House Majority Leader Tom DeLay's change in ethics rules are angering watchdogs.

One of Rep. Tom DeLay's first maneuvers as majority leader was to engineer a change of House ethics rules so charities now may pay for lawmakers' travel and meals whenever they participate in charitable fund-raising events. The change came as DeLay is organizing a Florida golf tournament that will benefit a project in his district south of Houston. The tournament is expected to raise more than $1 million -- some of it coming in six-figure donations -- from lobbyists and corporate officials who have legislation before Congress."

We wrote more about this and the Republican hypocrisy involved here.

We just watched a thirty minute one-on-one interview with Gary Hart on The Aaron Harber Show on Denver's public television station. He was terrific. Our favorite part, of course, was his absolute trouncing of Ashcroft and the Patriot Act. Hart said Ashcroft comes the closest of anyone in his lifetime to J. Edgar Hoover.

Hart blasted the Government for its treatment of the detainees, including those at Guantanamo Bay. He said by detaining American citizens without due process, including access to lawyers and hearings, we are violating our own laws.

He said it's wrong for the Government not to tell the American people how many detainees are being held. There's no reason not to, except they won't want to answer the next question, "who are they?"

Hart said there will be another major terrorist attack, most likely a nuclear device in a major city. He also said smallpox and cyberwarfare are possibilities.

One thing that continues to perplex him is why, after September 11, no heads rolled. No one was forced to resign. The Government had warning. His committee's report came out in January of 2001 and warned of a terrorist attack on America. On September 5, he gave a speech in Montreal, and the headline of the Montreal Paper on September 6 was "Hart Predicts Terrorist Attack." Yet, America did nothing. There's been no accountability. We were more concerned with scandal and Gary Condit.

You will be able to watch the interview shortly anytime you want, 24/7, on the Aaron Harber Show website.

TAPPED leads us to a commentary addressing whether John Ashcroft's press conferences on Moussaoui, John Walker Lindh, Yaser Hamdi and Jose Padilla violated government ethics rules. They do.

"Many of Ashcroft's statements, in all four cases, had no serious prosecutorial or law enforcement purpose. Their apparent purpose was to serve as part of a public relations campaign - with the intent of increasing political support for the actions of the administration, and silencing potential critics. "

But read the whole thing, you'll learn why prosecutors are so rarely disciplined for their misconduct and why our only likely recourse against Ashcroft is to vote against the Republicans in 2004.

Via Political Wire:

"Of the seven congressional Democrats who are running for president in 2004 or have indicated they might run, Sen. John F. Kerry of Massachusetts had the most liberal voting record last year, and Sen. Bob Graham of Florida had the most conservative," according to the National Journal's new vote ratings. (See chart for vote ratings over the past 20 years.)"

Don't miss Kip Manley of Long Story, Short Pier on the war in Iraq. (Thanks to Patrick of Electrolite for leading us there.) Here's a short quote:

Forget the shameless politicization of an unprecedented terrorist attack. Forget that every informed opinion says that an attack will trigger reprisals here at home that we are not ready for. Forget the broken promises to firefighters and cops, forget the unnecessary, clumsy, and disruptive invasion of civil rights by the largest and most expensive government ever, forget the staggering arrogance and sobering ineptitude on the international stage. Wipe it all off the table and send it smashing to the floor. I don't care. Sit down across the now-empty table from me and tell me how on earth I can live with an administration that proposes to do this in my name--

We are very saddened tonight by the news of the conviction of author and medical marijuana activist Ed Rosenthal in San Francisco. He will be sentenced Tuesday to a mandatory minimum ten year sentence. The maximum sentence is life.

Please visit Green-Aid for the details of the case and trial.

Hopefully this will be the galvinizing case for the need to reform our marijuana laws. The media coverage of the trial, prior to the jury's decision, has been nothing less than sympathetic to Ed and the need for a functional marijuana policy. From the above-linked AP article:

The verdicts were a victory in the federal government's battle against California's 1996 voter-approved medical marijuana law. Rosenthal's arrest last year was among a string of Drug Enforcement Administration raids on medical marijuana suppliers in California.

