Scooter Libby can vote again. The Governor of Virginia's list of pardons, clemencies and restoration of rights for 2012 is contained in this report of the Virginia legislature, released Feb. 23. Libby's rights were restored in November, 2012.

Virginia's rules for restoration or rights are here.

Libby's prison sentence was commuted by then President G.W. Bush in 2007, hours after his request for an appeal bond was denied by the Court of Appeals, meaning he'd have to go to prison while waiting for the appeal decision. Many people, myself included, saw the commutation as total disrespect for the law. [More....]

Bradley Manning has pleaded guilty to ten counts in the Wikileaks case, and faces up to 20 years in prison.

He is expected to be sentenced to 20 years in prison after his conviction on charges related to the misuse of classified information. He is scheduled to stand trial in June on 12 more serious charges, including aiding the enemy and espionage. A conviction on those probably would lead to a life sentence.

In pleading guilty, Manning read from a 35 page statement explaining his motives.

Busy day here. Here's an open thread, all topics welcome.

The Supreme Court held argument on the Voting Rights Act.

President Obama will meet with Congressional leaders about "the sequester."

NBC has responded to the George Zimmerman lawsuit seeking damages for its mangled editing of his call to non-emergency to report Trayvon Martin as a suspicious person. In other case news, the FBI is objecting to the court order (available here) to produce its records to the defense. The FBI's pleading is here.

Here's an open thread, all topics welcome.

Gov. Chris Christie has signed a bill allowing online gambling in New Jersey. Nevada and Delaware are doing the same.

The federal government changed its position in 2011 to allow some online gaming within states where gambling is legal, but it is unknown whether the federal government will move to broaden the market.

The feds need to do the same for marijuana. AG Eric Holder says he is getting ready to make a decision on how DOJ will respond to recently passed laws in Colorado and Washington.

Through a Freedom of Information request, the ACLU has obtained documents about a U.S. Marshal's experimental project to employ the use of drones for domestic surveillance. The documents are here. One states:

USMS Technical Operations Group's UAV Program provides a highly portable, rapidly deployable overhead collection device that will provide a multi-role surveillance platform to assist in [redacted] detection of targets.

[More...]

The U.S. Sentencing Commission has released its report on sentencing in child p*rn cases. It makes several recommendations, including lowering penalties for some offenders.

The Commission believes that the current non-production guideline warrants revision in view of its outdated and disproportionate enhancements related to offenders’ collecting behavior as well as its failure to account fully for some offenders’ involvement in child pornography communities and sexually dangerous behavior. The current guideline produces overly severe sentencing ranges for some offenders, unduly lenient ranges for other offenders, and widespread inconsistent application.

The executive summary is here and the full report is here. The findings and recommendations are here.

Republicans will make a political issue out of anything, even the implementation of existing legal and humane policies concerning undocumented immigrants.

Here is the December, 2012 Detainee Guidance Policy. It limits the use of detainers to individuals who meet the Department's enforcement priorities and restricts the use of detainers against those arrested for minor misdemeanor offenses such as traffic offenses and other petty crimes. The policy is intended to ensure that available resources are focused on apprehending felons, repeat offenders and other ICE priorities. [More...]

I'm off to court and then to the office to pick up my new iMac, which was delivered early this morning.

Update: I'm home from court and about to set up my new iMac. Thanks again to the very generous TL reader who bought it for me, and those who contributed back in December. The contributions will be great for the accessories I'm sure I'll want to add. If you are going to order one, I suggest you have it sent to wherever you are going to set it up. It weighs about 25 pounds and is an odd shape, larger on the bottom than the top, making it awkward to carry. (I had to use a dolly, which is not easy with all the ice and snow around, to get it to the car. But we both survived.)

Back to regular blogging tomorrow. Here's an open thread, all topics welcome.

The Supreme Court, in a 5-4 decision written by Justice Alito, today ruled civil rights groups and lawyers representing Guantanamo detainees lacked standing to challenge the 1998 FISA Amendment that allowed their overseas conversations and e-mails to be intercepted. The case is Clapper v. Amnesty International, the opinion is here.

Split 5-4 on ideological lines, with conservatives backing the government and the liberal wing in the minority, the country's highest court said none of the three categories, including human rights groups Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have legal standing to sue because they could not show they had suffered any injury.

The ACLU, which filed the lawsuit, says: [More...]

(Also see update at the end.)

At Christmas time, I wrote that I would love to get the new iMac as a gift from readers. Lots of you contributed but not enough to buy one. A few weeks ago, a very generous TalkLeft reader bought one for me. I've been patiently waiting for it to arrive. Today was the day, according to Apple and Fedex, it should have arrived at my office.

I was so excited. But it never came. Around 3 pm, I checked the Fedex tracking system. And there it was: Lie Number 1. Fedex falsely said they tried to deliver it and no one was available to accept it. [More...]

Best take on Seth McFarlane by Alex Pappademas:

Contempt

That too-long-by-about-three-halves Captain Kirk bit hinged on the idea that Seth MacFarlane cared about how he'd be remembered as an Oscar host, which meant it was the evening's best joke. Dude made Ted, dude makes hundreds of millions of dollars making Family Guy and was probably the richest person to host the Oscars since Johnny Carson; dude is long, long past the point where the opinions expressed by Entertainment Weekly (or in morning-after roundups like this one) will cost him a millisecond of editing-room-tanning-bed shut-eye. (Also he hates women, so that was 51 percent of the Oscar-opinion-having population factored out right there.) Really, honestly, and truly not giving a sh[*]t is life's cheat code; MacFarlane radiated confidence because he knew, probably from the moment he took the gig, that he wouldn't be invited back. Ricky Gervais's I'm–a–naughty–Golden Globe–host routine is the obvious comparison, but you always knew Gervais was negging Hollywood because he wanted its respect. MacFarlane was in this to offend, and therefore the only truly offensive thing about his performance was its cynicism.