Terrorist attacks in London today. The Guardian is running this updated news blog with the headline that London is in chaos.

Blair said the "terrorist attacks" were clearly designed to coincide with the G-8 summit opening in Gleneagles, Scotland. They also came a day after London won the bid to host the 2012 Olympics. A group calling itself "The Secret Organization of al-Qaida in Europe" claimed responsibility.

The explosions hit three subway stations and a double-decker bus in rapid succession between 8:30 and 9:30 a.m. local time. Implementing an emergency plan, authorities immediately shut down the subway and bus lines that log 8.4 million passenger trips every weekday. It brought the city's transportation system to a halt.

Here is the statement claiming responsibility.

[comments now closed - this thread has deteriorated into personal insults]

Rush Limbaugh's medical records were turned over to the Palm Beach state prosecutor's office today - less some records his lawyer, Roy Black, claimed were irrelevant and embarassing. The records are being sought in an investigation into whether Rush illegally purchased (not sold) painkillers.

I am not comfortable with this at all. It's far too slippery a slope. While many liberals would like to see Rush taken down, this is not the way to do it. The man was addicted to pain pills, he entered and completed treatment. Who is to say how many pills he needed to combat his pain? And why should the Government, rather than the patient, be the arbiter of that?

Instead of clamoring for the Government to fry Rush, liberals should be demanding that the Government keep its laws off our bodies.

Crooks and Liars reports National Guard officials in California are being investigated for spying on state residents and destroying documents that could prove it. Not only that,

National Guard officials said that they are only monitoring public Web site and news stories...."We have also received information from sources that this conduct may not be limited to just California; that, in fact, other units across the country may have engaged in similar domestic activity," [state Sen. Joseph]Dunne said.

The AP reports:

U.S. military authorities on Wednesday began investigating whether a California National Guard unit was established to spy on U.S. citizens, as about 30 demonstrators outside guard headquarters confronted officials backed by armed soldiers.

The unit has raised concern among peace activists that the Guard is resorting to the same type of civilian monitoring that characterized Vietnam War-era protests.

Think Progress reports that on Air Force One today, no one asked Scott McClellan about whether Karl Rove was the source of the Valerie Plame Leak.

Arianna reports buzz along the same line at the Aspen Institute.

The Washington Post reports:

In an interview yesterday, [Rove attorney Robert Luskin] said Rove was not the source who called Cooper yesterday morning and personally waived the confidentiality agreement. "Karl has not asked anybody to treat him as a confidential source with regard to this story," Luskin said.

Raw Story has an audio clip from CNN's coverage of the Republican National Convention during which Karl Rove adamantly denies having outed CIA operative Valerie Plame. He says, "I didn't know her name and didn't leak her name."

So, did Rove tell Matthew Cooper that "Joseph Wilson's wife" worked for the CIA or that "Joseph Wilson's wife" was an undercover operative for the CIA? I'd bet Rove is saying the former and that he simply referred to her as "Joseph Wilson's wife" not as "Valerie Plame." Since the conversation allegedly took place before Novak's column was published, it's plausible. But...I still think Fitzgerald is moving on from disclosure of Plame's identity to trying to prove a conspiracy among top White House officials to obstruct justice and this doesn't let Rove off the hook on that one.

The key may be the alleged meeting by Cheney's top staff members described in this USA Today article from April, 2004, which Cheneys' office told Vanity Fair never occurred.

Editor and Publisher reports that Judith Miller has been delivered to the Alexandria, VA detention center.

When the judge sentenced New York Times' reporter Judith Miller to jail Wednesday afternoon, he did not say where it would be, but E&P soon learned that it would be just outside Washington, D.C. Later, she was seen entering the Alexandria (Va.) Detention Center, according to the Associated Press. The Virginia facility's best-known resident is convicted terrorist Zacarias Moussaoui.

The jail was built in 1987. Here's the jail's website. And here are some notes from a female prisoner held there in 1988 who didn't like it too much.

If you'd like to write Ms. Miller, here is the address:

Alexandria Detention Center
2001 Mill Road
Alexandria, Virginia 22314

Could Judith Miller be protecting Dick Cheney? His chief of staff, Lewis Libby, authorized reporters eons ago (link, scroll down to Entertainment Reporter quote)to disclose that they spoke to him. I don't know the answer, but consider:

Joe Wilson has said he suspected (but was not alleging it was) Vice President Cheney. From USA Today:

Wilson connects Cheney to the events involving his wife through a meeting he said occurred in March 2003. He charged that Cheney's staff — with at least the "implicit" involvement of the vice president — met and decided to investigate his background. The investigation, he said, uncovered his wife's role at the CIA.

