The mainsteam media credits weblogs again, this time on the Howard Coble case and Law. Prof. Eric Mueller's Is That Legal?.

Eric has done a phenomenal job on this issue, much like Atrios did on Trent Lott.

Attorney General John Ascroft is forging a new role for himself and his Justice Department. In the new incarnation, states' rights are taking a back seat, "whether by force of circumstances, personality, ideology or a combination of all three."

"He has, for instance, recently overruled the recommendations of local federal prosecutors in 28 cases where they decided not to seek the death penalty. He has similarly used federal prosecutions to override state laws concerning social issues like medicinal marijuana and doctor-assisted suicide."

What drives him?

The terrorist attacks have energized Ashcroft in a remarkable way, resonating with his sincere belief that there is evil in the world," said Nancy Baker, an associate professor of government at New Mexico State University and the author of "Conflicting Loyalties," a history of the attorney general's office. "As the son and grandson of Assembly of God preachers, he is spiritually as well as politically inclined to do battle with evil."

Ashcroft likens himself to, of all people, Bobby Kennedy. Others disagree.

Nicholas deB. Katzenbach, who served under Kennedy and succeeded him as attorney general, said, "He uses it to justify some things that Bobby Kennedy never would have tried to justify," including expanded surveillance powers for the Federal Bureau of Investigation and more cooperation between foreign and domestic intelligence agencies. "The problem today is that it is very hard to know the limits of what they're trying to collect," Mr. Katzenbach added.

If anyone has any doubts about how much his personal morality shapes his policy decisions, consider this:

But Mr. Ashcroft's language also reveals how his personal convictions help inform his thinking about the rule of law. "Order and liberty go together, like love and marriage," he told a group of judges in August. "You can't have one without the other."

We strongly oppose the mass federalization crime laws. As aptly stated by the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers,

Increasingly, crime bills grant federal prosecutors greater and greater authority by creating more federal crimes out of historically state and local crimes. For example, domestic violence, carjacking and failure to pay child support, the subjects of recent federal measures, are traditionally the prerogative of state and local governments; federal jurisdiction is unwarranted, unwise and contrary to the Constitution. Regarding these and other federalized crimes, Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist observed that "one senses from the context in which they were enacted that the question of whether the states were doing an adequate job in this particular area was never seriously asked." Before enacting federal criminal legislation, Congress should consider whether a federal interest is implicated and whether the state or local remedy is shown to be inadequate to address that interest. The impact on federal law enforcement and court resources should also be assessed.

Charles B. Blackmar, a retired judge on the Missouri Supreme Court who handled numerous death penalty appeals, says the system is full of fatal flaws. He says the risk of executing an innocent person is too great, and should that happen, it would be "repulsive." In response to a series in the St. Petersburg Times, The Innocence Defense (Feb. 9 and 10), the Judge writes this letter to the paper's editor, calling for the abolition of the death penalty.

Say hello to one more Democratic contender for President in 2004: Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio has decided to throw his hat in the ring. The total number of declared candidates is now at 8.

Kucinich is known for his support for civil liberties and peace. He serves as Chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, consisting of 55 of the most liberal members of Congress.

Others who have declared themselves are: former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, North Carolina Sen. John Edwards, Missouri Rep. Richard Gephardt, Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, Connecticut Sen. Joseph Lieberman, former Illinois Sen. Carol Moseley-Braun and the Rev. Al Sharpton.

Gary Hart is considering a run, but has not made a decision.

Bump and Update:

More than six million protested today around the world. Pure People Power. It began in New Zealand and Australia.

Update on World protests today here, with link to pictures world-wide.

By noon, the headlines reported Two Million Gather Across the Globe::

From Canberra to Sofia, from Cape Town to Karachi, they took to the streets to pillory Bush as a bloodthirsty warmonger. In the biggest demonstrations of 'people power' since the Vietnam War, they poured scorn on Bush's hawkish stance. "This war is solely about oil. George Bush has never given a damn about human rights," London mayor Ken Livingstone told reporters at a giant rally in London.

London anti-war march: 750,000 to 1.5 million turn out. Here is a Hyde Park photo and here is more on the London protest.

In Paris, police said "100,000 demonstrators marched the three miles from the capital's Place Denfert-Rochereau to the Place de la Bastille, filling the broad Boulevard Saint Michel, which passes the French Senate, and spilling into the surrounding streets."

From The French Say No to War: "With more than 80% of people in France supporting President Jacques Chirac's anti-war stance, this is a huge vote of support for the French president."

Great photos from London, Amsterdam and Australia.

Spain: 2 million. Barcelona city officials estimated a turnout of 1.3 million people -- nearly equalling the entire city's population of 1.5 million -- in the largest demonstration in the city's history. Here's a photo.

In New York, New York City's police commissioner, Raymond W. Kelly, put the crowd at about 100,000, while the organizers said 400,000 people attended.

Although yesterday's demonstration against war was speckled with professional peace activists, leftist doctrinaires and a kaleidoscopic array of malcontents advocating the end of capitalism, imperialism, sexism and taxation, a great many of those who converged on the East Side of Manhattan were the unaligned and the unaffiliated. Housewives, accountants, aging hippies and high school students, many of them first-time protesters, all of them moved by the prospect of war, surged up Second Avenue or stood wordlessly on First Avenue as those around them chanted "No blood for oil."

