Why is it when politicians try to appeal to centrist voters, they always resort to the "get tough on crime" game? Howard Dean has decided to jump on the anti-terrorism bandwagon. He sounds like you-know-who:

As president, Howard Dean says, he would mold a global alliance that would hunt down and do away with "sleeper cells" of terrorists capable of wreaking widespread damage with weapons of mass destruction

Dean will suggest several collaborative anti-terror ventures involving the United States and its various allies....He also will propose increased intelligence sharing and joint anti-terror military operations.

Dean, in an interview carried on The Washington Post's Web site Saturday, suggested that on some issues, the difference between President Bush and himself was more of tone and temperament.

We expected this from Lieberman, but not from Dean. Is he going to support Patriot Act II also? It's beginning to sound like it.

This may have long been rumored, but it's the first we've heard of it:

A 78-year-old retired schoolteacher is coming forward after years of silence to claim she is the illegitimate mixed-race daughter of the late Sen. Strom Thurmond, her attorney said Saturday.

..."We're not trying to upset the Thurmond estate. We are merely bringing closure to Essie Mae's life, so her children have an opportunity to know from where they come, whether those ancestors are black or white matters not. It is part of our American history."

Williams told The Washington Post that Thurmond privately acknowledged her as his daughter and had provided financial support since 1941. The Post first reported her claims on its Web site Saturday.

Thurmond, "an arch segregationist," died in June at age 100. This, is classic:

Williams claims Thurmond fathered her long before his political career started, when he was a 22-year-old living in his parents' home in Edgefield, S.C. Her mother, then 16, had been working as a maid in the Thurmonds' home.

Ms. Williams met Thurmond for the first time around 1941:

Williams told the Post she first met Thurmond around 1941, when she returned to Edgefield for a visit at age 16. Her mother was suffering from an untreatable kidney disease and insisted on introducing her to her father, Williams said. In a meeting lasting 20 to 30 minutes, Williams said, Thurmond called her a "very lovely daughter."

"I was very happy. I knew I had a father somewhere, and it was wonderful to meet him."

Update: Strom Thurmond's family acknowledges Ms. Williams is the Senator's daughter.

[comments now closed]

By T. Chris

Republican Senator Orrin Hatch and and Democrat Senator Charles Schumer are co-sponsoring a bill to increase funding for witness protection programs. In a display of bipartisanship, the Senators seemed to agree that murdering witnesses is a bad thing.

By T Chris

A recent investigation concludes that the Bush administration's "efforts to shield the actions of, and the information held by, the executive branch are far more extensive than has been previously documented." And while the administration's emphasis on fighting terrorism might partially explain this devotion to governmental secrecy, the report concludes that the administration's efforts extend "well beyond security issues."

A five-month investigation by U.S. News details a series of initiatives by administration officials to effectively place large amounts of information out of the reach of ordinary citizens, including data on such issues as drinking-water quality and automotive tire safety. The magazine's inquiry is based on a detailed review of government reports and regulations, of federal agency Web sites, and of legislation pressed by the White House.

The report finds that the administration is:

• withholding information about product safety, including information about auto and tire safety issues that manufacturers are mandated to report to the government;

• withholding information about public health, including water quality, toxic hazards, and transportation safety issues;

• seeking to restrict public access to civil and criminal court proceedings; and

• thwarting the ability of Congress to provide effective oversight.

A democracy operates best when the public has access to the information it needs to make informed decisions about the job performance of elected and appointed officials. The Bush administration is making a concertedly undemocratic effort to evade public scrutiny of its actions and policies.

This is an important story. Kudos to U.S. News for reporting it and to PBS for producing an episode of NOW With Bill Moyers based on the U.S. News investigation.

Our wanderings around the bloggerhood this weekend found some good stuff:

Leaked Bush Photos from his Thanksgiving turkey-giveaway caper are making the rounds. [ Link via Atrios]

Republican Agenda Passed in the Dead of Night by Daily Kos

David Neiwert on a threat by a right wing blogger, Misha, the "Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler, to Eric Blumrich of Bushflash on the left. Tristero has more.

