Buzzflash has the text of Presidential hopeful Bob Graham's blast against John Ashcroft.

“I’m glad Attorney General John Ashcroft has left behind his cozy confines in Washington and is traveling the country to meet with regular folks for once. Hopefully, it will do the Attorney General some good to hear from the American people on how his extreme policies have hurt this nation. I only wish that he would actually listen to the people of America as he tours the country and upon returning to Washington straighten up his far-right Justice Department.

“I feared John Ashcroft would become just this kind of Attorney General when I voted against his confirmation in 2001. His Justice Department has demonstrated a willful lack of commitment to the basic fairness and equality of opportunity that has made this country all that it is today.

“I, along with 98 other United States Senators, supported the passage of the Patriot Act. Never did I expect it to be implemented the way it has. Mr. Ashcroft has chosen to destroy our civil liberties under the premise of personal security and safety; the true spirit in which the law was written.”

The Buzz should be one of your first reading stops every day. It's continuously updated, wittily headlined and always relevant.

Via The Horse we find Michael Wolf's article in New York Magazine about the recent Aspen Institute conference:

The psychic heart of the conference was Bill Clinton.

Clinton had lost weight and—with a great collection of just-out-of-the-wrapper pastel-colored polo shirts on view throughout the conference—seemed in fabulous form. He was in campaign mode but without the restraints of campaign mode. While there was clear bitterness on his part toward the successor who had rushed “to undo everything I’d done,” and the Republicans who “will run over you unless you beat their brains out,” there was a feisty humor too. ...

Clinton kept referring to the media as (contrary to Kinsley’s view) the “supine” media, pointing out that when Bush insulted Helen Thomas (who, by asking a rough question in the infamous prewar press conference had, Clinton said, “committed the sin of journalism”), no “young journalists” stood up and walked out. The media, the supine media, was going to have to “go to the meat locker and take out its brains and critical skills.”

Everybody seemed to love this. Clinton was not just the beloved former president, but he had become some sort of sassy oracle.

There's more, read the whole thing. It sure made us miss Bill-- and get angry all over again that we got stuck with GW who has given us nothing but war and Ashcroft and judicial ideologues, sending our economy and civil liberties, not to mention hundreds of our young soldiers, down the drain, all in the first two years of his presidency.

2004 is only 15 months away. We still see a Democratic party in disarray with no candidate knocking us out or even making us want to go to bat for him. We hope something breaks soon.

Police in Tampa have voluntarily scrapped its controversial face recognition surveillance system. It failed to result in any arrests or even positive identifications

In June 2001, Tampa became the first city in the nation to install the software to scan faces in the Ybor City nightlife district and check them against a database of more than 24,000 felons, sexual predators and runaway children.

But critics said it violated privacy rights, forcing people, without their consent, into what amounted to an electronic police lineup.

"People have the right to be anonymous, and not to be put in a police lineup for committing the offense of walking down a public street," said Darlene Williams, chairwoman of the Tampa area chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union.

The program was called FaceIt--manufactured by a company named Visonics, that now goes by the name of Identix, Inc. Visonics had donated the system to Tampa on a trial basis.

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Bump and Update: Kathy Boudin was granted parole today! She should be out by October, as soon as her parole plans are finalized. We love when the system works.

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Kathy Boudin, now age 60, has served more than 20 years in prison for her role in the shooting of a Brinks security guard in New York in 1981. She will have her second parole hearing this week.

Two Nyack police officers and a security guard were murdered during the $1.6 million robbery of an armored car on Oct. 20, 1981, by a group of self-proclaimed revolutionaries. The robbery was at the Nanuet Mall, and the police officers were shot to death at a subsequent roadblock in Nyack.

Boudin pleaded guilty in 1984 to first-degree robbery and second-degree murder in the killing of Brinks guard Peter Paige. She was sentenced to 20 years to life in prison in a court-approved agreement with Rockland prosecutors.

Boudin's supporters say "she played a minor role in the robbery, didn't shoot anyone, is rehabilitated and is no longer a threat to society." Also, in setting the sentence, the Judge noted that he expected her to be paroled.

For the parole system to have any meaning, Boudin should be paroled. Otherwise, the executive branch which decides parole is usurping the authority of the legislative branch which sets statutory parole eligibility dates and the judicial branch, which imposes sentences relying upon the statutory structure.

Here's how you can help. Read the letter written by Kathy and use the form to send your own letter to the Parole Board.

There has not been an execution in Australia for more than 35 years. That may change, as public outrage over terrorist acts threatens to resurrect the issue. Prime Minister John Howard has called for public debate on the death penalty, believing the issue could impact this year's state elections.

Platforms of the major political parties in Australia oppose the death penalty, which was abolished in Australia in 1985. Australia's Labor Party officials are not pleased with Howard's suggestion:

A caucus of Labor lawmakers resolved Tuesday to form a sub-committee to work on the matter. The party's spokesman on legal affairs, Robert McClelland, called Howard "irresponsible" for suggesting capital punishment was a legitimate topic for debate.

"It's the responsibility of leaders not to exploit an understandable popular sentiment - the desire for revenge in times of heinous crimes," he told the caucus.

Critics of Howard's debate suggestion also point out:

Any move to reintroduce capital punishment would be a matter for the parliaments in the country's six states and two territories -- all controlled by Labor -- not Howard's federal government.

