The Washington Post reports today that many in both parties believe President Bush has spent his political capital.

The series of setbacks on the domestic front could signal that the president has weakened leverage over his party, a situation that could embolden the opposition, according to analysts and politicians from both sides. Bush faces the potential of a summer of discontent when his capacity to muscle political Washington into following his lead seems to have diminished and few easy victories appear on the horizon.

Ralph Nader and Kevin Zeese argue in the Boston Globe, that it's time for the "I" word.

The Downing Street Memo campaign could make things significantly tougher for Bush.

In a unanimous decision, the Supreme Court today reversed the conviction of accounting giant Arthur Anderson on obstruction of justice charges related to Enron. The reason was flawed jury instructions.

The ruling is a setback for the Bush administration, which made prosecution of white-collar criminals a high priority following accounting scandals at major corporations. After Enron's 2001 collapse, the Justice Department went after Andersen first.

The opinion can be read here. [link via Scotus Blog]

Talk about the unfriendly skies. The CIA's secret airline, which I (and undoubtedly others) refer to as 'Ghost Air' because it transports hidden detainees around the world until reaching its preferred country of interrogation, has been exposed. It's not just a Gulf Stream and a 737. We're talking a whole airline operation with at least 26 planes.

An analysis of thousands of flight records, aircraft registrations and corporate documents, as well as interviews with former C.I.A. officers and pilots, show that the agency owns at least 26 planes, 10 of them purchased since 2001. The agency has concealed its ownership behind a web of seven shell corporations that appear to have no employees and no function apart from owning the aircraft.

The CIA's airline is based in North Carolina, using the name "Aero Contractors and holds itself out as a charter airline service.

Why is it that lies about sex are worse than lies about war? Atrios, Daily Kos and David Sirota explain.

How is it the Vice President of the United States can say things like this and not be laughed out of the television studio? On Larry King Live:

CHENEY:...And what we're doing down there has, I think, been done perfectly appropriately. I think these people have been well treated, treated humanely and decently.

Occasionally there are allegations of mistreatment. But if you trace those back, in nearly every case, it turns out to come from somebody who had been inside and been released by to their home country and now are peddling lies about how they were treated.

Crooks and Liars has the video and Here's What's Left has more thoughts on our disingenous Vice President..

Here's one to make you LOL (laugh out loud), from Fourth Amendment.com, which tracks appellate decisons and news pertaining to searches and seizures daily:

Why CI's must be given careful scrutiny: A Worchester, MA man was arrested on information from a snitch that he was in possession of a large quantity of meth in a Wal-Mart bag. After the man arrested bailed out, the crime lab determined it was laundry detergent:

...."A Holland man who was arrested on charges of trafficking methamphetamine says he’s clean, that the drug confiscated from his car by police was simply laundry detergent. After laboratory results tested negative for the drug, charges of trafficking in excess of 200 grams of methamphetamine were dismissed in Central District Court against Leroy Wilcox,... and a co-defendant, Edward J. MacIsaac, 20, of ... Keene, N.H.

by TChris

You have no expectation of privacy in a public place, the argument goes, so why be concerned if the government keeps you under surveillance as you go about your public life? As a matter of public policy, however, most Americans would prefer not to have their lives recorded on spy cameras.

As TalkLeft noted here, owners of private surveillance cameras often make their recordings available to the police. New York City police don't want to rely upon private cameras; they want to install 400 surveillance cameras in high crime areas to supplement the 80 they already operate.

Other large cities that are aggressively stepping up surveillance systems include Chicago, Baltimore and New Orleans, financed in part with federal funds. Chicago, which has the second-largest police department in the country, announced in September that it would be linking together 2,000 surveillance cameras.

Police say that the cameras deter crime. Maybe. And cameras have been known to help innocent suspects avoid unjust convictions. Still, the phrase "your government is watching you" provokes unease and invites debate about the limits our society should place on our government. That debate should occur before the cameras are installed.

