The Justice Department issued this press release today:

Beginning yesterday morning, the FBI and law enforcement from 10 other countries conducted over 90 searches worldwide as part of “Operation Site Down,” designed to disrupt and dismantle many of the leading criminal organizations that illegally distribute and trade in copyrighted software, movies, music, and games on the Internet.

“By dismantling these networks, the Department is striking at the top of the copyright piracy supply chain - a distribution chain that provides the vast majority of the illegal digital content now available online,” said Attorney General Gonzales. “And by penetrating this illegal world of high-technology and intellectual property theft, we have shown that law enforcement can and will find - and we will prosecute - those who try to use the Internet to create piracy networks beyond the reach of law enforcement.”

[hat tip to John Wesley Hall]

I did the blog round-up today on MSNBC's Connected Coast to Coast, focusing on protecting sources and blog magazines. Thanks to Ian of Political Teen for putting up the video and this list of the blogs that were featured.

On Time Magazine's decision to give up Reporter Matthew Cooper's notes:

• Balloon Juice - Time should support their sources and not give them up
• Instapundit - There should be no such privilege to journalists, journalists should be subject to the same laws normal citizens are
• The Moderate Voice - Will the information become public?
• David Corn - Time would have had to paid $1000 a day fine if they didn’t give up their sources.

On the Day the Bloggers Died (and became online magazines):

• Talk Left - Blogs becoming “Online Magazines”
• The Talent Show - Ended their days as a blogger
• Crooks and Liars - Changed to a new online-virtual magazine
• Also mentioned: Atrios and America Blog.

I'll be doing the segment again tomorrow, around 5:20 pm ET.

As of yesterday, blogs are dead.

Say hello to the Online Magazine Community. Others joining so far:

• Americablog
• Crooks & Liars
• Sadly, No!
• Swing State Project
• Law Dork
• Dispassionate Liberalism
• Chaos Digest
• The Political Forecast
• Seeing the Forest

TalkLeft is joining the community. We are now "the online magazine for liberal coverage of crime-related political and injustice news."

Update: Captain's Quarters will be remaining a blog.

52 House members have filed a Freedom of Information Act request seeking documents related to the Downing Street minutes. Raw Story has the details and the letter, which is reproduced below:

Ward Churchill is back in the spotlight, this time with controversial comments about the "fragging" of military officers.

First, his comments:

"Conscientious objection removes a given piece of the cannon fodder from the fray," he said. "Fragging an officer has a much more impactful effect."

Churchill denies advocating fragging and defends his remarks:

Reached at his home in Boulder County on Wednesday night, Churchill said the comments were made merely to spark discussion and not to take a position on fragging, which is the killing or injuring of an officer in combat by a subordinate.

He said that his remarks were being taken out of context and sensationalized in an effort to drive him from his job as a CU professor. "I neither advocated nor suggested to anyone, anything," Churchill said. "I asked them to think about where they stood on things."

Update: Ian at the Political Teen has some audio of Churchill's speech.

People for the American Way have prepared a report of this term's Supreme Court decisions. The link should be up on their site shortly. It finds:

The Supreme Court decided a number of important cases concerning civil rights and civil liberties in its 2004-2005 term. Overall, the Court protected key civil rights and liberties, and disappointed those seeking to expand property rights and limit Congress’ power – often by narrow margins – though some narrow decisions regarding access to justice and immigrant rights were disappointing. In fact, many of the key rulings, discussed in further detail below, were decided by narrow margins of 5-4 (or 5-3 due to the absence of Chief Justice Rehnquist), emphasizing the significance of future vacancies on the Supreme Court.

The choice of a replacement for any of the Supeme Court Justices has never been more important.

Eric Alterman has a new Nation column examining the disparate mainstream media coverage accorded to Senator Dick Durbin's Guantanamo comments and Karl Rove's liberal bashing comments.

And where were the mainstream media in all this? With just a few honorable exceptions they were passing along without prejudice Rove's slander and lies and the deliberate distortions of Durbin's words.

Elizabeth Holtzman has a new article in the Nation, Torture and Accountability. It blows the cover off the "few bad apples" meme and makes a case for a war crimes prosecution of higher-ups.

The key question is not whether detainees in Iraq were subjected to inhuman treatment in violation of the War Crimes Act, but how high up the responsibility goes for those abhorrent acts. Under well-established principles of international law, officials in the chain of command who order inhuman treatment or who, knowing about it, fail to stop it are responsible. The "chain of command" doctrine is undoubtedly applicable to War Crimes Act prosecutions. But even if it weren't, higher-ups could be held responsible under the principles of conspiracy or aiding and abetting the crime under normal federal criminal law. This was surely the reason that Gonzales wanted to block future prosecutions of higher-ups by "prosecutors and independent counsels."

It's a long but powerful article, and well worth reading.

Bump and Update: Time Magazine will turn over the notes of reporter Matthew Cooper sought by the Government in the Valerie Plame grand jury investigation. Cooper will avoid going to jail. No word yet on Judith Miller, who has said she'd go to jail rather than comply.

More details at Bloomberg News. The Wall Street Journal (free link) provides analysis.

Update: Atrios:

When it comes to defending the supposed principles they were fighting for, this seems like a rather bad outcome. The whole point was that to protect the freedom of the press you had to protect the identity of confidential sources. From this perspective Time taints their entire publication -- you can't rely on anyone working for that magazine to protect their sources because the publishers/editors will sell out all of their journalist's sources.

A woman, in a hot air balloon, realized she was lost. She lowered her altitude, and spotted a man in a boat below. She shouted to him, "Excuse me. Can you help me? I promised a friend I would meet him an hour ago. But, I don't know where I am."

The man consulted his portable GPS, and replied, "You're in a hot air balloon, approximately 30 feet above a ground elevation of 2346 feet above sea level. You are at 11 degrees, 14.97 minutes North latitude, and 100 degrees, 49.09 minutes West longitude.

She rolled her eyes, and said, "You must be a Democrat."

"I am," replied the man. "How did you know?"

President Bush continues on Ashcroft's mission to tear down the walls between intelligence gathering and criminal investigations:

President Bush on Wednesday ordered changes intended to break down old walls between foreign and domestic intelligence activities by creating a new national security division within the Federal Bureau of Investigation that will fall under the overall direction of John D. Negroponte, the new director of national intelligence.

The powers accorded intelligence gathering and law enforcment agencies are different for good reason. For example, it prevents the Government from making an end run around the Fourth Amendment. The ACLU has an excellent explanation of the issue here.

What exactly is "the wall?" Former Deputy Attorney General Jamie Gorelick describes it this way:

In her first interview from prison since her 20 year sentence by a Bali court for smuggling 4 kilos of pot, a charge for which she claims she was framed, Austrialian Schapelle Corby says she's not giving up the fight.

[hat tip Heretik.]