There's several new articles in the Kobe Bryant case-- we've accumulated them on our separate Kobe Bryant Case Coverage page.

It strikes us as curious that members of the public believe they have the right to have their opinions heard by the Judge in the case. Letters are pouring into him. It strenghtens our view that televising trials leads the public to believe they are participants in the case --as if the trial is some sort of reality tv programming on which they get to vote.

It's doubtful the judge even reads the letters. They are part of the file, and many will be picked up on by the media which will choose to print the most titillating of them. The letters are amusing, but that's all, unless Kobe's lawyers can make a case based on the volume or slant of the letters that the prejudicial pre-trial publicity is so great and peoples' minds are so set that he cannot get a fair trial anywhere at this time, warranting a long abatement of the trial. That's a real longshot, at least for now.

Ezra Klein brings us Flood the Zone Fridays--it's a very, very clever idea to get the Anti-Bush message across to the media Bush is counting on for favorable support. Go sign up. [link via Matt Yglesias.]

Who knew? George Washington Law Professor Jonathan Turley explains:

...The Pentagon is hard at work participating in a number of movies that will deliver its message on the legitimacy of the war and its own conduct in Iraq.

Examples: Planned movies on Private Jessica Lynch.

Most Americans are unaware that the U.S. military routinely reviews scripts that might require Defense Department cooperation and that the Pentagon compels changes for television and movies to convey the government's message.

Apparently, this is not a new phenomenon.

Although rarely publicly acknowledged, major films have been rewritten to remove negative but historically accurate facts to present a more positive military image. This work is done by a team of military reviewers "embedded" in Hollywood. Most recently, the military quietly worked on a script for the television program "JAG" to present its controversial military tribunals as something of an ACLU lawyer's dream.

Why does Hollywood allow this?

Though the Constitution generally bars the government from preventing or punishing free speech, it is less clear about the degree to which the government may assist speech that it favors. To that end, the military uses access to military units, bases and even stock military footage and open areas such as the Presidio to force prepublication review and script changes. This access is vital for many films on military subjects, so producers yield to the demands

Turley calls upon Congress for the fix:

Oral arguments will be held Friday in the Fox News Channel's lawsuit against Al Franken.

Pre-sales of Franken's books have increased dramatically since news broke of the lawsuit. Publisher Penguin books has moved the publication date up to the end of this week from its original September 22 release date--and ordered 40,000 more copies.

In related news, Al Franken has sent an apology letter to John Ashcroft--for real. And actor Paul Newman disses the lawsuit.

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has responded to an inquiry by Sen. Norm Coleman (R-MN) advising that it will not sue small music downloaders.

Coleman was the late Paul Wellstone's opponent in the November, 2002 elections. He is also a friend of Bush. He now serves as Chairman of the Senate Governmental Affairs' Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.

Coleman intends to hold hearings on the RIAA's plans to sue music downloaders. He thinks the industry is overreaching, and laws against downloaders are too strict. The issue is close to home for Sen. Coleman: He has downloaded music from Napster. A former prosecutor, he also once was a roadie for a band.

Good for Coleman for taking this on.

For the first time, the U.S. is claiming that Saudi Arabian charities and the Saudi Government have funneled millions of dollars to a company allegedly associated with members of Al Qaeda and the Islamic Resistance Movement. The company is BMI, a New Jersey investment firm.

The allegation is contained in an affidavit by David Kane of the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, filed in a federal case in Northern Virginia

Kane's affidavit was filed in support of the detention of Soliman S. Biheiri, who was indicted two weeks ago on charges of making false statements to obtain U.S. residency and other immigration charges. Before that, he was secretly held for more than a month as a material witness in the Justice Department's investigation of terrorist financing, according to knowledgeable sources.

....Biheiri founded BMI Inc., an investment firm that adhered to Islamic principles, in Secaucus, N.J., in 1986. One of BMI's chief investors was Saudi businessman Yasin Qadi, who the United States and United Nations named a "specially designated global terrorist" in October 2001 for his alleged support of both al Qaeda and the Islamic Resistance Movement, or Hamas. Another major BMI investor, according to court documents, was Hamas leader Mousa Abu Marzook.

Here's how the investigation began:

In March 2002, federal agents raided about 100 companies operating in a single office at 555 Grove St. in Herndon and took hundreds of boxes of documents. No charges have been brought so far against any companies or individuals as a result of that action and the ensuing investigation.

The sprawling probe, active on four continents, is the largest current U.S. investigation into terrorist financing, U.S. officials said.

Lots of people have been inquiring as to Attorney General John Ashscroft's schedule for his Patriot and Victory Act Tour. Here is this week's schedule, along with location details and rules for attending:

Wednesday: Philadelphia and Cleveland
Thursday: Detroit and Des Moines

Looks like we all get a break Friday. No appearances.

[Thanks to Atrios for the link].

Update: TomPaine.Com's blog rips the Tour in Kiss My Act:

Kiss My Act: Somebody might want to revise Attorney General John Ashcroft's talking points before his next public statement. He's on a cross-country mission to sell the USA Patriot Act to the American people, and today said, in defense of the law, that "if we knew then what we know now, we would have passed the Patriot Act six months before Sept. 11 rather than six weeks after the attacks." Right. And maybe we would also have listened to alarms sounded by FBI field agents in Minnesota. And beefed up security at our airports. Good news for civil liberties advocates: If Ashcroft is on the defensive, we know the controversy over this legislation is only spreading.