Under strict orders from U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer, Rosenthal was never able to tell the jury that he was growing marijuana as "an officer" for the city of Oakland's medical marijuana program.

Oakland's program and others throughout California were authorized under Proposition 215. Eight other states also allow the sick and dying to smoke or grow marijuana with a doctor's recommendation.

But federal authorities do not recognize those laws.

"There is no such thing as medical marijuana," said Richard Meyer, a DEA spokesman. "We're Americans first, Californians second."

Jury foreman Charles Sackett III said outside court that jurors were following federal law in finding Rosenthal guilty, but he personally hoped the verdict would be overturned.

"We had no legal wiggle room," Sackett said.

Our thoughts are with Ed and his family tonight. Ed remains free until his sentencing on Tuesday. See our prior post here.

It's that time of year again....Journalist and historian Eric Alterman, columnist for The Nation and author of MSNBC's Altercation and the brand new book What Liberal Media? is revising his bookmarked links on Altercation. Here's how it works:

       The Blogosphere is changing so rapidly that it’s easy to miss some of the best sites. That’s why I’m so lucky to have Jeralyn (www.talkleft.com) volunteering again, to take your nominations for who deserves the high-powered MSNBC.com-driven slots on the right. Send her (not me!) your nominations at alterlinks@aol.com. Don’t stuff ballot boxes. It’s merit driven, once she is aware of you. (Though if you really want extra credit, I’d consider a link to both Altercation and What Liberal Media.com. Did I mention there’s a pdf file with the first chapter of the book there?

Three additional rules Eric has to be listed: Your site must be a weblog; You must have a link to Altercation on your front page, and it's for progressive sites only. There is no 'other side.'

Again, mail your suggestions to us at alterlinks@aol.com.

We mentioned yesterday that here in Denver the other day, Senior U.S. District Court Judge John L. Kane, Jr. got a standing ovation during a speech against the drug war. Columnist Diane Carman details the speech here, don't miss it. If only we had 100 Judge Kanes. Isn't it a shame that once Bush and the Republicans pack the federal bench with right-wing activists, we'll be lucky to have any.

Atrios and David Niewert today both discuss the right wing attempted revival of the possibility of a connection between the Oklahoma City Bombing and Iraq, based on this Frank J. Gaffney Jr. column in the Washington Times. Roger Ailes discusses it here.

The McVeigh defense team tried to explore this angle, although as everyone knows, McVeigh never veered from insisting there was no such connection. This brief filed with the court and available free here, lays out the possible connection uncovered up to that point in time, and what further materials the defense was seeking from the Govenrment so as to be able to complete it's investigation. For those who are interested in this issue, we highly recommend reading the brief. Here is a quote from the brief:

The defense believes that there is credible evidence that a conspiracy to bomb federal property, very possibly the Murrah Building, is centered in Elohim City and the persons described which are associated with Elohim City, but that the technical expertise and possibly financial support came from a foreign country, most likely Iraq, but possibly Iran or another state in the Middle East. Dennis Mahon has admitted publicly to received money from Iraq, approximately once a month. D.E. 2191 at 11. According to Mahon, the money started arriving in 1991 after he began holding rallies protesting the Persian Gulf War. Id. Although the defense has no direct evidence linking Suspect I with Iraq, there is evidence indicating an indirect connection between Suspect I and Iraq through the militant Posse Comitatus group in Kansas.

McVeigh's lead counsel, Stephen Jones, wrote an excellent book, "Others Unknown" detailing his suspicions. But the journalist-written book "American Terrorist" is equally compelling for the proposition that there was no such connection.

Also read David Niewert's Salon article on the controversy over the Government's insistance there was no John Doe II.