"The office of the vice president, either the vice president himself or more likely his chief of staff, chaired a meeting at which a decision was made to do a 'work-up' on me," Wilson wrote in The Politics of Truth. Vanity Fair magazine reported in January that Cheney's office denied that any such meeting occurred.

Judith Miller's lawyer, Floyd Abrams, said today:

Asked why prosecutors sought Miller's testimony when she never wrote a story about Plame, Times attorney Floyd Abrams said, "We don't know, but most likely somebody testified to the grand jury that he or she had spoken to Judy."

Dick Cheney was questioned by investigators for the grand jury. One other possibility from Dick Cheney's office: Dick Hannah.

Via Huffington Post....which is very, very fast with news updates. It's now one of my first stops. Lil' Kim was sentenced to one year and a day in federal prison for perjury today.

Actually, the judge did her a favor by adding the extra day. Had her sentence been just one year, she would have had to do the whole thing. Good time, which is 54 days a year in the federal system, doesn't apply to sentences of one year or less. Now, she will only have to do ten months.

Lil' Kim had some supporters at court:

One man's T-shirt read "Free Lil' Kim" and "Real Men Don't Snitch."

One of my favorite sweatshirts (I even got one for the TL kid): "Nobody talks, everybody walks."

Breaking from MSNBC - President Bush required some treatment for a bike accident he had today in Gleneagles when he collided with a police officer.

Update: New York Times Reporter Judith Miller was jailed today. So her source and Cooper's source are not the same - since Cooper's relented and agreed to let Cooper testify about him. How many of these Senior White House officials are there?

Update: Cooper's waiver is for the grand jury. He won't tell the public who it is. Miller is going to jail in the DC area - Fitzgerald may charge Miller with criminal contempt - even obstruction of justice is not off the table. (from press conferences)

***************
Matthew Cooper has agreed to testify in the grand jury investigation. He told the judge that today. So it looks like no jail for Matthew.

In an about-face, Cooper told Hogan that he would now cooperate with a federal prosecutor's investigation into the leak of the identity of CIA operative Valerie Plame because his source gave him specific authority to discuss their conversation. "I am prepared to testify. I will comply" with the court's order, Cooper said.

Republicans have introduced a bill to speed up the death penalty by limiting habeas appeals.

The "Streamlined Procedures Act of 2005," introduced into the House of Representatives by California Rep. Dan Lungren and in the Senate by Arizona Sen. Jon Kyl, would limit the ability of defendants facing the death sentence to have their cases reviewed by federal courts in what are known as habeas corpus appeals.

...Virginia Rep. Bobby Scott, the ranking Democrat on the subcommittee considering the bill, conceded there was little chance of blocking it in the House. "The House has been very supportive of anything that would strip the innocent of a fair hearing. This bill will ensure that more innocent people will be put to death," he said in a telephone interview.

This is a** backwards. One of the principal reasons death penalty appeals take so long is that people languish on death row for years before a lawyer is appointed to represent them. If we raised the compensation levels and provided adeqate expense money for forensic testing and experts, more qualified lawyers would volunteer to defend death cases on appeal and in habeas proceedings and they wouldn't last so long.

President Bush has named former Senator and actor Fred Thompson to assist in his search for a Supreme Court Justice. One view I received by e-mail from a lawyer friend:

Lawyer turned actor turned politician turned actor (Law & Order) now p*mping for Justice.

Also commenting: Pamela at Light Up the Darkness:

Law & Order Executive Producer Michael Chernuchin describes Thompson’s character as having political leanings “a little more to the right than former D.A.s on the show. He is a ‘strict constructionist,’ that is, for him, the Constitution is what it says it is and nothing more.”

Now we can expect to stay tuned to Law & Order for updates on the Supreme Court nomination drama and perhaps we should be looking for the new spin-off series from Law & Order producers soon, Supreme Court, The Reality Show.

by TChris

Right wing extremists love to label any judge who declines to vote their way as an "activist" judge. In their parlance, even a judge who declines to take action -- a judge who refuses to change the law to keep Terri Schiavo alive, against her wishes -- can be an "activist."

Prof. Paul Gewirtz explodes the myth that liberal judges are "activists." Using a reasonable definition of the term -- an "activist" judge is a judge who votes to strike down a law enacted by Congress (defying democracy, in the words of the extremists) -- Prof. Gewirtz identifies the activists on the current Supreme Court. Justice Thomas comes out on top, followed by Justices Kennedy, Scalia, and Rehnquist.

The president has suggested that a follower of the Scalia philosophy of judging would make a great choice for the Court. Extremists beware: your president wants to put another activist on the bench!