Don't miss journalist David Neiwert of Orcinus on the spectre of the White House raising executive privilege in the Valerie Plame-CIA affair.

Here's more on executive privilege. Here too.

We used to not mind Westchester County DA Jeanine Pirro. She always pushed victims' rights, but she was never evangelical or off- the- wall about it. That's changed. She is pitching her new book --on victims' rights--and yapping non-stop spewing all sorts of nonsense on every cable channel that will have her. We just had to mute her. Her voice has gotten shrill, she's speaking a mile a minute and repeating herself over and over. And she's talking nonsense.

But, it's her new message we find most offensive. Her tag line is that we should change the name of the criminal justice system to the victim's justice system because the system has become about criminals rather than about victims.

Hey, Jeanine, we have news for you. The system has been about the accused for more than 200 years --ever since the Bill of Rights was passed. The intent of the framers was to protect the rights of persons accused of crime - not the rights of the victim.

Quoting ourselves from a 1997 article published in NACDL's Champion, "The foremost purpose of the Bill of Rights is to restrain the power of the majority and its elected government to act against an individual. As one author put it: "The Bill of Rights was designed to protect personal liberties from governmental infringement, not to protect private individuals from each other." [James M. Dolliver, "Victims' Rights Constitutional Amendment: A Bad
Idea Whose Time Should Not Come," 34 Wayne L.Rev.87, n.7, at 91 (1987).]

We are not anti-victim. In fact, we have consistently urged that victims of crime be treated with dignity, fairness and respect. But ideas such as Jeanine's and those behind the Victims' Rights Amendment looming in Congress are unwise and dangerous.

And that's our rant for the day.

Margaret Cho minces no words in her disgust for the blonde she-pundit the left loves to hate. The right needs to get a clue. [link via Atrios.]

Ms. Cho is right up front about her own biases:

My prejudice and hatred of the establishment, the judicial system, anti- abortionists, racism, misogyny, the integration of church and state - can spiral downwards out of control.

As Atrios says, Rant on. We need more of this.

Bump and Update: Time Magazine reports that Yaser Arafat has stomach cancer. Palestinian authorities have not confirmed this but they deny that he had a heart attack:

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Original Post: 10/7

We're glued to watching the recall results like the rest of you, but we just caught wind of this and thought we'd pass it on. Palestinian leader Yaser Arafat has suffered a heart attack.

Yasser Arafat has suffered a mild heart attack but the Palestinian leadership has sought to keep his health problems secret for fear it will "create panic".

The 74-year-old Palestinian president, who is suffering from Parkinson's disease, disappeared from public view last week and re-emerged at the weekend looking extremely ill. His face was pale and pinched, he had lost weight and he was almost inaudible. He had trouble standing for more than a few minutes at a time.

.... "Although he has had a slight heart attack, the doctors say he will make a full recovery. He is in full control. There is nothing to worry about," said a close aide to Mr Arafat, who did not wish to be named.

Bump and Update: Fox News reports that the hearing will go forward and the defense plans on calling witnesses to attack the accuser's credibility. We'll try to post updates throughout the day. If you're not into Kobe news, just scroll past this.

Kobe Bryant has arrived at the Eagle County courthouse for his court hearing scheduled to begin at 3 pm ET but whether it goes forward remians unclear.

Will it go forward? Hard to say. Up until yesterday, we were pretty sure the Judge's recent rulings that the accuser did not have to be present or testify and refusing to close the courtroom to the public would result in a waiver of the hearing. Now, it's anybody's guess.

John Walters, Bush's Drug Czar, is seeking to give random urine tests to schoolkids.

President Bush's drug czar told New England governors Wednesday that drug testing in schools would be an effective way to combat a growing problem of drug use among young people, but area school officials caution there are problems with it

Thankfully, school officials are expressing reluctance:

I don't believe it's reasonable to randomly test kids," said Wesley Knapp, superintendent of the Southwest Vermont Supervisory Union.There would have to be some basis for suspecting a student of using drugs before taking further steps, he said. In that case, some action may be justified, he said. "It's an infringement of freedom, and kids have the same constitutional rights as adults," he said.