Bush Wars has a weekend update and a Friday report, both excellent.

Don't miss this: U.S. News has a special investigative report: The untold story of the Bush administration's penchant for secrecy. [link via Counterspin].

Pandagon has the dirty details of a disgusting anti-Howard Dean ad hitting the airwaves. You won't believe who's behind it. Shame on them. Here's more from Matthew Gross of the Dean for America blog. Calpundit weighs in as well, calling the ad "political p0rn."

Patriot Act Watch reports that 10 Democratic congresspersons are seeking hearings on the Patriot Act:

In a letter to be delivered today, Representatives Martin T. Meehan of Lowell and William D. Delahunt of Quincy, along with eight other Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee, ask chairman James Sensenbrenner Jr., Republican of Wisconsin, to hold hearings next year "on the war on terrorism's impact on civil liberties."

On a non-political note, James Capozzola of Rittenhouse Review writes more details of his mugging last week--we're glad he's not seriously hurt.

By T Chris

Mexico will argue before the International Court of Justice (also known as the World Court) that the lives of 54 Mexican citizens on death row in the United States should be spared because they were refused their right to legal assistance from the Mexican Consulate. While Mexican newspapers view the lawyers representing the United States as a "dream team," they are confident of success.

"This is a very important case for Mexico, and we will not fail. Not one Mexican who has been denied his consular rights (in the United States) will be executed," [Mexican Foreign Secretary Luis Ernesto] Derbez said during a news conference.

... "It is not the quantity but the quality of the lawyers that counts," he said. "And we have right on our side."

Right or wrong, success before the World Court may not be enough, given the lack of respect that the United States has accorded the Court's rulings.

In 2001, German citizen Walter LaGrand was executed in Arizona, despite the court's order to postpone his punishment until it had heard Germany's case that he had been denied his right to consular assistance.

Although the World Court has no power to enforce its decisions, the United States will not score points with countries whose help it seeks in Iraq if it continues to regard international tribunals as irrelevant. Accepting the World Court's ruling in this case will not endanger Americans -- those convicted will remain incarcerated for their crimes -- but would help the United States regain respect in the international community.

By T Chris

An overhaul of the FBI's counterterrorism policies in response to the Patriot Act "marks the final step in tearing down the legal wall that had separated criminal and intelligence investigations since the spying scandals of the 1970s" according to senior FBI officials. The new policies require criminal and intelligence investigators to work together in terrorism cases, opening the door to investigative tools that were unavailable to criminal investigators prior to the Patriot Act.

The result is that the FBI, unhindered by the restrictions of the past, will conduct many more searches and wiretaps that are subject to oversight by a secret intelligence court rather than regular criminal courts, officials said. Civil liberties groups and defense lawyers predict that more innocent people will be the targets of clandestine surveillance.

New York lawyer Joshua Dratel, who has filed briefs in opposition to the FBI's anti-terrorism policies, warns that the new polices "will result in a funneling of all cases into an intelligence mode" providing criminal investigators with "an end run around the Fourth Amendment."

Two former Pentagon officials have been sentenced to 24 years each in a federal bribery case in which they made over $1 million and allowed government contractors to provide them with prostitutes.

Federal prosecutors said the men demanded bribes as high as $100,000 in certain cases and received $1.1 million in bribes and other illegal funds from businesses seeking government contracts. The men victimized the minority contract firms whose interests they were supposed to represent, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors said Neal and Jones laundered much of the money they received through a sham company and offshore accounts. The government estimated the value of the tainted contracts was $20 million.

One of the defendants was unrepentant at sentencing.

The government doesn't get it," he told federal judge James C. Cacheris. "I have given up my family life for small businesses. ... That was my job, helping small businesses to gain access. That's what I was doing."

Lawyers for the pair plan to appeal:

Their lawyers have questioned the reliability of government witnesses, some of whom were drug users who received immunity from prosecution in exchange for their testimony.

