by TChris

This is how bipartisan negotiations over the Patriot Act have gone in the House:

"[T]he Republicans have told us for some time they are working on a bill, they asked for our suggestions, and they ended up saying that none of our suggestions were acceptable," the [senior Democratic] aide [on the House Judiciary Committee] said. "So they're now dropping a bill that we see as a total reauthorization of the Patriot Act with only very slight tweaks."

This is how bipartisan negotiations over the Patriot Act have gone in the Senate:

While negotiations to broker a bipartisan deal continued late Monday, Democratic officials said the compromise appeared to have stalled because of disagreement over whether to impose new restrictions on the government's ability to demand library records and other powers.

Bipartisan negotiations failed, in large part, because the Justice Department refused to agree to any lessening of the broad powers it gained under the Patriot Act. In fact, the Department wants even greater power, "including the F.B.I.'s expanded use of terrorism subpoenas without a judge's approval and ... expanded monitoring of certain mailings."

Elected representatives need to muster the courage to "just say no" to the Justice Department. They should work instead to pass the bipartisan SAFE Act.

If you are a doctor, a lawyer or a therapist, don't even think about responding to client or patient e-mail while on an airlane:

Federal law enforcement officials, fearful that terrorists will exploit emerging in-flight broadband services to remotely activate bombs or coordinate hijackings, are asking regulators for the power to begin eavesdropping on any passenger's internet use within 10 minutes of obtaining court authorization.

In joint comments filed with the FCC last Tuesday, the Justice Department, the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security warned that a terrorist could use on-board internet access to communicate with confederates on other planes, on the ground or in different sections of the same plane -- all from the comfort of an aisle seat.

How can they do that? Via CALEA:

by Last Night in Little Rock

Listening to audio of Scott McClellan's dissembling and stonewalling on Morning Sedition on Air America Radio gave me flashbacks to Ron Ziegler's performances during Watergate in 1972-73.

For once, somebody in the Fourth Estate actually had the spine to cross-examine him and "call him out on his lies" about "Rove, Abrams, and Libby," and, smelling blood, others joined in. McClellan was reminded of his denials and was running for cover, and you could hear fear in his voice. McClellan, however, continued to stonewall and hid behind the fact of a "criminal investigation" to not comment. He was more than freely denying everything about Rove's involvement when the criminal investigation started.

While the Republican press in the audience must have been devastated, Fox News did, at least, report it from an AP story: CIA Leak Denials on Rove's Behalf Crumble.

Sometimes I think we are living inside a made-for-tv sci-fi movie, co-written by George Orwell and Charles Dickens, and directed by a sadist. Here's the latest. The Bureau of Prisons will be installing fatal electrical stun fences on the perimeters of seven maximum security facilities. The reason: it's cheaper than prison guards.

Seven high-security federal prisons will be getting lethal electrified fences in a $10 million project intended to reduce the number of perimeter guards needed. The 12-foot-high "stun-lethal" fences, similar to ones used at some state prisons, can be set to deliver a shock if touched once, and a fatal jolt if touched a second time.

If you're a contractor, get your bids in now. The winner of the fence installation contract will be announced in the fall. If you're a taxpayer, ask yourself, how many times have you read about a federal prison breakout? The correct answer is zero.

President Bush gave a press conference on October 6, 2003. In it he was asked about the Valerie Plame leak. He called it a "criminal action." Here were his comments (from CNN, available on Lexis.com.)

QUESTION: Mr. President, on another issue, the CIA Leakgate, what is your confidence level in the results of the DOJ investigation about any of your staffers not being found guilty or being found guilty? And what do you say to critics of the administration who say that this administration retaliates against naysayers?

BUSH: Now, well, first of all, I'm glad you brought that question up. This is a very serious matter. And our administration takes it seriously. As members of the press corps here know, I have, at times, complained about leaks of security information, whether the leaks be in the legislative branch or in the executive branch, and I take those leaks very seriously. And therefore, we will cooperate fully with the Justice Department.

by Last Night in Little Rock

Rep. Henry Waxman called for a Congressional hearing over the Valerie Plame leak as the N.Y. Times this afternoon reported here.

Senator Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey said the intentional disclosure of a covert agency's identity amounted to an "act of treason," while Representative Henry Waxman of California, the ranking Democrat on the House Government Reform Committee, called for a Congressional hearing.