We also agree with David Niewert (and disagree with Roger) about Laurie Mylroie. As David points out, she "was for a long time a serious and well-respected Middle East analyst."

We haven't taken a definitive position on Iraq/middle eastern connection--but we have always believed, contrary to the Government's assertion, that there was a real John Doe II.

Here's a bump for one of our earlier posts on the issue:

The conspiracy theorists and right-wing websites are abuzz with the physical similarities between U.S. Citizen and military detainee Padilla and John Doe 2 who witnesses at the Ryder Truck rental facility in Junction City, KS identified back in 1995 as the companion of Timothy McVeigh. Witnesses also put John Doe 2 at the Dreamland motel (answering the door to accept a delivery of chinese food) and in Kingman, AZ. The Goverment lobbied hard for the proposition that John Doe 2 didn't exist--that the witnesses confused him with the associate of another truck renter the day before. Here are the pictures, the resemblence is quite striking, we think the matter needs to be investigated into a bit more. For starters, was Padilla in jail or out and about in April, 1995?

John Doe 2 (left) and Padilla (right)

There is a major lesson in the sentencing of "Shoe-Bomber" Richard Reid. It's not how much time he got, since whether he got 60 years or life, he is going out in a box. [60 years translates to 51 years actual time (85%). Reid is 29. Thus he'd be in prison until he was 80. Very few inmates make it that long in maximum security prisons, and Reid will be going to the Supermax at Florence, CO.]

The lesson is this: Our federal courts and our criminal justice system are well equipped to handle terror cases. There is no need to keep the suspects in military custody, cut off from lawyers --or to try them in secret military tribunals. Reid pleaded guilty to all counts and received no promises of leniency or other sentence concessions. Reid had excellent appointed counsel and a U.S. District Court Judge presiding over his case. The proceedings were open to the media and public. Important court filings by both the Prosecution and the Defense were available on the Internet. The Government got the conviction and the life sentence it sought.

Our criminal justice system and federal courts have succeeded in trying and convicting numerous terrorists. Yet the Justice Department is seriously considering dropping its federal case against Zacarias Moussaoui in favor of a military tribunal proceeding. It's not necessary and it's not right. We can't trust in the integrity of a secret proceeding conducted by the military. If we can't trust in the integrity of the proceeding, we can't trust the end result.

Richard Reid's case proves we can provide even the most unlikable defendant charged with a heinous crime the same constitutional rights we provide to all defendants, and get a conviction and a harsh sentence fair and square. We should insist all such cases be tried this way.

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GOP strategists are "closely scrutinizing the Democratic field and researchers for the Republican National Committee are preparing attack strategies."

Here's how their current assessments pan out:

"-Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean is an "ultraliberal" who supports civil unions of gay couples and wants to roll back Bush administration tax cuts to support "budget-busting" universal health care.

-North Carolina Sen. John Edwards is a lightweight who has accomplished little and is "a captive of the trial lawyers," since he made his fortune in that profession.

-Missouri Rep. Dick Gephardt is "a keeper of the liberal flame" whose appeal with voters fell short in four attempts to win control of the House of Representatives and in a 1988 presidential run.

-Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry is a direct descendant of 1988 Democratic nominee Michael Dukakis, a governor of the same state.

-Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman is failing to stick with his centrist, moderate policies as a senator, reverting to the adjustments he made in 2000 to fit in with Al Gore's liberal, populist presidential campaign.

-The Rev. Al Sharpton is a welcome addition to the field because his attacks from the left will pull all the Democratic candidates toward the left - "

Texas has executed three inmates this week and six so far this month. Since 1982 when Texas' death penalty was reinstated, 295 have been executed. Next week there will be two more Texas executions. Source: UPI

The Nation kicks off its 2003 edition of Death Row Roll Call, a page "meant to remind people how often this macabre form of retribution is still practiced in the US, and to encourage readers to blast off informed letters of protest on behalf of inmates--using the links and tools we provide--to the appropriate governors and officials presiding over executions."