The good news is that support for Bush continues to decline. A brand new Newsweek poll has Bush at his lowest numbers ever since they began conducting polls:

...neither good news on the economy, the passage of a Medicare bill nor his surprise Thanksgiving visit to Baghdad seem to have boosted President George W. Bush’s approval ratings among all registered voters: with 51 percent approving and 42 disapproving, his ratings are the lowest in the NEWSWEEK poll’s history. And less than half (45 percent) of voters say they want Bush to be reelected.

34% say Dean can't beat Bush, and Bush would still win over any Democrat:

the president retains a 49 to 42 percent lead among all registered voters in a two-way race

Gore's endorsement helped Dean, no question, but it may not be enough:

Dean’s virulent opposition to the war is not necessarily appealing to voters, more of whom say Dean does not represent their views on Iraq (34 percent) than say he does (26 percent). Just 22 percent of them say Dean’s views on Iraq resonate with them. The man most Democrats (27 percent) consider best suited for the role of leader in Iraq is Clark; only 16 percent consider Dean the most qualified Democrat for that role and even fewer (12 percent) Lieberman.

By T Chris

Responding to Pentagon reports that Halliburton has overcharged the U.S. government by as much as $61 million for fuel in Iraq, President Bush declared that Halliburton would be expected to repay the overcharge. The company, formerly headed by Vice President Cheney, paid $1.09 per gallon more to a Kuwaiti subcontractor than it paid for the same fuel imported from Turkey.

While Halliburton claims that the Kuwaiti subcontractor was the only one that met the contract's requirements and argues that it earned only a few cents on the dollar for delivering the fuel, Halliburton's profits increased as a result of the overcharge.

Calling for a repayment of the overcharge with no additional sanction, and no promise of greater scrutiny of Halliburton's billing practices, provides no incentive for Halliburton or other war contractors not to continue a pursuit of excessive profits at the expense of taxpayers. If a government contractor less closely connected to the administration had overcharged for goods or services, wouldn't the Justice Department at least be asking whether it acted with fraudulent intent?

By T Chris

Mark Geragos announced that he will be filing 8,000 documents in support of a request to change the venue of Scott Peterson's murder trial. Geragos contends that media coverage of the case (as reflected in the documents) will impair Peterson's ability to obtain a fair trial in his hometown of Modesto.

Given the nationwide publicity Peterson's case has attracted, it will be difficult to find a pool of jurors anywhere that hasn't been tainted by the media coverage, despite Geragos' deft attempts to encourage coverage that favors Peterson. Nonetheless, residents of the Modesto area are likely to be so attuned to the case that finding local jurors capable of disregarding everything they've seen and heard before the trial would be an impossible task.

Geragos should be able to make a persuasive case that fairness requires a change of venue.

On Thanksgiving, I wrote that I had overstressed my wrist and been fitted with a cast. Well, that wasn't successful. But I have a diagnosis now, de Quervain's tenosynovitis--once called "washer woman's sprain." [ Here's more.] I just got a big painful, shot of cortisone (some new kind that supposedly doesn't cause atrophy and discoloration) and a shiny new black splint I'm only supposed to wear at night.

So, even though this condition is not caused by typing or the computer, I do have to lighten up here for a bit. Maybe just a few shorter posts a day.

This weekend, TChris, whom many of you know from his frequent, intelligent and well-expressed comments at TalkLeft, agreed to be drafted and guest blog on TalkLeft. He's an experienced, talented, dedicated criminal defense lawyer from the midwest--and although this is his first foray into blogging as other than a commenter, I know you will like him lots. Of all the regular commenters on TalkLeft, I think his views come the closest to my own. But he's not going to try and be like me--he's going to be himself, writing about what interests him in a style that's all his own.

So say hello to TChris, and make him feel welcome with plentiful comments--even when you disagree with him. I'll try to pop in a couple of times over the weekend, and I expect to be back to normal here Monday. I'm thinking positive--I have to--it's my right thumb and wrist and I'm right handed.