A Qunnipiac University poll finds voters prefer any Democrat to Bush in 2004.

By a 48 -- 44 percent margin, American voters say they would vote for the as yet unnamed Democratic party candidate for President over Republican incumbent George W. Bush, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released today. Hampered by Americans' dissatisfaction with life in the U.S. and concerns about war and the economy, President Bush has a 53 -- 39 percent approval rating, the independent Quinnipiac (KWIN-uh-pe-ack) University poll finds.

[link via Cursor]

[comments now closed]

Eric Muller of IsThatLegal got a phone call today from Rep. Howard Coble, whom Muller has been pursuing relentlessly for his comments on the WWII Japanese Interment camps. Eric softens somewhat after the call, but not entirely.

Good move on Coble's part--it's always easer to attack someone you've never met. In our experience, while views don't change because of in-face or voice conversations, the tone with with criticism is delivered is likely to become more modulated.

Leaks abound from the grand jury transcripts in the San Francisco Police Indictments. Unfortunately, DA Terence Hallinan can't legally comment on what is being leaked. So he's in for a press beating now, but we won't be surprised if he strikes the last blow. [link via UnlearnedHand]

Update: Pakistan now reports Osama's sons were not arrested. They may have been wounded.

Update: MSNBC has this. And this great "Where's Waldo" type interactive graphic that you can follow the leads on.

CNN: BREAKING NEWS Sons of Osama bin Laden arrested in southeastern Afghanistan, Pakistani official says, according to The Associated Press. Details to come.

Feel free to use the comments for updates--

Lots of people wondered where veteran reporter Helen Thomas was last night during President Bush's press conference. Here's the answer:

A long-running Washington tradition apparently ended last night when, for the first time in memory, the doyenne of the White House press corps was not called on in a presidential press conference.

Syndicated columnist Helen Thomas, who has covered every president since John F. Kennedy, was relegated to the third row in last night's East Room event and — if the memory of press corps veterans is accurate — received her first presidential snub.

One reporter who has covered the past six presidents said: "I don't remember a press conference in which [Mrs. Thomas] didn't get a question."

For many years, it was a tradition for Mrs. Thomas to ask the first question at White House news conferences and end them by saying, on behalf of the press corps, "Thank you, Mr. President." However, in recent years, her influence has waned — although she was still afforded one of the first questions and continues to enjoy a front-row seat at regular White House briefings.

Also snubbed was Mike Allen of the Washington Post.

The New York Times gets it right today in Fairness Strikes Out

That the punishment must fit the crime is an elemental rule of justice and a core principle of the Constitution. With its decision this week, the court turned its back on this principle, and on two men whose sentences are a clear miscarriage of justice.

Here is an article by criminal defense attorney and appellate lawyer Jeffrey Friedman of California with information regarding the inequities and vagaries of the law and the inconsistent and illogical results it can produce. (Scrioll down to page 2 of the pdf. document.) Mr. Friedman also tells us via e-mail that with respect to Mr. Andrade's "9 prior violent felonies,"

"residential burglary is a qualifying "strike. You can pick up more than one "strike" on one occasion. And there is no "wash out" period on strikes. So, if a teenager burgled two of his neighbors' garages and stole bicycles and then gets busted for shoplifting at age 50, he could get 25 to life. More examples like that abound."

Mr. Friedman, who practices in Santa Ana, ends his e-mail with this thought: "Obviously, we all know too well the bottom line - until all Reagan and Bush judges have retired (except their "mistake" - Souter), we're going to see more and more abominations like this one. And the problem is you and I will have retired (hopefully) before the last of them are gone."

As we have said repeatedly, the battle over judicial nominations is one with repurcussions well into our childrens' adulthoods. If you care about freedom, justice and fairness for all, we urge you to get involved in opposing Bush's ultra-conservative judicial picks--and in efforts to vote him and the Conservatives out of office in 2004.

[comments now closed]

The offending t-shirt.

Howard Bashman of How Appealing reports that he has reliable information that Bush Judicial Nominee Priscilla Owen will be back in D.C. next week for confirmation hearings. Bush nominated her for the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. Due to strenous objections to her extreme conservatism, and amidst charges of judicial activism, she lost her chance for a full senate hearing by an adverse 10-9 vote of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

We have objected very strongly to Priscilla Owen. Unlike Miguel Estrada, we all know where she stands and how's she's ruled, and in our opinion, she should not be a federal appellate judge. For why, please read our posts here and here, and this PFAW report.