Update: New details are available from the 18- page Complaint. And the New York Times adds some context.

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original post:

A 50 year old physician from Palm Beach Boca Raton has been arrested at his home on a federal charge that he provided material support to terrorists. The AP reports the charges are out of the Southern District of New York and that the doctor is believed to have treated terrorists in Saudi Arabia. A second defendant, Tarik Shah, a New York martial arts expert, is alleged to have trained terrorists. Both are American citizens.

Prosecutors said Sabir agreed to treat jihadists, or holy warriors, in Saudi Arabia. Shah agreed to train them in hand-to-hand combat. The one-count complaint details a sting operation from 2003 to 2005 in which the two men took an oath pledging their allegiance to al-Qaida.

From the Sun Sentinel article:

The AP has received a second batch of documents from its FOIA request regarding the detainees at Guantanamo, consisting of 1,000 additonal pages of transcripts of the detainee's tribunal (status review) hearings. Several detainees told the hearing officers of torture and abuse. The officers did not believe it was their job to investigate the claims. In several instances, they just changed the subject. Here's an example:

Another man alleged that U.S. troops stripped the prisoners of their clothes in Afghanistan and bullied them into saying things the Americans wanted to hear. "Americans were beating us really hard, and they had dogs behind us and they said if we didn't say this, they would release the dogs," he said.

The tribunal president made no comment and moved on to the next question: Where were you born?

by TChris

A prosecutor's botched cross-examination can be a defense attorney's best friend. Here's a fascinating account of the courts martial trial of Pablo Paredes, who defended his failure to deploy by arguing that he was obliged not to fight an illegal war. Particularly amusing: the prosecution's cross of the defense's expert witness, Marjorie Cohn.

After a 20-30 minute eternity that left us all in a stupor of disbelief that the war's legality had just been debated in a military court, on the record, and had lost, badly, the attorney for the prosecution sat down. And then the judge said, "I believe the government has just successfully proved that any seaman recruit has reasonable cause to believe that the wars in Yugoslavia, Afghanistan and Iraq were illegal."

by TChris

Iraqi journalists who try to report the diversity of opinion in Iraqi society complain of harassment and censorship by the United States and coalition forces. U.S. forces have detained eight journalists since March. Two of the journalists followed insurgents for a few days to write about their lives; they're now said to be security risks.

"We were living without press freedom during Saddam Hussein's regime and today there is not much difference. Journalists are being held by US forces for doing their job when they write about opposing views," Kamal Aidan, a senior official from the IAJ, told IRIN in Baghdad.

So much for the spread of American-style democracy and freedom.

"We cannot write with freedom anymore because if you write against them [US forces and Iraqi government] you are going to be considered automatically against them and face the possibility of being closed down. The safety of journalists and press freedom should be at the top of the agenda for action in the coming months to guarantee our freedom in writing and transmitting true news," editor of a local Iraqi newspaper called al-Baghdadi, Abdullah Kareem, told IRIN.

Memorial Day, 2005: Three views I share, as an American, a daughter and a mother:

BeliefNet.org

Over the past century, more than 35 million men and women answered the call to arms in World War I, World War II, Korea, Vietnam, the Persian Gulf, Iraq, and countless unnamed military engagements. More than half a million of them never came home. Some died in battle, others in captivity; all died too soon.

Recent military action in Afghanistan and Iraq has offered fresh reminders of the human reality of war: ordinary men and women leaving homes and families and all they know to risk their lives for an ideal of honor, or duty, or just to protect the soldier next to them.

People of patriotism and goodwill may debate the merits of any given war, police action, or humanitarian mission. But there should be no debate about our debt to the hundreds of thousands of our citizens who have given the ultimate sacrifice of their lives heeding the nation's call to service.

Memorial Day is more than the start of summer. It is a chance to pause and remember the sacrifices -- remember the gallantry and bravery -- remember the fallen.