Don't miss Take Back the Media's flash animation "Army of One". They are trying to get it on TV. That takes money, so go over and watch and then donate. Great soundtrack too. Spread the word.

We received this email as to Ashcroft's Victory Act Tour:

Ashcroft's 10-day, 20-state tour to rally support for the PATRIOT Act and the draft VICTORY Act begins August 19 in Washington. Detroit, Philadelphia, Milwaukee and Salt Lake City have been mentioned as planned stops.

Here's some of what Ashcroft will be pushing for, reported by Congressional Quarterly (subscription only) on August 7:

Senate Republicans are drafting a bill aimed at cracking down on drug trafficking and money laundering that would give the Justice Department broad new investigative tools to use in the war on terrorism. The measure is being written by Judiciary Chairman Orrin G. Hatch, R-Utah, and several other Republicans on the committee. Hatch is expected to introduce the bill next month.

....A draft of the bill contains provisions that would allow law enforcement officers to seek roving warrants to monitor cellular telephone and other wireless communications. It also would allow the attorney general to issue administrative subpoenas in the course of terrorism investigations.

The bill also establishes a new category of crime--"narcoterrorism."

The draft bill would establish a new category of crime, "narco-terrorism," to punish those who manufacture or distribute controlled substances with the knowledge or intent that the activity would benefit a foreign terrorist organization.

How's this for fairness?

Under the draft bill, the government would not be required to prove that a defendant knew he or she was aiding such an organization.

The bill would count as illegal money laundering money transfers into or out of the United States that are made to evade income taxes. It also would boost civil and criminal penalties for financing "narco-terrorist" and other terrorist activities.

Is all this sounding familiar? It should. It's just a re-dressing and re-naming of Patriot Act II.

Jameel Jaffer, a staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union, said the new draft bill "would provide the FBI and other government agencies with more power, but it would not make us more secure. "Some of [its] provisions were originally proposed in the draft Patriot Act II. Congress needs to be wary of attempts to enact Patriot II, or parts of it, in other guises."

Actually, Ashcroft's tactic of passing Patriot Act II piece meal began back in May-see here.

Don't miss the Friday edition of the Guardian and the article Punishment Without Trial:

Hundreds of Iraqis civilians are being held in makeshift jails run by US troops - many without being charged or even questioned. And in these prisons are children whose parents have no way of locating them. Jonathan Steele reveals the grim reality of coalition justice in Baghdad.

According to Steele, the problems generate from conditions such as these:

...arrests followed by incompetent interrogation, or none at all; the lack of an efficient trial-or-release system; shocking prison conditions; constant buck-passing; and sloppy paperwork by the coalition authorities. The result is that in almost every case families take weeks or months to find out where their loved ones are being detained.

Steele provides plenty of examples of kids taken and held for unduly long periods of time. Here's one:

MSNBC has scaled back plans for a Jesse Ventura talk show. Originally planned as a weeknight talk show, it will now be a once a week show on Saturday night, which is the least-watched tv night of the week.

Other MSNBC news: Dan Abrams will keep his one hour 9pm EST weeknight show. We're glad for Dan.

Ok, so it's not terror related. We've heard a few people on tv talk about whether computer glitches could have caused it. Could the blaster worm have gotten into the power plant computers?

We wouldn't count anything out. In November, 2002, there was a terror alert at the power plant on the Canadian side of Niagra Falls. We remember, because we were there at a law group meeting and we were all talking about it as we drove past the plant on the way to the Falls.

Also, around that time, it was reported that Colin Powell was going to provide Canada with a list of 22 potential terrorist targets in Canada, and power plants were on them. Canada responded by providing armed security at the plants.

Broadcast News (BN) November 15, 2002 Friday (available on Lexis):

Canada's nuclear power plants are now under armed guard against terrorist attack. Natural Resources Minister Herb Dhaliwal confirms the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission has issued instructions to have an armed presence.

Dhaliwal wants them to come up with permanent guidelines on an armed response and to have armed personnel in the area where the nuclear plants exist. An audiotaped message, attributed to Osama bin Laden, warns of terrorist attacks on Canada and other western nations.

Then there was this, in the Canadian Press Newswire November 7, 2002 (and many other newspapers, available on Lexis):

The chief executive of a major Canadian energy and utilities company says foreign spies visited one of its natural gas processing plants just two months before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

'I can tell you that we are aware of agents of foreign powers that have been touring our facilities,'' Atco Group's Nancy Southern told a conference on counter-terrorism Thursday.

''And I can tell you as a result we have increased our threat assessments,
our security, and conducted significantly more security audits in all of our facilities.''

The Canadian angle and the Internet worm are likely irrelevant...but we thought we'd mention it, just in case.

The Rocky Mountain News has a full page article today on defense lawyers balking at the rules the Administration has proposed for military tribunals. A few weeks ago, when the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers ( NACDL) was in Denver for its annual meeting, we were one of five NACDL leaders who went to the Rocky Mountain News offices to meet with its Editorial Board. The paper recorded the meeting and now has printed much of the transcript, along with photos (only our's appears in the online version, but the print version has a picture of outgoing NACDL President Larry Goldman as well.)