The re-cycling of Committee-rejected judicial nominees is wrong. Our advice: Don't get burnt out over Estrada. There are more and worse on Bush's list. This fight is going to go on until he's out of power. Pace yourselves accordingly.

"The United States of America v. Adam Vaughn was a case about a stand-up Marine, a beloved cop, and a local hero — until the government branded him part of the largest kid porn ring in history." So began reporter Steve Silberman in Wired Magazine in October, 2002 about the FBI's Operation Candyman crusade. We reported on the case and Silberman's article here.

The evidence has now been thrown out, with two federal judges saying the FBI recklessly misled them in affidavits for search warrants.

Two federal judges have dealt a potentially crippling blow to a nationwide Internet child pornography crackdown, saying the FBI recklessly misled judges to get search warrants that were used in making more than 100 arrests." "Constitutional safeguards cannot be relaxed just because ``the crimes are repugnant,'' said U.S. District Judge Denny Chin in New York as he dismissed evidence obtained against one defendant. Chin's ruling, dated Wednesday, was released publicly Thursday."

To our knowledge, Silberman was the only reporter to raise these issues. His article is definitely worth re-reading, along with the courts' opinions.

Georgetown Law Professor Jonathan Turley writes about reports that Bagram Air Force Base in Afganistan is being used as an American torture facility ,

Even more disturbing is emerging evidence that the United States may be operating something that would have seemed unimaginable only two years ago: an American torture facility.

Credible reports now indicate that the government, with the approval of high-ranking officials, is engaging in systematic techniques considered by many to be torture.

For months, international human rights groups have been protesting activities at the Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan. In a closed-off part of the base, the CIA has constructed an "interrogation center" out of metal shipping containers. Last year, reports began to surface that the CIA was getting information the old-fashioned way -- by breaking suspects physically, except when they inconveniently die.

[link via Political Parrhesia]

Remember Colleen Rowley, the Minneapolis FBI agent who turned out to be a whistleblower and testified before a Senate Subcommittee in June, 2002? The Minneapolis Star Tribune yesterday published her Feb. 26 letter to FBI director Robert Mueller. Here's some of what she has to say:

In June, 2002, on the eve of my testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee, you told me that you appreciate constructive criticism and that FBI agents should feel free to voice serious concerns they may have about senior-level FBI actions. Since then I have availed myself twice of your stated openness. At this critical point in our country’s history I have decided to try once again, on an issue of even more consequence for the internal security posture of our country. That posture has been weakened by the diversion of attention from al-Qaeda to our government’s plan to invade Iraq, a step that will, in all likelihood, bring an exponential increase in the terrorist threat to the U.S., both at home and abroad.....

Update: Transcript is now available here .

Hart made some excellent points on O'Reilly tonight.

1. Korea is a bigger threat than Iraq.

2. Bush was evasive on the cost of the war in human lives and in capital.

3. While Bush said that the goal of war in Iraq is disarmament and regime change, last week he and other administration officials said that a goal was to establish a permanent presence to the region and establish a model of democracy throughout the Arab world. If this is the goal, the American people should be told this.

4. There is an alternative to war with Iraq--it is for an intensified U.N. presence with coercive weapons inspections in Iraq, supported by all major nations, which can prevent Iraq from using any weapons of mass destruction.

5. Iraq is not the only country with weapons of mass destruction or access to biological weapons. If it is going to be our policy that each time one of those nations seems to be a real threat, we go in and disarm and do a regime change, we are going to have a very busy 21st century--and we better have a huge military budget. And the American people ought to be advised that this is the policy.

6. We are woefully unprepared for the next terrorist attack here, and there will be one. Both the director of the CIA and the FBI have said if we invade Iraq, the threat goes up. The last major study of our preparedness (in which Hart and Rudman and 15 others participated for the Foreign Relations Security Council) found that we are not much better prepared for an attack here than we were on Sept. 11.

This is not a transcript and we didn't tape the show--so we apologize if we misconstrued any of Senator Hart's points. If you heard differently, or have an opinion, feel free to use the comments section. We will post the transcript when it becomes available tomorrow.

Bump:
Sen. Gary Hart will be on Bill O’Reilly’s The Factor on the Fox News Channel show tonight at 9:00 EST to talk about what the President says during his news conference. He’s appearing live from LA.