First John Kerry fires his campaign manager and then two staffers quit. Op-Ed columnists are already conducting the post-mortem. We tend to agree with those who say he was too arrogant--he thought the nomination was his--and his vote for the Iraq War did him in.

Kerry's malaise can be traced to one act, one decision, one vote: his support of the resolution giving President Bush the authority to invade Iraq. Had Kerry voted "no," he'd be the Democratic front-runner right now, bringing credibility on foreign policy because of his military service while also easily upstaging Wesley Clark on domestic policy.

Even now, a year later, Kerry has trouble giving a cogent rationale for his vote to go to war. You'd think a man like Kerry -- a decorated Vietnam veteran who later became an outspoken critic of that war -- would have a succinct, indeed passionate, explanation for his vote. But Kerry stammers, sputters, doubles back, never able to give a short and simple response. Perhaps that's because Kerry's vote was based on politics, not principle.

The AP reports the Judge's decision as a draw. We'd call it a win for Rosie. She got sued for $100 million and has to pay zero. She may even get her legal fees covered.

The jury has been selected in the trial of accused sniper suspect John Lee Malvo. Including alternates, there are eight men and eight women, four blacks one Asian and 11 whites.

The Judge denied several defense motions today. The trial is recessed until tomorrow.

Another stealth attack by Congress is upon us. This time it's a buried provision in the intelligence communities' budget bill for the coming year. It expands the FBI's authority to issue "national security letters" to obtain business records without prior judicial approval.

Currently, the FBI can issue these letters (they are like subpoenas) to banks and other financial institutions in terror and espionage investigations. The budget bill expands the businesses to which such letters may be issued:

The measure now awaiting final approval in Congress would significantly broaden the law to include securities dealers, currency exchanges, car dealers, travel agencies, post offices, casinos, pawnbrokers and any other institution doing cash transactions with "a high degree of usefulness in criminal, tax or regulatory matters."

Bush proposed such expansion in a speech two months ago.

Critics said the measure would give the federal government greater power to pry into people's private lives. "This dramatically expands the government's authority to get private business records," said Timothy H. Edgar, legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union. "You buy a ring for your grandmother from a pawnbroker, and the record on that will now be considered a financial record that the government can get."

Versions of the bill have already passed both the House and Senate. The matter now goes to a House-Senate conference committee to iron out a final version.

Some Democrats have begun to question whether the measure goes too far and have hinted that they may try to have it pulled when the bill comes before a House-Senate conference committee. Other officials predicted that the measure would probably survive any challenges in conference and be signed into law by President Bush, in part because the provisions already approved in the House and the Senate are identical.

Update: The ACLU weighs in.

In Alabama and Florida, local cops are now authorized to hunt down illegal migrants. If some in Congress have their way, a proposed bill called the Clear Act, H.R. 2671, will make the practice national:

With more than 8 million undocumented immigrants in the United States, according to government figures, and 5,500 federal agents available for enforcement in interior areas beyond the border, advocates of cracking down on illegal migration see more than 600,000 state and local officers as a "force multiplier" that could finally and irrevocably turn the tide.

In Congress, a bill known as the CLEAR Act would transform what until recently has been a low-key experiment with local enforcement of immigration laws into a national crusade along the lines of the war on drugs. By setting up a system of financial penalties and incentives — including seizure of illegal immigrants' property — it aims to induce cities and states to take on immigration enforcement.

CLEAR Act stands for the Clear Law Enforcement for Criminal Alien Removal Act. It is the brainchild of Charlie Norwood (R-Ga) and has 110 sponsors in the House.

The bill would make civil immigration infractions — such as overstaying a visa — criminal violations. States that fail to pass legislation authorizing police to enforce immigration laws could lose federal funding for jailing criminal immigrants. Additional money would be allocated to states that embrace the program. And local police departments could be rewarded with the proceeds of assets seized from illegal immigrants, including homes, bank accounts and vehicles.

Here's the latest of the FBI probe of top Hollywood lawyers resulting from a criminal case against private investigator Anthony Pellicano.

Bert Fields, the prominent entertainment lawyer whose celebrity clientele has included Tom Cruise, Michael Jackson and Kevin Costner, said Tuesday that he has formally been notified that he is a subject of a federal grand jury investigation into illegal wiretapping.

"I've been told that I am a subject, not a target, of the investigation," Fields said. "But I have never in any case had anything to do with illegal wiretapping. I don't do that."

