel suit against Vanity Fair. Many wonder why he brought the suit. Here's why.

In July, 2002, the magazine had reported Polanski propositioned another woman at Elaine's on the way to Sharon Tate's funeral. Polanski wasn't in New York at the time - he had been in London when his pregnant wife was murdered, and flew directly to L.A. He proved that at the libel trial, and eventually, even Vanity Fair conceded they were wrong. But then, they said, they were only wrong as to timing. But Mia Farrow testified that he had been brushing women's attention off after Sharon Tate's death and that he was devasted by the murder. Polanski testified by video from France, since had he gone to London where the trial was held, he would have been arrested and extradited back to the U.S. for a charge that he had sex with a 13 year old girl more than 25 years ago. Polanski fled the U.S. while on bail before sentencing on the charge. He is a French citizen and cannot be extradited from France.

by TChris

The Bush administration didn't want you to see a parade of flag-draped coffins -- more than 1770 of them, at this point -- returning from Iraq. The administration wants to control the message, and the tragic reality of this war isn't the message it wants to convey. Nor does it want you to see images of torture at Abu Ghraib, but it seemed to be losing its struggle to withhold those pictures and videos from the Center for Constitutional Rights. As TalkLeft reported, the government was ordered to release them by today. Didn't happen:

They were given until today to produce the images, but at the eleventh hour filed a motion to oppose the release of the photos and videos, based on an entirely new argument: they are now requesting a 7(F) exemption from disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act to withhold law enforcement-related information in order to protect the physical safety of individuals. Today’s move is the latest in a series of attempts by the government to keep the images from being made public and to cover up the torture of detainees in U.S. custody around the world.

As Daily Kos remarks: "The coverup continues."