We're over at Altercation today, subbing for Eric Alterman, who's off promoting his book, What Liberal Media?

We're also in Cancun, for the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers' spring meeting, with a dial-up modem and expensive internet access, so posting will be sporadic through the weekend. The newsfeed is taking a respite for a few days, but Cursor , Buzzflash, Hamster and Common Dreams will keep you up to date.

The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers will present its Champion of Justice award to Mexican President Vicente Fox at a ceremony tomorrow during its annual Spring Meeting, being held this year in Cancun, Mexico. Subsecretary for Human Rights and Democracy Mariclaire Acosta will travel to Cancun to accept the award on Fox's behalf.

Sandra Babcock, an NACDL member who serves as chief counsel for the Mexican government in cases seeking to convince the United States to honor international due process rights in death penalty cases, said Fox deserves the award. "President Fox has done more than any other world leader to promote respect for international law in the imposition of the death penalty. His most impressive achievement of all was undoubtedly his decision to take the cases of all 51 Mexican nationals on death row to the International Court of Justice."

Lawrence Goldman, president of NACDL, will present the award. The ceremony will take place at 11:30 a.m. local time at the Melia Cancun Beach & Spa Resort, the site of the NACDL conference and seminar. Speakers at the seminar, which continues through Saturday morning, include Todd Foster, who represented Steven and Marlene Aisenberg in criminal and civil cases related to the disappearance of their daughter, and Louis Sirkin, lead counsel in Ashcroft v. Free Speech Coalition, decided last term by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Previous recipients of the Champion of Justice award include death penalty activists Bianca Jagger and Sister Helen Prejean, U.S. Representatives Barney Frank and John D. Conyers, Jr., and journalists Molly Ivins, Bob Herbert, and Maurice Possley.

Thanks to NACDL Media Director Dan Dodson for the news.

A Palestinian college professor previously accused of having terrorist ties was arrested in Florda this morning by federal agents. Others were arrested in Chicago and overseas.

"Television reports showed Sami Al-Arian being led in handcuffs to FBI headquarters in Tampa after the arrest. His indictment is sealed until a court hearing scheduled for Thursday afternoon."

"It's all about politics," Al-Arian told reporters as agents A Palestinian college professor previously accused of having terrorist ties was arrested early Thursday by federal agents. He was one of several people arrested here, in Chicago and overseas, the FBI said."

The Government will hold a press conference this afternoon.

Gary Hart again defends his "anti-dual loyalty" comment" against critics.

Former Colorado senator Gary Hart insists he never meant to impugn the patriotism of any particular ethnic group of Americans --especially Jews --when he said in a speech last week that certain Americans can't separate their "loyalties to their original homelands" from their loyalty to America.

Insisting that his overall thesis was sound, Hart added, "Would anyone want to defend the negative?"

Hart said he "threw out a handfulof names" — he cited Irish Americans and Cuban Americans — in response to a question by ABC News at his Stanford speech, but he characterized that response as a "throwaway." He declined to elaborate on those examples, saying his foreign policy speech was not meant to be prescriptive, but only a "framework," a "statement of principles."

Asked whether he had any policy prescriptions regarding Israel, Hart said no. "Anyone who is familiar with my senatorial record," he added, "knows I took an active role in the Middle East and was a strong advocate for a free, strong, independent Israel across the board."

In our opinion, it's time to put this one to rest. The critics' concerns are groundless. Hart provided some more criticism of Bush's war plans in the Forward interview:

Hart had harsh words for current American policy toward Iraq, telling the Forward that "some senior American officials are on record as advocating" a plan for a long-term military presence in the nation that amounts to "an imperial design." "The president should account to the American people more clearly who will go with us, what military force we will use, how much it will cost... and how many American and Iraqi casualties there will be," Hart said. "On a desk in the Pentagon there are casualty estimates. The president is obligated to share those. The worst thing that could happen is that public support will erode, which is what happened in Vietnam."

A bill has been introduced in Texas that would allow the governor to grant multiple 30-day stays for death row inmates . Under current law, the governor has the power to grant one 30-day reprieve.

"The legislation filed by Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston, is designed to give an inmate more time to complete DNA testing or finish pursuing other legal avenues, said Mike Lavigne, a spokesman for Ellis. "This just makes sense," Ellis said in a statement. "We must make sure that when Texas executes someone it is because that person is guilty and eligible to be executed."

Many people, including lawyers, are not aware of the changes the Patriot Act (2001 edition) made in increasing the Government's power to access business records--including those of readers at the public library.

What most lawyers and members of the public may not realize -- but what librarians have to live with every day -- is that § 215 of the Patriot Act actually incorporates and extends the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978. The act now allows the FBI to make searches of libraries for readers' records. It further states, "No person shall disclose to any other person ... that the Federal Bureau of Investigation has sought or obtained tangible things under this section."

While FISA, with its secret intelligence courts, previously gave the FBI the power to execute search-and-gag orders, it was always within the context of foreign counterintelligence, and thus rarely used. "The gag provision was understandable and manageable because it was fairly narrowly applied," Barber says.

The Patriot Act extends FISA's powers to any criminal activity, and has made New Jersey librarians some of the most cautious people in the country."

Here is Section 215 of the Patriot Act:

Brent Staples article in today's New York Times strikes us as both correct and very sad: Protest music is unlikely to be heard on today's radio--because all the radio stations are corporate owned and don't want to take chances.