We're thrilled to see the issue get such detailed coverage. We hope you'll give it a read. Major thanks to Vincent Carroll, Editor of the Rocky Mountain News editorial pages, for allowing NACDL to express its opinion and for publishing our views. And to NACDL Media Affairs Director Dan Dodson who arranged the meeting.

Another detainee at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba has attempted suicide.

Total number of reported suicide attempts to date at Camp X-Ray: 30.

Some of the prisoners have been held for more than a year and a half without charges, access to lawyers or indications of whether or when they may be freed.

U.S. authorities are holding some 660 prisoners from 42 countries at Guantanamo on suspicion of links to the al-Qaida terrorist network or Afghanistan's fallen Taliban regime.

Lots of computers are getting the worm. In fact, both the LA Times and the Chicago Tribune websites are down as we write this, and have "we'll be back soon" type notices on their sites. It's probably due to the worm. If it hits you next, here's how to deworm your computer.

[LA Times link corrected]

The Los Angeles Times Thursday runs a prominent article titled Huffington Paid Little Income Tax:

MTV commentator and author Arianna Huffington, who launched her campaign for governor with criticism of "fat cats" who fail to shoulder a fair share of taxes, paid no individual state income tax and just $771 in federal taxes during the last two years, her tax returns show.

Huffington, who released her tax returns for the last two years to The Times, lives in an 8,000- square-foot home in Brentwood above Sunset Boulevard that is valued at about $7 million. She socializes with many wealthy and prominent people.

But the returns show that at least for the last two years, her income was far outweighed by losses that she reported were incurred by Christabella Inc., the private corporation she owns and uses to manage her writing and lecturing business.

Here's the text of the Fox lawsuit against Al Franken.

First Amendment lawyer Floyd Abrams (father of MSNBC's Dan Abrams) will be representing Penguin Books, the publisher of Franken's book.

Granite Staters for Medical Marijuana grades the Presidential contenders on their medical marijuana stances:

John Edwards gets a D+ :

Edwards has publicly stated that he would not change marijuana laws, and he favors the Justice Department's arresting patients and caregivers who defy federal law. (emphasis supplied)

....Responding to questions from Granite Staters for Medical Marijuana on July 7, 2003 on C-SPAN, Edwards reiterated his intention to set up a commission to study the therapeutic benefits of medical marijuana. When asked if he would jail seriously ill patients while his commission studies medical marijuana, Edwards responded "what'd you just say, there are raids?" However, when asked a week later on July 15, 2003 whether he would continue the current policy of jailing sick patients, he responded "the government has a responsibility to enforce the laws," echoing a comment he made six weeks earlier.

On May 29, 2003, Edwards was quoted in the San Francisco Chronicle, as saying,.....) "It's the job of the Justice Department to enforce the law as it presently exists."

Gephardt has switched positions and although he once voted against medical marijuana, he now says he'd support it. He gets a C-:

What Gephardt has said: When Granite Staters for Medical Marijuana's Linda Macia told Gephardt at a campaign stop on July 20, "I'm a patient and a medical marijuana advocate. I'm really ill, and I can't use drugs at all. I'm allergic to narcotics, I need your help. States' rights for sick people to--," Gephardt immediately said, "That's what I'm for...states' rights." When asked if he would sign federal legislation to allow seriously ill people to use medical marijuana with their doctors' approval, he responded, "Sure."

Note: We haven't seen a transcript confirming the above conversation.

John Kerry has backtracked the other way, earning a C grade:

Kerry previously said he favored federal legislation to allow people with cancer, AIDS, and other serious illnesses to have medical marijuana, with their doctors' approval. However, Kerry recently retreated from that stance, saying he wants to rely on a scientific review before he makes any decisions about protecting patients.

Joe Lieberman is another candidate who has switched positions. In 1999, he opposed medical marijuana. He's better on the issue this time around, but still earns only a D+:

The ACLU has filed suit in federal court in Chicago seeking access to racial profiling data.

The ACLU wants the Bush Administration to show it's serious about promising to fight racial profiling by federal law enforcement agencies.

Toward that end, lawyers for the civil rights group in Chicago Wednesday asked a federal court to order the release of data that will help determine whether federal law enforcement agencies are engaged in racial profiling. The lawsuit seeks the information from the Justice Department and the new Department of Homeland Security under the federal Freedom of Information Act.

The ACLU says,

“If the Bush Administration and the Attorney General are serious about confronting and correcting racial profiling across the nation, a good first step would be to release for public scrutiny all information that gives citizens confidence that their government's actions are lawful and non-discriminatory,” said Harvey Grossman, Legal Director of the ACLU of Illinois. “Making the data collected by federal law enforcement officials available to the public is a step toward building a strong bond of trust and confidence between law enforcement and the people.”