....Charles Scranton, the headmaster of Burr and Burton Academy in Manchester, said he was completely and totally against across-the-board drug testing. "For those who have put themselves in that position it's one thing," he said. "It could erode a positive culture and climate at a school."

[link via Hit and Run]

[comments now closed]

The ACLU , Veterans for Peace and other civil rights groups are demanding proof from the Government that detainees at Guantanamo are not being tortured.

Citing news reports that the United States government may have tortured detainees or subjected them to "cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment," the American Civil Liberties Union, the Center for Constitutional Rights and medical and veterans' groups today asked agency officials for proof that that the U.S. is honoring its obligations under domestic and international law.

"The government's blanket assurances that it is not engaging in torture or illegal interrogations, while welcome, are not enough," said Amrit Singh, a staff attorney with the ACLU. "Those assurances have failed to address numerous reports documenting the torture of individuals held in U.S. custody. We are asking for records that will demonstrate whether the government is in fact complying with its obligations under domestic and international law."

Details of the groups' request can be found here.

From Behind the Homefront (Reporters' Committee for Freedom of the Press):

UNUSUAL SECRECY IN GUANTANAMO SPYING CASES. The United States is taking extraordinary measures to keep a lid on information related to the espionage investigation at the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, prison for suspected terrorists, according to a report today from The Associated Press. The AP reports that military officials at Guantanamo have classified routine documents, blacked out the signature lines on court pleadings to hide the identities of lawyers, and forced visiting reporters to sign a pledge saying they will not ask questions about the espionage investigation. Specifically, the pledge form states, in Orwellian fashion, that the reporter will not ask about "ongoing operations, future operations or investigations that are pending."

The New York Times details the importance of Maria Shriver to Arnold's victory, calling her the No Longer 'Secret' Weapon. Our prior thoughts on Maria's importance to the campaign are here.

The Miami Herald today reprints a letter from Tim Predmore, on active duty with the 101st Airborne Division near Mosul, Iraq. The letter was originally published in the Peoria Times, but if you missed it last time around, give it a read now. It begins:

For more than six months I have participated in what I believe to be the great modern lie: Operation Iraqi Freedom.

It ends with:

My time is almost done. We soldiers have faced death in Iraq without reason or justification. How many more must die? How many more tears must be shed before Americans awake and demand the return of the men and women whose job it is to protect them rather than their leader's interest?

The FBI has confirmed it planted a concealed listening device in the office of Philadelphia Mayor John F. Street. The agency refuses to say whether the bug was legally or illegally installed.

The bug was found during a routine sweep of Street's office by police. The Democrat is a locked in a bitter rematch against Republican businessman Sam Katz, and the campaign has been marked by charges of threats and race-baiting. Election Day is Nov. 4.

At a meeting with reporters Wednesday, Street said for the second day that he didn't know who bugged his office or why. "I haven't done anything wrong, and I don't know that anybody in my cabinet or in my staff around me has done anything wrong," Street said. Street's campaign suggested the bugging was instigated by the U.S. Justice Department for political reasons.

If the FBI is publicly acknowledging putting a bug in the Mayor's office, we suspect it one that was lawfully obtained. Meaning the correct procedure was followed to get it. But that doesn't mean it will turn out to be legally valid. That takes months for courts to determine.

Why won't the FBI or Justice Department acknowledge a lawful order now? They may believe they are prohibited from disclosing details about it until a Court authorizes them to do so. Here's how it works:

This just in via email :

The House Judiciary Committee voted 28-1 to report favorably H.R. 3214, the Advancing Justice Through DNA Technology Act of 2003, a comprehensive package of programs that provides over $1 billion over the next five years to assist Federal and State authorities in solving crimes and protecting the innocent.

H.R. 3214 includes the Innocence Protection Act of 2003, which would help ensure eligible inmates access to DNA testing to establish their innocence and would authorize grants to the States to improve the quality of legal representation in capital cases.

The bill currently has 147 cosponsors, and we anticipate that it will shortly come before the full House. An identical bill has been introduced in the Senate (S. 1700) with 18 cosponsors.

Major credit is due Congressman Bill Delahunt (D-MA) and his counsel and Legislative Director Mark Agrast.