Pop music played a crucial role in the national debate over the Vietnam War. By the late 1960's, radio stations across the country were crackling with blatantly political songs that became mainstream hits. After the National Guard killed four antiwar demonstrators at Kent State University in Ohio in the spring of 1970, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young recorded a song, simply titled "Ohio," about the horror of the event, criticizing President Richard Nixon by name. The song was rushed onto the air while sentiment was still high, and became both an antiwar anthem and a huge moneymaker. A comparable song about George W. Bush's rush to war in Iraq would have no chance at all today. There are plenty of angry people, many with prime music-buying demographics. But independent radio stations that once would have played edgy, political music have been gobbled up by corporations that control hundreds of stations and have no wish to rock the boat. Corporate ownership has changed what gets played — and who plays it.

Remember the Jefferson Airplane album Volunteers? Paul Kantner wrote the song "We Can Be Together", a song protesting the establishment that included the line, "Up against the wall, motherfu**er."

Don't miss PBS Thursday night when it airs frontline: coming soon: the war behind closed doors .

FRONTLINE examines the hidden story of what is really driving the Bush administration to war with Iraq. The investigation asks whether the publicly reported reasons--fear of Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction or a desire to insure and protect America's access to oil--are only masking the real reason for the war. Through interviews with well-placed sources in and outside of the administration, FRONTLINE unravels a story known only to the Washington insiders.

Former NBA star Jayson Williams' trial on aggravated manslaughter charges has been put on hold by the New Jersey Supreme Court, which has agreed to hear an appeal by Williams' attorneys as to whether the Prosecution violated Williams constitutional rights before the grand jury.

Williams' attorneys, Joseph Hayden Jr. and William Martin, had argued to [trial judge] Coleman that [prosecutor] Lember violated Fifth Amendment and other constitutional protections by repeatedly referring to their client's decision not to speak with police and to his statements that he would remain silent until he consulted with a lawyer. Lember discussed Williams' silence at least five and possibly six times, directly or through law enforcement witnesses. Hayden and Martin filed their appellate brief on Jan. 9, saying the case "involves a novel issue never decided by the Appellate Division or the New Jersey Supreme Court: whether an indictment should stand where a prosecutor repeatedly brings to the grand jurors' attention the fact that the defendant consulted counsel and declined to be interviewed, thereby prejudicing the defendant ... by inflaming its members."

The ADA Watch/National Coalition for Disability Rights, California Foundation for Independent Living Centers and Committee for Judicial Independence say it's still not too late to stop Jeffrey Sutton from being confirmed as a Judge on the 6th Circuit court of appeals.

The three groups are co-sponsoring a protest rally at noon tomorrow to tell Sen. Diane Feinstein to vote against Sutton on the floor of the Senate, even though she was the lone Democrat voting for him in Committee. Here are the locations:

San Francisco: One Post Street, Suite 2450
Fresno: 1130 "O" Street, Suite 2446
LA: 11111 Santa Monica Boulevard, Ste 915
San Diego: 750 "B" Street, Suite 1030

If you can't attend, they ask you to call Feinstein's office.

San Francisco Office: Phone: (415) 393-0707
Los Angeles Office: Phone: (310) 914-7300
San Diego Office: Phone: (619) 231-9712
Fresno Office: Phone: (559) 485-7430

Here's the ADA Watch's action alert on the protest:

On Feb. 13, the Senate Judiciary Committee approved sending the nomination of Jeffrey Sutton (11-8) to the full Senate for consideration. Sen. Feinstein was the only Democrat who voted for Sutton. We must encourage grassroots in CA and around the country to contact Senator Feinstein and express their disappointment. In addition, our friends in the disability community are planning sit-ins in her California offices on Thursday, February 20th at 12 Noon. We are also encouraging scheduled meetings to inform staff of our position and phone calls and Faxes to express our concerns.

CALL SENATOR FEINSTEIN IMMEDIATELY TO PROTEST HER SUPPORT OF JEFFREY SUTTON. TELL HER YOU WANT HER TO VOTE AGAINST SUTTON ON THE SENATE FLOOR!

We are deeply disappointed that Senator Dianne Feinstein was the only Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee to vote in favor of Jeffrey Sutton, an extreme right wing ideologue with a record hostile to disability rights, who has been nominated to the 6th Circuit US Court of Appeals. Sutton is the states' rights ideologue who has aggressively fought against the Americans with Disabilities Act, Olmstead, Age Discrimination protections, the rights of Medicaid recipients to sue for services, and many other civil rights protections.

Update: See Senator Patrick Leahy's Statement to the Senate explaining why he opposes Sutton's confirmation.

Instapundit has an op-ed column in the liberal UK's Guardian on the evolution and increasing power of weblogs. He says mainstream media is now playing catch-up, and must learn to pick up its response time. On the other hand, he says, bloggers have to be careful not to become too full of themselves.

Oliver Willis lets us know the repressive fifties are back--at least in Dearborn, Michigan, where the schools are stifling dissent.

We give high marks to the student who didn't bow to authority and chose to go home rather than change his shirt.

From Kevin, over at Getting In the Game: "It was even for an assignment! That principal should be demoted, this is ridiculous, and unhealthy for the educational environment when a student is told to go home because he was into his assignment enough to make a statement about it?"