Investigators in the wiretapping case have questioned a broad range of entertainment industry figures, including Warren Beatty and comedian Garry Shandling, according to attorneys involved in the probe. Beatty declined to return calls, as did Shandling.

Authorities suspect Pellicano illegally wiretapped people while working for the lawyers, perhaps with the assistance one or more law enforcement agents. They are trying to figure out whether the lawyers Pellicano was working for knew of the illegal taps, ordered them or condoned them. We suspect the answer is going to be "no," but that it will keep a lot of lawyers on edge for a while, wondering just what was on all those tapes seized from Pellicano's computers.

Update: TV news reporter and Court TV Anchor Diane Dimond is the latest to be advised her phones were tapped by Pellicano--back in '93 when she was covering the Michael Jackson scandal for Hard Copy.

The international health charity Medact released a new report Monday, titled Continuing Collateral Damage. It finds that between March and October, there were 9,500 civilian casualties in Iraq. It also estimates that 22,000 to 55,000 people on all sides, including in the military, died in the war and its aftermath. This number includes military on both sides.

Iraqis will suffer the health consequences of the second Gulf war "for years, maybe generations", says [the] report warning of an "information black hole" on what is truly happening in the country.

You can access the full report here.

Here today. Gone tomorrow. Last week we reported that the website for the Department of Defense featured a recruitment notice for officials to serve on draft boards. This fueled speculation by us and several media outlets that perhaps Bush was thinking of reinstating the draft. reports the notice has been taken down. But there's a mirrored copy over at Memory Hole if you're interested. We say good riddance and we hope to never see it again.

Congrats to Houston lawyer Dick DeGuerin whose client, NY real estate heir Robert Durst, was found innocent of murder by a Texas jury today.

Durst, 60, who is under suspicion in two other killings and who posed for a time as a mute woman, testified in his own defense for nearly four days. He insisted that Black was shot accidentally during a struggle over a gun, and said he used two saws and an ax to cut up the body. The victim's head has never been found.

After the killing in late September 2001, Durst was a fugitive for six weeks until he was caught in Pennsylvania when he tried to shoplift a $5 sandwich even though he had $500 in his pocket.

At defense attorneys' request, jurors considered only a murder charge. They could have asked that jurors consider a lesser charge, such as manslaughter, in addition to murder, but opted for an all-or-nothing strategy.

As Skippy would say, it's the war that keeps on giving. The U.S. launched a raid in Afganistan Oct. 30th that killed 6 Afghans. Here's an account:

Maulavi Ghulam Rabbani, 60, a religious leader and commander allied with the government, said American planes bombed and fired on his home on the night of Oct. 30, killing six people, including two of his children.

...."Three planes came," Mr. Rabbani said. "First they bombed the mosque. My 18-year-old son was sleeping in the mosque and he was killed. When they started bombing, the people in the village started fleeing and my 21-year-old daughter was shot down by a plane as she was running in the street." A 75-year-old woman was trying to take three of Mr. Rabbani's young cousins — ages 15, 7 and 5 — to shelter when they were all killed by gunfire from a plane or helicopter, he said. The children's father, carrying his blind mother on his back, escaped, he said.

And in the Emily Litella "never mind" department:

A United Nations official in Kabul said the Americans had bombed the village by mistake, trying to hit the house of one of Mr. Hekmatyar's commanders.

The Colorado mother and soldier who refused to return to Iraq after a Judge in a child custody case said her husband's ex-wife might regain custody if she did, received a 'compassionate reassignment' today.

Simone Holcomb was 'demobilized' today. She will be allowed to transfer to the Colorado National Guard and remain in Colorado to deal with the custody dispute. She will no longer be considered to be "absent without leave."

The army did the right thing.

More than two dozen Democrats introduced a resolution in Congress today urging Bush to fire Rumsfeld.

This resolution would make official what so many members of Congress already believe -- that the soldiers in Iraq and America's foreign policy would be helped greatly if Donald Rumsfeld would leave," Rep. Charles Rangel of New York said in a statement.

Rangel said he so far had 25 co-sponsors to the resolution who were "willing to stand up and say what so many policy makers know, that the first step to bringing our troops home is to send Donald Rumsfeld home."

The resolution said Rumsfeld misled the American public on assessments of progress in the war and occupation, sent U.S. forces to Iraq "without adequate planning and sufficient equipment," and "demonstrated a lack of sensitivity" in statements on the war and U.S. casualties.

It's doubtful the resolution will come up for a vote before Congress recesses at the end of the month. Too bad.