Congress's institutional memory may be too short. Remember Oliver North? He testified under compulsion at the Iran-Contra hearings and succeeded in excluding that evidence at retrial. United States v. North, 910 F.2d 843 (D.C.Cir. 1990).

As close as outing a CIA agent comes to treason, and it is only one or two steps below treason in the Sentencing Guidelines, one can see the Congressional villagers coming for Frankenstein with torches and pitchforks.

Update: Bernie Ebbers gets 25 years.

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Two days before his sentencing, convicted former WorldCom Exec Bernie Ebbers has settled his civil suit with the government, and will be giving up almost all that he owns:

A judge gave her blessing Monday to a civil suit settlement under which former WorldCom chief Bernard Ebbers will forfeit nearly all his cash and personal assets - as much as $45 million.

U.S. District Judge Denise Cote gave preliminary approval to the deal two days before Ebbers, 63, faces sentencing, and almost certain lengthy prison time, on his criminal conviction in the record WorldCom fraud. The civil settlement, which springs from a suit filed by angry former investors in the toppled telecom, will leave a modest Mississippi home for Ebbers' wife and roughly $50,000 for her to live on.

"Basically we left them with their furniture and the silverware," said Sean Coffey, a lawyer for New York state Comptroller Alan Hevesi, the lead plaintiff in the investor suit.

by TChris

Courts can't solve the problems spawned by legislatures, but sometimes they can force improvements. As TalkLeft reported, U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson is using receivership to force California to correct its woeful administration of prison health care.

This happened after shocking testimonies given by two investigative physicians, each with 20-years-plus experience, who compared California's medical crisis to that of Angola, one of the worst prisons in the country. Both physicians stated that in all their decades in practice in correctional settings, they had "never seen such callousness and gross incompetence so widespread." They reported scores of preventable deaths verified from the medical records. At least 64 more per year are predicted to happen until the bureaucratic mess is cleaned up.

As Cayenne Bird explains, the problem isn't caused by a lack of money. It's caused by politicians who adopted a "lock 'em up" mentality with no thought to the consequences of ever-increasing prison populations.

Update: Execution stay granted. Among those fighting for the stay of execution: Former Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr - whose involvement is detailed in this WaPo article. [link via Sentencing Law and Policy]

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Robin Lovitt, 41, is scheduled for execution tonight in Virginia.

Virginia prepared Monday to execute a man convicted of stabbing a pool hall manager to death with a pair of scissors, a case that has attracted national attention because the murder weapon and DNA evidence were destroyed after the trial.

Liberal groups and blogs are calling for Rove's resignation:

• Digby
• America Blog
• MoveOn. Pac
• Timothy Noah at Slate: Turd Blossom Must Go

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid just released this statement (received via e-mail)

Washington, DC – “I agree with the President when he said he expects the people who work for him to adhere to the highest standards of conduct. The White House promised if anyone was involved in the Valerie Plame affair, they would no longer be in this administration. I trust they will follow through on this pledge. If these allegations are true this rises above politics and is about our national security.”

The ethics watchdog group Citizens for Ethics and Responsibility in Washington (CREW)has written a letter to President Bush asking him to direct that Karl Rove's security clearances be revoked as a result of the Plame leak:

Citizens for Ethics and Responsibility in Washington (CREW) sent a letter today to President George Bush requesting that he immediately direct Karl Rove's security clearances be suspended pending the outcome of the government's investigation into the leak of Valerie Plame's identity as an undercover agent for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

As grounds, the group asserted:

"Considering that it is a federal crime to identify covert agents, and that President Bush signed executive orders identifying the vital role the President plays in protecting national security secrets from unauthorized disclosure, it is appropriate for the President to suspend Mr. Rove's clearance pending the investigation's outcome," Melanie Sloan, executive director of CREW, said today.

In April, 1999, former President Herbert Walker Bush, the 11th director of central intelligence, said at the opening of the CIA headquarters in Langley, Va, named the George Bush Center for Intelligence:

"I have nothing but contempt and anger for those who betray the trust by exposing the name of our sources. They are in my view the most insidious of traitors."

Source: Associated Press, April 26, 1999; Houston Chronicle, Chicago Tribune, April 27, 1999.