Remember the one-sided FISA review court that heard the appeal of the lower FISA court decison on the information sharing between law enforcement and intelligence agencies under the Patriot Act?

You can now read online the transcript of this first ever oral argument before the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review. The court's subsequent ruling, issued last November, is available here. (Big thanks to How Appealing for the link.)

You can access most of our prior coverage and criticism of the FISA lower and review court decisons among the entries here.

Daily Kos woke up at 6:30 this morning with a new idea for sending a grassroots message to DNC headquarters. He's asking for feedback, so go give him some.

He had a rough night--while at a nice restaurant having a celebratory meal with his wife last night, he was waiting to use the restroom, when he was rudely ordered around by someone who mistook him for the help. As he says, "Living Latino in the US of A.

There's a brand new blog that looks very promising called PatriotWatch. It addresses the erosion of civil liberties, privacy, civil rights, and human rights in the context of 9-11. Good links to action alerts and troubling legislation.

Here is the text of the speech delivered by Sen. Robert Byrd on the floor of the United States Senate on Feb. 12, 2003. We urge you to read the whole thing. Here's a sample:

This administration, now in power for a little over two years, must be judged on its record. I believe that that record is dismal.

In that scant two years, this administration has squandered a large projected surplus of some $5.6 trillion over the next decade and taken us to projected deficits as far as the eye can see. This administration's domestic policy has put many of our states in dire financial condition, underfunding scores of essential programs for our people. This administration has fostered policies which have slowed economic growth. This administration has ignored urgent matters such as the crisis in health care for our elderly. This administration has been slow to provide adequate funding for homeland security. This administration has been reluctant to better protect our long and porous borders.

In foreign policy, this administration has failed to find Osama bin Laden. In fact, just yesterday we heard from him again marshaling his forces and urging them to kill. This administration has split traditional alliances, possibly crippling, for all time, international order-keeping entities like the United Nations and NATO. This administration has called into question the traditional worldwide perception of the United States as well-intentioned peacekeeper. This administration has turned the patient art of diplomacy into threats, labeling and name calling of the sort that reflects quite poorly on the intelligence and sensitivity of our leaders, and which will have consequences for years to come.

Taking a Stand on Iraq: Speak Out
Lawrence Ferlinghetti, San Francisco Chronicle

And a vast paranoia sweeps across the land

And America turns the attack on its Twin Towers

Into the beginning of the Third World War

The war with the Third World

And the terrorists in Washington

Are drafting all the young men

And no one speaks

And they are rousting out

All the ones with turbans

And they are flushing out

All the strange immigrants

And they are shipping all the young men

To the killing fields again

And no one speaks

And when they come to round up

All the great writers and poets and painters

The National Endowment of the Arts of Complacency

Will not speak

While all the young men

Will be killing all the young men

In the killing fields again

So now is the time for you to speak

All you lovers of liberty

All you lovers of the pursuit of happiness

All you lovers and sleepers

Deep in your private dreams

Now is the time for you to speak

O silent majority

Before they come for you

Lawrence Ferlinghetti is San Francisco's first poet laureate (1998) and the owner and founder of City Lights Bookstore. This poem first appeared on the City Lights Web site .

The FBI and CIA are moving their counter-terror operations into a joint complex. The Administration promises that each agency will maintain control over its own staff.

But a joint intelligence center to be created at the same location, probably in Northern Virginia, will report to George J. Tenet, the director of central intelligence. That arrangement in particular has prompted civil liberties advocates to warn that lines of authority could become blurred, giving the Central Intelligence Agency a new role in domestic spying....

Civil liberties advocates said they were concerned that the plan, especially the creation of the joint center with the director of central intelligence in charge, would give the C.I.A. an active role in the gathering of intelligence within the United States.

Timothy Edgar, legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union, said in an interview that despite pledges by the Bush administration to honor the longtime separate roles of the two agencies, "we think it will be difficult for them to hold that line."

Bush has said he intends for the two agencies to maintain their separate identities and operations, but that there is a greater need for sharing of intelligence information.

He said the move was "an important advance" in creating a better, more integrated system for analyzing intelligence about terrorists...."In order to better protect our homeland, our intelligence agencies must coexist like they never had before."

The new center will be called the Terrorist Threat Integration Center. It will open for business May 1.

The Guardian reports that millions will march in hundreds of cities Saturday as part of the global protest against the war.

More than 10 million people are expected to take to the streets in 600 cities today as part of global demonstrations against a war in Iraq. It is anticipated that today's marches will be the largest ever for a single cause and far greater than at the height of the Vietnam war in the 60s. Last night London was celebrating peace, as politicians, poets, musicians, trade unionists and actors came together to lead debates and concerts. But protest organisers raised the stakes by calling on people to stage thousands of impromptu demonstrations, sit-ins, walkouts, strikes, vigils and acts of civil disobedience as soon as hostilities started." "We want people to strike on the day that war breaks out and occupy the whole Whitehall area of central London," said Lindsey German of the Stop the War Coalition.